Sanskrit still blooming in a tiny village in Karnataka

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Sanskrit still blooming in a tiny village in Karnataka

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Author: Publication: The Free Press Journal

January 30, 2003

 

Sheeghram Dhave" (run fast), shouts a little boy in chaste Sanskrit to his

fellow batsman while running between the wickets holding the bat on a

nondescript maidan in this village, where the country's ancient language still

remains alive and spoken among the rustic folk, reports UNI.

 

At the sight of an outsider, the lad is suddenly subdued and gives a nod to this

correspondent: "Suprabhatam".

 

Sanskrit, touted as the mother of all languages, has overcome a brief lull in

its verbal existence and again started blooming in this neat and tiny village

located on the picturesque banks of the river Tunga in Shimoga district. As had

been the case during its hoary past, a visitor to this place is greeted by a

'Good Morning' in the Indian version and even with vedic chants sometimes.

 

Historically, the natives of this village are settlers from Sankote located in

Tamil Nadu-Karnataka border and had made Mattur their home since almost five

centuries ago following a largesse sanctioned by Krishnadevaraya, the emperor of

Vijayanagara in 1509-30. Known for his penchant to encourage all manifestations

of culture and languages, he doled out 120 acres of land here for the migrants

to five by practising and preaching the Vedas.

 

The advent of English education in the early spans of the last century did make

some dent into Sanskrit-speaking habit of the successive generations. Until

erosion was stemmed in 1992 by Udupi Pejawar Mutt pontiff Vishveshathirtha, who

visited the village and was impressed by its lush-green locale.

 

So moved was the swamiji at the sight of Mattur's tranquil and pleasant ambience

that he gave a clarion call to develop it as a model 'Sanskrit village'. His

exhortion to the natives to rekindle the spirit of the ancient language

eventually found results in all ways of life and walks of people.

 

Coming to the current times, all children in local schools invariably take

Sanskrit as the optional language and display keen interest in ensuring that it

existed even outside classrooms. Irrespective of caste and creed, the local

people, totaling 3500, converse In Sanskrit across the village, which has not

experienced any communal disturbance. Credit also goes to the Samskruta Bharati,

a 1982-founded organisation in the wake of some adverse comments aired about

Sanskrit language those days. Its functionaries took up the daunting task of

helping Sanskrit flourish by roping in the help of pandits settled in the

village.

 

 

 

 

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