Highest Sageness -16

Kalidasa - Ancient India's immortal Poet

The best known dramatists of the Hindus are Kalidasa and Bhavbhuti. Kalidasa, “one of the greatest dramatists the world has ever produced,” flourished in the reign of Vikramaditya in the first century B.C. while Bhavbhuti lived many centuries later. The masterpieces of Kalidasa is the play of Shakuntala. The plot of this “astonishing literary performance,” as a great German critic calls it, is taken from the Mahabharata. 

Arnold Hermann Ludwig Heeran (1760-1842) speaks in rapturous terms of this “far-famed drama,” which is incomparable for its beauty, charm, tenderness and fidelity to nature, and which, in fact, stands at the head of the dramatic literature of the world. He says: “And we must, in truth, allow Kalidasa to be one of those poets who have done honor not merely to their nation but to all civilized mankind.” 

Alexander Von Humboldt also notes the masterly mode in which Kalidasa describes “the influence of nature upon the minds of lovers, his tenderness in the expression of feelings, and above all the richness of his creative fancy” Her (Shakuntala’s) love and sorrow,” says Sir William Wilson Hunter (1840-1900) “have furnished a theme for the great, European poet of our age.”

Europe first learned of the old Indian drama from Sir William Jones's translation of Kalidasa's - 'Shakuntala,' published in 1789. Something in the nature of commotion was created among European intellectuals by this discovery and several editions of the book followed. Translation also appeared in German, French, Danish, and Italian. Goethe was powerfully impressed and he paid a magnificent tribute to 'Shakuntala'. The idea of giving a prologue to Faust is said to have originated from Kalidasa's prologue, which was in accordance with the usual tradition of the Sanskrit drama. Kalidasa is acknowledged to be the greatest poet and dramatist of Sanskrit literature.

Professor Sylvain Levi, French scholar (1863-1935) Orientalist who wrote on Eastern religion, literature, and history. Levi was appointed a lecturer at the school of higher studies in Paris (1886), he taught Sanskrit at the Sorbonne (1889-94) and wrote his doctoral dissertation, Le Théâtre indien ("The Indian Theatre"). In L'Inde et le monde ("India and the World"), he discussed India's role among nations. The Nataka, the Indian drama, says Levi, still remains the happiest invention of the Indian genius. He said: 

' Le nom de Kalidasa domine la poesie indienne et la resume brillamment. Le drama, l'epopee savante.'

(source: The Discovery of India - by Jawaharlal Nehru  p 159).
Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803) German philosopher, poet and critic, clergyman, born in East Prussia. 
When George Forster sent him his German translation of the English version of the Sakuntala in 1791, Herder responded: 
"I cannot easily find a product of human mind more pleasant than this...a real blossom of the Orient, and the first, most beautiful of its kind! ....Something like that, of course appears once every two thousand years."
He published a detailed study and analysis of Sakuntala, claiming that this work disproved the popular belief that drama was the exclusive invention of the ancient Greeks.
(source: India and World Civilization  - By D. P. Singhal  Part II p.229 -  231).

One of Kalidasa's long poems is the Meghduta, or the Cloud Messenger.  A lover, made captive and separated from his beloved, asks a cloud, during the rainy season, to carry his message of desperate longing to her. To this poem and to Kalidasa, the American scholar, Ryder, has paid a splendid tribute. He refers to the two parts of the poem and says:
  
" The former half is a description of external nature, yet interwoven with human feelings; the latter half is a picture of human heart, yet the picture is framed in natural beauty. So exquisitely is the thing done that none can say which half is superior. Of those who read this perfect poem in the original text, some are moved by the one, some by the other." 

(source: The Discovery of India - by Jawaharlal Nehru  p 159).
One of the lyrics, Meghaduta (The Cloud Messenger), influenced the German dramatist Friedrich von Schiller's drama Maria Stuart (1800), and Shakuntala provided the idea for the prologue to the German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust (first part, 1808; second, 1832).

"Kalidasa understood in the fifth century what Europe did not learn until the 19th century, and even now comprehends only imperfectly, that the world was not made for man, that man reaches his full stature only as he realizes the dignity and worth of life that is not human. That Kalidasa seized this truth is a magnificent tribute to his intellectual power, a quality quite as necessary to great poetry as perfection of form. Poetical fluency is not rare; intellectual grasp is not very uncommon; but the combination of the two has not been found perhaps more than a dozen times since the world began. Because he possessed this harmonious combination, Kalidasa ranks not with Horace or Shelley, but with Sophocles, Virgil and Milton."

(source: The Discovery of India - By Jawaharlal Nehru   p 159-160).
The ancient Indians attached a great deal of importance to sound, and hence their writing, poetry or prose, had a rhythmic and musical quality. 
Vicomte de Francois Rene de Chateaubriand (1768-1848), who deeply influenced the Romantic movement in France, was an enthusiastic admirer of Shakuntala. He had lived in England as a refugee from Napoleonic France between 1793 and 1800, when Sir William Jones’ translations of Sanskrit works were published.
(source: India and World Civilization - By D. P. Singhal Pan Macmillan Limited. 1993. p 241).
E. H. Johnstone, has written about this: " The classical poets of India have a sensitiveness to variations of sound, to which the literature of other countries afford few parallels, and their delicate combination are a source of never-failing joy. Some of them, however, are inclined to attempt to match the sense with the sound in a way that is decidedly lacking in subtlety, and they have perpetrated real atrocities in the manufacture of verses with a limited number of consonants or even only one." 
(source: E. H. Johnstone's translation of 'Asvaghosa's Buddhacarita' Lahore 1936). Watch video - Brahmins in India have become a minority
Sir Monier-Williams (1819-1899) Orientalist, professor of Sanskrit at Oxford in 1860. He says about the great drama of Mrichakatika: 
"The dexterity with which the plot is arranged, the ingenuity with which the incidents are connected, the skill with which the characters are delineated and contrasted, the boldness and felicity of the diction are scarcely unworthy of our own great dramatists. Nor does the parallel fail in the management of the stage business, in minute directions to the actors and various scenic artifices. The asides an aparts, the exits and the entrances, the manner, attitude, and gait of the speakers, their tones of voice, tears, smiles, and laughter are as regularly indicated as in a modern drama."
His views of Kalidasa and the great play - Shakuntala:
"No one can read this act (4th Act), nor indeed any act of play without being struck with the raciness and elevation of its author's genius, the exuberance and glow of his fancy, his ardent love of the beautiful, his deep sympathy with nature and nature's loveliest scenes, his profound knowledge of the human heart, his delicate appreciation of its most refined feelings, his familiarity with its conflicting sentiments and emotions."
(source: Eminent Orientalists: Indian European American - Asian Educational Services. p. 155-157).
Christian Lassen (1800-1876) in his Indische Alterthumskunde says, 
“Kalidasa may be considered as the brightest star in the firmament of Hindu artificial poetry. He deserves this praise on account of the mastery with which he wields the language, and on account of the consummate tact with which he imparts to it a more simple or more artificial form, according to the requirements of the subjects treated by him, without falling into the artificial diction of later poets or over-stepping the limits of good taste; on account of the variety of his creations, his ingenious conceptions, and his happy choice of subjects; and not less on account of the complete manner in which he attains his poetical ends, the beauty of his narrative, the delicacy of his sentiment, and the fertility of his imagination.”
H. Fauche, author of Le Mahâbhârata, 10 volumes, Paris 1863-1870, says, "The Meghaduta is without a rival in the elegial literature of Europe."
Sir Monier-Williams (1819-1899) in his book, Indian Wisdom says, "It combines the majesty of Homer with the tenderness of Virgil, the luxuriance of Ovid and the depth of Shakespeare. And yet it is simple enough to suggest the old Athenian boast of beauty without extravagance."
(source: The Soul of India - By Satyavrata R Patel  p. 90).
Professor Arthur Berriedale Keith says that "The Sanskrit drama may legitimately be regarded as the highest products of Indian poetry, and as summing up in itself the final conception of literary art achieved by the very self-consious creators of Indian literature...The Brahmin, in fact, much abused as he has been in this as in other matters, was the source of the intellectual distinction of India. As he produced Indian philosophy, so by another effort of his intellect he evolved the subtle and effective form of the drama."

(source: Sanskrit Drama - By A. Berriedale Keith  Oxford 1924 and The Discovery of India by Jawaharlal Nehru p 163-164).

Horace Hayman Wilson (1786-1860) who used to be professor of Sanskrit at Oxford University, has said:

"It is impossible to conceive language so beautifully musical or so magnificently grand, as that of the verses of Kalidasa.'" 
(source:  The Discovery of India - By Jawaharlal Nehru  p 160 ).
Soviet historians, K. Antonova, G. Bongard-Levin, and G. Kotovsky, authors of A History of India, Moscow, Volume I and II 1973, refer to work of Kalidasa: 
"one of the pearls of ancient Indian literature." and as "an illustrious page of history of world's culture."
(source: A History of India - By K. Antonova, G. Bongard-Levin, and G. Kotovsky  Moscow, Volume I and II 1973 p. 169).
Commenting on Kalidasa's work Arthur Berriedale Keith has observed: "Indian criticism has ranked Meghadutta highest among Kalidasa's poems for brevity of expression, richness of content, and power to elicit sentiment, and the praise is not undeserved."
In the opinion of Arthur A. Macdonell (1854-1930), "perhaps no other Sanskrit poem manifests such strikingly deep sympathy with the physical world, keen powers of observation, and skill in depicting an Indian landscape in vivid colors."
(source: Main Currents in Indian Culture - By S. Natarajan  p. 91).
In both Sanskrit and Greek plays there is a sensitive awareness of nature and a feeling of being part of that nature. (Refer to chapter on Nature Worship).
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) the celebrated Indian poet not only propagated Kalidasa's works and expounded their meaning and philosophy but also wrote a poem in Bengali in praise of the immortal poet-dramatist.
Did you not have joy and sorrow
Hope and despair, even like ourselves,
O immortal poet? were not there always
The intrigues of a royal court, the stabbing in the back?
Did you never suffer humiliation,
Affront, distrust, injustice.
Want, hard and pitiless? Did you never pass
A sleepless night of poignant agony?
Yet above them all, unconcerned pure,
Has flowered your poem - a lotus of beauty
Opening to the sun any sign of sorrow, affliction, evil times.
Churning the sea of life you drank the poison,
The nectar that arose you gave away!
(source: Kalidasa: His Art and Culture - By Ram Gopal  p. 2).
China installs Kalidas statue in Shanghai
Shanghai now has a statue of Sanskrit poet Kalidas on one of its most important streets, something that few Indian cities can boast about. A bronze bust of the poet was un­veiled at the Shanghai Theatre Academy on a street called the ‘Shanghai theatre way’, which is being developed as the cultural and artistic hub of the eastern metropolis. Shanghai is one of the few world cities outside India, if any, to sport a statue of the great 5th century poet. The statue of Kalidas is the first to be set up. He may be the only Asian literary figure to be given this honour as the other statues will depict writers and poets from non-Asian countries, sources said.

(source: After Gandhi, China installs Kalidas statue - By Saibal Dasgupta).
Shudraka’s  " Mrichhkatika" play 

Long before Kalidasa, another famous play was produced - Shudraka's "Mrichhkatika" or Clay Cart, a tender rather artificial play, and yet with a reality which moves us and gives us a glimpse into the mind and civilization of the day. 

An English translation of Shdraka’s  “Mrichhkatika” was staged in New York in 1924. 

Mr. Joseph Wood Krutch, (1893-1970) the dramatic critic for The Nation, and author of The Measure of Man on Freedom Human Values, Survival and the Modern Temper. He wrote of the play as follows: 

“Here, if anywhere, the spectator will be able to see a genuine example of that pure art theatre of which theorists talk, and here, too, he will be led to meditate upon that real wisdom of the East which lied not in esoteric doctrine but in a tenderness far deeper and truer than that of the traditional Christianity which has been so thoroughly corrupted by the hard righteousness of Hebraism …..A play wholly artificial yet profoundly moving because it is not realistic but real….Whoever the author may have been, and whether he lived in the fourth century or the eighth, he was a good man and wise with the goodness and wisdom which comes not from the lips or the smoothly flowing pen of the moralist but from the heart. An exquisite sympathy with the fresh beauty of youth and love tempered his serenity, and he was old enough to understand that a light-hearted story of ingenious complication could be made the vehicle of tender humanity and confident goodness….Such a play can be produced only by a civilization which has reached stability; when a civilization has thought its way through all the problems it faces, it must come to rest upon something calm and naïve like this. Macbeth and Othello, however great and stirring they might be, are barbarous heroes because the passionate tumult of Shakespeare is the tumult produced by the conflict between a newly awakened sensibility and a series of ethical concepts inherited from the savage age. The realistic drama of our own time is a product of a like confusion; but when problems are settled, and when passions are reconciled with the decisions of an intellect, then form alone remains….Nowhere in our European past do we find, this side the classics, a work more completely civilized.”  

(source:  The Discovery of India - By Jawaharlal Nehru  p. 164).

Juan Mascaro (1897 - 1987) taught at Oxford University, Parameshvara College at Jaffna, the University of Barcelona, and Cambridge University. 
He was the author of The Bhagvad Gita - translated By Juan Mascaro. Penguin Classics, 1962) and he paid a rich tribute to the glory of the Sanskrit literature:
"Sanskrit literature is a great literature. We have the great songs of the Vedas, the splendor of the Upanishads, the glory of the Upanishads, the glory of the Bhagavad Gita, the vastness (100,000 verses) of the Mahabharata, the tenderness and the heroism found in the Ramayana, the wisdom of the fables and stories of India, the scientific philosophy of Sankhya, the psychological philosophy of yoga, the poetical philosophy of Vedanta, the Laws of Manu, the grammar of Panini and other scientific writings, the lyrical poetry, and dramas of Kalidasa. Sanskrit literature, on the whole, is a romantic literature interwoven with idealism and practical wisdom, and with a passionate longing for spiritual vision." 

(source: The Bhagvad Gita - translated By Juan Mascaro  Penguin Classics, 1962).
Listen to The Bhagavad Gita podcast - By Michael Scherer - americanphonic.com.
Sri Aurobindo Ghosh (1872-1950) most original philosopher of modern India. Education in England gave him a wide introduction to the culture of ancient, or mediaeval and of modern Europe. 
He wrote:
"The ancient and classical literature of the Sanskrit tongue show both in quality and in body an abundance of excellence, in their potent originality and force and beauty, in their substance and art and structure, in grandeur and justice and charm of speech, and in the heightened width of the reach of their spirit which stands very evidently in the front rank among the world's great literature." 
(source: Foundations of Indian Culture - By Shri Aurobindo Ghosh  p. 255).
Arthur Anthony Mcdonnell (1854-1930) has observed : "The Sanskrit Literature in quantity exceeds that of Greece and Rome put together."
Sir William Wilson Hunter (1840-1900) author of The Indian Empire: Its People, History and Products has observed:
"The grammar of Panini stands supreme among the grammars of the world, alike for its precision of statement and for its thorough analysis of the roots of the language and of the formative principles of words. By applying and algebraical terminology, it attains a sharp succinctness unrivaled in variety, but at times enigmatical." 
(source: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Ithaca/3440/revelation.html). 
This chapter has been featured in the The Commemorative Sanskrit Souvenir 2003 of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan -  Puthucode Kendra Kerala, India.
Also refer to Sanskrit in South India - By T.P. Sankaran Kutty Nair - The Mushikavamsa Kavya of Atula is an important contribution to Indian Sanskrit studies. Mushikavamsa is the first historical work produced in India written with a historical sense, that too, at least half a century before the compilation of Rajatarangini. Since it came from the far south of India, it was neglected successively by all Orientalists.

Lyric Poetry 

The Lyric poetry of the Hindus is the finest of its kind in the world, for the reason that the language in which it is written is the most melodious and musical on earth. 

As Horace Hyman Wilson (1786-1860) remarks, the poetry of the Hindus can never be properly appreciated by those who are ignorant of Sanskrit. To judge of the merits of Hindu poetry from translations is to judge it at its worst. 

Gita Govinda is the finest extant specimen of Hindu lyric poetry, and it is difficult to find in any language lyrics that can vie with it in melody and grace. Ralph Griffith says: “The exquisite melody of the verse can only be appreciated by those who can enjoy the original.”

Frederich von Schlegel (1772-1829) says in History of Literature p. 117: 

“Tender delicacy of feeling and elegiac love cast a halo over Indian poetry,” and “the whole is recast in the mould of harmonious softness, and is redolent of elegiac sweetness.” 

Arnold Hermann Ludwig Heeran (1760-1842) wrote: “The Hindu lyric surpassed that of the Greeks in admitting both the rhyme and blank verse." 

“Gita Govinda exhibits,” says Lord Mountstuart Elphinstone (1779-1859)  “in perfection of the luxuriant imagery and the voluptuous softness of the Hindu school.” 

Another Hindu lyric is the Ritu Sangrah, something like “Thompson’s Seasons” in the English language. Mrs. Manning says about it: “Ritu Sangrah, a lyric poem by Kalidasa, is much admired not only by the natives of India, but by almost all students of Sanskrit literature.” 

Ralph T H Griffith (1826-1906) in his translation of “Ritu Sangrah” says: “Sir William Jones speaks in rapturous terms of the beautiful and natural sketches with which it abounds,” and, after expressing his own admiration, adds, “it is much to be regretted that it is impossible to translate the whole.” 

Lyric poetry was extensively cultivated in India. Sir William Wilson Hunter (1840-1900) says: “The Brahmins displayed a marvelous activity in theological as well as in lyric poetry.” 

Special charm must attach to the lyric poetry of the Hindus, for, as Mrs. Manning remarks, “Nowhere is love expressed with greater force or pathos than in the poetry of the Hindus.” 

Megha Duta is an excellent example of purely descriptive poetry. Mrs. Manning says: “It is the most important of its kind, and is a favorite with the Europeans too.” 

Horace Hyman Wilson (1786-1860) wrote: “The language (of Megh Duta) although remarkable for the richness of its compounds, is not disfigured by their extravagance, and the order of the sentences is in general the natural one. The metre combines melody and dignity in a very extraordinary manner, and will bear an advantageous comparison with the best specimens of uniform verse in the poetry of any language, living or dead.”

(source: Hindu Superiority - By Har Bilas Sarda p. 258-260). 

Archibald Henry Sayce (1851-1940) British Orientalist  says: 

“ The Devanagri alphabet is a splendid monument of phonological accuracy, in the sciences of language.” 

(source: Indian Culture Through the Ages - Mohan Lal Vidyarthi p. 61).

Sanskrit Text Oldest Example of Printing
CHINA, November 25, 2001: The exact year in which woodblock printing was invented is still very much debated in academic circles because no artifacts or documentary records related to the earliest printing have been discovered. However, a sheet with mantras of the Dharani Sutra, in Sanskrit, printed in the early Tang and unearthed in the suburban district of Xi'an is the earliest extant printing relic. A picture of the still readable sheet is shown at below. The Dharani Sutra is the teaching of Buddha on "Longevity, the extinction of offenses, and the protection of young children.
Sanskrit had a vast influence among the nations of antiquity. In his book on Chinese Buddhism, Reverend Joseph Edkins says that the list of first and last letters in Chinese dictionaries are prepared in the third century A.D. and improved very much in the 6th century A.D. under Liang dynasty and that the Hindus came at that time to China, prepared the model of Chinese first letters, arranged them under heads of 36 consonants and instructed them on the manner of pronunciation with regard to the scientific basis of sound. In a different place, he says that probably the Tibetans and Koreans got their alphabets from the Buddhists and learnt to arrange them in the order as found in Sanskrit. From an account of Hueng Sang published in the latest book, 2500 Years of Buddhism, it is known that the Chinese traveler, on his return journey from India to China, carried with him 657 Sanskrit books on Buddhism on horse back load. This shows the influence of Sanskrit not only on the ancient Chinese culture and religion but also on the arrangement of their letters proving the depth and popularity of this rich treasure.
(source:  Ancient Indian Culture at a Glance - By Swami Tattwananda  p. 93-99). 
Refer to French version of this chapter - Le Sanscrit - By Dharma Today.
Listen to The Bhagavad Gita podcast - By Michael Scherer - americanphonic.com.

Sanskrit and Lithuanian are closely related 

Since the 19^th century, when the similarity between Lithuanian and Sanskrit was discovered, Lithuanians have taken a particular pride in their mother tongue as the oldest living Indo-European language.

It is a common belief that there is a close similarity between the Lithuanian and Sanskrit languages; Lithuanian being the European language grammatically closest to Sanskrit. It is not difficult to imagine the surprise of the scholarly world when they learned that even in their time somewhere on the Nemunas River lived a people who spoke a language as archaic in many of its forms as Sanskrit itself.

Antoine Meillet (1866 - 1936) famous French linguist said: "Sanskrit scholar could understand and be understood by a Lithuanian farmer".

Lithuanian: dievas dave dantis; dievas duos duonos

Sanskrit: devas adat datas, devas dasyati dhanas

Translated: God gave us teeth, God will give us bread

Paul Thieme, (1905 - 2001) in 1958, has compared the Lithuanian proverb: Dievas davė dantis; Dievas duos ir duonos  ‘God gave teeth, God will also give bread’ with what he (Thieme) calls an old form of Sanskrit: Devas adadā t datas; Devas dā t (or dadā t) api dhā nā s. (Actually according to the rules of Old Indic phonetics, several of the words occur in a slightly different form in a connected text in Sanskrit.)

SON:      Sanskrit sunus - Lithuanian sunus 

SHEEP:   Sanskrit avis - Lithuanian avis

SOLE:     Sanskrit padas - Lithuanian padas

MAN:     Sanskrit viras - Lithuanian vyras

SMOKE: Sanskrit dhumas - Lithuanian dumas 

These Lihuanian words have not changed their forms for the last five thousand years.

The relationship between Sanskrit and Lithuanian goes even deeper. Take, for example, the Lithuanian word 'daina' that usually is translated as 'song'. The word actually comes from an Indo-European root, meaning ‘to think, to remember, to ponder over’. This root is found in Sanskrit as dhi and dhya. The word also occurs in the Rigveda (ancient Indian sacred collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns) in the sense of ‘speech reflecting the inner thoughts of man’.  

Apart from its Indo-European background as word and term, the ‘daina’ incorporates the idea of the Sun-Goddess who was married to the Moon-God, reminiscent of goddess Surya in the Rigveda.

Incredible Indian-Lithuanian relations

Professor Lokesh Chandra has observed:

“The very mention of Lithuanian opens up an image, a vision that gives a people their identity through language. It shows how the darkness of dreams becomes the new embodied hope. My father was stimulated and strengthened in his work on the development of Hindi by the history of Lithuanian language. It has been the eternal continuity of these people; - it rustles something deep in their being. My father felt that we in India share with our distant Lithuanian brothers the silent geography of lost frontiers. Political freedom is inseparable from language.”

And the professor continues with his amazing story: “My father would relate how grandmas in the remote villages narrated folk-tales to eager grandchildren in their Lithuanian language which was despised by the Slavised nobility and punished by the Czarist regime. My father also told me how the Lithuanian daina (songs) were abandoned by the courts, but still continued to live on in the villages, faithfully preserved by the poorest people of Lithuania, guarded by the mothers of the families even during the darkest periods of Lithuania’s history.”

(source: Sanskrit and Lithuanian are closely related and Incredible Indian-Lithuanian relations).

Why Study Sanskrit?  

“Language is the distillation of hundreds, if not thousands of years of experience of a collective... So when the language disappears you're really throwing away that whole library of knowledge.’

                                                                    - Rachel Nez, Navajo speaker

Sanskrit, is earliest of the ancient languages.

There is sufficient evidence available today to say that Sanskrit is the oldest language of the world.

Among the current languages which possess a hoary antiquity like Latin or Greek, Sanskrit is the only language which has retained its pristine purity. It has maintained its structure and vocabulary even today as it was in the past.

The oldest literature of the world, the Vedas, the Puranas and the Ithihasas which relate to the Indian subcontinent, are still available in the same form as they were known from the very beginning. There are many many scholars in India who can interpret them today, much the same way great scholars of India did years ago. Such interpretation comes not by merely studying earlier known interpretations but through a steady process of assimilation of knowledge linking a variety of disciplines via Sanskrit.

Sanskrit is as modern as any language can be 

Sanskrit is very much a spoken language today. Even now, as we enter the twenty first century, Sanskrit is spoken by an increasing number of people, thankfully many of them young. Among the learned in India , it continues to be a bridge across different states where people, in spite of their own mother tongue, use it to exchange scholarly and even general information relating to the traditions of the country. The News service offered by the Government of India through television and radio continues to feature daily Sanskrit program catering to local as well as international news.

The grammar of Sanskrit has attracted scholars world over. It is very precise and upto date and remains well defined even today. Of late, several persons have expressed the opinion that Sanskrit is the best language for use with computers. The Samskritapriyah group does not subscribe to this view however.

Sanskrit is a Scientist's paradise

Sanskrit, the vocabulary of which is derived from root syllables, is ideal for coining new scientific and technological terms. The need to borrow words or special scientific terms does not arise. 

From the very beginning, scientific principles have been hidden in the verses found in the Vedas, Upanishads and the great epics of India . Concepts and principles seen in present day mathematics and astronomy, are all hidden in the compositions and treatises of many early scholars of the country. Some of these principles and concepts will be shown in the information section that will accompany the lessons.   
Sanskrit, a language for Humanity

Sanskrit is a language for humanity and not merely a means for communication within a society. The oldest surviving literature of the world, viz. the Vedas, encompass knowledge in virtually every sphere of human activity. The fact that many profound principles relating to human existence were given expression through Sanskrit, continue to amaze those who study Sanskrit. A Sanskrit Scholar understands the world better than most others. 

Massive, yet precise 

One can learn Sanskrit purely for the sake of the great epics of India . The Ramayana has 24,000 verses fully in metre and the Mahabharata qualifies as the world's largest epic with 100,000 verses. The Mahabharata says, "what is here may be elsewhere, what is not here is nowhere." The precision with which the verses convey information on so many different aspects of life in a society, is a factor one must reckon as the ultimate in composition.

(source: Why Study Sanskrit?).

Learn Sanskrit in  London

In the heart of London , a British school has made Sanskrit compulsory subject for its junior division because it helps students grasp math, science and other languages better.
“This is the most perfect and logical language in the world, the only one that is not named after the people who speak it.  Indeed the word itself means ‘perfected language.” – Warwick Jessup, Head, Head, Sanskrit department
“The Devnagri script and spoken Sanskrit are two of the best ways for a child to overcome stiffness of fingers and the tongue,” says Moss.  “Today’s European languages do not use many parts of the tongue and mouth while speaking or many finger movements while writing, whereas Sanskrit helps immensely to develop cerebral dexterity through its phonetics.”

(source: London School Makes Sanskrit Compulsory - indianrealist.wordpress.com).

Conclusion:

Francois Gautier, correspondent in South Asia of Le Figaro, France's largest circulated newspaper says:

"Sanskrit is the mother of all languages, and it could become  the unifying language of India, apart from English, which is  spoken only,  by  a  tiny minority.  "Sanskrit ought still  to  have  a future  as the language of the learned and it will not be a  good day  for  India  when the ancient tongues cease  entirely  to  be written  or  spoken",  admonished 50 years  ago  Sri Aurobindo, India's great Sage and Seer.
A  dead language, you say! Impossible to revive?  But that's what they  argued  about Hebrew. And did not the Jewish  people,  when they  got  back their land in 1948, revive their "dead" language, so  that  it is spoken today by all Jewish people and has  become alive  again? The same thing ought to be done with Sanskrit.  Let the  scholars  begin  now  to revive and modernize  the  Sanskrit language,  it  would be  a  sure sign  of  the  dawning  of  the Renaissance of India. In a few years it should be taught  as  the second  language  in  schools throughout the  country,  with  the regional  language as the first and English as  the  third.  Then will India again have its own unifying language."
(source: http://www.pragna.org/Iss02412.html).
Sanskrit has always inspired the hearts, mind and souls of wise people. The German scholar Max Muller, who did more than anyone to introduce Sanskrit to the West in the latter part of the 19th century, contended that without a knowledge of the language (Sanskrit), literature, art, religion and philosophy of India, a liberal education could hardly be complete - India being the intellectual and spiritual ancestor of the race, historically and through Sanskrit. Max Muller also pointed out that Sanskrit provides perfect examples of the unity and foundation it offers to the Celtic, Teutonic, Slavonic, Germanic and Anglo-Saxon languages, not to mention its influence on Asian languages. The transmission of Buddhism to Asia can be attributed largely to the appeal to Sanskrit. Sanskrit, the only language that was ever used over the whole of India and the one best expressive of her spirit and richness, is today on the way to extinction, its study discouraged in both North and South India.

Even in translation the works of Sanskrit evoked the supreme admiration of Western poets and philosophers like Emerson, Whitman, Thoreau, Melville, Goethe, Schlegel and Schopenhauer.
Sri Aurbindo, the sage from Pondicherry has said: 
"Sanskrit ought still to have a future as a language of the learned and it will not be a good day for India when the ancient tongue, ceases entirely to be written or spoken."
 
The fact is that Sanskrit is more deeply interwoven into the fabric of the collective world consciousness than anyone perhaps knows. After many thousands of years, Sanskrit still lives with a vitality that can breathe life, restore unity and inspire peace on our tired and troubled planet. It is a sacred gift, an opportunity. The future could be very bright.
Articles:

Sanskrit: Shelving a Heritage
From Macaulay to MTV  

Marxism infested secularity of the Indian State has imposed the principle of separation of State from the Church in the European and Soviet manner. Indian Secularism has taken the form of turning away from one’s own heritage and disregarding the spiritual and ethical commitments that ancient and medieval vehicles of all religions and cultures symbolize. 

India alone excels in belittling its classical heritage as it has unfortunately codified it as its ‘Hindu past.’

As a result, Sanskrit is the biggest casualty under secularist milieu. Practically speaking, secularism now means wallowing in easy consumerism of the day and neglecting religious and cultural issues. Hence the disruptive and not additive protests by secularists.  

Guilt for the ‘Classical’ Heritage   India alone excels in belittling its classical heritage as it has unfortunately codified it as its ‘Hindu past.’

This classification began in the colonial period when non-European cultures were primarily seen in terms of religious denominations of the non-Christian colored races. They were further divided into two broad categories, primitive (African, Australian and American aborginies) and static (Asia and China).  

The problem of giving Sanskrit its due place in Indian education is therefore, not just a matter of giving concession to a particular language. It is the task of using five thousand years of all the textual wealth produced in this subcontinent. And all who believe that these texts, the bulk being in Sanskrit, are not required for maintenance of cultural identity have little knowledge of civilizational rise and decline in history.  

Arrogance of the Indian Anglophile  

Indifference to Sanskrit and other classical languages is nurtured in no small measure by Indian Anglophils who live under the illusion that availability of ancient texts in English translations is sufficient for understanding the ancient ways of thought and feeling. For them there is no greater waste of time than learning ancient languages. Polyglossists are no longer admired in Indian academia. Indian universities do not demand a first hand knowledge of Sanskrit or prakrits from their doctoral researchers in history or philosophy. 

It is symptomatic of the times that a leading university like the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) did not have a Sanskrit department till 2002 although it boasted having eminent historians on its faculty. 

The Indian Anglophones admire Orientalists but forget that the Orientalist enterprise was not to inform the Indian readers but to interpret a colonized culture for proswlytization and governance. They also forget that no culture can do things for another culture; one has to seek meaning in one’s own past by one’s own effort. For those Anglophils that may doubt this even after Edward Said’s work, one may remind them of T S Eliot’s dictum that ancient texts have to be studied and translated not only by each culture but also by each generation of culture. So what great-grandfather Max Muller did for Europeans needs to be done by Indians for themselves today.

(source: India: A Cultural Decline or Revival? - By Bharat Gupta  p 25 - 30). Refer to chapters on First Indologists, Glimpses XXII and Glimpses XXI and European Imperialism.

First Chinese Sanskrit Pop Singer

Sa Dingding, who won the BBC Radio 3 Award for World Music in the Asia Pacific category in 2008, is being promoted as the first Chinese Sanskrit Pop Singer by China 's official media. She is being promoted by the provincial government of Tibet and if she garners enough attention she might sing at the inauguration of the May 2010 Shanghai World Expo, which is expected to draw the top business firms

She is the first pop singer who sings in Sanskrit. She is also famous for her ethnic clothes and Tibetan Buddhist style of music. Although she is famous for her ethnic characteristics clothing and Tibetan Buddhist music, she is not a Tibetan girl. Her parents' ancestral home is Shandong province and her grandmother's ancestral home is Inner Mongolia .

Only people who can endure loneliness can be successful. As a musician, she dropped fame and learned Sanskrit by herself. She visited all the Chinese cultural sites to find inspiration and to derive affluent nutrition for her music. Her musical inspirations all come from Chinese civilization and culture. 

Apparently, the local government is pushing her to give up song writing and singing in languages other than Sanskrit so she can be presented to the world as a symbol of China 's rich cultural heritage. "It is possible China may be trying to show that Sanskrit is part of its cultural heritage. What better way to draw world attention than to get a lovely voice to sing pop?," a Shanghai based expert on Chinese culture told TNN.

(source: First Chinese Sanskrit Pop Singer - hinduismtoday.com).

Secular means anti-Indian

The Washoe County Commission in the US observed Sanskrit Day on January 12 and organised a two-day seminar to mark the occasion. What could be more ironical than knowing that a Sanskrit seminar was held on American soil while the mother of most Indian languages, the dev bhasha (language of gods), is ignored in its own country.

Sanskrit, German scholar Max Müller had observed, was the greatest language of the world. Mahatma Gandhi had said that without the knowledge of Sanskrit, nobody could become a truly learned man. Only in India could such a language take shape and flourish. Unfortunately, Government does not realise what a national treasure this language is; this reminds one of the Sanskrit saying which means "a monkey cannot value the gift of a necklace of pearls".  

This cannot be a result of ignorance. It must be a part of the larger conspiracy to eliminate Indian languages. Our present-day rulers are doing with impunity what Lord Macaulay could only partly achieve through his policies in the 19th century. His system of education has now got a new name -- 'secular education'. It seems it is now a sin to teach students the glory of ancient India .

Everything non-Indian, even anti-Indian, is being taught in classroom in order to give the curriculum a 'secular' look. If our textbooks praise the Vedic period, the descendants of Lord Macaulay raise a hue and cry. The authors of the textbooks would rather heap praise on the Mughal period in order to add a 'secular' colour to the books. 

If the 'secularists' find some tatsam (undistorted) words in Hindi textbooks, they accuse it is 'saffronisation' of Hindi. In order to make the Hindi books 'secular', the language has to be replete with words of Arabic and Persian origin. 

The mere mention of the word Ganesh, the lord of wisdom, in a textbook of a south Indian State , was so unbearable for the self-styled champions of secularism in the country that the chapter had to be replaced by one on an animal. But an entire opening chapter, "Jisu mahan" (Jesus, the great), of a Government textbook in a North-Eastern State invites no resentment from any quarter. 

(source: Secular means anti-Indian - By Indulata Das  Edit page dailypioneer Jan 22, 2008).

Why Is The West Crazy About A ‘Dead’ Language?
Ajit Kumar Jha finds some of the biggest stars in academia teach Sanskrit 
http://www.indian-express.com/flair/20010610/fla-1.shtml
Imagine going to Varanasi to study the tragedies of the Greek playwright Sophocles. Ludicrous? It seemed equally foolish to me when on my way to California some years ago, I met the daughter of a Marxist political economist from Calcutta, who was headed for Chicago, to pursue her doctoral degree in Sanskrit. The double irony of the situation befuddled me: even the Marxists were turning over-zealous to revive Sanskrit, and strangely one had to go to the West to do so!
Yet the irony has been in place for over two centuries now. Even as we neglect our rich cultural heritage, it is the West that has revived interest in the East. Notwithstanding Edward Said’s powerful attack on the “Eurocentric” epistemology of Orientalism, and political correctness apart, half a century after Independence, it is actually the Occident that is busy rediscovering the genius of the Orient.
Ever since 1786, when Sir William Jones, in a paper presented to the Royal Asiatic Society, in Calcutta, said, "the wonderful structure" of the Sanskrit language, is "more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either," the West has been busy learning from Sanskrit.
This Western passion for the oriental classics is not only limited to Peter Brook’s brilliant dramatic rendering of the Sanskrit epic, Mahabharata, or to the more recent attempt by Lee Siegel to write a sensuously funny modern day Kamasutra in a fictionalised form, entitled Love in a Dead Language. There is a much more systematic tradition of Sanskrit learning of over two centuries. Not surprisingly to a question about why should one study Sanskrit today, and whether it has any future, Professor Sheldon Pollock of the University of Chicago had the following answer: "It is indicative of the appalling quality of the public discourse on Sanskrit in India today that you even ask this question."
While we battle each other on the streets on whether Sanskrit should be revived in the school curricula or not, top notch western universities have been busy churning one esoteric dissertation after another on Panini’s Ashtadhyay and comparing Bhartihari’s and Patanjali’s grammatical logic.
There are essentially two traditions of teaching Sanskrit in the West today: one scholastic, as a classical subject taught in the universities; the other as a religious discourse in the various temples being built by the cash rich Indian diaspora. The scholastic tradition, which began a couple of centuries ago continues till today. The temple tradition is a post-1965 phenomena, the year President Lyndon Johnson liberalised immigration quotas. Today, the children of the first wave of professional Indian immigrants to the US—mainly doctors and engineers—have entered the university in large numbers. It is these alienated kids, desperate to discover their historical roots and cultural heritage, who are studying Sanskrit with a passion.
The British tradition
The first chair in Sanskrit in England, the Boden Chair, was set up at Oxford in 1831. Later chairs were founded in University College, London, Edinburgh, and Cambridge. The Boden chair continues till today in addition to two other faculty positions. Professor Richard Gombrich, the present occupant of the chair, is known worldwide for his extraordinary work on Theravada Buddhism.
According to Gombrich: "The reasons for studying Sanskrit today are the same as they ever were: that the vast array of Sanskrit texts preserves for us a valuable part of the cultural heritage of mankind, including much beautiful literature and many interesting, even fascinating, ideas."
Today Oxford offers three kinds of degrees in Sanskrit: the three-year BA, the two-year M.Phil in classical Indian religion, for which Sanskrit is taught intensively, and the D Phil. The majority of the undergraduates are usually British students, while the research students are mostly from overseas, including a few Buddhist monks and nuns from South-East Asia.
In an attempt to popularise Sanskrit, Gombrich, has become associated with a new publishing venture. In the style of the Loeb classical library of Latin and Greek, the series will produce readable translations of Sanskrit literary texts printed alongside the originals.
The chair of Sanskrit in Edinburgh was established by the endowment of John Muir. The university of Edinburgh offers either a full honours course in Sanskrit or a joint honours course with Latin, Greek or Linguistics. Unfortunately, the interest in Sanskrit in Britain arose largely through colonial involvement. This, Dr John Brockington, who today teaches Sanskrit in Edinburgh feels, "has been at once the strength and the weakness of Sanskrit studies in Britain". The end of British rule in 1947 dampened the interest in Sanskrit, for instance, the Edinburgh chair was disestablished in 1949.
The American tradition
The Sanskrit craze has, however, caught up in the US. Unlike Britain, and unlike its own past, it is totally demand driven.
But first, some background. The teaching of Sanskrit first began at Yale university under professor Salisbury in the late 19th century. His student William Dwight Whitney became the pioneer in the development of American Sanskrit studies. This soon spread to Harvard, Berkeley, Chicago, Michigan, Pennsylvania and other campuses.
Today several American campuses offer Sanskrit along with modern Indian languages such as Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi and Tamil. Student unions sit on hunger strikes demanding more and more departments. It has happened at the University of Texas at Austin and in various California campuses.
Although Sanskrit began to be taught at the University of Michigan, as early as the 1890s as part of Oriental languages, today, it is attracting large undergraduate crowds. Until 1985, it was primarily a graduate subject attracting mainly foreign students. Not any more. Most second generation Indo-American kids majoring in engineering, medicine, and business studies read Sanskrit not as a specialised branch but to satisfy the four-term foreign language requirement.
The University of Chicago attracts almost 30 or more undergraduate students every year to study Sanskrit. There are five faculty members teaching Sanskrit. Ditto at Harvard University which has a full fledged department of Sanskrit. In the other US universities it is a part of the South Asian departments and very popular among the Indo-American kids.
However, the interest in Sanskrit persists even in those places where there is no demand. The last conference of the International Association of Sanskrit studies held at Turin, in Italy, according to Brockington was, an eye-opener. There were a number of Sanskrit scholars from the Eastern European countries, including Poland, Hungary, Croatia, Bulgaria, and Russia. Unlike the US, most of these countries hardly have much of an NRI population. They hardly have any temples. No community funding, no involvement of local populations. Yet, the zeal for Sanskrit continues.
While we in India today consider Sanskrit a dead language, the Westerners consider it as simply a fascinating language, a language in which the genius of the human civilization was perfected to its fullest.

While we battle each other on the streets on whether Sanskrit should be revived in the school curricula or not, top notch western universities have been busy churning one esoteric dissertation after another on Panini’s Ashtadhyay and comparing Bhartihari’s and Patanjali’s grammatical logic. 

The wonderful structure of Sanskrit is better than Latin.

Reviving Sanskrit Teaching
By Mohan Gupta
http://www.newsindia-times.com/20010622/viewpoint01.htm

The British tried to enforce cultural slavery on Bhartiyas by gradually diminishing the importance of Sanskrit study. The condition steadily deteriorated even after our independence and Sanskrit gradually effaced from the syllabus of studies. This neglect of Sanskrit is to such an extent that many people started saying that Sanskrit is a dead language. Believing what the Bharatiya people say, most of the world also started treating Sanskrit as a dead language. Attempts are also being made by pseudo-secularists to eliminate residual Sanskrit in all its forms not only from the curriculum of studies in Bharat but also from our lives. During British colonial rule Macaulay, who was entrusted by the British government to formulate a plan for education in Bharat, and who was himself ignorant of the values of Sanskrit, had the cheek to say, “ A single shelf of a good European library is worth all the native literature of Bharat and Arabia.” He wanted to introduce an education system that would be effective to Europeanize Bharat — in morals, in intellect, in taste, in opinions” so that Bharatiya shall remain Bharatiya “only in blood and color, but British in their behavior and thinking.” The modern policy makers of education in Bharat are no thing but shameless offspring of Macaulay and are apish imitators of his policy. So we find all around us that English medium schools are mushrooming everywhere and the younger generations are being nurtured in an atmosphere of a peculiarly mixed up obnoxious culture.

Witness the arduous travails of the descendants of Macaulay together with the Left intelligentsia bearing fruit — a hell lot of schools and colleges enriching the future generation of Bharat with complete details the facts and foibles of British royalty and relieving them of the burden of bulky Puranas or encumbrance of the likes of Kalidasa, Tulsidas, Tukaram, Kabir and many other Bharatiya saints. This way they truly honor Macaulay’s vow.

The greatest adversaries of the attempt to “Bharatiyakaran and spiritualised education” by Murli Manohar Joshi, are the descendants of these “Brown Sahibs”, the secular politicians, the journalists, the top bureaucrats, in fact the whole westernized cream of Bharat. And what is even more paradoxical is that most of them are Hindus. It is they who upon getting independence, have denied Bharat its true identity and borrowed blindly from the British education system, without trying to adapt it to the unique Bharatiya mentality and psychology; and it is they who are refusing to accept “an Bharatiyakaran, nationalization and spiritualization” of Bharat’s education system, which is totally western-oriented. And what Bharat is getting from this education is a youth, which apes the west.

We have reached a stage where, in the name of secularism, a determined effort is made to denigrate India’s culture and national heritage and even to decry Sanskrit as Hindu and Brahminical language. Secularism is equated with anti-Hinduism; ergo, the teaching of Sanskrit would be tantamount to undermining secularism. Consider what The Hindu newspaper said on this subject: “The unique role claimed for Sanskrit in fostering cultural unity would be contested sharply not only in the context of the Bharatiya historical experience but also in terms of deeply divided caste perceptions which would reject Sanskrit because of its perceived association with Brahmanical hegemony”. What the writer says, in sum means, is that Sanskrit should be relegated to the ditch presumably along with the Vedas, Upanishads, Puranas, Aranyakas, not to mention the writings of Kalidasa and Bhavabhuti to attain secular nirvana. According to pseudo- secular people, the right place for our culture apparently is the dustbin.

As Sanskrit has not got its rightful place in Bharat, and many non-Hindi speaking states are not prepared to accept Hindi as the national language of Bharat, English language is having a sway on whole of Bharat. English is being taught from grade I in some states of Bharat like West Bengal, Punjab, Maharashtra and many more. If Sanskrit is not to be taught in schools, what else should be taught in its stead to prove our secularism: Arabic? Chinese? And if Bharatiya students, studying in Bharat, are not to be taught the Vedas and the Upanishads on grounds that would be “communal” where are they to learn of their own heritage: at Harvard? in Chicago? Bonn where there are excellent centers of Sanskrit learning?

Sanskrit is the one common national inheritance of Bharat. The south and the north, the west and the east have equally contributed to it. Sanskrit belongs to all Bhartiyas. No part of Bharat can claim it as its exclusive possession. All the three major Hindu philosophic concepts were formulated in Sanskrit by ‘southern’ - Madhva (dvaita), Sankara (advaita) and Ramanuja (vishishtadvaita).

The first thing that Bharatiya children should be taught is the greatness of their own culture. They should learn to revere the Vedas, they should be taught the genius of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, they should be told that in this country everything has been done, that it was an unsurpassed civilisation, when the west was still mumbling its first words, the Bharatiya civilisation reached heights, which have been since unsurpassed civilization. They should be taught early that Bharat’s greatness is her spirituality, her worldwide wisdom. Bharat’s Dharma, her eternal quest for truth, should be drilled in the child from an early age. And from this firm base, everything then can be taught - from the most modern forms of mathematics, to the latest scientific technologies.

Sanskrit is not only the richest and most scientific language of the world. It is the highest repository of our Shastras — the Shruti, the Smriti, Puranas, Ramayana, Mahabharata etc. The wisdom of age-old civilization and culture of Bharat has been enshrined in Sanskrit and it establishes proper discipline in the life and elevates man to divine order. Sanskrit is eminently the storehouse of all the effulgent truths of our long enduring civilization.

Sir Monier-William made a lengthy and learned introduction to his monumental work: Sanskrit-English Dictionary. In his introduction he wrote, “By Sanskrit is meant the learned language of India - the language of its cultured inhabitants, the language of its religion, its literature and science - not by any means a dead language, but one still spoken and written by educated men by all parts of the country, from Kashmir to Cape Comorin, from Bombay to Calcutta and Madras” Upanishads are regarded as the highest form of human intellect and discipline by the best thinkers of the world. If education aims to build up the character of students and to impart highest intellect to them, can there be any better language than Sanskrit to teach students.

In a landmark judgment delivered in October 1994 the Supreme Court of Bharat held that without learning Sanskrit it was not possible to decipher Bharatiya philosophy, culture and heritage. All the classics such as Vedas, Puranas and Upanishads, and the most enlightening literature of Kalidasa, Bhavabhuti, Banbhatta, Dandi etc. were in Sanskrit. The teachings of Sankracharya, Ramanuja, Madhvacharya, Nimbarka and Vallabhacharya would not have been possible without this language, said the judges of the apex court, laying special emphasis on the historical relevance of this ancient language.

Haunted by the ghost of secularism, many of our politicians are raising slogans against Sanskrit. But the learned judges of the Supreme Court, in their landmark judgment, have exploded the bogey of secularism and said in their verdict - “Secularism is neither anti-god, nor pro-god as it treats alike the devout, the agnostic and the atheist. We entertain no doubt in our minds that teaching Sanskrit alone as an elective subject can in no way be regarded as against secularism.”

The rich treasures and high potentialities or capabilities of Sanskrit to cope with any situation need hardly be emphasized. This apart, it exerted a great unifying force on the entire subcontinent of Bharat over a very long period. It was Jawaharlal Nehru, who said, “Though the country was split up in the past into various political entities, the basic language Sanskrit and the thought it represented continued to keep and preserve Bharat as a whole.”

Sardar K.M. Panikkar pointed out, “It is one common inheritance of Bharat. The unity of Bharat will collapse if it breaks away from Sanskrit and the Sanskritic traditions.” Dr. Rajendra Prasad said, “Sanskrit provided perhaps the most important focal point from which emanated cultural and political unity.” K.M. Munshi aptly pointed out that “without Sanskrit Bharat would be nothing but a bundle of linguistic groups.”

Shrimat Upendramohan, founder of Shastra Dharma Prachar Sabha, in his book “Hindu Glory” had written, “ The Sanskrit language is a marvel of marvels, an epitome of the people’s genius, a picture of people’s character, absolutely unique as a reflection of the perfect uniquity of the people of this land, of its social structure and of its Dharma.  The vastness of the language, the copiousness of its lexicons, its fluidity or the capacity to embrace the existent and the non- existent equally marks out the Sanskrit language as the language of languages, the language of the Gods (Deva Bhasa), the language of mere mortals, with their restricted notions, limited wants and closed outlook.” He had also lashed out strongly when a move was made to dethrone Sanskrit

from its glory and to deprive it of the status of a compulsory subject up to matriculation as early as in 1936. Protesting strongly against this move, he made inflammatory arguments in his booklet - “Sanskrit Animus Begotten of Sin” - to prove that the: “The real objection to Sanskrit is that it is the greatest enemy of sin; that you can be brilliant master of Mathematics, Science, English, History etc. and yet be as sinful as your heart may desire. But Sanskrit with its inexorable Law of Karma, with its Hell and places of torment for sinners, who wish to live in the present and forget the future, who try to lull themselves in the belief that their own vicious Karma will not pursue them relentlessly in after-life, who hug to their fond bosom the disgraceful delusion that their sins will not be visited on their sinful heads.” He could see with his Divya Drishti (Divine Foresight) that Sanskrit was the sine-qua-non for Bharat’s life and culture and for the pursuit of her noble traditions.

Almost all the seats of power and authority as well as the commoners in Bharat are getting involved in corruption and crimes of all sorts. The police officers, highly placed administrators, the ministers and even the judges are reportedly involved in various crime and corruptions. What is the root cause behind this all-pervading corruption? Is it poverty? Surely not! It might be affluence, but surely not poverty. The charges are overwhelmingly against those who belong to the affluent and powerful sections of society. The financial scams that are sucking the country dry are far beyond the reach of the poor.

The Hindus as it was acclaimed by Col. Sleema, “never told a lie to save their reputation, property or even life.” The question that presents itself how such a deep-rooted faith, protecting the Bhartiyas through millenniums could die so fast almost suddenly, within a span of about fifty years after independence. The answer lies in English language and western education. The present education curricula in Bharat are un-Bharatiya, colonial, unrelated to our ground realities and needs, totally soul-less and devoid of ethical values. The colonial Macaulay system has produced Bhartiyas of slavish mentality. Self esteem and national pride which have been prevalent in Bharat since time immemorial, has been destroyed by the English education. It is because of British education system and worthy education ministers of Bharat that Bharat has the largest number of illiterates and will remain so as long as Macaulayites are at the helm of Bharatiya education affairs.

Macaulay had very little regard for Hindu culture, religion and education. The other major harmful effect of English education is that the pedophile people of western world rush to India for finding young boys and girls for their sexual pleasures as due to English language, pedophile people find the things much easy to manage in Bharat. They find their preys quite easy due to prevalent English language in Bharat.

Sayeed Naqwi wrote a few years back in The illustrated Weekly of India, “May be if Sanskrit had been designated the official language of the country there would have been none of the rabid opposition to it as there is to Hindi, the country would have a unifying language and may be a national soul.” The Commission headed by Radha Krishan and Kathori had strongly recommended the teaching of Sanskrit language in whole of Bharat. Sanskrit, which en- captures in it the eternal verities and soul entrancing truth and is rich with effulgent flow of knowledge and wisdom, is the greatest builder of character. So, in these dark days of corruption and rampant crime, revival of Sanskrit is absolutely necessary.

It is stupid to argue that Sanskrit - the most scientific language evolved by man - could not have become the national link language because everyone would have to learn it. Only two percent of Jews could speak Hebrew when Israel was born. Now everyone, literally everyone, reads and write Hebrew. This is how nations are made great. As a people, we have denied ourselves a common Bharatiya language and have therefore lost our moorings and spirit. Till Bhartiyas quit their slavish mentality, they will not get respect anywhere in the world.

Let it be said in loud and clear terms: Present-day education is largely barren and soul- less. It calls to heaven for correction, and secularists are not the ones to fill in the lacunae. Those of us who are contemptuous of our past cannot be trusted to make amends for the future.

As regards teaching of Sanskrit which is a classical, not Hindu language, the point may be made that it will be hard to accommodate it within the three language formula, but can’t a provision be made that instead of Hindi or English, students may be encouraged to learn Sanskrit which is the gateway to all our ancient writings? “Sanskrit ought still to have a future as the language of the learned and it will not be a good day for Bharat when the ancient tongues cease entirely to be written or spoken,” admonished 50 years ago Sri Aurobindo, Bharat’s great Sage and Seer. Let the scholars begin now to revive and modernize the Sanskrit language, it would be a sure sign of the dawning of the Renaissance of Bharat.

For maintaining the unity of Bharat and for finding its soul, Sanskrit must be made a compulsory subject from class III to X all over Bharat. There should not be any Bharatiya in the whole world, who either does not know Sanskrit or Hindi. It may indeed be said that one who knows Sanskrit is a better Bharatiya for he is in position to appreciate what every part of Bharat has contributed to it. Through Sanskrit we get something added to us from every part of Bharat. Knowledge of Sanskrit, however imperfect is a necessity and not a luxury.

Sanskrit should be declared the national language and a vigorous program put in place to explore its tremendous riches.

If human resources development minister Murli Manohar Joshi has his way, Sanskrit will become a compulsory language till the 12th standard. Joshi an ardent votary of Sanskrit has said, “We are discussing the possibility with the National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT) and the Central Board of Education.”

Joshi has been talking of restoring the past glory of Sanskrit ever since he took charge of the human resources development ministry and his statement came before an International Conference on the subject. Joshi said that some states has already given Sanskrit the attention it deserved. He claimed that Haryana had made the language compulsory till the 12th grade, but said some states have ignored it. “There are states like Rajasthan which are interested in promoting Sanskrit and others like Kerala and West Bengal which have totally sidelined the language,” he said.

At present, Sanskrit is not part of three-language formula adopted by the government since the 1960s. Schools usually teach the subject between class VI and class VIII. From the 9th standard, students are given the option of choosing between Hindi and Sanskrit.

However, it will not be easy to push through Sanskrit in higher classes. “According to the policy document, Sanskrit is not part of the three -language formula,” said Arjun Dev, a former NCERT faculty member.

Joshi said it was now “well established that Sanskrit is the most highly acclaimed international language.” But, unfortunately, some Marxist academics were dismissive about the subject, he said, when pointed out that a section of teachers in schools and universities saw no glory in popularizing a subject that has no functional value.

Sanskrit is not only one of the most magnificent and precious heritages of our country, it stands absolutely on its own merit as the greatest language of the world. In fact, it is the most perfect literary instrument developed by the human mind and it is amazingly rich, efflorescent, resourceful and capable of expressing any idea strongly, clearly and precisely.

Haunted by the ghost of secularism, many of our political and intellectual leaders dither to accord the rightful importance that Sanskrit deserves for its much wider use in every field. To be precise, Sanskrit, which is one of the greatest heritages of all Bhartiyas alike, does not claim to be the language of any particular religious group. It is common property of all Bhartiyas.

In a landmark judgment the supreme court of Bharat declared in 1994 that, “Sanskrit occupies a unique position as the mother of all Aryan languages and its pursuit is absolutely necessary for nurturing our cultural heritage.” Exploding the bogey of secularism, which was raised against the introduction of Sanskrit studies, the learned judges appropriately said, “Secularism is neither anti-god or pro-god, as it treats alike the devout, the agnostic and the atheist. We entertain no doubts in our minds that teaching of Sanskrit alone as an elective subject can in no way be regarded as against secularism.”

The strongest argument for retaining and promoting Sanskrit studies, however, is the indisputable fact that it carries with it a dignified sense of values, the eternal verities and soul entrancing truths and the highest wisdom, which are the greatest builders of character. All out revival and propagation of Sanskrit is, therefore absolutely necessary to keep in check the cankers of moral degeneration. As it is one of the most precious treasures and the common inheritance of all Bhartiyas, it is the duty of all Bhartiyas to protect, preserve and propagate Sanskrit and to re - establish it in its pristine glory.

Podium: Sanskrit in today's world
By Dr V. R. Panchamukhi
http://www.pragna.org/Iss03303.html
The fact that the Sanskrit language, the rules of its grammar and the shabdabodh are of great utility in the development of computer language has been acknowledged by many computer experts in USA and Europe.  Computer experts such as Dr Riq Briggs, Dr Vyas Housten and Dr David Lavin have written extensively bringing out the usefulness of the Sanskrit language in developing computer software. There are also many Indian experts and institutions, like the CDAC, which have been researching this subject of the use of Sanskrit in developing computer software. We can go to the extent of putting out a statement that if you want to learn a computer language then learn the Sanskrit language. However, this field has not received as much extensive support and development as it deserves.
The usefulness of Sanskrit literature for modern times can be demonstrated in two ways. Firstly, by unravelling the basic knowledge and wisdom that is contained in Sanskrit literature to the world, and by working out new theories and paradigms of knowledge that can be built on the basis of the principles laid down in Sanskrit literature.
Even though the knowledge of Ayurveda forms part of Sanskrit literature, there have not been many initiatives to demonstrate its validity to the modern world through modern means of validation and communication. The schism that exists between the traditional Ayurveda and the modern world, is responsible for the absence of pro-active initiatives for safeguarding the advantages of indigenous knowledge. The Ayurvedic world should establish R&D centres, adopt the modern approach of validation, pilot testing, etc. and complete the paper work for patenting their unique formulations.
For this purpose the institutional facilitation for preparing the traditional world to interact with the modern world and also facilitating patent registration, pilot testing and commercialisation need to be strengthened.
In order to eliminate the negative attitude towards Sanskrit from our midst, we must remove the fear that Sanskrit is a difficult language. In this context, the commendable work being done by a voluntary organisation called Sanskrit Bharati to conduct Sanskrit conversation classes deserves special mention. Such programmes should be conducted on an extensive basis in different parts of the country.
Here are five ways for bringing Sanskrit to the centre-stage of our cultural and intellectual pursuits.  We should :
1. Encourage basic research on the linkages that exist between Sanskrit and science and launch innovative activities to bridge the gap between Sanskrit and the Modern World.
2. Encourage research and debate the application of Sanskrit in the development of computer software for language processing.
3. Produce documentaries and TV serials in simple Sanskrit for telecast.
4. Set up computer based networking among Sanskrit institutions and Sanskrit manuscript libraries for improving the communications among Sanskrit scholars and researchers. The Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeeth, Tirupati, proposes to launch a SANSK-NET Software for this purpose.
5. Finally, we should change the teaching methodology and launch innovative schemes for teaching people Sanskrit conversation.
(Excerpt from a broadcast talk by Dr V. R. Panchamukhi, Chancellor of the Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeeth, Tirupati, courtesy The Hindustan Times, March 13, 1999) 

Some of the most forward-looking engineering students in India will soon be learning the ancient language of Sanskrit. The decision by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Delhi to offer science courses based on Sanskrit teachings. 
Ancient Indians are credited with having made amazing discoveries in astronomy, architecture, medicine and other fields. They had a unique method of calculation, which is now called Vedic Mathematics. (For more refer to chapter on Hindu Culture).
Most of the information of that age was recorded in Sanskrit -- a language that hasn't been widely used in a thousand years.
Our notion of science comes from (the) West, in the same way that our notion of education, politics, literature, et cetera, come from the West," said Wagish Shukla, a mathematics professor at IIT, Delhi, who is also a Sanskrit scholar. 
"We have become an intellectual colony of the West under amnesia, regarding the knowledge society we were.
"The problem today is that inputs from Sanskrit are disenfranchised from our education. For instance, when a student wants to understand a particular issue, he or she is debarred from finding out what Vedanta or Nyaya or Mimamsa (ancient Indian knowledge bases) has to say about it."
(source: wired.com).
Indians in Israel-led study on Sanskrit poetry
Jerusalem: Two Indian experts are part of an ambitious Israel-led project to chart the literary evolution of two millennia of Sanskrit poetry, or 'kavya'.

"Since the discovery of Indian poetry by Western scholars in the 18th century, several histories have been written, but the story of Sanskrit's poetic evolution remains largely untold," said H.V. Nagaraja Rao of the International Sanskrit Research Centre at Mysore University. 
"We have only a very rudimentary idea of major thematic shifts and stylistic breakthroughs of the 'mahakavya' tradition that held sway in the golden era of Indian literature between the first and 12th centuries -- epitomised in the works of the famous fourth century Indian poet and playwright Kalidasa," Rao told IANS.

"Our aim is to map the crucial social milieu of historic moments when innovative literary fashions were created, or when poets deviated from their predecessors to break new paths in 'kavya'," he said.

Rao is a Sanskrit grammar expert and is currently a research fellow at the Hebrew University's Institute for Advanced Studies in Jerusalem. Rao is one of the 14 renowned Sanskrit scholars taking issue with the notion that 'kavya' poetic forms did not change through the centuries.

(source: Indians in Israel-led study on Sanskrit poetry - newindpress.com).

Meet Pandit Hussain Shastri, model of secular India In Love With Sanskrit

Pandit Syed Hussain Shastri is a Sanskrit scholar who has lived Sanskrit all his life. Pandit and Shastri are not secular badges to his name. They are now an integral part of his name - earned after years of dedicated scholarship.
In Mirzaganj village in Malihabad people know him as 'Pandit Syed Hussain Shastri' and address him as Shastriji. He had decided to learn Sanskrit because his father wished it. He said: "Once I started learning it in childhood, I just fell in love with it. The romance continues."
Seventy-nine-year-old Shastri said: "I find French beautiful, but Sanskrit is the most beautiful." In last 56 years people came from far and wide - Varanasi , Allahabad and Europe - to learn Sanskrit from him. One of them, Henry Shock, a scholar in Oriental studies from Illinois University visited him two decades ago. Shock said to Shastri: "It is highly doubtful Sanskrit is a living language, but it is never doubtful that it is living in your body."
Shastri said: "I was barely four when I took admission in Dharm Sangh Sanskrit Vidyalaya and began my journey in Sanskrit. I continued with Sanskrit studies at Government Jubilee Inter-College and then Lucknow University . In 1952, I graduated in Sanskrit." He has a post-graduate degree in the language. He survived a heart attack two months ago. "I am waiting for death to tip toe." In the same breath he recites: "...And not a stone to tell where I lie...Just let me live and let me die." Now most of the time he spends in reading Bhagwad Gita in Sanskrit. Pandit Syed Hussain Shastri said that he believes in Brahminism. He said: "Take away Brahminism from Sanskrit, and it loses its soul."
Shastri said: "I faced resistance from both the communities. In those days people were less secular in matter of religion. But my love for language finally triumphed. Now, I have taught the language to my niece."
Shastri said he was once interviewed by Henry Shock. "Shock has been the only person who interviewed me in Sanskrit. Many times during the interview I attempted to drift to English, as I knew he was from the US . But he continued in Sanskrit. When I asked him where he learnt Sanskrit, Shocks said: Germany ."
For some people languages know no barrier of caste, creed, religion or nationality.
(source: Meet Pandit Hussain Shastri, model of secular India In Love With Sanskrit - By Pankaj Jaiswal - hindustantimes.com).
Refer to The Muslim or "Walking Veda" of Malihabad

No guardians for old Sanskrit books

Hydrebad: Sanskrit, though has lured a sizable number of enthusiasts to learn the language, it has failed to attract any patron willing to contribute for reviving out-of-print old Sanskrit books.

The Surabharati Samiti, a one-of-itskind organisation promoting the language among city residents, has identified at least eight Sanskrit books that were very popular but are out-of-print now. A funds crunch is deterring the samiti from reprinting these old books.  

Some of these books, which also have Telugu translations, were authored to introduce Sanskrit to the younger generation. ‘Ramayanam lo Ratnalu’ had excerpts from the Ramayanam that were explained in simple Telugu for youngsters.  

There was also a book on the morals from the Mahabharata and many others on Bhagavatham and Upanishads. “It would cost us approximately Rs 2 lakh for the reprints, but no one is coming forward to give us funds,” said secretary Surabharati Samiti, B Narsimha Charyulu.  

The books themselves are very inexpensive costing just Rs 6.50 to Rs 16 per copy. “Anyone can afford to buy these books and have some quality Sanskrit reading,” Narasimha Charyulu said.  

Earlier, many philanthropists and even the Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanams (TTD) made donations for the samiti’s activities, which included publications of such useful Sanskrit books. But now, there seems to be a dearth for Sanskrit patrons. Meanwhile, the Samiti has other worries.  

It’s awaiting extension of lease on the land it borrowed from the Osmania University for its workings. Though the university isn’t asking the samiti to vacate the premises on which it has been functioning for as many as 30 years, it (university) is yet to give a lease extension.  

Surabharati Samiti is one of the first independent organisations that was set up in 1970 to propagate Sanskrit among people. Earlier, people studying the language would approach the scholars and professors-members of the Samiti to clear their doubts. Now, it offers many courses in Sanskrit learning including spoken Sanskrit classes.  

In January this year, it was recognised as one of the centres for non-formal Sanskrit education by the Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan, New Delhi.

(source: No guardians for old Sanskrit books - timesofindia.com).

---

Sanskrit echoes around the world - excerpts - By Vijaysree Venkatraman

The rise of India 's economy has brought an eagerness to learn the ancient 'language of the gods' – and a great-great aunt to English.

Today, spoken Sanskrit is enjoying a revival – both in India and among Indian expatriates in the United States . There is even evidence of Sanskrit emerging in American popular culture as more and more people roll out yoga mats at the local gym and greet one another with "Namaste."

Harvard, Yale, and the University of Chicago , among others, have long offered Sanskrit courses to undergrads. But the demand for these classes is growing beyond academic settings. A decade-long economic boom has brought Indians some measure of prosperity, and with it a sense of pride in the nation's past. In large part, however, the revival is the result of the efforts of a private group, Samskrita Bharati, headquartered in New Delhi . The volunteer-based group's mission: Bring the pan-Indian language back to the mainstream and lay the groundwork for a cultural renaissance.

"There were many reasons for the decline of Sanskrit," says Chamu Krishna Shastry, who founded Samskrita Bharati in 1981, "but one of the foremost was the unimaginative way it was taught since [British] colonial times." Later, in a newly democratic India , the language associated with upper-caste Brahmin priests held little appeal to the masses. The present movement to revive Sanskrit aims to teach the "language of the gods" to anyone who cares to learn it.

In India today, Sanskrit is mostly known as the written language of religion and metaphysics. Hindus – who make up 80 percent of the population in India – typically know some Sanskrit prayers by heart. Those who marry by the ceremonial sacred fire recite their vows in Sanskrit. Traces of the ancient language can be found in nearly all of the 15 modern languages spoken in India . (Hundreds of pure Sanskrit words are present in English as well. )  

"To dispel the notion that the language was nonliving and difficult to learn," Mr. Shastry says in a phone interview, "we decided to teach basic spoken Sanskrit in 10 days and to teach through Sanskrit only." An eager network of volunteers experimented with this new method, teaching groups in villages, cities, and abroad through Indian expatriates. "We now hold classes even in prisons," Shastry says.  

When the movement began, there was no money for printed flyers to advertise the classes, so publicity was strictly via word-of-mouth. Volunteers performed sidewalk skits about social themes using Sanskrit to draw the attention of passersby. "[People] saw that Sanskrit need not be confined to rituals and prayer," says Pallamraju Duggirala, a part-time Samskrita Bharati volunteer (and full-time space physicist) who has been teaching the free classes at MIT since September 2003.  

In 25 years, an estimated 7 million people have attended spoken Sanskrit classes offered by Samskrita Bharati in India and abroad, says Shastry. There are 250 full-time volunteers and 5,000 part-time teachers in the United States and India , and their numbers are growing. Samskrita Bharati has chapters in 26 of India 's 28 states. There are also groups in such places as San Jose , Calif. ; Seattle ; Pittsburgh ; Buffalo , N.Y. ; Dallas ; San Diego ; and Chicago . Requests are coming in from other US cities as well.

Like Latin and Greek, Sanskrit eventually became only the language of scholars as dialects spread in medieval times, notes David Shulman of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem in an e-mail interview. When the British Raj began in 1757, English slowly replaced Sanskrit.

Yoga practitioners in the US are seeking out the authentic Sanskrit names of various poses such as "downward dog" or "spinal twist" and the philosophy behind the practice as spelled out in the Yoga Sutras – the original treatise on the subject written in Sanskrit thousands of years ago.

Science-history buffs see old works in Sanskrit as treasure troves of ancient knowledge of astronomy, chemistry, mathematics, medicine, and metallurgy. When Copernicus announced that the sun was the center of the universe in 1543, it was a defining moment for Western science. In Samskrita Bharati's recently released "Pride of India" – a compilation that offers a glimpse into India 's scientific heritage – Sanskrit scholars point to calculations from AD 499 that indicate astronomer Aryabhatta's underlying concept of a sun-centered planetary model.

"This knowledge tradition is what we hope to revive through the spread of Sanskrit," says Shastry.

*

You speak a little Sanskrit

Linguistically, Sanskrit belongs to the ancient Indo-European family – a "sister" of Old Greek, German (Gothic) and Latin – and is thus one of the ancestors of English. More like a great-great-aunt, perhaps. This helps to explain the coincidence of words that sound and mean the same in Sanskrit and English, such as bratha and brother. 

Hundreds of pure Sanskrit words became permanent fixtures in English through cultural interactions between the East with the West since the Middle Ages, he adds. Some of the pure Sanskrit words in English you know include: avatar, karma, guru, juggernaut, pundit, mantra, and nirvana.

(source: Sanskrit echoes around the world - By Vijaysree Venkatraman - Christian Science Monitor).

Did You Know?

Ayurveda, a Sanskrit word means "The Science of Life"

Avurveda, a Sanskrit word meaning "The Science of Life", is a holistic health care which evolved on the Indian sub-continent some 4,000 years ago. 
Established by the same great sages who introduced the original system of meditation, yoga and astrology, Ayurveda surpasses all modern health care systems in it's range of therapeutic modalities. It uses a vast variety of natural approaches to health care including meditation, dietary recommendations, exercise, massage, allowing procedures and daily and seasonal regimens. Together they promote a state of physical and psychological well being by balancing the mind, body, behavior and environment. 
Ayurveda is the ancient Indian medical science, the origin of which can be traced back to the Vedas, which are the oldest available classics of the world. Vedas are the ancient books of knowledge, or science, from India.

Ayurveda is the only ancient independent scientific system of medicines. In the medieval period however, the system faced utter neglect at the hands of foreign rulers. Some authentic literature was destroyed in these turbulent times. Even then Ayurveda contributed to public health system due its safe and most effective herbal formulations and easy availability. The seers who initiated Ayurveda inducted in it sufficiency, soundness and sustenance, that is why it survived.

Dwaraka

Hindu Epics such as Mahabharata have often been described as myths. “On the same day that Krishna departed from the earth the powerful dark-bodied Kali Age descended. The oceans rose and submerged the whole of Dwaraka.“ According to Vishnu Purana - Dwaraka was submerged by the sea right after the death of Lord Krishna. This was regarded as a grandiose metaphor, part of a story filled with great myths. In the early eighties an important archaeological site was found in India, at Dwaraka, the site of the legendary city of Lord Krishna.  Now, it is discovered that the whole coast of western India sank by nearly 40 feet around 1500 B.C. E. Why is that the rediscovery of Dwaraka has not attracted the same degree of attention in the West, as that of ancient Troy by Heinrich Schliemann? 
The first clear historical record is dated 574 A.D. and occurs in the Palitana Plates of Samanta Simhaditya. This inscription refers to Dwaraka as the capital of the western coast of Saurashtra and still more important, states that Sri Krishna lived here. The establishment of one of the four of his pithas at Dwaraka by Sankaracharya attests to the great religious sanctity the place must have attained by the eighth century A.D. 
Dr. S R Rao has written: "The discovery of the legendary city of Dwaraka which is said to have been founded by Sri Krishna, is an important landmark in the history of India. It has set to rest the doubts expressed by historians about the historicity of Mahabharata and the very existence of Dwaraka city. It has greatly narrowed the gap in Indian history by establishing the continuity of the Indian civilization from the Vedic Age to the present day."
Here is a report about the latest excavations done by Dr. S.R. Rao of  the Marine Archaeology Unit of the National Institute of Oceanography of India. Following this report are a few articles and images.       
The Towering personality of Lord Krishna
Sri Krishna is a towering personality and it is difficult to separate the human aspect of his life from the divine in Krishna concept. He is a grand mystery and everyone has tried to understand him in his own way, according to his spiritual light or vision. The Yogis considered him to be the absolute truth, the Gopis the highest object of love, the warriors as an ideal hero, Kamsa as an object of fear and Sisupala as an object of hate. 
Whether one thinks of him as an object of love or hate, one attains him. Yudhishthira attained him through friendship and Narada by devotion. Krishna is the embodiment of intellectual and spiritual glory. No other single idea has so much influenced the course of India's religion, philosophy, art and literature as the life and personality of Krishna. As a child he was wonderful, as a youth he was physically most perfect and beautiful. as an intellectual he was the very embodiment of Vedic scholarship and his teachings in the Gita embody the immortal message of desire less action, knowledge and single-minded devotion. "As a fighter he was without rival, as a statesman most shrewd, as a social thinker very liberal, as a teacher the most eloquent, as a friend never failing, and as a householder the most idea." It is with his help that the Pandavas were able to overcome all opponents and win the battle of Mahabharata. 
In the words of Annie Wood Besant (1847-1933) was an active socialist on the executive committee of the Fabian Society along with George Bernard Shaw. "He (Krishna) is so fundamentally the God, who is human in everything, who bends in human sympathy over the cradle of the babe, who sympathizes with the play of the youth, who is the friend of the lover, the blesser of the bridegroom and the bride, who smiles on the young mother when her first born lies in her arms, everywhere the God of love and human happiness; what wonder that his winsome grace has fascinated the hearts of men."
(source: Discourses on Hindu Avataras - By Annie Wood Besant). 
Sister Nivedita - Margaret Noble (1867-1911 wrote: "The Grand Personality that towers over Kurukshetra and enunciates the body of doctrines which all India knew....to be the core of dharma combines within himself the divinity of the Indian Shiva, the virility of the Greek Heracles, the simplicity of the Judian Christ, the tenderness of the Buddha, the calm, austerity and learning of any teacher of the Upanishads."
It is however, essential to note that the Mahabharata itself treats Krishna both as a God and as a man, so does its essential part of the Gita. (IX. II).

The first possible recorded instance of a Krishna who may be identified with the deity can be found in the Chandogya Upanishad (ca. 900 BCE). The teacher Ghora Angirasa discusses the nature of the soul with Krishna, the son of Devaki. However, this teacher is never mentioned in connection with Krishna in later works nor does any ancient or medieval author quote this instance of Krishna, the deity. The exact words that Ghora speaks are treated by some as praise of Krishna and most others as a praise of the Atman, whose knowledge being imparted to Krishna. The doctrine taught by Ghora matches with the Bhagavad-gita and the name of the mother is the same as in later Krishna traditions. 

Panini (ca. 5th century BCE), in his Ashtadhyayi explains the word "Vāsudevaka" as a Bhakta (devotee) of Vāsudeva. This, along with the mention of Arjuna in the same context, indicates that the Vāsudeva here is Krishna. 

In the 4th century BCE, Megasthenes the Greek ambassador to the court of Chandragupta Maurya says that the Sourasenoi (Surasena), who lived in the region of Mathura worshipped Herakles. This Herakles is usually identified with Krishna due to the regions mentioned by Megasthenes as well as similarities between some of the herioc acts of the two. Megasthenes also mentions that his daughter Pandaia ruled in south India. The south indeed had the kingdom of the Pandyas with the capital at Madhura (Madurai), the name similar to if not the same as Krishna's Mathura. 

From 180-165 BCE, the Greek ruler Agathocles issued coins with images of Vasudeva holding a chakra.

he great grammarian Patanjali, who wrote his commentary the Mahabhashya upon Panini's grammar about 150 BCE, quotes a verse to the following effect: May the might of Krishna accompanied by Samkarshana increase! One verse speaks of Janardana with himself as fourth (Krishna with three companions, the three possibly being Samkarshana, Pradyumna, and Aniruddha). Another verse mentions musical instruments being played at meetings in the temples of Rama (Balarama) and Kesava (Krishna). Patanjali also describes dramatic and mimetic performances (Krishna-Kamsopacharam) representing the killing of Kamsa by Vasudeva.
Megasthenes, the Greek ambassador in the court of Chandragupta Maurya (4th century B.C) makes the first reference to the deification of Vasudeva. He says that Heracles (who is closest to Krishna-Vasudeva) was held in high regard by the Sourasenoi (Surasenas) who possessed two large cities namely Methora (Mathura) and Cleisobora (Krishnapura, that is Vraja and Vrindavana). Apart from references by Megasthenes to the deification of Krishna-Vasudeva, Buddhist texts mention the existence of shrines dedicated to Vasudeva (Krishna) and Baladeva (Balarama). 
Heliodorus, the son of Dia (Dion), a resident of Taxila had come to Besnagar as an envoy of the Greek king Antalikata (Antialkidas) to the court of Kasiputra Bhagabhadra during his 14th regnal year. Antialkidas is placed between 175-135 B.C. The Greek king Agathocles (2nd century B. C) was also devoted to the Bhagavata cult. The figures of Krishna and Balarama are shown on his coins found in the excavations at Al-Khanuram in Afghanistan. 
1) Trini amutapadani‹[su] anuthitani 2) nayamti svaga damo chago apramado "Three immortal precepts (footsteps)... when practiced lead to heaven-self-restraint, charity, consciousness." From this inscription it is clear Heliodorus was a Vaisnava, a devotee of Visnu. He also had written on his column’s inscription that "Three immortal precepts when practiced lead to heaven–self-restraint, charity, and conscientiousness." These three virtues appear in the exact same order in the great epic - The Mahabharata. 
(For more refer to The Heliodorus Column - gosai.com). Refer to Vrindanet - Poland
The column was ordered by Heliodurus, a Greek or Greek-named envoy of the Indo-Bactrian king, Antialkidas. He came to the court of King Kasiputra Bhagabhadra, the ruler of the Besnagar area, from Taxila. To celebrate his conversion into Hinduism a pillar was erected which is dedicated to Lord Vishnu. Heliodorus calls himself a devotee of Krishna/Vasudeva, one of the names of Visnu. Such offerings were common in fulfillment of religious vows (thus 'votive' offerings) at that time. This same column has survived to the present, and is one of the primary pieces of evidence used to prove the existence of Vasudeva-Krishna (Krishna-Balarama) worship in the pre-Christian era. On the column erected in Besnagar in central India near Vidisha, north of Madhyapradesh State, at 113 BC (sometimes also dated 140/150 BC ) he calls himself a worshiper of Vasudeva (Vishnu). This is the first known record that other than Indian-born person became a follower of Vishnu (Vaishnava). 
"This Garuda-column of Vasudeva (Visnu), the god of gods, was erected here by Heliodorus, a worshiper of Visnu, the son of Dion, and an inhabitant of Taxila, who came as Greek ambassador from the Great King Antialkidas to King Kasiputra Bhagabhadra, the savior, then reigning prosperously in the fourteenth year of his kingship." (Transliteration and translation of this ancient Brahmi inscription was published in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (London: JRAS, Pub., 1909, pp. 1053-54.)
Dr. S. Radhakrishan wrote: "The Bhagavad Gita is "both metaphysics and ethics brahmavidya and yogasastra, the science of reality and the art of union with reality. The truths of spirit can be apprehended only by those who prepare themselves for their reception by rigorous disciplines" 
Dwaraka had found a place in the texts on grammar, for Panini, the great grammarian, refers to Cakragirti, which is identified with Cakratirtha at the mouth of the river Gomati where Dwaraka is situated. The durgavidhana and durganivesa prakaranas of the Arthasastra of Kautilya prescribe the layout of a city. The description of Dwaraka in the Mahabharata and Jnata-dharma-katha as large, well-fortified and prosperous due to sea trade confirms hat it was a port city.
(source: The Lost City of Dvaraka - By S. R. Rao ISBN 8186471480 p. 1 -25 and wikipedia.org). Listen to The Bhagavad Gita podcast - By Michael Scherer - americanphonic.com.
The column was ordered by Heliodurus, a Greek or Greek-named envoy of the Indo-Bactrian king, Antialkidas. He came to the court of King Kasiputra Bhagabhadra, the ruler of the Besnagar area, from Taxila. To celebrate his conversion into Hinduism a pillar was erected which is dedicated to Lord Vishnu. Heliodorus calls himself a devotee of Krishna/Vasudeva, one of the names of Visnu. Such offerings were common in fulfillment of religious vows (thus 'votive' offerings) at that time. This same column has survived to the present, and is one of the primary pieces of evidence used to prove the existence of Vasudeva-Krishna (Krishna-Balarama) worship in the pre-Christian era. On the column erected in Besnagar in central India near Vidisha, north of Madhyapradesh State, at 113 BC (sometimes also dated 140/150 BC ) he calls himself a worshiper of Vasudeva (Vishnu). This is the first known record that other than Indian-born person became a follower of Vishnu (Vaishnava). 
"This Garuda-column of Vasudeva (Visnu), the god of gods, was erected here by Heliodorus, a worshiper of Visnu, the son of Dion, and an inhabitant of Taxila, who came as Greek ambassador from the Great King Antialkidas to King Kasiputra Bhagabhadra, the savior, then reigning prosperously in the fourteenth year of his kingship." (Transliteration and translation of this ancient Brahmi inscription was published in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (London: JRAS, Pub., 1909, pp. 1053-54.)
Dr. S. Radhakrishan wrote: "The Bhagavad Gita is "both metaphysics and ethics brahmavidya and yogasastra, the science of reality and the art of union with reality. The truths of spirit can be apprehended only by those who prepare themselves for their reception by rigorous disciplines" 
Dwaraka had found a place in the texts on grammar, for Panini, the great grammarian, refers to Cakragirti, which is identified with Cakratirtha at the mouth of the river Gomati where Dwaraka is situated. The durgavidhana and durganivesa prakaranas of the Arthasastra of Kautilya prescribe the layout of a city. The description of Dwaraka in the Mahabharata and Jnata-dharma-katha as large, well-fortified and prosperous due to sea trade confirms hat it was a port city.
(source: The Lost City of Dvaraka - By S. R. Rao ISBN 8186471480 p. 1 -25 and wikipedia.org). Listen to The Bhagavad Gita podcast - By Michael Scherer - americanphonic.com.
Dwaraka – The Importance of Heritage
Dwaraka has a special importance as one of the major Hindu pilgrim place, known as the capital of Lord Krishna's Kingdom. It is also an important historical monument. The region of the west coast, where Krishna was to settle the Yadavas was full of flowering and fruit-bearing trees. Here grew the nagacampas, grapes, coconut trees and many others. It was the land of the hunter Ekalavya. Dronacarya had also lived here. Krishna decided to built a new city here and laid the foundation at an auspicious moment. He named the new city Dvaravati. Much later the poet Magha in his Sisupalavadha, sarga2, describes in slokas 31 onwards, the city of Dwaraka, sloka 33 can be translated:
"The yellow glitter of the golden fort of the city in the sea throwing yellow light all round looked as if the flames of vadavagni came out tearing asunder the sea."

Literary texts like the Mahabharata, Harivamsha, Sijupdlavadha and Puranas contain traditions about foundation of Dwaraka, its planning and glory. Before the legendary city of Dwaraka  was discovered some scholars were of the view that the Mahabharata being only a myth it would be futile to look for the remains of Dwaraka and that too in the sea. Others held that the Mahabharata battle was a family feud exaggerated into a war.
Excavations done by Dr. S. R. Rao at Dwaraka prove that the descriptions as found in these texts are not to be discarded as fanciful but are to be treated as based on actualities as seen by their authors. The architecture of the old Dwaraka of Shri Krishna is majestic and wonderful. The great poet Premanand has in his "Sudama Charit" described its splendid beauty and majesty. Dwaraka is mentioned as Golden City in Shrimad Bhagvad Gita, Skand Purana, Vishnu Purana and also in Harivansha and Mahabharat.
Dwaraka on mainland which was one of the busiest ports of the Mahabharata Period met a sudden end due to the fury of the sea. After the Mahabharata War Krishna lived for 36 years at Dwaraka. At the end, the Vrshnis, Bhojas and Satvatas destroyed themselves in a fratricidal feud at Prabhasa but Krishna did not interfere to save them. The portends of destruction seen by Sri Krishna who advised immediate evacuation of Dwarakaare stated in Bhagavata Purana. Dwaraka abandoned by Hari (Krishna) was swallowed by the sea. The submergence took place immediately after Sri Krishna departed from the world. 
Construction of Dwaraka

Interesting descriptions about its construction are found in Puranas.

"Fearing attack from Jarasangh and Kaalayvan on Mathura, Shri Krishna and Yadavas left Mathura and arrived at the coast of Saurashtra. They decided to build their capital in the coastal region and invoke the Vishwakarma the deity of construction. However, Vishwakarma says that the task can be completed only if Samudradev, the Lord of the sea provided some land. Shri Krishna worshipped Samudradev, who was pleased and gave them land measuring 12 yojans and the Lord vishwakarma build Dwaraka, a "city in gold".

This beautiful city was also known as Dwaramati, Dwarawati and Kushsthali. Another story says that at the time of the death of Shri Krishna, who was hit by the arrow of a hunter near Somnath at Bhalka Tirth, Dwaraka disappeared in the sea.

The information and material secured through underwater excavation off Dwaraka corroborates with the references to the City of Dwaraka, made in the Great Epic Mahabharata and various other Sanskrit literary works. In Mahabharata, there is a specific account about the submerging of Dwaraka, by the sea which reads thus:

"The sea, which had been beating against the shores, suddenly broke the boundary that was imposed on it by nature. The sea rushed into the city. It coursed through the streets of the beautiful city. The sea covered up everything in the city. Even as they were all looking, Arjuna saw the beautiful buildings becoming submerged one by one. Arjuna took a last look at the mansion of Krishna. It was soon covered by the sea. In a matter of a few moments it was all over. The sea had now become as placid as a lake. There was no trace of the beautiful city which had been the favourite haunt of all the Pandavas. Dwaraka was just a name; just a memory."

The importance of the discovery of Dwaraka lies not merely in providing archaeological evidence needed for corroborating the traditional account of the submergence of Dwaraka but also indirectly fixing the date of the Mahabharata which is a landmark in Indian history. The Thermoluminiscence date of the pottery from Bet Dwaraka which is also connected with the Krishna legend is 3520 years Before Present. Identical pottery is found in the submerged city of Dwaraka.  Thus the results have proved that the account in Mahabharata as to the existence of a beautiful capital city of Dwaraka of Sri Krishna was not a mere figment of imagination but it did exist.

Besides the sea-ports, there were renowned cities which were washed away by the rivers on whose banks they were situated. We may cite here the case of Hastinapura and Pataliputra, situated on the bank of the river Ganga and falling victims to flood-fury. The Mahabharata mentions that Hastinapura was washed away by the Ganga and consequently the Pandavas had to migrate to Kaugdmbi. Pataliputra which was the premier city of the land (agranag-ara) and the test of the excellence of all the cities (samasta-nagarf-nikasdyamand) in the words of Dandin, the author of the DaSakumaracharita, later became the worst victim of inundation. The submerged parts of these cities are to be treated as protected monuments and great treasures of our ancient heritage. If Dwaraka excavations throw a flood of light on the history of the city which was associated with the life events of Krishna, the under-water excavations of Ayodhya situated on the bank of the river Sarayu might yield valuable information about the historicity of Rama, his age and contemporary urban status. 
(note: Lord Krishna was born at midnight on Friday July 27, 3112 BCE. This date and time has been calculated by astronomers on the basis of the planetary positions on that day recorded by Sage Vyasa. Mahabharata War took place on November 22, 3067 BCE.  The Bhagavad Gita was compiled around 500 BCE. - source: The Hindu Mind - By Bansi Pandit).
Marine archaeology is a new subject and a little-explored one, mainly due to the lack of funds, scientific and other necessary equipment and even trained divers, besides a dearth of qualified marine archaeologists. 
A pioneer in this field is Dr S R Rao, formerly of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and now with the National Institute of Oceanography in Goa. With all the existing limitations, he has done considerable work in the Bet Dwaraka region, where he found an entire submerged city, with rubble and masonry structures, several shell and pottery items and seals. The Mahabharata and Harivamsha describe Krishna‚s capital Dwaraka and how it was submerged by the sea in great detail, a description that coincides in many ways with what the divers found. Unfortunately, the doubting Thomases of our historical world, a school of Indian historians who regard Indian literature as, myth do not want to acknowledge this interpretation, in case it gives credence to the story of Krishna, whose capital was submerged by the sea. It is ridiculous not to correlate archaeology and literature. Mythology is, the science of primitive man, his manner of explaining the universe. Records of natural phenomena and historical events ˜ invasions, migrations, etc. ˜ are stored as myths. If literature and archaeology had not been correlated, we would never have known the history of ancient Greece. And how many people are aware of the fact that the only (ancient) temple for Matsya ˜ Vishnu's incarnation at the time of the great flood ˜ is to be found at Shankhodhara in Bet Dwaraka.
(source: Marine archaeology and the study of the past - By Nanditha Krishn - newindpress.com).
Further Excavations of the Submerged City of Dwaraka - By S.R. Rao - Recent Advances in Marine Archaeology 

(Proceedings of Second Indian Conference of Marine Archaelogy of Indian Ocean countries.Jan1990)
Published for the Society for Marine Archaeology National Inst. of Oceanography India. 1991
Since 1983 the Marine Archaeology Unit of the National Institute of Oceanography is engaged in the offshore exploration and excavation of the legendary city of Dvaraka in the coastal waters of Dwaraka in Gujarat. Brief accounts of the findings of the underwater search for the lost city have appeared in Progress and Prospects of Marine Archaeology in India, 1987, Marine Archaeology of Indian Ocean Countries, 1988, 40 years of Research - A CSIR Overview, 1988 and Journal of Marine Archaeology, 1990. The present paper deals with the more significant results of further excavations in 1988 and 1989 and discusses archaeological and literary evidence for the identification of the port city of Dvaraka of the protohistoric period. It also draws attention to the scientific data available from the underwater excavations in the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Kutch.
A brief account of the discovery of the submerged city of Dwaraka of Mahabarata fame and the salient features of the structures exposed as a result of underwater excavation con-ducted at Dwaraka and Bet Dwaraka by the Marine Archaeology Unit of the National Institute of Oceanography under the direction of the author from 1983 to 1987 appeared in 1988 (Rao, S.R. 1988, 47-53). Offshore exploration of the legen-dary city at Dwaraka was resumed in 1988 and continued through 1990, further seaward of the Temple of Samudranardyana (Sea God) at Dwaraka with a view to trace the plan and extent of the port-city and the purpose of the massive stone walls built on the banks of ancient Gomati. It was also necessary to ascertain whether its architectural features were in conformation with the description of the city of Dwaraka given in the epic Mahabharata. A second object was to obtain more corroborative evidence for reclamation referred to in the epic. Thirdly, the nick point where the ancient Gomati river joined the sea had to be determined. Lastly, the cause of submergence of the city was another problem that needed further investigation.
Onshore and offshore excavation in the island of Bet Dwaraka which, according to tradition, was the resort of Sri Krishna was resumed in November, 1987 and continued through 1988. The main objective was to trace the landward extension of the submerged protohistoric township near Balapur Bay where, in the intertidal zone a submerged wall had been traced in the earlier expedition (Rao, S. R. 1988, 49).
Marine Archaeological expedition at Bet Dwaraka 
The trenches dug by the Public Works Department in the 'Talao' area near Balapur village for building an earthen embankment were examined, but no remains of any protohis-toric settlement came to light confirming thereby that there was no landward extension of'the ancient town. Most part of the ancient township was swallowed by the sea and the mud flats of Balapur extending over I km seaward had buried the ancient relics. One Trench (A) to the south of the Old Cus-tom House, and the other itrench (Al) in the intertidal zone at the toot of the Custom House mound were sunk to estab-lish the sequential relationship between the two sectors of habitation. (Fig. 1) The short duration of 3 or 4 hours at low tide when land was exposed near the shore, rendered excavation in ::Iavev deposit very difficult. Even so, a rubble foundation, 35 cm broad, and a few sherds of a large storage jar lying on the floor of the house were exposed in Trench (Al). Several worked columella of conch shell found lying in a line suggested that the house belonged to a shell-worker. Excava-tion had to be abandoned after digging to a depth of 20 cm because of high water table in lowest tide also. Trench Al was however extended on the west and the extension was marked XA1, but no structure came to light. Layer I of trench Al is surface humus, layer 2 consists of fine grained silty sand mixed with shingle and layer 2A, where shells and pottery are found, is darkish clay. No pottery was found in layers 2 and 2A of XA I.
A trench '2 x 2 m was laid above the rain gully in the Custori-. House mound to ascertain the cultural sequence. In all, 10 layers were distinguished. Layers I to 4 upto lm depth yielded Muslim glazed ware and Ted ware of early medieval period. In Layers 5 and 6 in 1-1.3m depth the Red Polished Ware assignable to the first five centuries of the Christian era was found. One sherd inscribed with the letter sya meaning I of in Brahmi characters of the lst-2nd century A.D. was recovered  Layers 8-10 yielded a few sherds of the Lustrous Red Ware and coarse red ware of the post-Harappan phase. Natural soil could not be reached. A large number of shell bangles and a couple of worked columella were found in the medieval and early historic deposits. A bead of li3h bone is the only find from the post-Harappan deposit. It was decided to postpone to a later date the excavation of the intertidal zone and- the mound further north of the earthen embank-ment of the Talao where Late Harappan pottery has been found.
Massive stone protection wall-cum-pier in BDJ VIII 
In the course of exploration of the near shore and intertidal zones south of Balapur Bay on 4th January, 1988 Mr Rajan, diver-archaeologist and Mr Sirsath, photographer discovered a massive rubble wall exposed in lowest low tide and the site has been designated as BDK Vill (Pi. 18-19). The wall remains submerged at high tide under a column of 2 in water above its top. Excavation was conducted on both the sides of the eastern arm of this structure on the 9th and 10th January in order to expose to full extent the height of the structure and determine ' the nature and purpose of constructing such a large enclosure which is 558 m in its peripheral length. (Fig.2)
Trenches measuring 1 x 1.2 m were laid on its southern and northern faces. In all, 9 courses of dressed and undressed stones, of which 4 courses are covered by silty clay deposit were traced The wall was constructed on the bed rock. The stone masonry is heavily incrusted with barnacles and other sea organisms. It is very difficult to remove the incrustation with-out chiselling it. Originally the wall must have been atleast 2.5 to 3 m high. Presently it is only 1.5 m in height. The enclosure wall is an irregular hexagon on plan. An interesting feature of construction is the use of wedge-shaped blocks of stone for the shell, while the core is made up of rubble-filling. That the structure is man-made becomes apparent from the use of dressed stones closely laid and also from the box technique of construction. The thickness of the wall at the base is 2.5m while the extant tapering top is 1.5 to 2m thick. The pottery found in the trench is coarse grey ware but heavily rolled resulting in the disappearance of the slip and decoration if any. Only one sherd of the sturdy red ware of the post-Harap-pan phase was found in the extremely small trench. Provision-ally the structure is datable to 15th century B.C. on the basis of the sturdy red ware. Within the enclosure there must have been very important public buildings - may be warehouses and other structures relating to shipping, for, not far from here are two rock-cut stipways for launching boats. The massive protection wall could have also served as a pier.
(Artwork courtesy of The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International, Inc. www.krishna.com).
Dwaraka
The Research Vessel Vedhavati arrived on 31st December at Dwaraka duly equipped with diving gear, echosounder, heavy compressor, airlift etc. For the next three days Sri. Srinivasa Bandodkar, Chief-diver-photographer and other divers and diver trainees searched for and cleared the sub-merged structures of the ancient city exposed in the earlier expeditions. They were found partly disturbed and partly covered by sediments and vegetation. Swells and currents had disturbed a few blocks of the top courses of walls. They were photographed and marked by fresh buoys. New areas beyond 500 m seaward of the Samudrandrayana temple were explored and the thick growth of vegetation on ancient build-ings were removed. On 3rd January a small stone structure was found 200 m north of buoy 35, and the overburden of 2-3 m thickness was airlifted before exposing the topmost course of dressed stones. Lying nearby is a partly damaged bastion which is semi-circular in plan (PI. 20). The dressed stones used in its construction are I ' -2 m long 0.3 m thick. A lunate-shaped dressed block appears to be the chandrtdild (moonstone of a temple).

Two stone walls, one each near buoys 40 and 41, were laid bare (PI. 21-24). The stones used in the construction are I to 2 m long, 0.5 to 0.7 m wide and 0.3 m thick. All structures near here arc gridded and their position is fixed by sextant. Excavation in layer 3 yielded a sherd of a miniature bowl with everted rim in Lustrous Red Ware of Rangpur III type. The slip has how-ever completely disappeared and the core of the fabric has a pitted surface due to wave action. The sea became choppy and the currents strong from 15th to 21st January and the boats were heavily rolling. In an attempt to reach the shore the crew of the dingy was thrown out by heavy breakers but there was no serious injury to anyone. Underwater explora-tion was suspended for 3 days and limited search was underta-ken next 3 days. In the solstice (14th January) arbital move-ments seem to be responsible for the abnormal roughness of the sea with waves breaking 3ni high near buoy 19 and causing considerable damage to ancient structures in the sea bed. Taking advantage of the lowest tide - 0.12 (Okha) on 21st January the sea bed of nearshore zone front Samudra-narayana Temple to the Light House was surveyed. Some well dressed architectural members including a semicircular moonstone (chandrafila) of a public building were exposed 30m seaward of Samudrandrayana indicating the existence of an earlier temple. Two rock-cut channels were also expo-sed to the north of Samudranar5yana. A few iron rings fixed in the wavecut bench at the foot of Samudrandrayana indicated that small boats could be ferried through the rock-cut channels from the sea and river channel and secured to mooring rings in the early centuries of the Christian era.

A pier-like structure was exposed on the left batik of the channel opposite buoy 35 and the construction suggests that it could be used as a jetty or quay on the river bank, for several triangular and prismatic stone anchors were found lying nearby. Further seaward a large area was searched manually and buoys 41 to 54 were placed to indicate the location of structures or anchors. On the left bank 3 anchors were found near buoy 53, one each near buoys 50 and 51 -and three more near buoy 55. Trench 15 was laid near buoy 53. Airlifting was done near buoy 54 for collecting samples. Layer 1 consisted of fine sand; layer 2 was slightly coarse sand, and layer 3 con-sisted of coral and shingle covering bed rock. The total thickness of sediment is I in. A slierd of a large sturdy jar and stein of a dish-on-stand were recovered from layer 3. Two bastions were exposed near buoy 59 on the right bank and Trench 12 was sunk here for obtaining stratigraphic evidence and pot-tery for determining tile age of the structures. Stone anchors found near buoys 45, 46, 47, 48 and 51 have been documented. A large single-holed semispherical stone base of a flag post (Fig. 3) was found in situ near buoy 48. It is 53 cm in diameter at the base and the height is 30 cm.
The larger triangular 3-lioled anchors are 63 to 95 cm in length, 43 to 50 cm broad at the base and 25 to 29 cm at the top (Fig. 4). The prismatic anchors are 1.2 to 2.3 m long, 33 cm broad at the base and are tapering at the top.
Excavation near buoy 35 yielded a copper Iota and a white marble statue with broken legs, but the rest of the body is missing. A pedestal of black stone with 4 pointed feet for em-bedding in the earth mty be an altar and it is doubtful if it was used as quern because there is no depression caused by rubbing Fartlier away near buoy 55 on the left bink a trench (15)was sunk and the sediments were removed through fanning action. It is here that a copper bell and brass parts of what looks like a miniature cliariot (PI. 26) were recovered.
The perforated arches might have supported a canopy of a wagon type chariot. As reverting was known to the Harap-pans it is no wonder if the metalsmith of protohistoric Dwaraka could also revet the bars and drive holes in the brass-like metal. The metal objects of the Dwaraka chariot are found to be made of brass. Unfortunately very little information is available on the antiquity of brass before 300 B.C. at Taxila and at Prakash in the late phase of NBP. The brass from Prakash is either copper-Zinc alloy (17.75% Zinc, remainder copper) or leaded brass (25.86% Zn, 8.34% Ph and remain-der copper). Lead was used in Lothal in 2000 B.C. as can be seen from two lead pieces one containing 91.42% and the other 99.54% pure. The sleeved axe of Lothal contains 96.27 copper, and 2.51% lead, while the grooved rod contains 57.75 copper, 9.02 tin and 3.31%. The advanced metal technol-ogy can be inferred from the use of iron stakes in Bet Dwaraka to which reference is made in the Mahabharata. Ancient Indian steel dates back to 600 B.C. at Rajghat (Bharadwaj 1984, 143), but iron technology was developed by 1500 B.C. at Dwaraka in Gujarat and at Gufkrol in Kashmir (A.K. Sharma in this volume).
The presence of several structural remains between buoys 51 and 55 and also between 51 and 53 necessitated gridding the entire area for purposes of preparing the site plan of the township. Further west near buoy 59 a stone pillar with a square base and cylindrical shaft was found in the seabed. It is indicative of the fact that a public building of religious or secular importance existed here. Two triangular anchors were found near buoy 58 and a single-holed anchor was traced near buoy 53.
In the absence of Mini Ranger III needed for very accurate fixing of positions, the sextafit was used and checked with the distances between structures measured manually. For instance, buoy 53 is about 1200 m from Samudrandrdyana and the bastion of inner gateway (str. 1) at buoy 35 is 200 m sea-ward of buoy 8 which itself is 200 m seaward of Samud-randrdyana. The bastion of the outer gateway is near buov 59. The position of buoys especially those marking bastions, gate-ways and protection walls had to be rechecked subsequently with the help of Mini Ranger III.
Two coils of steel wire lost by a boat in comparatively recent times were found near buoy 35. As they were heavily damaged their retrieval was not attempted. A large prismatic anchor 137 cm long was recovered from the station marked by buoy 46. Rajan took soundings at 50 m intervals along the banks of the Gomati channel and across it also for studying the gradient and width of the channel, but these had to be further checked with the echosounder readings at closer intervals.
Expedition 1989-90:
The main purpose of the expedition was to determine the limits of the submerged city and the nick point where the Gomati joined the sea 3500 years ago when Dwaraka was built. This could be achieved by echo-sounding, side scan sonar and shallow seismic profiling surveys Which could indicate anamolies and provide the bathymetric data. Simultaneously through optical and manual surveys the anamolies could be examined to distinguish man-made constructions from natural formations. It was also felt necessary to fix precisely the position of structures already discovered and determine the course of the ancient channel of Gomati river. The profiles would help to establish the shifting of the flow channel if any. The area covered in the course of the survey is 5 x 6 km upto 25 m depth so as to include a 'spit' referred to by Pathak (Pathak et al 1988, 58-62).
The MFV Sea Master and Sharda Devi were engaged for exploration and survey. A dingy with outboard engine ferried between the main boats and shore. At three locations namely A4, A5 and A3 along the right bank of submerged channel of Gomati anchors were found. 
Southward of A5 a stone pillar and bastion were -located at the station P which is gridded. At 60' southwest of Dwdrkddhish-Samudran5r5yana transit line a bastion in situ (S4), a fallen bastion (S3) (PI. 24), a disturbed wall (PI. 25) and a large stone slab (S4) were found. Further south of S4 is another bastion (S2). These structures are in 7 m depth. Towards the west several anchors were discovered at stations A2, A8 and All, in 8m depth. Heavy growth of vegetation on the bastions and walls had to be cleared care-fully before photographing and plotting them. A very interesting feature of the masonry is the L-shaped joints in setting heavy dressed blocks of stone for constructing bastions in high energy zone (PI. 28). Even so a couple of bastions have collapsed, but others in deeper waters namely low energy zone are in situ. Three groups of structures at S2 were grid-ded. A spherical anchor with 2 holes is recorded at A12, about 70' NW of the grid. The following is the resume of anchors and structural remains found in the course of the present expedition:

Al fragmentary anchor
A2, A3, A8, A9, A10, All, A13 prismatic anchors
'A7 and A12 triangular anchors St, S3 wall
S2 bastion (fallen), S9 bastion in situ
Others S4 to S8 and S10 to 13 are dislodged architectural members, mainly large dressed blocks. Two iron anchors were found -near A13. One of them is 1.5m long and has 5 arms.
Geophysical Survey - a summazy of the results of Geophysical survey carried out by Vora's team has been received. The salient points of observation and recommendations of the team are mentioned briefly below (Fig. 5).
High resolution Marine Geological and Geophysical Sur-veys carried out off Dwaraka for marine archaeological pur-pose was aimed at finding direct or indirect evidences of the existence of relics of sunken ships and submerged ports beyond the area already surveyed by MAU. Another objec-tive was to suggest places for diving based on the data collected.
The surveys were carried out in December 1989 in 2 to 22 m water depth over an area of 5 x 2 km by echosounding, side scan sonar and shallow seismic profiling (Fig. 5); scale adopted was 1:5000.
The survey area was divided into two parts, north and south for convenience. In the northern part from Rupen port to Dwaraka Light House, 45 lines perpen-dicular to the shore were surveyed while south of Dwaraka Light House 22 lines parallel to shore were surveyed. The results of the survey indicated extension of Gomati for about 1.5 km in NE-SW direction and its channel is about 400 m wide. Apart from this channel, other submerged drainage systems were also noticed. Other Geomorphic features present in the area include scarps, terraces and pinnacles. Sonographs collected from the area show large tonal variations through-out the area which includes furrows of various sizes and directions, and. at times ripples, boulders etc. The channels of Gomati as revealed by echograms are highly significant. The present channel along the Gomati Ghat was not the original course of the river 4000 years ago. It was to the south of temple of Samudranardyana and the channel was wider. The river seems to have joined the sea through more than one channel and the structures so far traced lie along the central channel. Nearshore, the submerged Gomati bed shows a deep wide symmetrical V-shaped channel, either side of which is at the same elevation. A small channel formation is seen to the south. Bending of contours in the area in more than 13 m water depth towards shore in southwest direction indicates a deposital phase, while in lesser contours there is a strong erosional activity. The result is that many structures built of smaller fractional blocks are destroyed in shallower waters, while those built of heavier blocks to serve as piers, wharf, protection walls and jetty are only partly destroyed and buried under I to 2 m thick sediment especially beyond 12 m water depth.
Though there are some anomalies present on the sea floor nothing more could be said about them until divers verified whether they were natural phenomena or man-made objects. Shallow seismic profiles showed no penetration in the area. However five locations were given to the diving team of MAU for direct inspection. At one such point a large iron anchor was found by diver archaeologists. Accurate position fixing of the five points with mini ranger had to be postponed to the next season as the sea became rough, but the position of some of the marker buoys, where structures were discovered by MAU was fixed with sextant. The map obtained from Dwaraka Municipality did not show accurately the present shore line and it is to be surveyed and redrawn for position fixing. On the left bank of Gomati the divers uncovered three arms of a large rectangular structure (Str. 5-6) and a corner bastion (Str 7) at buoys 68-69 and 70. Opposite the inner gate way on the right bank, the width of one of the submerged channels of. Gomati is 170 m. Further westward of structure 7, four 3-holed anchors were exposed.
On January 14, 1989 the wave cut bench and iron rings fixed in it were exposed a few metres seaward of SN at lowest low tide. A mooring pillar and a. fragmentary deity in black stone were recoverd from the rocky bed near the Light house.
On January 21, two rock cut channels meant for sluicing small boats were exposed to view between SN and Light House. The Iron rings and rock-cut channels belong to period 11, while the protection walls, and enclosures on either bank at buoy 35 and extending 500 m scawdfd belong to period 1. The farthest point of structural activity so far traced is about 1.2 km seaward of SN, but a plan of the city can be made out upto 800 m. A pier - like structure on the left bank where a plat-form which could be used for loading and unloading exists might have been the jetty for smaller boats. The terraced top of an escarpment nearly 1.5 km seaward of SN was the main anchorage for the ocean going vessels. That there existed a port-installation here is indicated by the collapsed building blocks lying scattered at the foot of the scarp but further examination of this scarp and another rock standing high further northwest will have to be made by divers for preparing the ancient limit of the port-town.

Discussion 
Dwaraka was a city-state extending upto Bet Dwaraka (Sankhodhara) in the north and Okhamadhi in the south. Eastward it extended upto Pindara. The 30 to 40 meter-high hill on the eastern flank of Sankhodhara may be the Raivataka referred to in the Mahabharata 2 . The general layout of the city of Dwaraka described in ancient texts agrees with that of the submerged city discovered by MAU. Four enclosures are laid bare; each one had one or two gateways (Fig. 6). The port Aramda (Arambhadvdra) on way to Bet Dwaraka was the first gateway in the outer fortifications. The bastions flanking gateways of submerged Dwaraka resemble those of Kusinagara and Sravasti carved on the Gateways of Sanchi Stupa. The prasada referred to in the epic must be the high fort walls of Dwaraka, a part of which is extant. The epic says that flags were flying in the city of Dwaraka. This can be corroborated by the stone bases of flag posts found in the sea bed excavation. Umashankar Joshi is of the view that antardvipa in the region of Kugasthali referred to in the Mahabharata must be Bet Dwaraka (Sankhodhara). The Bhagavata Purana says that before leaving his mortal frame Sri Krsna put the ladies and children in boats and sent them to Sankhodhara. Hirananda Sastry also identified the antardvipa of Mahabharata with Bet Dwaraka.
The buildings built of smaller fraction stone blocks are razed to the ground leaving only small portions of the thick fort walls, bastions and protection walls (built with massive stones) which are too heavy to be moved by tides and cur-rents. From the structural remains in Dwaraka and Bet Dwaraka waters, it is possible to visualise that the city-ports were large and well planned.
Every significant antiquity that corroborates a statement of the Harivamsa is the seal bearing the motif of a 3-headed animal representing the bull, unicorn and goat. The HarivamSa says that every citizen of Dwaraka had to carry a mudra as a mark of identifications The seal (mudra) found in the excavation belongs to 15th-16th century B.C.
Legend of Dwaraka - By T. R. Gopaalakrushnan
Krishna- the protector of Mathura, the lord of Dwaraka and the reciter of the Bhagwad Gita on the battlefield of Kurukshetra-is one of the most enduring legends of India. Are Krishna and Dwar-aka actual historical entities? For a majority of Indians, the answer is an unequivocal yes. Some archaeologists and historians too are now willing to accept that the common man's faith does have a basis in fact.
The strongest archaeological support comes from the structures discovered under the sea-bed off the coast of Dwaraka in Gujarat by the pioneering team led by Dr S.R. Rao, one of India's most respected archaelogists. An emeritus scientist at the marine archaeology unit of the National Institute of Oceanography, Rao has excavated a large number of Harappan sites including the port city of Lothal in Gujarat. In his book The Lost City of Dwaraka (Aditya Prakashan, Rs 1500), published in 1999 he writes about his undersea finds: "The discovery is an important landmark in the history of India. It has set to rest the doubts expressed by historians about the historicity of Mahabharata and the very existence of Dwaraka city. It has greatly narrowed the gap in Indian history by establishing the continuity of the Indian civilisation from the Vedic Age to the present day."
But there are archaeological finds that do attest to Krishna as a historical figure. For instance excavations in Bedsa (near Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh) have unearthed the remains of a temple of 300 BC in which Krishna (Vasudeva) and Balarama (Samkarshana) are identified from their flagstaff. Krishna's son Pradyumna, grandson, Aniruddha and another Yadava hero, Satyaki, have also been identified.

A more recent historical record, dated 574 AD, occurs in what are called the Palitana plates of Samanta Simhaditya. This inscription refers to Dwaraka as the capital of the western coast of Saurashtra and states that Krishna lived here. No one has so influenced the course of India's religion, philosophy, art and literature as Krishna. Traditional belief is that Krishna lived in Dwaraka at the end of the Dwapara Yuga. Dwaraka, in fact, is considered one of the seven holiest and most ancient Indian cities. The others are Ayodhya, Mathura, Haridwar, Varanasi, Kanchi and Ujjain, which together are known as Mokshada-that which leads to salvation.

According to Hindu historical tradition, Kali Yuga began with the death of Krishna more than 5,000 years ago. The Puranas are emphatic on the cultural degradation that set in after the Mahabharata war, which is seen as one of the most important turning points in ancient Indian history. Krishna, according to traditional belief, participated in that transition.

"Krishna very much existed in flesh, blood and bones," said Madhav Acharya, archaeologist at the Haryana archaeological department. "It is difficult, if not impossible, for a thing like the Mahabharata to be believed till today in the same spirit and faith unless there is some truth to the story. And that truth is the power struggle, and the main characters. One of them was Krishna. The power struggle is not a myth. If the heart of the story is to be believed as a historical event, then Krishna too should be seen as a historical character."

For more of this article, please go to the link given below.
(source: Legend of Dwaraka - By T.R. Gopaalakrushnan - the-week.com - cover story June 1 2003).
Underwater museum, in Dwaraka yet to surface

India Abroad News Service Bangalore - Nearly two decades after marine archeologists found the lost city of Dwaraka off the coast of Gujarat the state government continues to drag its feet on a proposal to establish the world's first underwater museum to view the remains of the city submerged in the Arabian Sea.
The proposal for the museum, submitted by the Marine Archeology Center of the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) in Goa, involves laying a submarine acrylic tube through which visitors can view through glass windows the ruins of the city said to have been be ruled by Sri Krishna, 3,500 years ago.An alternative suggestion is to have acrylic wells, to be accessed through boats, from which the remains can be viewed. Another proposal that remains on paper is for setting up a marine archeology museum of Dwaraka antiquities found in the sea.
Discovered in 1981, the well-fortified township of Dwaraka extended more than half a mile from the shore and was built in six sectors along the banks of a river before it became submerged. The findings are of immense cultural and religious importance to India.
  
"The search for the lost city has been going on since 1930," S.R. Rao, former adviser to the NIO who is still actively involved in the excavations, told India Abroad. "It is only after marine archaeologists started exploring the seabed near modem Dwaraka from 1981 that the structural remains of the city were found."
Rao said that if a fraction of the funds spent on land archeology were made available for under-water archaeology, more light could be thrown on Dwaraka, which had much archeological signifi-cance because it was built during the second urbanization that occurred in India after the Indus Valley civilization in northwestern India. Dwaraka's existence disproves the belief held by Western archeologists that there was no urbanization in the Indian subcontinent from the period between 1700 B.C. (Indus Valley) and 550 B.C. (advent of Buddhism). As no information was available about that period, they had labeled it the Dark Period.
Among the objects unearthed that proved Dwaraka's connection with the Mahabharata epic was a sea engraved with the image of a three-headed animal. The epic mentions such a seal given to the citizens of Dwaraka as a proof of identity when the city was threatened by King Jarasandha of the powerful Magadh kingdom (now Bihar). The foundation of boulders on which the city's walls were erected proves that the land was reclaimed from the sea about 3,600 years ago. The epic has references to such reclamation activity at Dwaraka. Seven islands mentioned in it were also discovered submerged in the Arabian Sea.
Pottery, which has been established by thermoluminiscence tests to be 3,528 years old and carrying inscriptions in late Indus Valley civilization script; iron stakes and triangular three-holed anchors discovered here find mention in the Mahabharata.

"The findings in Dwaraka and archeological evidence found compatible with the Mahabharata tradition remove the lingering doubt about the historicity of the Mahabharata," said Rao. 'We would say Krishna definitely existed." What is needed, he added, is the political will to reconstruct the cultural history of the Vedic and epic periods of northern India.
The maritime museums at sites of ' wrecks and submerged ports are absolutely essential, and portable antiquities should be conserved properly, lie emphasized. If the proposal to have a maritime museum is accepted by the Gujarat government, it would be the first of its kind in India, he pointed out. Recounting the start of exploration for Dwaraka, Rao said, "We carried out the original survey with just four scuba divers, while the operation called for the services of around 200 divers and other staff." But for the work to progress now, more equipment is needed, besides funds and time, he warned, adding:

"We need two barges, one mounted with a crate, and equipment such as an airlift. We need 30 or 40 divers and engineers. The work should go on for at least six months and cannot be halt-ed midway."
According to Rao, the project would need at least Rs. 20 million ($476,000).Funds would have to be provided by the Gujarat government and its tourism department Other possible sources are the federal Department of Ocean Development (DOD), which organizes big projects such as expeditions to Antartica, the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), which have not contribute much, Rao said.

"The findings in Dwaraka and archeological evidence found compatible with the Mahabharata tradition remove the lingering doubt about the historicity of the Mahabharata. We would say that Krishna definitely existed"  - S.R. Rao
Dwaraka museum in Gujarat likely to throw light on Indus Valley civilization

The proposed underwater museum at Dwaraka, the first of its kind in the world, and a marine archaeology museum will throw more light on the Indus Valley civilisation and enable researchers to peep into the history of the lost city of the Mahabharata era.
The Marine Archaeology Centre and the National Institute of Oceanography have jointly submitted a proposal with technical details for the preservation of the site to the Gujarat government. The Gujarat Government Tourism Corporation has held meetings with a foreign expert for promoting Dwaraka as a tourist destination, according to S R Rao, the president of the Society for Marine Archaeology.
The project envisages an estimated investment of over Rs 20 million. Unfortunately no follow-up action is forthcoming. The entire nation and even foreign countries are anxiously waiting for the preservation of the submerged city, which is not only of historical importance, but also of emotional interest since its founder was Lord Krishna, Rao said.
As per the proposal, marine acrylic tubes would be laid through which visitors could pass and view the remains of the historic city from windows. Acrylic walls could also be made which could be accessed by boats. Dwaraka, the submerged city in the Arabian Sea, off the Gujarat coast, is well connected with the other parts of the country. While most of Dwaraka is submerged in the Arabian Sea, tourist are attracted to the places which are not submerged -- Nageshwar Mahadev, Rukmani mandir, Shardapath and Dwarakashish temple. The mainland city was well-planned and boasted a good harbour. The full plan of the submerged city on the mainland has been ascertained and plotted on the basis of the individual structures discovered in six fortified sectors extending up to one km from the shore.
Dwaraka has been mentioned as golden city in the Shrimad Bhagwat Gita, Skand Purana, Vishnu Purana and also in Harivansh and Mahabharata. It is rated as the seven most ancient cities in the country. UNI
(source: Rediff on the Net).

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