Explore Business Standard
Sanskrit Language
Upping the ante against alleged Hindi imposition by the Centre, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Thursday once again said the state will not allow the "imposition" of the language and vowed to protect Tamil and its culture. "Will oppose Hindi imposition. Hindi is the mask, Sanskrit is the hidden face," he said in a letter to partymen. The ruling DMK has been alleging Hindi imposition by the Centre through the 3-language formula as part of the National Education Policy (NEP), a charged denied by the union government. In the letter, Stalin claimed many north Indian languages spoken in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh such as Mythili, Brajbhasha, Bundelkhandi and Awadhi "have been destroyed by the hegemonic Hindi." "More than 25 north Indian native languages have been destroyed by the invasion of hegemonic Hindi-Sanskrit languages. The century-old Dravidian movement safeguarded Tamil and its culture because of the awareness it created and the various agitations," the rul
Renowned Urdu poet Gulzar and Sanskrit scholar Jagadguru Rambhadracharya have been named the recipients of the 58th Jnanpith Award, the Jnanpith selection committee announced on Saturday. Gulzar is known for his works in Hindi cinema and is considered one of the finest Urdu poets of this era. He has earlier received Sahitya Akademi Award for Urdu in 2002, Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2013, Padma Bhushan in 2004, and at least five National Film awards for his works. Rambhadracharya, the founder and head of Tulsi Peeth in Chitrakoot, is a renowned Hindu spiritual leader, educator and writer of more than 100 books. In a statement, the Jnanpith selection committee said, "It has been decided to give the award (for 2023) to eminent writers from two languages: Sanskrit litterateur Jagadguru Rambhadracharya and well known Urdu litterateur Shri Gulzar." Goan writer Damodar Mauzo had received the prestigious award for 2022.
A scene in "Oppenheimer", in which the titular character appears to have sex as he reads out verses from an ancient Sanskrit scripture, has irked a section of social media users, who claimed the lines are from the Bhagavad Gita and demanded the removal of the sequence from Christopher Nolan's latest film. "Oppenheimer", a 180 minute-long sprawling biographical drama on the titular American theoretical physicist, opened in India on Friday to positive reviews and has reportedly amassed close to Rs 30 crore at the box office in two days. Uday Mahurkar, Information Commissioner, Government of India, wrote an open letter to Nolan, terming the scene a "disturbing attack on Hinduism" and appealed to the director to remove the scene worldwide. "We urge, on behalf of billion Hindus and timeless tradition of lives being transformed by revered Geeta, to do all that is needed to uphold dignity of their revered book and remove this scene from your film across world. Should you choose to ignore .
India was a knowledge society since Vedic times involving Maths, medicine, metaphysics, astronomy etc written in Sanskrit, but all such learning came back to the country several thousand years later as "discoveries by Western scientists", Indian Space Research Organisation chairman S Somnath has said. Addressing the fourth convocation ceremony of the Maharishi Panini Sanskrit and Vedic University here on Wednesday, Somnath said Sanskrit was one of the most ancient languages of the world with its repertoire including poetry, logic, grammar, philosophy, science, technology, maths and other allied subjects. "Surya Sidhanta, the very first book I came across in Sanskrit talks about the domain I am familiar with. This book specifically talks about solar system, how planets move around the sun, periodicity of this movement, timescales etc," he said. "All this knowledge travelled from here, reached the Arabs, then went to Europe and thousands of years later came back to us as discoveries o
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman regretted on Thursday that learning of Sanskrit is discouraged in Tamil Nadu. She said in her early schooling and going till college, learning Sanskrit was not easy at all because of the "political environment in which we lived." "And it's not as if I lived in a foreign country. I lived in Tamil Nadu. Sanskrit was discouraged and I think even today they discourage," Sitharaman said. In spite of that, she said her parents insisted and she found a good teacher and privately learnt Sanskrit "somewhat". "Learning Sanskrit or learning Hindi was not encouraged at all (in Tamil Nadu)..," the Minister said. Sitharaman was speaking at a function organised by 'Karnataka Samskrit University', on the occasion of Pre-graduate Convocation and 'Sanskrit week celebration'. She said she is very proud to know that Karnataka as a State is encouraging learning of Sanskrit. The Rajya Sabha member from Karnataka said she was very impressed to know that more t
Asserting that Sanskrit is intertwined with Indian culture, BJP president J P Nadda said on Saturday that his party is a protector of the ancient language and is working to promote it. Addressing the 'Utkarsh Mahotsav' organised by the Central Sanskrit University, Nadda said the BJP ideologically stands with Sanskrit, and that the party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will leave no effort to promote Indian traditions and culture. He claimed the origin of science, knowledge, mathematics and philosophy is rooted in the language. India is unmatched in the world due to its culture, Nadda said.