The Uttarakhand government has decided to develop one Sanskrit-speaking village in each of the 13 districts in the state.
Residents of these villages will be trained by experts to use the ancient Indian language as a medium of daily communication, Uttarakhand’s Minister for Sanskrit Education Dhan Singh Rawat said on Thursday.
Sanskrit is the second official language of Uttarakhand.
Uttarakhand is the first state in the country to launch an initiative on this scale to promote Sanskrit. There is only one Sanskrit-speaking village in the state of Karnataka.
Sanskrit teachers will be sent to the selected villages to teach locals how to communicate in the language, Rawat said.
They will also be taught the Vedas and the Puranas to help them acquire proficiency in Sanskrit, he said.
To be called ”Sanskrit Gram”, each of these villages will be a centre of ancient Indian culture, Rawat said.
”The younger generation should be able to speak the language of its ancestors. Besides taking the younger generation closer to its roots, these villages will give visitors from across the country and abroad a glimpse of India’s ancient culture,” the minister said.
The idea of developing Sanskrit villages was first conceived during the chief ministership of Trivendra Singh Rawat but the scheme did not take off. It remained confined to a couple of pilot projects in Bageshwar and Chamoli districts.
However, it will be implemented fully this time, Rawat said.
