UGC asks all universities to organize World Sanskrit Day events, read all details here

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has asked all its affiliated universities and colleges to mark the World Sanskrit day or World ‘Samskrita’ Day with appropriate celebrations on August 3, 2020. In a letter to vice-chancellors of all universities, The UGC mentioned that in 1969 the Government of India decided to celebrate World Sanskrit Day on Raksha Bandhan that falls on the full moon day of the Hindu month of Shravana.  The Consortium of Sankrit Universities will celebrate the day by organising ‘Samskrita Week' celebration from July 31, 2020, to August 6, 2020. 

Thus, UGC has asked all universities to organise events that will fall in the same line as organised by the Consortium of Sankrit Universities. Due to the situation of the coronavirus outbreak in India, the programmes or competitions will be organised virtually through online modes. For students in Acharya level or MA and Shashtri or BA programmes, the competitions will include story-telling in the traditional language, Sanskrit song competitions and Sanksrit poem recitation. According to UGC, these activities would promote the language and "cherish the glory" of Sanskrit. 

UGC made the request on the recommendation of the Consortium of Sankrit Universities that is constituted with at least 16 Sanskrit Universities in India. The SamkritaBharati has also offered its support for the universities to organise the events for Samkrita Week and to arrange resource persons as well as the programme content support. 

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World Sanskrit Day

The World Sanskrit Day or Sanksrit Diwas is observed across the nation to revive the ancient language of India. The old Indo-Aryan language is celebrated on full moon day or Poornima day as per the Hindu calendar. The Sanskrit organisation promotes this day every year, and this time, UGC has also sought to involve other universities. This language is believed to have been in India for nearly 3,500 years.

The word ‘Sanskrit’ is derived from the conjoining of ‘Sam’ and ‘krit’ that indicate ‘entirely’ and ‘done’ respectively. This classical language is also termed as Dev Vani that means god’s language. It is also believed that it was derived by the Indian God Brahma and was later passed on to Hindu scholars such as Rishis and Munis.

Recently, under the National Education policy 2020 or NEP 2020, a significant amount of focus would be shifted towards Indian languages including Sanskrit in the education system which would be brought into the 'mainstream’.

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