Sanskrit in Texas UTD

Samskrita Bharathi instructor Murali Ram introduced students to Samskrita with a curriculum of basic phrases and conversation July 4 in the Engineering and Computer Science building.

Students say 'namaste' to Samskrita
Day-long class delves into ancient Indian language

By: Alex Ransom

Posted: 7/13/09

On July 4, some students said "namaste" for the first time in Sanskrita, the ancient classical language of India with UTD's new club Vivekananda Hindu Youth for Unity, Virtues and Action (YUVA.)

Sanskrit is the root of Hindi as Latin is the root of English, said Murali Ram, Sanskrit instructor from Samskrita Bharathi.

He taught the day-long, three-session conversation-oriented class on the language, also known as Sanskrit or Samskrit, which means perfected or polished.

Vivekananda Hindu YUVA plans to become an official UTD organization in the fall. Ramnath Kini, electrical engineering teaching assistant and group coordinator, created the organization with about seven other members to serve as an intellectual forum aimed at character building.The club has no hierarchy and everyone is considered a volunteer, Kini said. The name is derived from the influential Indian thinker, Swami Vivekananda, who helped popularize eastern thought in the western world, Kini said.

The language adheres to strict structural rules and is very systematic, which makes it useful for computer applications, Kini said. Rick Briggs, NASA researcher, wrote "Knowledge Representation in Sanskrit and Artificial Intelligence," which proposed that Sanskrit lends itself well as an artificial language that aids understanding natural language and issues with machine translation.

Today, few people speak the language. The Indian census states there were less than 50,000 fluent speakers in India in 1991. Kini said Germany has more Sanskrit scholars than some Indian states.The goal was to revive the old language as a spoken one, Ram said. Most of the students who came to learn Sanskrit spoke Hindi, which served as a helpful basis."It's hard for me as well (to learn)," said Hemal Thacker, business administration graduate student. "I can hear it and understand, but I don't know what to say back."

One of the starting phrases was "Mama nama" translates to "my name is" in English. By the end of the first session, participants were able to have basic conversation, introducing themselves, asking for the time and pointing things out.Laughter was encouraged at the interactive day camp as the class went through the fundamentals of the language. At one point, a student told another in Sanskrit that he was a book.Ram told the fable of "The Wise Crow" three times during each camp session to show how participants' comprehension increased, he said. In the final session, the class held skit presentations with several teams to illustrate the story of a clever, thirsty crow that dropped stones in a pot to raise the water level to take a drink.

Sanskrit is the original language of India's religious texts such as the Vedas, Sutra and Epics. The class did not focus on the "Shakespeare" level of Sanskrit present in those works, Ram said."(It's for) passion as a language, not the spiritual," Ram said. "We're seeing more demand for these classes."Students walked away with the tools to be able to learn the language themselves and enjoyed themselves doing it, Ram said.

Email Kini at vhyutd@gmail.com for more information about Vivekananda Hindu YUVA or information about Sanskrit.
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