<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Sanskrit Dictionary for Spoken Sanskrit
http://spokensanskrit.de/<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->gIrvANI (Spoken sanskrit in realaudio)
http://surasa.net/music/samskrta-vani/<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I think the above site was created by this guy:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Spoken Sanskrit on the web
Spoken Sanskrit? A German, who lives in Kochi has taken the lead in putting up an online dictionary of conversational Sanskrit. PRIYADARSSHINI SHARMA learns from him that the Sanskrit word for Internet is `antarjalam'!Â
Why stop conversing in Sanskrit after the beautiful Sanskrit greeting, `namaskaram'? Well, did you know it is Sanskrit? It is. And they say Sanskrit is a dead, ancient language. No, not so for retired professor of Mathematics, Klaus Glashoff, a German. He, along with three other Kochiites, is putting together an online dictionary of spoken Sanskrit, www.spokensanskrit.de. It is being researched, compiled, edited, and corrected right here. The author, Mr. Glashoff will have you believe that it is a logical process in his career of teaching and learning.
The flow chart of this magnum opus goes like this: After 25years of teaching mathematics at the university of Hamburg, he switched to post-retirement study of logic and its flow into the study of ancient logic, that is, Greek and Sanskrit. He felt the need to learn conversational Sanskrit then, but found there was no proper Sanskrit dictionary of modern words.
"Language is hard to learn when you don't have anyone to practise it with. Nobody talks in the ancient languages. But in India there is this living tradition in Sanskrit. For me this makes learning easier. The Samskrita Bharati organisation actively promote the language. But I found that there is no real dictionary for spoken Sanskrit. There are some very ancient dictionaries in Sanskrit but none for spoken Sanskrit. Vaman Shivram Apte brought out the last one in about 1890. It is very voluminous but does not have modern words like, for example, `photo' (Skrt.: aalokalekham) or `internet' (Skrt.: antarjalam)."
And so Mr. Glashoff's mathematical mind set about putting together a spoken Sanskrit-English dictionary. Being well versed in programming, which is a hobby, made things easier for him as he set up a user-friendly interactive site, like wikipedia.
In Kochi his search for the right people succeeded at the Ramakrishna Ashramam at Kaloor where he met Mr. Narayanaswamy, a retired chemical engineer now into philanthropic services. He, after retirement, began re-learning the language, a language for which his fascination had never ebbed after he heard his Principal, Venkateshwaran Dikshitar, at Bhavan's Vidya Bhavan, Mumbai, deliver a speech in honour of Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, sometime in the 50's. "The speech in chaste Sanskrit was powerful in its words and beautiful in its simplicity that I fell in love with the language. In fact my Principal said that he had spoken in Sanskrit not to demonstrate his knowledge of the language but that it was a language that could be spoken in daily life. This caught my imagination. After retirement I got the chance to re-learn Sanskrit. That's when Klaus came looking for a teacher and so the two of us began a student-teacher friendship. But when he came up with the idea of an online Sanskrit dictionary I put him on to two Sanskrit teachers to help him compile this work and complete this venture."
Says Klaus, "When I began I had come from Hamburg with 500 words but today it has grown to 27,000 entries. Now we are in the process of correcting, editing and of course adding any new words."
Ranjini, part of the team and a teacher at St. Mary's UP School, Njarakal says, "I met Klaus when I was a guest lecturer at Maharaja's College. He had come looking for a Sanskrit teacher. It was that very day that a three month course in Basic Sanskrit was starting at the Ramakrishna Ashramam, conducted by Vishwa Samskritam Pratishtanam. Klaus joined the course and a year later when he came up with the idea of the online spoken Sanskrit dictionary I helped him with collecting Sanskrit words and their English translations."
So did Kavita C.S., a student at Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan, Guruvayur Campus, Thrissur. "My contributions to this big venture are very small," says Kavita modestly as she helped with spellings, new words and tenses.
The site
What puzzles Klaus is the number of hits the site receives daily and the number of queries. "People ask for very common words that you need in day-to-day modern living. From the response there are two clear-cut groups of people who access this site. One is a large group of Indo-Americans and the other is people from South India."
"What we need are people who know Sanskrit and English, and who would like to help us with the correction of the dictionary, online at their computer," requests Klaus who proudly says, "I learnt my Sanskrit in Hamburg."
(You can join in with the work on the dictionary by mailing to: klaus.glashoff@spoken-sanskrit.de)
http://www.thehindujobs.com/thehindu/mp/20...12502160100.htm<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
http://sanskritdocuments.org/
Lot of other dictionaries in other languages also if you click on "Dictionary"
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0705/p14s02-lihc.html
(see the link for pictures and more... article attached)
The rise of India's economy has brought an eagerness to learn the ancient 'language of the gods' â and a great-great aunt to English.
By Vijaysree Venkatraman | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor
Page 1 of 3
Cambridge, Mass. - Deep inside the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on a Wednesday evening recently, a class of about a dozen students were speaking an arcane ancient tongue.
"It is time for exams, and I play every day," says one.
"Perhaps, you should study, too," counters another at the conversation table. The others laugh.
No, this isn't Latin 101 â that would be easy. This is Sanskrit, a classical language that is the Indian equivalent of ancient Greek or Latin.
Today, spoken Sanskrit is enjoying a revival â both in India and among Indian expatriates in the United States. There is even evidence of Sanskrit emerging in American popular culture as more and more people roll out yoga mats at the local gym and greet one another with "Namaste."
Soon, the conversation at the MIT class turns to plans for the summer. Most of those attending are graduate students. Lavanya Marla, working toward a PhD in transportation engineering, says the informal setting is a good break from science. "Plus, the homework is easy," she adds.
Among the other attendees are a French post-doctoral physics candidate (who attended out of sheer curiosity at first, then stayed), and an eleventh-grader from Lexington (Mass.) High School. Another is a self-described "old Yankee" from Salem, Mass., who has diligently taught himself Sanskrit script as well.
Harvard, Yale, and the University of Chicago, among others, have long offered Sanskrit courses to undergrads. But the demand for these classes is growing beyond academic settings. A decade-long economic boom has brought Indians some measure of prosperity, and with it a sense of pride in the nation's past. In large part, however, the revival is the result of the efforts of a private group, Samskrita Bharati, headquartered in New Delhi. The volunteer-based group's mission: Bring the pan-Indian language back to the mainstream and lay the groundwork for a cultural renaissance.
"There were many reasons for the decline of Sanskrit," says Chamu Krishna Shastry, who founded Samskrita Bharati in 1981, "but one of the foremost was the unimaginative way it was taught since [British] colonial times." Later, in a newly democratic India, the language associated with upper-caste Brahmin priests held little appeal to the masses. The present movement to revive Sanskrit aims to teach the "language of the gods" to anyone who cares to learn it.
n India today, Sanskrit is mostly known as the written language of religion and metaphysics. Hindus â who make up 80 percent of the population in India â typically know some Sanskrit prayers by heart. Those who marry by the ceremonial sacred fire recite their vows in Sanskrit. Traces of the ancient language can be found in nearly all of the 15 modern languages spoken in India. (Hundreds of pure Sanskrit words are present in English as well. )
"To dispel the notion that the language was nonliving and difficult to learn," Mr. Shastry says in a phone interview, "we decided to teach basic spoken Sanskrit in 10 days and to teach through Sanskrit only."
An eager network of volunteers experimented with this new method, teaching groups in villages, cities, and abroad through Indian expatriates. "We now hold classes even in prisons," Shastry says.
When the movement began, there was no money for printed flyers to advertise the classes, so publicity was strictly via word-of-mouth. Volunteers performed sidewalk skits about social themes using Sanskrit to draw the attention of passersby.
"[People] saw that Sanskrit need not be confined to rituals and prayer," says Pallamraju Duggirala, a part-time
Samskrita Bharati volunteer (and full-time space physicist) who has been teaching the free classes at MIT since September 2003.
In 25 years, an estimated 7 million people have attended spoken Sanskrit classes offered by Samskrita Bharati in India and abroad, says Shastry. There are 250 full-time volunteers and 5,000 part-time teachers in the United States and India, and their numbers are growing.
Samskrita Bharati has chapters in 26 of India's 28 states. There are also groups in such places as San Jose, Calif.; Seattle; Pittsburgh; Buffalo, N.Y.; Dallas; San Diego; and Chicago. Requests are coming in from other US cities as well.
Like Latin and Greek, Sanskrit eventually became only the language of scholars as dialects spread in medieval times, notes David Shulman of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem in an e-mail interview. When the British Raj began in 1757, English slowly replaced Sanskrit.
Yoga practitioners in the US are seeking out the authentic Sanskrit names of various poses such as "downward dog" or "spinal twist" and the philosophy behind the practice as spelled out in the Yoga Sutras â the original treatise on the subject written in Sanskrit thousands of years ago.
Science-history buffs see old works in Sanskrit as treasure troves of ancient knowledge of astronomy, chemistry, mathematics, medicine, and metallurgy. When Copernicus announced that the sun was the center of the universe in 1543, it was a defining moment for Western science. In Samskrita Bharati's recently released "Pride of India" â a compilation that offers a glimpse into India's scientific heritage â Sanskrit scholars point to calculations from AD 499 that indicate astronomer Aryabhatta's underlying concept of a sun-centered planetary model.
"This knowledge tradition is what we hope to revive through the spread of Sanskrit," says Shastry.
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<b>Sanskrit daily celebrates 38th anniversary in Mysore </b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->
Mysore, July 15: The country's only Sanskrit daily, 'Sudharma' being published from Mysore, celebrated its 38th anniversary on Sunday, confounding cynics who had predicted that the paper would fold up within a year of its publication.Â
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<b>MP Governor rejects Sanskrit University Bill</b>
http://in.news.yahoo.com/070723/32/6icv8.html
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->When Israel became a nation, they chose Hebrew as their official language, while we in India ditched Sanskrit to chose Hindi as the national language. We now stand low, at the eminent historian level, having to depend on English translations of our scriptures to understand their meaning.
Due to work of an organization called Samskrita Bharati, Sanskrit is experiencing a revival and people around the world are getting a quick introduction to the language. The idea behind these classes are to get people comfortable talking in Sanskrit as soon as possible and the teacher does that by conversing only in Sanskrit for the entire 10 day duration.
  Today, spoken Sanskrit is enjoying a revival â both in India and among Indian expatriates in the United States. There is even evidence of Sanskrit emerging in American popular culture as more and more people roll out yoga mats at the local gym and greet one another with "Namaste."
  Harvard, Yale, and the University of Chicago, among others, have long offered Sanskrit courses to undergrads. But the demand for these classes is growing beyond academic settings. A decade-long economic boom has brought Indians some measure of prosperity, and with it a sense of pride in the nation's past. In large part, however, the revival is the result of the efforts of a private group, Samskrita Bharati, headquartered in New Delhi. The volunteer-based group's mission: Bring the pan-Indian language back to the mainstream and lay the groundwork for a cultural renaissance.
  Yoga practitioners in the US are seeking out the authentic Sanskrit names of various poses such as "downward dog" or "spinal twist" and the philosophy behind the practice as spelled out in the Yoga Sutras â the original treatise on the subject written in Sanskrit thousands of years ago.
  Science-history buffs see old works in Sanskrit as treasure troves of ancient knowledge of astronomy, chemistry, mathematics, medicine, and metallurgy. When Copernicus announced that the sun was the center of the universe in 1543, it was a defining moment for Western science. In Samskrita Bharati's recently released "Pride of India" â a compilation that offers a glimpse into India's scientific heritage â Sanskrit scholars point to calculations from AD 499 that indicate astronomer Aryabhatta's underlying concept of a sun-centered planetary model.
  "This knowledge tradition is what we hope to revive through the spread of Sanskrit," says Shastry.[Sanskrit echoes around the world]<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
http://varnam.org/blog/archives/2007/07/...evival.php
2007 Samskrita-Bharati USA family camp conducted in NJ.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->A 5 min report about the camp that was aired on TV Asia:Â http://video. google.com/ videoplay? docid=-912539304 5602501500&hl=en
The post-event press release with some pictures is available on the camp website http://www.jaahnavi i2007.org <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
People who know Sanskrit, i got a few questions:
1) How different are Vedic and Classical Sanskrit, if you learn one can you understand the other?
2) If you learn spoken Sanskrit as it is spoken & written today, would you understand a 15th cent Sanskrit text like say "Madhuravijayam" by Gangadevi, for example most Tamils & Telugu people (unless they are experts) cannot understand stuff from that period even if it's in the same language because a lot of pronounciations & words changed, is it the same case with Sanskrit?
10-08-2007, 09:14 AM
(This post was last modified: 10-08-2007, 10:00 AM by Bodhi.)
Bharatvarsh, i shall attempt to answer.
1. vedic sanskit is quite different from shastriya sanskrit. vedic is the natural sanskrit which represents probably how it was spoken at one time, and its progression and development over time.
2. knowing shastriya sanskrit is no guarantee one would accurately understand Vedic. As like knowing Hindi one may still not understand Tulsi' Manas. Both skts follow different frameworks.
4. Yask and after him Panini, were great scientists who saw the problem that with the natural modification in language over the passage of time and change of place, the literature and knowledge had a risk of becoming disconnected with people, or had the risk of being misinterpreted or even lost. so they evolved mathematical-like rules of grammar and language to be followed while writing or speaking skt. this became shastriya skt.
5. Reading any skt literature written after this, one has to follow panini grammar since that is what was mostly followed by writers. So panini's ashTAdhAyi is the decoder of that literature, and our password to the treasure chest of our ancient knowledge body. thats why orientalists, witzel and all want to obliterate AshTAdhyAyI, try to write off Panini, or underestimate its importance.
6. Many writers did not strictly adhere to panini's rules. like Kautilya Arthashastra does not follow Panini at many times. This may be due to the fact that some content to it came from earlier than Panini, or also because Kautilya himself was very unorthodox. Others, especially "modern" poets of their times have also done experimentations like mixing then-spoken languages and dialects into skt, eg. in mahaviracharitam.
7. Panini has also cearly explained how vedic should be interpreted as well. And he is the authority, as he is the one who signaled the transition from one to the other. So all the vedic misinterpretations like that of Max Muller are not valid if they do not follow Panini. DN Jha's misadentures with Go-ghna meaning Cow-slaughter or offering cow meat etc, are flat misinterpretations since Panini explicitly says otherwise.
Gangadevi has followed classical skt, so not difficult to understand or accurately interpret her work Madhuravijayam.
Yesudas calls for national recognition to Sanskrit
Special Correspondent
Says the origin of most Indian languages could be traced to Sanskrit
CEREMONIAL PROCESSION: Zamorin P.K.S. Raja, K.J. Yesudas and Azhvancherry Thambrakkal being led to the venue of Revathy Pattathanam in Kozhikode.
Kozhikode: Singer K.J. Yesudas has called for recognition of Sanskrit as the national language.
He was inaugurating Revathy Pattathanam, an annual cultural event featuring scholarly debates patronised by Kozhikode Zamorins, here on Thursday.
Mr. Yesudas said since the origin of most Indian languages could be traced to Sanskrit, it deserved the recognition. The popular singer said he owed his success as a singer âto what little he had learned of Sanskrit as a student at music college.â
He promised support to programmes which perpetuate memory of Sanskrit scholars and other icons of Kerala culture while pointing out that many great scholars of the past had died unhonoured and unsung.
The singer also said the fact that Revathy Pattathanam represented an attempt by Zamorins to take scholarship and knowledge, till then believed to be the intellectual property of the elite, closer to the layman enhanced the historic and social significance of the event.
Zamorin P.K.S. Raja was present at the inaugural session. Also present, as the chief guest, was Azhvancherry Thambrakkal, who is revered as the descendent of a family that was believed to have been placed on top of aristocratic hierarchy by Parasurama who, according to legends, created Kerala out of the sea.
The inaugural function was preceded by a ceremonial procession in which the Zamorin, Mr. Yesudas and Azhvancherry Thambrakkal were led to the venue from near the Tali Mahadeva temple with the accompaniment of traditional music.
After the inaugural ceremony, there were talks by scholars, including one by K.G. Paulose, Vice-Chancellor of Kerala Kalamandalam Deemed University.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Sanskrit can be simple, demonstrates Swami Sugunendra Teertha of Udupi </b>
link
By ANI
Monday October 29, 05:57 PM
By Sandeep Datta
New Delhi, Oct.29 (ANI): People of Delhi, including the Lieutenant Governor Tejendra Khanna, were in for a surprise on Sunday at a function to felicitate His <b>Holiness Sri Sugunendra Theertha Swami of the Puttige Mutt from Udupi (Karnataka), when the Swamiji told them that he would deliver his discourse in Sanskrit.</b>
People were looking forward to hearing a sermon from the learned Swamiji, who has travelled to different world capitals, spreading the message of Indian spiritualism.
Swami Sugunendra Theertha was in the national capital, prior to assuming, "Paryaya", the privilege of worshipping for a period of two years at the Udupi Sri Krishna temple , established by Saint Madhvacharya eight centuries ago.
The cosmopolitan audience that included many from Karnataka had little knowledge of Sanskrit, which is used presently in India only at Hindu religious ceremonies. But they were spellbound when Swami Sugunendra Theertha listening to his discourse.
<b>The discourse was in simple Sanskrit which anyone with the knowledge of any Indian language could understand with ease. The audience was mesmerised when he narrated to them the meaning of Madhva philosophy of Bhakti or devotion, how important it was in the present day world, and the significance of being unselfish.</b>
He told the audience that while Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, and Marathi were State languages of the country, Hindi was the national language, <b>Sanskrit was the mother of all languages, which had links with all world languages.</b>
Swami Sugunendra Theertha, who never had the advantage of a formal school or college education, is conversant in English too.<b> He told the audience that he had travelled to the United States where he met President Bush and told him that economic globalisation had to be a part of spiritual globalisation to have worldwide acceptance and achieve its objectives. </b>
Swami Sugunendra Theertha informed the audience that he had visited Russia, where he was invited to preside over a conference of religious leaders. <b>He conveyed to President Putin about the need for integrating communism with spiritualism, which would help in unifying all nationalities.</b>
He also visited Arab countries where he was honoured. He told them that India accepted that God is one and he had many manifestations, including Krishna and Allah, which all led to the same destination.
<b>Swami Sugunendra Theertha, said that the Udupi Temple was known for its 'Anna Daan' - food offer --for feeding all visitors to the temple any time of the day. Rich or poor, who visit Udupi, partake in the Prasad, which is a meal in its precincts</b>.
After a week-long stay in Delhi, Swami Sugunendra Theertha will leave for Udupi in Karnataka, where he will be assuming the headship of Sri Krisha Temple established by Madhvacharya, one of the Bhakti Saints who brought about a spiritual revolution in the country, alike to Swami Tulsidas in northern India and Sant Jnaneshwar in Maharashtra.
Udupi has eight temples, and for the last five centuries the head of each of the temples assumes the right to worship at the Krishna temple, at a ceremony known as the Paryaya. The right to worship at the Krishna temple is changed on rotation every two years among the heads of the eight temples. Swami Sugunendra Teertha will have the Paryaya ceremony on January 18, 2008.
This will be the third occasion when Swami Sugunendra Theertha will be assuming the coveted position to perform Puja at Lord Sri Krishna Temple.
Lieutenant Governor Tejinder Khanna, who was felicitated with a silk shawl by His Holiness Sugunendra Theertha Swami, said that the institution of religious Saints - in different religions of the country -- helped preserve social harmony in the nation.
On the occasion, a Yakshagana performance, the traditional art form of coastal Karnataka was presented in Badagu Tittu (northern style Yakshagana), in which 28 performers from Udupi District enthralled the audience by enacting "Jambavati Kalyana" (the marriage of Lord Krishna). (ANI)
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<b>Sanskrit from Class I in MP</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Bhopal, Oct. 31: Madhya Pradesh has made teaching of Sanskrit compulsory in all government and private schools from Class I to V. At present, the subject is taught from Class VI.
Education minister Laxman Singh Gaud said the order would take effect from the next academic session starting April. âThe learning of Sanskrit is the core of Indian culture and heritage. I am fulfilling a long-standing demand,â Gaud added.
The move drew mixed reactions. Madhya Pradesh Christian Association spokesman Anand Muttangal dubbed the order a âsymbolicâ step.
âThe order will help children understand the language better. In the long run, the glorious status that Sanskrit enjoyed for ages will be strengthened,â he added.
.......
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Centre to set up Sanskrit university</b>
Statesman News Service
NEW DELHI, Dec. 30: Facing the charge of minority appeasement, the Union ministry for human resource development has in principle agreed to set up a Central Sanskrit University.
HRD minister Mr Arjun Singh agreed to this long -awaited demand concerning the oldest language at the first meeting of the Central Sanskrit Parishad earlier this week.
Mr Singh also said the issue of establishing a National Board of Sanskrit School Education would be taken up with the Planning Commission. The board members said three Indian languages should be taught from Class VI to Class X and marks obtained in these languages <b>should be considered for competitive examinations.</b>
At present, CBSE and Kendriya Vidyalayas are teaching two languages, while some southern states have a local language under the three-language formula.
<b>The Sansthan has recommended Sanskrit as a compulsory third language till Class X in Hindi-speaking states and the language would carry 25 per cent marks as part of a paper either in the mother tongue or in Hindi in non-Hindi speaking states</b>. The human resource development ministry has agreed to examine the proposal
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Does anyone know the word for Kabaddi in Sanskrit, I have been trying to find it but can't find it anywhere so far.
[center]<b> Popularise Sanskrit</b>[/center]
Udupi, January 29: Sugunendra Tirtha Swamiji of Puttige Math has stressed the need for popularising Sanskrit among the masses.
He was speaking at the inaugural function of the Udupi District Sanskrit Sammelan, organised by the Sri Krishna Math/Temple and Samskrita Bharati Udupi Mandalam, here on Sunday.
<b>The swamiji said Sanskrit was the most clearest of all languages. In comparison, English was not a clear language.
Emotions could be clearly expressed in Sanskrit and it was more suited to computers.</b>
There was shortage of teachers in Sanskrit. President of the sammelan Sureshacharya; its general secretary Sridhar Acharya; co-secretary Gujjadi Shantala Nayak; and president of Seva Sangam, Kundapur, S N Padiyar, were present.
<b>An exhibition of various products of daily use and their Sanskrit names, importance of Sanskrit in science, and charts displaying conversational Sanskrit, was organised at the venue of the sammelan at Rajangana.</b>
Are there free online courses in sanskrit? Not books, but teachers who teach sanskrit lessons online for those who don't have the time for formal study?
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->DU Sanskrit student bags Rs 7.2 lakh MNC job package
pioneer.com
Durgesh Nandan Jha | New Delhi
Its not only an MBA from prestigious institutes that offers a fat package, the least sought after courses like Sanskrit are also offering huge pay-cheque. A Sanskrit student of St Stephen's College has bagged a package of Rs 7.2 lakh per annum from a multinational company in the campus placement held last week. Third year student of St Stephen's College, Dipika Ballari Singh, has been offered a job in the trade commodity section of the Jaypee Group, a well diversified infrastructural industrial conglomerate in India.
<b>"The company has recruited me on a package of Rs 7.2 lakh per annum. They have put me into the trade commodity section in which I am supposed to trade in fixed income, foreign exchange and stock index markets,"</b> said Singh, brimming with confidence.
<b>She said that the offer has broken the myth that Sanskrit graduates cannot compete other arts graduates for recruitment in multinational companies.
</b>
"Teaching, research work or preparing for Indian Administrative Services (IAS) has long been the preferred career option for Sanskrit graduates. Few Sanskrit students even try for multinational companies. My selection may set a trend and bring confidence to the students pursuing Sanskrit," she added. Singh knows all the Shlokas of Geeta by heart and boast of winning several prizes in the competitions held at college and university level. She believes that the subject gave her an outlook to life, to understand human nature. Singh's classmate Swati Jha has also been offered a job by a media house.
The teachers of Sanskrit department are elated with the achievement of the two girls. They hold their success as a preamble to the success story of the most underestimated course, Sanskrit.
"In our college, we use trilingual - Hindi, English and Sanskrit - medium to teach the subject. This makes the students do well in all fields. The selection of this girl in a multinational company has proved this point," said Pankaj Mishra, a teacher in the Sanskrit department of the college.
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HINDU AMERICAN FOUNDATION
LECTURE SERIES
The Hindu American Foundation invites you to attend a lecture and discussion with Professor S. N. Balagangadhara
Date: Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Time: 3pm-5pm.
Location: Altos Room of Foothill College, 12345 El Monte Road, Los Altos, CA, 94022
The forum is small and will be able to engage in discussions with the Professor Bala.
Biography:
Over the past twenty years, Professor Balagangadhara (Balu) has developed a research program for the study of the cultural differences between Asia and the West. His âThe Heathen in his Blindness...â: Asia, the West and the Dynamic of Religion (Leiden, 1994) was hailed as one of the major contributions to the debate on the concept of religion and to the study of the western culture through its understanding of India. His current research addresses issues such as the theological nature of western political and ethical thought, the impact of colonialism on the Indian intelligentsia and the decolonization of the human sciences. He is a Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Research Center Vergelijkende Cultuurvetenschap at Ghent University in Belgium.
Here is some background information about the focus of his lecture:
How to Compare Cultures? The Case of India and the West
The comparative study of cultures and cultural differences is beoming more and more important at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Yet, we do not really know how to go about âcomparing cultures.â We can compare any two objects and list their commonalities and differences, but what have we learned by doing so? What have we really learned by stating that âmany Indians believe in reincarnation, while most westerners do notâ; âIndians are more family-oriented, while westerners are more individualisticâ; âIndia has a caste system, while the West is more egalitarianâ;....? I will argue that comparison can be approached differently and more productively. Taking India and the West, I will suggest that (a) in order to understand the Indian culture, we first have to study the western culture and (b) in order to understand the western culture, we have to examine the way in which the West has seen other cultures like India.
RSVP: Arjun Bhagat 650-465-1023
The Hindu American Foundation is a 501©(3), non-profit, non-partisan organization promoting the Hindu and American ideals of understanding, tolerance and pluralism. Contact HAF at 1-301-770-7835 or on the web at www.HAFsite.org.
www.HAFsite.org
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