Sanskrit: The Divine Language

Course title: Sanskrit: The Divine Language
Facilitator: Dr Sadananda Das

Dates: November 5 to December 17, 2022 (Every Saturday)
Six classes 2 hours each

Time: 8:00 PM IST
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APPLICATION: Click here

Sanskrit is regarded as one of the most ancient and richest languages in the world. It is the treasure house of Wisdom. In order to understand ancient India, its literature, culture, traditions, philosophy, religions especially Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism and Indian spirituality, knowledge of Sanskrit is essential. It is a language by which many Indians recharge themselves and are refreshed every day. It is not the language of past, but present and future. It is an important language of the Indo-European language family, a language that gives us access to a vast and liberating literature, has a long and sacred history often traced back to the Gods. Sanskrit can offer us a luxurious literary understanding of the past as it serves as a tool for perfect human expression.

The six lectures that are organized here include the following topics:  a detailed Introduction to this language, its alphabets and pronunciation; the relevance of Sanskrit studies in current time; introduction to Vedic and classical Sanskrit literature; Sanskrit as a divine and spiritual language, its beautiful poetry; why should we learn Sanskrit and its beautiful literature; and an introduction to Pratyabhijñāhṛdayam.

FACILITATOR

Dr Sadananda Das after obtaining a traditional Shastri degree (B.A.) from Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan, New Delhi, received Masters and Ph. D. degrees from the Centre of Advanced Study in Sanskrit, University of Pune. From 1993 to 1996, he worked as a Junior Research fellow in Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts at Varanasi Branch. From 1997 to 2000 he worked as a Research Assistant and from 2000 till  March 2005 as a Research Officer in Alice Boner Institute, Varanasi. He received the German Academic Exchange Service Fellowship and visited Tübingen University, Germany in connection with his research on the Atharvaveda in 1996.

He was a visiting lecturer at the Institute of Religious Science at Bern University, Switzerland (Winter Semester1997 - Summer Semester 1998) and at the Department of Classical Indology, South Asia Institute, Heidelberg University, Germany (Summer Semester 2000). From 2000 till 2016 he has taught 20 summer schools in spoken Sanskrit at Heidelberg University including three Advanced Sumer Schools in spoken Sanskrit at Florence University, Italy (2003), Centre for Sanskrit Studies, Jñānapravāha, Varanasi, India (2005) and Centre for Sanskrit Studies, Goa, India (2013).  

He has taught more than 50 summer schools  in spoken Sanskrit across the globe including Vienna University, Austria; Tübingen, Heidelberg and Leipzig Universities, Germany; Rome and Florence Universities, Italy; Bern, Zürich and Lausanne Universities, Switzerland; The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia; Bharatīya Vidyā Bhavan, London; Ukrainian Yoga Federation,  Kyiv and Kharkov, Ukraine; Devavāṇī, Centre for Sanskrit Studies, Barcelona, Spain and in many educational institutes and universities in India including Kameshvar Singh Darbhanga Sanskrit University, Darbhanga, Bihar (1988), Jñāna Pravāha, Centre for Sanskrit Studies Varanasi (2005) and  Sanchi University for Buddhist Indic Studies, Bhopal, M.P (2015).  He has taught spoken Sanskrit and Sanskrit language and literature to more than 1000 scholars from 43 countries from across the globe.

He has attended many national and international conferences including six World Sanskrit conferences in different countries. He has made academic trips to countries like Australia, Austria, Canada, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, U.K. and Ukraine.    

He has published five books and 16 articles in national and international journals.

Since 2005, he is teaching Sanskrit language, literature and Indian Philosophy (Kashmir Shaivism) in the Institute of Indology and Central Asian Studies at Leipzig University, Germany.