The “Gods’ language” was in full flow on Wednesday at the inauguration of the All India Sanskrit Elocution Contest at the Poornaprajna Samshodhana Mandiram in Bangalore on Wednesday. Over 170 post-graduate level Sanskrit students gathered from 17 states of India for the 46th annual contest, being organised by the Rashtreeya Sanskrit Sansthanam, New Delhi.
Various competitions including Shalakaspardha, Ashtadhyayi Kanthapathaspardha, with a history beyond thousand years are being held to test participants’ capabilities in the eight Shastras including Tharka, Vedantha, Sankhya, Jyotishya and Sanskrit grammar. On Dec 28, the concluding day of the three-day event, an attractive Shlokantyakshari will also be hosted.
Pejawar Mutt seer Sri Vishvesha Teertha Swamiji, who inaugurated the event, said equal importance to mother tongue and Sanskrit was essential to boost the value of our national culture. The two are like body and soul, he said adding that Sanskrit brings spirituality into life. Such competitions help students to refine their knowledge, he said.
Sanskrit grammar is highly scientific, said Prof Ramaranjan Mukherji, former vice-chancellor of Tirupati’s Rashtreeya Sanskrita Vidyapeetha, adding that apart from Linguistics, Sanskrit had contributed to all fields of knowledge.