Sanskrit revival is the accumulation of attempts at
reviving the Sanskrit language that have been undertaken.
History
In 1891 there was organized activity among the
Theosophists in
India promoting and participating in the revival of Sanskrit. In 1894 the American Asiatic and Sanskrit Revival Society was established.
In the
Republic of India Sanskrit is included in the 14 original
languages of the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution. Many organizations, like the
Samskrta Bharati, are conducting Speak Sanskrit workshops to popularize the language. The "All-India Sanskrit Festival" (since 2002) holds composition contests. The
1991 Indian census reported 49,736 fluent speakers of Sanskrit.
The
Central Board of Secondary Education in India has made Sanskrit a third language (though it is an option for a school to adopt it or not, the other choice being the state's own official language) in the schools it governs. In such schools, learning Sanskrit is an option for grades 5 to 8 (Classes V to VIII). This is true of most schools, including but not limited to Christian missionary schools, affiliated to the
ICSE board too, especially in those states where the official language is
Hindi. An option between Sanskrit and a local language as a second language exists for grades 9 and 10.
All India Radio transmits news bulletins in Sanskrit twice a day across the nation. Besides, Sanskrit learning programmes also feature on the list of most of the AIR broadcasting centres.
Work of Samskrita Bharati
Samskrita Bharati is an organization working for Sanskrit revival. It is a tax exempt
nonprofit organization with its headquarters in
New Delhi, India. The International Centre, “Aksharam,” a complex located in
Bangalore, India, is its international centre. It houses a research wing, a library, audio-visual lab, and staff quarters. It also has several state-units spread across the country both in the US and India. The
US chapter is a registered nonprofit tax-exempt organization with its headquarters in
San Jose, California.
Samskrita Bharati functions as an umbrella organization for various organizations working for promotion of
Samskrita.
In the West
Being the liturgical language of
Hindus, it is used during worship in
Hindu temples in the West. It is taught in many South Asian studies/linguistics departments in universities across the West. Also, Sanskrit revival attempts are underway amongst expatriate Hindu populations in the west. It is also popular amongst the many practitioners of
yoga in the West, who find the language useful in understanding the
Yoga Sutra.
Samskrita villages
Samskrita is spoken in around 4 villages in India. In
Madhya Pradesh, it is spoken in
Jihri.
Mattur village
The
Mattur village in central
Karnataka, Shimoga district claims to have native speakers of Sanskrit among its population. Historically the village was given by king
Krishnadevaraya of the
Vijayanagara Empire to Vedic scholars and their families. People in his kingdom spoke
Kannada and
Telugu.
See also
