Pakistan, for the first time since Partition, has made a comeback into classrooms with the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) introducing a four-credit Sanskrit course to teach the classical language.
The program stems from a popular three-month weekend workshop that drew keen interest from students and scholars. Students are also studying the Urdu version of “Hai katha sangram ki,” the famous theme song from theMahabharat television series.
Dr Ali Usman Qasmi, Director of the Gurmani Centre, pointed to Punjab University’s vast, overlooked Sanskrit archives. He noted a key collection of palm-leaf manuscripts catalogued in the 1930s by scholar JCR Woolner, untouched by Pakistani academics since 1947 and used only by foreign researchers. “Training scholars locally will change that,” he told The Tribune.
LUMS plans future courses on the Mahabharata and Bhagavad Gita. “In 10-15 years, we could see Pakistan-based scholars of the Gita and the Mahabharata,” Dr Qasmi said.
Associate Professor Dr Shahid Rasheed from Forman Christian College drove the initiative. “Classical languages contain much wisdom for mankind. I started with learning Arabic and Persian, and then studied Sanskrit,” he said. He learned via online platforms under Cambridge’s Antonia Ruppel and Australia’s McComas Taylor, mastering grammar in nearly a year and continuing studies.
Dr Rasheed faces questions about his choice but counters: “Why should we not learn it? It is the binding language of the entire region. Sanskrit grammarian Panini’s village was in this region. Much writing was done here during the Indus Valley Civilisation. Sanskrit is like a mountain – a cultural monument. We need to own it. It is ours too; it’s not tied to any one particular religion.”
He said South Asia could move toward greater harmony if people made an effort to learn one another’s classical traditions, adding that “if more Hindus and Sikhs in India started learning Arabic, and more Muslims in Pakistan took up Sanskrit, it could be a fresh, hopeful start for South Asia, where languages become bridges instead of barriers.”
