Premier Engineering and Scientific Institutes to have Sanskrit Cells

According to a panel set up by the Education Ministry, the premier engineering and scientific institutes including the IITs should have a Sanskrit Cell so that the students can study the ancient literature related to their fields. The panel also suggests that these institutes should allow the students to opt for internship in Sanskrit institutions for credit during the course of their study.

The retired IAS officer N Gopalaswami is heading the panel that stated,” If financial support is provided to such students their talent could be utilised in unravelling the scientific knowledge hidden in Sanskrit Literature through small but focused projects.”

During the first regime of the NDA government Gopalaswami was the culture secretary and the home secretary. He was appointed to the election commission after he retired. Further being the senior-most election commissioner he was made the chief election commissioner in 2006.

This panel was tasked with an agenda to develop a 10-year roadmap for the development of the Sanskrit language and it suggested the introduction of the language as an optional language in the undergraduate programs and integrating it with the other subjects.

IIT Delhi has already undertaken a project to introduce Sanskrit courses for the undergraduate students. The agenda of the project is to study science and technology in Sanskrit literature and inter disciplinary study of different modern subjects and its corresponding subjects in Sanskrit literature.

The panel further added,” Atharavaveda, Vaisheshika Darshana etc. are, it is acknowledged, the treasure house of scientific concepts which are hitherto studied from science point of view. There are hundreds of works like Siddhanta Shiromani, Vriksha Ayurveda…, which are of great relevance in the context of research and innovation.”

Another recommendation that the panel made was the setting up of model Sanskrit-medium schools in every state.