Proud moment for Karnataka's Samashti Gubbi as PM lauds her efforts to popularise Sanskrit

BENGALURU: For over three years Bengaluru's Samashti Gubbi has been striving hard to popularise Sanskrit, one of the oldest languages of India.

Her efforts paid off on Sunday when she received a big boost with praise from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In his 'Mann Ki Baat' radio address, Modi specifically referred to Gubbi's silent efforts to make Sanskrit a spoken language.

Speaking about Sanskrit, the Prime Minister said the language has played a big role in the progress of ancient Indian knowledge and science.

He said nowadays, many people are making such an effort in Bengaluru.

"There is a park in Bengaluru - Cubbon Park! In this park, the people here have started a new tradition. Here, once a week, every Sunday, children, youth and elders talk to each other in Sanskrit," Modi said.

He also pointed out that many debate sessions are also organised in Sanskrit.

"The name of this initiative is Sanskrit Weekend! It has been started by Samashti Gubbi ji through a website. This initiative which started a few days ago has become very popular among the people of Bengaluru," Modi said.

If we all join such efforts, we will get to learn a lot from such an ancient and scientific language of the world, he noted.

Samashti Gubbi's joy knew no bounds when Prime Minister Modi asked countrymen to take a cue from her in promoting the ancient language.

"It's a joyous moment for me when the Prime Minister appreciated my efforts. I have been working to popularise Sanskrit for the past many years," Samashti Gubbi told PTI.

An M.A in Sanskrit, Gubbi has been teaching this language.

She said she started a portal called sthaayi.in in 2021 for the promotion of Sanskrit.

"We organise bike rides for Sanskrit speakers. We also have a Sanskrit band where we translate Bollywood and Kannada film songs into Sanskrit and play them," Gubbi said.

Her 'Sanskrit Weekend' at Cubbon Park had seen the participation of 800 to 900 people.

Is the knowledge of 'Vyakarana' (Sanskrit grammar) a must to learn spoken Sanskrit? To this, Gubbi said, "We don't learn grammar of any language as a child. We just pick up the language."