New Delhi: What do the Bollywood blockbuster Sholay or the popular Hindi film song Aati Kya Khandala from the Aamir Khan-starrer Ghulam have to do with Sanskrit?
Well, a recently launched web portal by a group of youngsters in the US directs you to a video of a Sholay skit and the Aati Kya Khandala song - both in Sanskrit - that they performed at an Indian event in the US.
This is one of the many new methods that the umd_samskritam group, comprising students at the University of Maryland and young professionals from the area, have adopted to promote spoken Sanskrit in daily life. The group launched their web site www.speaksanskrit.org July 11.
The youth network believes that there is a lot of practical value in the classical language of India, which also is the liturgical language of Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism apart from being the oldest attested Indo-European language.
umd_samskritam began as a collaboration between DESI, a student group at the University of Maryland, and Samskrita Bharati, a voluntary NGO that seeks to promote Sanskrit, in February 2005, with the intention of introducing spoken Sanskrit in daily life.
Its motto is Rachayema Samskrita Bhuvanam, which means "We shall create a Sanskrit world." And they have had some success, at least online, for a start.
Having grown to over 160 members and about 15 volunteers by May 2006, the group pushed for their web site, in addition to coordinating Sanskrit activities in the Washington DC area.
The web site aims to function as a repository of Sanskrit resources, link together Sanskrit activities around the world and "promote Sanskrit through fun" as well as encourage online activities such as blogging and forums.
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Volunteer Srilatha Kuntumalla says July 11 was chosen for launching the website as it was Guru Poornima, a day traditionally observed in India in honour of gurus or teachers.
Students offer prayers and guru dakshina (offerings) to their teachers for guiding them and imparting knowledge.
The umd_samskritam group wanted the web site to be their guru dakshina to their teacher and Samskrita Bharati volunteer, Rajesh Rachabattuni.
Volunteers claim that they intend to "fill in the gaps" in existing Sanskrit initiatives, by providing more online resources and also adding the youth angle to promoting Sanskrit through fun.
"This effort is supplementary to Samskrita Bharati's efforts. We don't intend to duplicate anything," said Avinash Varna, another volunteer.
Currently, the website has mp3 versions of stories, songs, conversations and videos of skits that were performed during various Sanskrit workshops. The group has also launched a forum which, in two weeks, has picked up about 40 members and 120 posts.
There's a separate link for the Washington DC area activities that includes weekly study groups at four locations, weekend workshops once in two months, Sanskrit cultural programmes in Indian community events, and subscriptions to popular Sanskrit magazines.
The group's goal is to help create such web pages for various regions in the US where Sanskrit groups are already active.
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