Samskrutotsavam – Celebrating Sanskrit

“Lord Shiva transmitted the Sanskrit language to humans and its sounds are also known as ‘Devas’. The
word ‘Deva’ has three meanings – God, protector (or guardian angel) and cosmic vibration. Lord Shiva
brought the Devas down to earth in the form of letters and this is why the characters of Sanskrit are
called ‘Devanagari’ – the ‘citizens of God’…” says Paramahans Swami Maheshwarananda, a great
yoga teacher and founder of Yoga in Daily Life Society. While speaking about the power of spiritual
mantra in one of his books, he adds, “In Sanskrit, there are 52 letters, the same number as the levels
(lokas) in the cosmos. As these levels also exist within us, the Sanskrit language is a key to our inner
world. In deep meditation, we occasionally perceive the corresponding Sanskrit letters and mantras and
feel the qualities associated with them…”

Such being the greatness of the divine Sanskrit language, it is with pride that the Sydney Sanskrit
School is engaged in the preservation and promotion of Sanskrit in Australia.

Established in 2006, the Sydney Sanskrit School is headed by Dr. Meenakshi Srinivasan, and is
supported by the NSW Department of Education under the NSW Community Languages Program.

Sydney Sanskrit School celebrated its second annual ‘Samskrutotsavam’ day of celebration on 30
October at Ermington Community Centre. Samkrutotsavam highlights the achievement of the
students, teachers and parents in learning the Sanskrit language. It also acknowledges community
participation and the immense support the Sydney Sanskrit School receives from organizations
such as the NSW Department of Education, Hindu Council of Australia and Hindu Heritage Society
to name a few.

Samkrutotsavam 2010 commenced with a prayer ‘Ganeshavandana’ and the recitation of some of
the Upanishad vakyas by the students of the school. Following this, was the Saraswathi pooja
performed by Pundit Narayan Bhat, the welcome speech by Soumya Raman and lighting of lamps
by the guests of honour. In his opening speech, Mr Albert Vella, President of the NSW Federation
of the Community Languages Program congratulated the students, parents and the management
committee of the school for organising the celebration. “NSW Federation of Community
Languages School is proud to have Sydney Sanskrit School as one of the 56 languages it
represents,” he said. “Even though it is a small community, it is important that the Sanskrit
language is continued to be taught to younger generations, so they can learn about their heritage
and be proud of their ancestry. Sanskrit which is one of the 22 official languages of India, is also
one of the threads in the fabric of the diverse multicultural society of Australia,” he said.

Distinguished guests Dr McCommas Taylor head of the South Asia Program, Australian National
University and Ann MacArthur senior coordinator of Asian Programs, Art Gallery of New South
Wales inaugurated the annual day celebrations by lighting a lamp, a traditional gesture to
symbolise the importance of knowledge in the world of ignorance. The gesture was accompanied
by rendition of a Sanskrit song ‘lead me from the darkness to the light’ to accompany the
illumination of the lamp. Dr McComas, congratulated Dr Meenakshi Srinivasan, Principal of the
Sydney Sanskrit School on the occasion and addressed the audience in Sanskrit. He reminded
everyone “what a wonderful living tradition Sanskrit language is and encouraged the community
to use the Sanskrit language in their daily life as and when they can”. Dr McComas also launched
the first edition of the school magazine ‘Medha’ which means ‘intellectual knowledge’. The school
created the magazine with the aim of it become a platform for the cultural thoughts and
expressions of students, teachers and parents of Sydney Sanskrit School. Alex Di Prinzio, Education
Officer, NSW Federation of Community Language Schools was present at the occasion and
congratulated the school management committee for their achievements.

Students of the Sydney Sanskrit School then presented a cultural extravaganza in Sanskrit. The
cultural programme commenced with a Bharatanatyam recital in praise of lord Ganesha, by Deepti
Bhat (a disciple of Guru Akila and a student of Sydney Sanskrit School), followed by Durga Sloka by
Siri Srinivas. Students presented a song dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi, father of the non-violence
movement leading to Indian independence. The junior students further enthralled the audience
with beautiful recitation of the Sanskrit rhyme for “I am a little Tea Pot”. The programme also
featured Sanskrit Panchatantra story narration by Lavanya Raman, violin recital by Vikram, Neeti
Shastram recitation (sayings that convey messages for upliftment of mankind) by the senior
students, ‘Vande Bharata Matharam’, a song written by Pareekshit Sharma, recitation of verses
from Bhagavad Gita and ‘Aham Cricket Kreedami’ a Sanskrit rhyme on the game of cricket.  “Prime 
minister is giving more funds for health and education; India won the cricket match with Australia 
where Sachin hit double century”, were some of the Sanskrit news headlines read by Skanda 
Jagadeesh. 

The highlight of the programme was a Sanskrit play, ‘Samskruta Gramam Matturu’, themed on the
story of a village Matturu in Karnataka, India, where Sanskrit is the primary spoken language of the
people there. The villagers speak in Sanskrit for their day to day conversation and Mattur is also a
hub for those aspiring to learn the Vedas. And the play had all the students of Sydney Sanskrit
School taking various roles in the village and speaking so eloquently and effortlessly in Sanskrit.

After the play, member for Liverpool, Mr Paul Lynch distributed prizes to the winners of the
Bhagwad-Gita and Subhashitam competitions. He encouraged and appreciated the participants
for their hard work and enthusiasm and mentioned “it is one of the strengths of the Australian
society which has made space for the culture of the migrants to prosper and in this case it being
Sanskrit”. Mr Nihal Agar, President of the Hindu Council of Australia present on the occasion
reiterated importance of the living tradition of Sanskrit and appreciated the efforts made by
Sydney Sanskrit School in up keeping this great linguistic heritage of India.

The programme concluded with a Bharatanatyam performance by Aruna Gandhimathinathan, a

senior disciple of Prof. Sudharani Raghupathy. The 20-minute presentation featured ‘Dasavataram’
from the ancient Gita Govinda composed by the 12th C. Sanskrit poet Jayadeva, describing the ten
incarnations of lord Vishnu. Aruna is the Founder-Director of Silambam-Sydney, School of Indian
Traditional Dance, and offers classes in Bharatanatyam at Liverpool.

A quiz in Sanskrit, a song by the parents and distribution of the prizes to raffle winners were the
lighter side of the event. And the compere Vandana Anand, with her cheerfulness and spontaneity
made the whole programme lively and enjoyable for the audience.

Sydney Sanskrit School offers classes on Sundays at Marsden Road Public School, Liverpool. The
main objectives of the school are to enable students to converse, read and write in Sanskrit,
comprehend Sanskrit literature relating to Vedas, yoga, meditation, spirituality, culture and history
and also enable them to appreciate the significance of the language, its role and influence in their
own personal development.

For  information,  contact:  Dr.  Meena  Srinivasan  –  0423457343,  Meera  Jagadeesh  –  0402960564, 
email: info.sydneysanskritschool@gmail.com, website: http://www.sanskritschool.org