Adarsh Sanskrit Village

• 12 Feb 2025

Why in News? 

The Uttarakhand government has designated one village in each of its 13 districts as an ‘Adarsh Sanskrit village’ to preserve and promote Sanskrit, the State’s second language. 

 Key Points 

• Government’s Commitment to Promote Sanskrit: 
  • The State Education Minister, referring to Sanskrit as ‘Devvani’ (language of the gods), emphasized that preserving and promoting Sanskrit is a top priority for the government. 
  • He stated that Adarsh Sanskrit Villages will help connect the new generation to Indian philosophy and knowledge traditions through Sanskrit. 
• Integration of Sanskrit into Daily Life: 
  • The government has appointed special instructors to train villagers in communicating in Sanskrit in their daily lives. 
  • Villagers will be encouraged to recite verses from the Vedas, Puranas, and Upanishads during religious rites. 
  • Women and children will be motivated to sing religious songs in Sanskrit during festivals and celebrations. 
  • Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) children will receive encouragement to study Sanskrit, aiming to foster harmony among different sections of society. 
• List of Adarsh Sanskrit Villages: 
  • The government has designated 13 villages as Adarsh Sanskrit Villages across Uttarakhand’s districts: 
    • Garhwal region: Noorpur Panjhanhedi (Haridwar), Bhogpur (Dehradun), Kotgaon (Uttarkashi), Dimmar (Chamoli), Goda (Pauri), Baiji (Rudraprayag), Mukhem (Tehri). 
    • Kumaon region: Pandey (Nainital), Jainti (Almora), Kharkkarki (Champawat), Urg (Pithoragarh), Sheri (Bageshwar), Nagla Tarai (Udham Singh Nagar). 
• Sanskrit Education in Uttarakhand: 
  • The State has more than 100 Sanskrit medium schools, further strengthening its efforts to promote the language. 

 Sanskrit 

• It is an old Indo-Aryan language in which the most ancient documents, Vedas are composed in what is called Vedic Sanskrit. 
• Classical Sanskrit, a language close to late Vedic as then used in the northwest of the subcontinent, was elegantly described in one of the finest grammars ever produced, the Astadhyayi (“Eight Chapters”) composed by Panini (c. 6th–5th century BCE). 
• Sanskrit has been written both in Devanagari script and in various regional scripts, such as Sarada from the north (Kashmir), Bangla (Bengali) in the east, Gujarati in the west, and various southern scripts, including the Grantha alphabet, which was especially devised for Sanskrit texts.