SAIIER 2018:Sanskrit Research Institute

Pitanga Cultural Centre		Savitri Bhavan
Sanskrit Research Institute

by Martin Gluckman

Sanskrit Research Institute (SRI) works with the Sanskrit language producing educational tools and materials to further enjoyment, research and study of this language.

Activities of the year:

Pāṇini Research Tool:

We have published the first version of our Pāṇini Research Tool (this tool is a consolidated reference for all the sūtras in Pāṇini’s grammar) which has already received a good response from educators using it. Pāṇini has compiled and standardized Sanskrit grammar and has been a subject of immense wonderment for all scholars who have delved into this subject so much so that A.L. Basham has written: “one of the greatest intellectual achievements of any ancient civilization, and the most detailed and scientific grammar composed before the 19th century in any part of the world”.

It has been a great honour and joy to work with Pāṇini and our attempts in this light have been to bring a complex and magnanimous subject within access of all.

We will continue to update the tool with further projects as we prepare further data. It can be explored at: http://sanskritdictionary.com/panini/.

Ongoing dictionary works:

Our Sanskrit Dictionary has added a number of new dictionaries and tools under it during the course of the year. It continues to be a popular tool with Sanskrit students around the world: around 50,000 people are using it monthly from more than 150 countries. In total we have had 2.23 million visitors from 209 countries till date (as of 14 May 2018).

During the course of the year we added with kind permission of Dr. Potturu an Āyurvedic Medical Dictionary. This is in alignment with our wish to add subject specific dictionaries to enrich the subjects and data in our dictionary. Currently the dictionary has 931,416 unique Sanskrit words!

We have also added Abhyankar’s most excellent dictionary of Sanskrit Grammar.

This is of great use to students of Sanskrit grammar and in particular Pāṇini as Pāṇini has hundreds of technical terms specific to learning Sanskrit grammar.

New reference material works:

We have continued to publish references for students of Sanskrit, most recently adding the Laghusiddhānta Kaumudī and a reference to Vasu’s Aṣṭādhyāyī. Both are for students of Sanskrit grammar and avail an easy digital reference to these key texts.

Launch of the SRI website:

We have happily published our website at sri.auroville.org, the website is currently up to date with our completed, ongoing and forthcoming works. It also offers a form for volunteers to apply to volunteer and for general enquiries. A page describes each of our projects and there is a section for video works completed.

Video works:

In November 2017 we were very fortunate to host Dr. Rama Nath Sharma (Professor Emeritus of Sanskrit from the University of Hawaii) for a 5 day seminar on Pāṇini. We have completed the filming and editing of the 5-day lecture series, and published the video on our website.

50th birthday activities:

We gave a lecture on occasion of Auroville's 50th Birthday, in Savitri Bhavan’s beautiful Sangam Hall, entitled “7 years in the woods of Sanskrit”. The video is currently being edited and will be published shortly. We also co-organized 5 days of Vedic chanting (Somayāga) coinciding with the 50th birthday in collaboration with the Sri Aurobindo International Foundation, Hyderabad. Our team have videoed during these 5 days and we will produce a short film of this event.

Reflections:

This year we have taken on more volunteers and interns and it has been wonderful to see the impact of working with Sanskrit on our team, all people report a deep sense of peace and purpose working with this beautiful language and its literatures. This is the very same reason we have created this project and it is wonderful to see the appreciation of others.

Conclusion:

Sanskrit is a language close to the heart of Auroville with both Sri Aurobindo and The Mother encouraging the study and sharing of its beauty. From Auroville this is our attempt to share our love for this beautiful subject that is the key to the vast and wonderful literature of India.

We currently have a number of exciting projects under development and look forward to sharing those next year. It has been a great honour and joy to work with Sanskrit.