Andhra Pradesh

Bringing the ‘divine language’ to the inaccessible

TIRUPATI: Perhaps, it is now time to rethink for the mainstream academia, which looks down upon study of Sanskrit (including Vedas and Shastras) as the ‘choice thrust upon’ a select few, and the downtrodden sections as well, who fume over it as the ‘unjustified prerogative of a social class’.

The Tirupati-based Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeetha, working under the Union Ministry of Human Resources Development, boasts of reaching out the ‘divine language’ to the hitherto inaccessible sections as about 20 p.c. of students in the Sanskrit university are found to belong to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and minorities.

The revelation came as a pleasant surprise to Tilak R. Kem, former secretary of the University Grants Commission (UGC), New Delhi, who was at the Vidyapeetha here on Saturday to inaugurate a Remedial Coaching Centre for SC/ST/minority students. He appreciated the university for striving harder than the mainstream institutes in following the policy of inclusion to wipe off the imaginary line that divides students on the basis of caste and religion.

UGC member K. Ramamurthy Naidu, who inaugurated a JRF-NET coaching centre for the students, promised to support the university in its endeavour for upgradation as a central university under the new scheme for the 11th plan period. He also suggested the Vidyapeetha to start an Academic Staff College exclusively for Sanskrit teachers.

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