http://www.hindu.com/edu/2004/06/28/stories/2004062800240800.htm
Sanskrit wrapped in heritage
The `language of the heavens' comes alive here. Mambalam Samskritha
Vidyalaya continues to build on its experience of teaching Sanskrit
for .ve decades.
A Sanskrit class in progress at Orient Math School, West Mambalam,
Chennai. -- Photo: R. Ragu
ADMISSION FEE to a medical college: Rs. 2,50,000
For a journalism programme: Rs. 1,50,000
For an engineering programme: Rs. 25,000
For Mambalam Samskritha Vidyalaya: Re. 1
Here, at Oriental Math School, beside the chaos on Madley Road
subway, patiently sits an 84-year-old man, whose eyes twinkle
brighter than the diamond studs on his ears. For 50 years, to over a
1,000 students, he has been teaching Kalidasa's poetry, Bhavabhuthi's
dramas and the choicest Sanskrit literature. And he has never ever
asked even a rupee from any of them as school fee.
`Periya Master' to his students, the frail scholar OR Rajagopalan,
started this Vidyalaya beside a well 50 years ago. And he has never
missed a class, even when his wife was ill and admitted in hospital.
This vidwan has taught the schoolboy and the software professional,
the Hindi teacher and the college girl. Even if there are just two
students in the class on one fine day, Mr. Rajagopalan would not
mind. He will teach them happily, with his trademark commitment.
Today, there is a class of youngsters, several of them college
students, hanging on to his every word. In his clear voice he takes
them through a lesson in the syllabus prescribed by the Samskritha
Bhasha Pracharini Sabha, Chitoor, which conducts Sanskrit
examinations every six months.
Like the Hindi Prachar Sabha, this institution conducts examinations
twice a year for Sanskrit students. The course has six levels, from
Parichaya (for the beginner) to Abhigna, Vichakshana, Samartha,
Kovidha and Vidhya Bhushana, which is on a par with an MA in
Sanskrit, says OR Devanathan, a honorary lecturer at the Vidyalaya.
Classes are on from 6 p.m., thrice a week for the beginner levels and
daily for senior students.
A specialty at the Vidyalaya is the Saturday `Vagvardhini Sabha'
where students are taught to speak in Sanskrit. "In fact, we use it
as a forum to discuss social issues," says one student. The
Vidyalaya, in many ways, is a throwback to a different age, run by an
idealistic old man who believes that Sanskrit cannot be sold.
Dhanya Parthasarathy
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