Punjab’s only Sanskrit school that doesn’t charge any fee

Aakanksha N Bhardwaj

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, October 4

To keep Sanskrit alive and make it popular among the youth, Guru Virjanand Gurukul Mahavidyalaya — only Sanskrit school in the state that charges no fee — will apprise its students of the importance of the language at a seminar to be held on October 13 on its campus. 

The seminar will be the part of the annual function to be organised from October 9 to15. Udyan Arya, principal of the school, said Sanskrit was linked to subjects like economics, law, science, and history etc.

Panchari wrote first ‘Arthshastra’ in which, many things about tax had been written, thus having a connection with economics too. Virendra Kumar Alankar, a professor who teaches at Punjab University, and is a chairman of Dayanand Chair for Vedic Studies, who will be coming to the school to deliver a lecture, said, “Sanskrit has ‘Dharmashastra’, which means law in dharmashastra. We have many laws related to property, election of a leader etc that were written centuries ago.” Even science has its link with the language, the professor says.

“In Vedic language, ‘gau’ is a word that has been used for earth, which means ‘a thing that moves continuously’, that means even before it was discovered that the earth revolves, it was Sanskrit who had said it,” he said.

The school attracts students from Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, and from Punjab. 

Affiliated to Gurukul Kangari University, Haridwar, the Kartarpur College gives them free lessons and hostel facility. 

Sanskrit is the medium of conversation here.

The day at the school starts at 4 am with yoga and ‘yagna’, followed by regular classes from 8 am to 2 pm.

The institution has 15 teachers. The intake is through an entrance examination. Some of the students are from Nepal too.  

Free coaching for outsiders too. Anyone, who wishes to learn Sanskrit, can also take free coaching here. The principal said many non-resident Indians approached him to learn the language. Interesting history associated with varsity When Gurukul Kangari University was established, the then Viceroy had visited the university and offered a donation of 1 lakh to Swami Shradhanand, founder of the university, which he refused to take, as he never wanted to take help from a foreigner.