Sanskrit wrapped in heritage - The `language of the heavens' comes alive here. Mambalam Samskritha Vidyalaya continues to build on its experience of teaching Sanskrit for .ve decades.

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The `language of the heavens' comes alive here.

Mambalam Samskritha Vidyalaya continues to build on

its experience of teaching Sanskrit for .ve decades.

 

http://www.hindu.com/edu/2004/06/28/stories/2004062800240800.htm

 

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A Sanskrit class in progress at Orient Math School,

West Mambalam, Chennai. -- Photo: R. Ragu

 

ADMISSION FEE to a medical college: Rs. 2,50,000

 

For a journalism programme: Rs. 1,50,000

 

For an engineering programme: Rs. 25,000

 

For Mambalam Samskritha Vidyalaya: Re. 1

 

Here, at Oriental Math School, beside the chaos on

Madley Road subway, patiently sits an 84-year-old man,

whose eyes twinkle brighter than the diamond studs on

his ears. For 50 years, to over a 1,000 students, he

has been teaching Kalidasa's poetry, Bhavabhuthi's

dramas and the choicest Sanskrit literature. And he

has never ever asked even a rupee from any of them as

school fee.

 

`Periya Master' to his students, the frail scholar OR

Rajagopalan, started this Vidyalaya beside a well 50

years ago. And he has never missed a class, even when

his wife was ill and admitted in hospital. This vidwan

has taught the schoolboy and the software

professional, the Hindi teacher and the college girl.

Even if there are just two students in the class on

one fine day, Mr. Rajagopalan would not mind. He will

teach them happily, with his trademark commitment.

 

Today, there is a class of youngsters, several of them

college students, hanging on to his every word. In his

clear voice he takes them through a lesson in the

syllabus prescribed by the Samskritha Bhasha

Pracharini Sabha, Chitoor, which conducts Sanskrit

examinations every six months.

 

Like the Hindi Prachar Sabha, this institution

conducts examinations twice a year for Sanskrit

students. The course has six levels, from Parichaya

(for the beginner) to Abhigna, Vichakshana, Samartha,

Kovidha and Vidhya Bhushana, which is on a par with an

MA in Sanskrit, says OR Devanathan, a honorary

lecturer at the Vidyalaya. Classes are on from 6 p.m.,

thrice a week for the beginner levels and daily for

senior students.

 

A specialty at the Vidyalaya is the Saturday

`Vagvardhini Sabha' where students are taught to speak

in Sanskrit. " In fact, we use it as a forum to discuss

social issues, " says one student. The Vidyalaya, in

many ways, is a throwback to a different age, run by

an idealistic old man who believes that Sanskrit

cannot be sold.

 

Dhanya Parthasarathy

© Copyright 2000 - 2006 The Hindu

 

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