Tirupati: Sanskrit varsity promotes spoken Sanskrit, moral values in kids

Tirupati: To inculcate Indian culture and traditions among students besides imbibing the skills of spoken Sanskrit, the National Sanskrit University (NSU) has introduced 'Abhimanyu Balakendras' for the past few years. The programme became an instant success with several students queuing up to learn Sanskrit language, considered as the base language to many Indian languages.

These kendras are aimed at promoting Sanskrit language so that it should have an entity. It started with 17 students in 2017 and grown in leaps and bounds. Within a year, 17 centres were opened at different schools with 500 plus children. By 2019, the number of centres has gone up to 60 in which more than 1,000 students were admitted.

To train the students with the prescribed objectives, 38 well-trained teachers are on the job who are studying various courses in the university. The classes will be held during weekends from 5.30 pm to 7 pm. The students have learnt the language very easily and the training was held basically in a play way method.

The Balakendras' in-charge Kiran Bhat told The Hans India that the response was tremendous from the children. Even the parents who used to bring their wards to Balakendras have shown interest in learning Sanskrit. A separate programme was started for them in which 500-600 have been trained in the language and they even completed some exams conducted by Sanskrit Bharathi.

The courses were stopped during the pandemic period but continued online under the title as 'Bala gokulam'. The online course is in two levels and the classes are held on only Sundays for one year. The online seats were limited to 175 per batch out of which 75 are meant for NRIs and foreign nationals. Now the second level programme is continuing online.

Meanwhile, Bhat said that the offline programme is also being resumed formally from Saturday itself for children between 5-15 years of age. The formal admission process for offline programme in Abhimanyu Balakendras will commence in July and classes to start later in the same month. The offline classes are completely free and no fee will be collected.

Besides spoken Sanskrit, students will be taught the importance of Indian traditions and its rich culture. They will be trained in various slokas which are to be rendered at different times of daily routine besides getting panchanga knowledge, he explained. Interested parents can contact Bhat at 9481267438 or Parameswar at 9483592622.