Sanskrit & Language – Hindu University of America https://www.hua.edu Wed, 12 Mar 2025 07:18:18 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.1 https://www.hua.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Asset-1@2x-100x100.png Sanskrit & Language – Hindu University of America https://www.hua.edu 32 32 Philology Versus Misology https://www.hua.edu/blog/philology-versus-misology/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=philology-versus-misology https://www.hua.edu/blog/philology-versus-misology/#respond Mon, 08 Nov 2021 05:17:00 +0000 https://www.hua.edu/?p=20182 This blog critiques Western Indologists like Holtzmann, Garbe, and Jacobi, highlighting their historical distortions of the Mahābhārata and Bhagavadgītā. It contrasts their approaches with the deeper philosophical study of Indian texts.

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Philology Versus Misology

The vast majority of Western scholars, who call themselves Indologists, approach ancient Indian texts with a sense of skepticism and view them as objects to be exploited. Most scholars have attempted to understand Indian texts from a purely historical perspective. Their efforts at studying the text focus on answering questions such as when was the text written? Is there a single author or multiple authors? Can the original text before redactions and interpolations be reconstituted? Can the stages of interpolation be identified along with their underlying motivations? and so on.

This framework looks at the text through a lens of skepticism and views it as an object to be manipulated and dissected to create speculative historical narratives. It completely ignores the commentarial tradition which has studied the text from a philosophical perspective for more than a millennium and dismisses it as subjective and partial and a product of prejudice and superstition.

The efforts of these scholars are primarily motivated by an attempt to support and further their religious or other ideologies or to enhance their self-interest. [1] Their efforts have not resulted in any knowledge or findings that have contributed to the improvement of society or helped individuals lead more productive and happier lives. On the contrary, by placing trust in their unsound and highly speculative arguments, many individuals have developed a strong dislike for humankind and society or have become misanthropes.

Many Indians have placed their trust in Indologists because they were convinced by the Indologists’ argument that Indology’s method of studying ancient Indian texts is superior to the traditional method, being secular and based on reason. These Indians, who were not competent in crafting arguments, placed their trust in Indologists and Indology.

They felt betrayed by the Indologists when the Indologists concluded that their ancient texts do not contain any meaningful or worthy insights about life and are simply filled with “a mass of incongruencies, absurdities, and contradictions.”[2] As a result, these Indians lost faith in reason, concerning Indian texts, and began questioning the motivations of everyone, both the Indologists as well as those who have crafted effective and sound arguments against Indology.

As I will demonstrate, the Indians also developed a dislike of Indian texts and culture due to the manipulations and distortions of them by Indologists. Given this, can one reasonably conclude that these scholars are engaging in philology?

According to the ancient Greeks, philology is the study of ancient myths and tales to understand one’s true nature, specifically to understand whether one is mortal or immortal and his or her relationship to the divine.[3] Under this definition of philology, Western scholars’ study of ancient Indian texts would not qualify as philology.

To establish that Western scholars’ study of ancient Indian texts is not consistent with this definition of philology, I analyze their framework for studying Indian texts, their underlying motivations, and the highly disparate conclusions that their framework and motivations generated. My analysis is based on the review of three German Indologists, who are pioneers in the field of German Indology and whose work heavily influenced and shaped the work of later Indologists both in Germany and around the world.

Adolf Holtzmann Jr. was the “first Indologist to make reconstruction of the original”[4] texts the primary goal of his study of the Mahābhārata and the Bhagavadgītā. His approach to studying Indian texts was highly influenced by his zeal to prove that the epic traditions of the Greeks, the Germans, and the Indians were branches of a common heritage.[5] He saw the Kṣatriyas as members of a noble Indo-Germanic race and hypothesized that they were the subject of the original epic. He viewed Brahmins as contemptuous manipulators who were responsible for ruining the original Indo-Germanic epic through interpolations and redactions.[6] Driven by his ideology, he engaged in a violent reconstruction of the Mahābhārata and Bhagavadgītā.

Holtzmann posited a three-phased textual history of the Mahābhārata.[7] The three phases, according to Holtzmann, were: (1) Indo-Germanic oral tradition, (2) the Buddhist poetic composition, and (3) the Brahminic revision. Using this three-phase textual history hypothesis as a foundation, he fabricated a highly tendentious hypothesis of the Brahmanic takeover of the epic poem. Holtzmann argued that in the third phase of the textual history of the Mahābhārata, the Brahmins took over the epic through a series of redactions and revisions. Specifically, he argued that the Brahmins used these redactions and revisions to introduce new characters, orchestrate the preferential treatment of the Pāṇḍavas, and establish the social order of Brahminism as a timeless and axiomatic truth.

Holtzmann, however, does not articulate precisely what the Brahmins would have revised and redacted. The target of the Brahmanic revisions and redactions is not clear because Holtzmann has not given a consistent and clear description of the first phase. Not only does Holtzmann not clearly articulate the target (Buddhist poetic composition, Indo-Germanic epic tradition, or both) of the Brahmanical takeover, but he also does not provide a rational account of it.

Similarly, Holtzmann hypothesized that the Bhagavadgītā was a pantheistic poem based on the beliefs about courage, the necessity of battle, and the absurdity of the fear of death that Indo-German warriors held.[8] Based on this hypothesis, he concluded that the original Bhagavadgītā was a short work that ended with the second chapter of the Gītā. The first two chapters contained the main ideas of the original poem and subsequent chapters providing only an elaboration or addressing seeming contradictions. Holtzmann designated any elements of the Gītā that did not correspond to his hypothesis as revisions made by Brahmins to introduce theistic elements into the text. He specifically claimed that the identification of Kṛṣṇa with Brahman was a revision imposed upon the text by Brahmins.[9]

By applying this pseudo-historical-critical method to the Mahābhārata, Holtzmann also undertook a reconstruction of the epic in which he made the Pāṇḍavas the villains and the Kauravas the heroes (allegedly reverting the epic to its original state).[10] He had no interest in the epic as it actually existed, no appreciation for its philosophy, nor interest in its narrative. For him, the epic was simply an object that he could manipulate to corroborate his vision of German identity as secular, enlightened, and rational.

Holtzmann was essentially using the Mahābhārata as a foil for German history. Similarly, Holtzmann’s reconstruction of the Bhagavadgītā was not motivated by a genuine interest in the work, but rather his zeal to corroborate his vision of the early Germans as free-thinkers by arguing for an original pantheistic Bhagavadgītā.

Richard Karl Von Garbe and Hermann Jacobi, two other pioneers of Indology, accepted Holtzmann’s thesis of an original Gītā and employed a similar pseudo-historical-critical approach. However, they made superficial changes to arrive at more specific accounts of the original text and reached differing conclusions on whether the original was theistic, pantheistic, or both. Their efforts were motivated by their ideology and self-interest, namely making a name for themselves within German academia.

Garbe’s approach as well as that of Jacobi was heavily influenced by the pantheism debate that was raging in Europe during the nineteenth century. Protestants and Catholics alike viewed pantheism as irreligious and as affirming materialism and atheism. This gave rise to a huge divide between theism on one side and pantheism on the other. Many German philosophers and other scholars of the time including Kant, Hegel, and Schlegel were highly critical of pantheism. Schlegel, who had converted from Protestantism to Catholicism, viewed pantheism with great disdain.[11] He viewed it as a philosophy that flatters man’s arrogance and promotes his indolence and blamed it for promotion of superstition and indiscriminate materialism.[12]

Given the great theism versus pantheism debate in European society, German Indologists took a view that the theistic and pantheistic aspects of Hinduism are contradictory, and that the contradiction can only be resolved by adopting a historical comparison to determine which of these two was older. The older would be the original perspective of the Bhagavadgītā and latter would be a later interpolation.[13]

Garbe, who preceded Jacobi, accepted Adolf Holtzmann’s thesis that the theistic and pantheistic elements of the Gītā were contradictory and that the resolution of the contradiction by identifying the older of the two would lead to the identification of the original Gītā.[14] Although Garbe agreed with Holtzmann’s thesis of an original Gītā, he reached a different conclusion. Garbe argued that the Bhagavadgītā was originally a theistic text of the Bhāgavata religion, which was founded by Kṛṣṇa.

According to him, the text propounded a rational monotheistic religion promoting the performance of good deeds and rituals. It was only later, after the rise of the priesthood (i.e., the Brahmins), that pantheistic elements were added to the text, and salvation was redefined from eternal self-conscious existence of individual selves to a merger of the self into the pantheistic Brahman.

Jacobi, like Garbe, was influenced by Holtzmann’s thesis and believed in the concept of the original Bhagavadgītā and later interpolations. In his view, the original Bhagavadgītā consisted of chapter 1 and 23 verses from the rest of the chapters that related to the war.[15] The rest of the poem, which is didactic or philosophical, was a later addition.

The original poem centered on the war was related to two divine beings, namely Arjuna and Kṛṣṇa. The poem existed before the Mahābhārata and was incorporated into Mahābhārata. The pantheistic elements were later additions by redactors rather than the priesthood, but there was no conflict between the theistic and pantheistic elements for Jacobi as pantheism was simply attributing the material causality of the world to God. For him, both the theistic and pantheistic interpretations of the Bhagavadgītā were reconcilable with monotheism and the incarnation of God in the world.

The approaches adopted by Holtzmann, Garbe, and Jacobi to the study of the Mahābhārata and the Bhagavadgītā clearly demonstrate that they were not philologists as they had no interest in studying the texts from a philosophical perspective to gain knowledge about their true nature. Holtzmann’s objective was to use the Mahābhārata and Gītā to connect German culture to the epic traditions of India and Greece and to establish the German culture as free-thinking. Garbe and Jacobi, on the other hand, were primarily interested in using the Bhagavadgītā to support their respective viewpoints concerning the pantheism debate that was ongoing in Europe at the time.

All these scholars engaged in argumentation to negate and discredit the traditional understanding of these texts that a continuous commentarial tradition had established over millennia. In this respect, these scholars were not engaged in philology but rather misology.

A mature study of ancient texts and accounts does not engage in scientific demythologization. Such a study would respect the texts as meaningful and highlight or uncover profound philosophical concepts and principles contained within them. An immature study of ancient texts, such as that undertaken by these scholars, is mere technique or method and produces nothing of value to society. Not only do such efforts produce nothing of value, but they actually degrade society by turning those who place trust in the unsound and highly speculative theories of scholars into misanthropes.

Indians first lost faith in their texts and their traditions due to the repeated mockery of missionaries and Indologists. In the present, they have become aware of the problems with Indology, but they are no longer able to trust the tradition and so they have nowhere to turn to. They have thus become uprooted, turning to Western culture as the default either in the form of consumerism or Marxism (which is also a form of materialism), but are not able to pose questions of how to live, how to be ethical, the ultimate purpose of life, how to gain salvation, etc.

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My Samskritam Journey https://www.hua.edu/blog/my-samskritam-journey/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=my-samskritam-journey https://www.hua.edu/blog/my-samskritam-journey/#respond Tue, 13 Apr 2021 00:28:00 +0000 https://www.hua.edu/?p=20544 The blog shares a personal journey of learning Samskritam at the Hindu University of America, highlighting the challenges, rewards, and deep connection with Hindu culture, philosophy, and spirituality that come with mastering the language.

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I remember, my concern a year ago was – as a 50-year-old would I be able to learn a new language at this age? I need not have worried. Samskritam has a way of staying with you

My Samskritam Journey

I had always wondered about those people who know Samskritam and can just read our ancient texts like the way most of us Indians read English books.

About eighteen months ago, by some chance I was introduced to the Hindu University of America. I started some courses here for two quarters. Then they introduced the Certificate program for Samskritam studies, and it felt like a sign. This whole covid era suddenly seemed like a blessing, because there was a lot of time saved which I could use for my coursework, and I could do these courses online from the comfort of my home. Here I was, being given an opportunity to learn Samskritam if I so chose. Earlier somehow, I used to think it was not for me, but suddenly this felt just right. This was a year ago and four quarters in, I am thoroughly enjoying the journey.

Prior to this I only knew some Samskritam chants. My mother tongue is Telugu, which uses a lot of Samskritam words with the original meaning intact. I knew the Hindi script, so that made things slightly easy at the beginning for me, although there are some differences in the way things are written in Samskritam. My reading skills were rusty, having not read much Hindi. I somehow did not have much interest in Hindi growing up, although I tremendously enjoyed learning Telugu and French.

I remember, my concern a year ago was – as a 50-year-old would I be able to learn a new language at this age? I need not have worried. Samskritam has a way of staying with you, reverberating in your mind, even when you are not studying it! I find myself mumbling sentences out in Samskritam sometimes while doing my chores. I find that I am living and breathing it as I am learning it. I start seeing or noticing what I learnt in class in my chants, the vachana, purusha, lakara (plurality, person, tense) of the verbs, the vibhakti (declensions) of the nouns, the avyayani (indeclinable/unchangeable words), and now that we are just beginning to learn sandhis, those too.

It’s not easy, let me tell you right away. One needs to put in some time and effort to learn Samskritam. But having really really good teachers like the ones I have at HUA makes a big difference. My co-students have also made a big difference for me – all of whom have chosen to learn Samskritam and are hence highly motivated. Like a saying in Samskritam

आचार्यात् पादमादत्ते पादं शिष्यः स्वमेधया । पादं सब्रह्मचारिभ्यः पादं कालक्रमेण च ॥

A quarter of the knowledge is acquired from the teacher, a quarter by the student’s own intelligence, a quarter from the co-students, and the last quarter comes with time (with practice and effort over time). These kinds of sayings helped when I was feeling impatient (to get it soon and to get it right) and hence overwhelmed in the quarters when we were beginning to learn vibhaktis – made me feel less stupid, more accepting of myself, and more patient; assuring me that everybody is in the same boat!

One of my favorite things in the Samskritam classes are the subhāṣitam – succinct, eloquent sayings, that are sprinkled all throughout the courses. My favorite are the following:

आकाशात् पतितं तोयं यथा गच्छति सागरम् । सर्वदेवनमस्कारः केशवं प्रति गच्छति ॥

It says that just as all the water that falls from the sky finds its way into the ocean, so also salutations offered to all Gods, find their way to Sriman Narayana. There is a deeper Oneness that I feel and an expansive feeling when I learn these.

अयं निजः परो वेति गणना लघुचेतसाम् । उदार चरितानां तु वसुधैव कुटुम्बकम् ॥

Meaning: The thought that this is mine and that is somebody else’s, appears only to those with a narrow-minded outlook. For the ‘large hearted’ ones, however, the entire world is One family.

सदयं हृदयं यस्य भाषितं सत्यभूषितम् । कायः परहिते यस्य कलिस्तस्य करोति किम् ॥

Meaning: One whose heart is filled with compassion, speech is adorned with truth, (and) whose constitution (form) is for the benefit of others – what can Kali (puruṣa) do to him?!

We also are being taught some stotras in a way of teaching us about samāsā (compound words). The stotras are very beautiful in general, but more so when the meaning is understood in the right light. Some of the words make me wonder whether the people who wrote these, actually experienced God in the way they describe them, if not they could not have come up with such beautiful eloquent words. तप्तकाञ्चनसन्निभम् – <body, brilliant> like molten gold or अगजाननपद्मार्कम् – <He is like> the Sun that brightens the lotus-face of the daughter of the mountain – who says such things nowadays anymore?

Through Samskritam, I am connecting deeper with our culture, samskriti, through the snippets we learn in class, whether it is the sūtras, stotras, subhaśitas, or the stories about historical figures, freedom fighters, Gods, festivals and traditions, stories from the epics, or the way the language itself is structured, it all leads back to the splendid glory that the Hindu culture was.

Did you know that the preferred voice of Samskritam is passive voice? This means that an action is done by me or through me, but I am not the do-er. This is so in line with the Hindu philosophy of simply being a channel of the action, without the ego coming into the picture, letting go of the fruits of the actions, because all action is already performed by the Higher power and the results are not in our hands. In English one might say I read the book “अहं पुस्तकं पठामि” but in Samskritam “मया पुस्तकं पठ्यते” is preferred. Coincidentally, or not, अहम् aham also is the Ego, which is left out in the कर्मणिप्रयोग karmani prayoga or passive voice.

The classes themselves are fun, light, lively and very interactive. In between lessons, we practice reading enjoyable stories from the Panchatantra, or from the SambhashanaSandesha, a Samskritam magazine. Everyone is given a chance to read the lessons or stories, if they so choose. We are encouraged to speak in Samskritam, but it’s a choice. After four quarters, I still find it daunting to speak impromptu in Samskritam. The sentences form in my mind, but when it comes to speak, I hesitate, despite knowing that I will be corrected only very gently. I admire the incredible patience of my teachers. Some mistakes are made over and over again, yet they only patiently repeat the corrections. There are many other students who speak confidently.

In the second quarter itself, we had the exciting opportunity to put together and perform a short Samskritam skit in class. I loved that project. It was optional. I was excited about it and volunteered then and there to go on first – within 4 days of the announcement. Coming up with sentences for me is easy, in the privacy of my own mind and home so confidently I did ok. Yes, there were mistakes, but there we were, like babies taking our first independent steps into the world of Samskritam, we were not chided for falling. I felt a sense of achievement and some confidence that I will be able to make it on this long journey.

We learn a lot in each class and keeping up with the classes means staying on top of things and putting in the hours to read and reread and practice writing and listening and all that good stuff. Which is why I am amazed at all my co-students, as well as my teacher, who after working a full-time job and spending time with families, have time for Samskritam classes! I truly admire all of them for their commitment.

In the third and fourth quarters, we have been introduced to our Shastras in Samskritam – the nectar of Bhagavad-Gita, Bhagavatam, Yoga-Shastras, Ayurveda-parichaya, Mukundamala (by Kulasekhara Alwar) etc. It is so exciting to learn snippets of these great texts; as I sit listening to them, I am immersed in the deepest spirituality offered by India.

Now just four quarters later, we have been prepared enough to write the entrance exam for a Master’s program in Samskritam! It will be challenging, but definitely possible. There are students who are moving in that direction. We listen to the Samskritam news, read Samskritam articles, listen to talks in Samskritam, and more recently we have a teacher who teaches purely in Samskritam, and I am pleasantly surprised that I can actually understand everything that is said. The shastras I mentioned earlier, are taught only in Samskritam.

The explanations are enunciated slowly and clearly so that we can follow them. I appreciate the amount of thought and care that went into the course planning, and the way we are being introduced to the various aspects of the language gradually.

I also learned that a simple non-assuming person called Chamu Krishna Sastry, an Indian educationist, started this new push for revival and popularizing Samskritam. His motivation inspires me. He, along with a few others, started Samskrita Bharati in 1981. He popularized “teaching Samskritam through Samskritam”. He encourages use of simple Samskritam, to gain confidence and interest. He started teaching Samskritam through spoken language rather than through the grammar which could be formidable.

It is the way babies learn to speak language and hence is easier. He encourages interesting and creative ways of teaching Samskritam, develops new vocabulary to keep up with modern science and technology. He experimented with concepts like Samskritam homes, which means that they are encouraged to speak only in Samskritam through the day. He conducts workshops, book fairs, translates books from many other languages into Samskritam, etc. Through his efforts, now Samskrita Bharati is very popular all over India and has centers in thirteen other countries, and thousands of volunteers and teachers.

He says, “Till now Sanskrit has only been seen from a spiritual or religious perspective; it is high time Sanskrit is approached from a scientific point of view as well.” You have got to listen to one of his talks in Samskritam, he is inspiring, and I guarantee if you have an Indian Mother Tongue, you will understand every word of what he says.

It is in collaboration with such an esteemed and noble organization that HUA has acquired the best teachers.

The HUA course textbooks designed by Samskrita Bharati, are in line with Samskrita Bharati’s goals. They are attractive, informative, light and easy to understand while delivering deep concepts of grammar and sentence structure in simple ways. They focus on the way children learn language through daily activities and familiar objects, and progress accordingly. I love the flow of the course material, though stories and exercises and consistency of format.

I am in Yoga in Samskritam class, my body is still, my breath is even, and my mind has no option but to focus on every single word that is being said, not because I have to, but because I want to. This is what I desire.

I am grateful to HUA and Samskrita Bharati, I feel blessed that I have this opportunity to connect with myself in this way. I am so inspired by the teachers as well as by what I am learning that now, I want to pursue a Masters in Samskritam. And if my life permits, if it is my destiny, pursue higher studies in Samskritam.

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MA Sanskrit – What our students say https://www.hua.edu/blog/ma-sanskrit-what-our-students-say/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ma-sanskrit-what-our-students-say https://www.hua.edu/blog/ma-sanskrit-what-our-students-say/#respond Mon, 11 May 2020 06:11:00 +0000 https://www.hua.edu/?p=19906 The MA Sanskrit program offered by Hindu University of America in partnership with MIT School of Vedic Sciences provides immersive, practice-oriented study, allowing students to explore ancient texts in Sanskrit and gain in-depth knowledge of Indic systems.

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What our students have to say about the Master’s Certificate in Sanskrit Studies offered by HUA, in partnership with MIT School of Vedic Sciences.

The Master’s Certificate in Sanskrit Studies offered by HUA, in partnership with MIT School of Vedic Sciences, is one of a kind graduate-level program in Sanskrit in the USA. It is delivered primarily in Sanskrit as a medium of instruction, featuring immersive, practice-oriented study, providing direct, unmediated access to source-texts. It prepares the students to explore ancient and classical texts such as the Vedas, Upaniṣads, Rāmāyaṇa, Mahābhārata, Purāṇas, the Shastras and the Prasthāna Traya, without having to rely on translations. The program has received an overwhelmingly positive response, so far.

Here are a few extracts from what some of our current students have to say about the Program.

Uma Nagarajan, Indiana, USA

Namaste!

 I just completed the first semester of the MA Sanskrit Program offered by Hindu University of America in partnership with MIT-School of Vedic Sciences. It’s offered in two-year, three-year, four-year options. I chose the two-year program as I wanted to dedicate two years for focused study. I wondered how the timing would work with full-time work and family commitments. It worked quite well, as the class timings are convenient for various time zones. There are six 1.5 hour classes in the week. We need a few more hours for studying, listening to the class recordings, assignments, etc. So, with around 15 hours of commitment each week, I was able to complete the first semester quite well. The faculty and the acharyas are very knowledgeable. They readily clarify doubts and answer questions of students at any time – in the live class, online class discussion forums, emails, and messages. What I managed to learn in the first semester is amazing. The Vyakaranam course not just introduced us to Ashtaadhyaayi but enabled us to interpret the sutras by ourselves. The Vedic Sciences Foundation course is very unique and gives a very scientific and structured perspective of our Shastras and shaastra-granthaas. Though the focus of this MA program is on learning the language and saahityam, it also offers popular elective choices to explore from the wealth of knowledge that is available in the language – the Vedas, Vedanta and the Shastras. I am very grateful to MIT, HUA and the acharayas for offering this program online with affordable schedule options.

Amit Rao, Mumbai – India

I’ve always been passionate about languages – how they work, how we use them to communicate and to represent knowledge, as well as how they reflect human evolution. My early research in artificial intelligence, natural language processing, and English-Hindi machine translation deepened this interest. I was therefore always fascinated by Sanskrit. After 3 years of self-learning, I decided to pursue a formal Master’s degree. After exploring the available options, I found the MIT School of Vedic Sciences (SVS) offered in partnership with the Hindu University of America to be best suited for my needs. It was fully online, so I could do it from home while getting an officially recognized masters degree at the same time. Above all, I liked the breadth of coverage and the modern and flexible feel of the syllabus. Now, in my second semester, I’m thrilled and deeply grateful for my choice.

This program combines the best of both worlds – A brilliant faculty deeply trained in traditional Sanskrit knowledge systems and learning methodologies that are using the latest technology platforms to make the learning globally and flexibly accessible. The faculty are extremely approachable and committed to fine-tuning the course to the extent possible to suit the students’ best interests. A wonderful peer group of students passionate about the subject and supportive of one another was an added blessing.

The biggest surprise factor of the course for me, and the most pleasant and valuable one, was to discover the incredibly scientific, holistic and integrated nature of our Indic knowledge systems. This methodology of creating, discussing, inferring and encoding new knowledge, as well as the timeless value of the vast knowledge already encoded in Sanskrit are best learned in this language. My Sanskrit fluency has improved by leaps and bounds due to the immersive exposure to high-quality Shastric Sanskrit in which all the teachers here teach. I keenly look forward to sharing my knowledge and insights about the scientific nature of our shastras and exploring how they can be used to enrich all our modern disciplines.

I definitely and highly recommend the MIT-SVS-HUA MA Sanskrit program to anyone who wants to explore the Indic knowledge systems deeply. I find it value-for-money.

Anil Vashistha, Indianapolis

Namaste!

Having completed the undergraduate level Distance Learning Program courses provided by SamskritaBharati, I was eager to enroll in a master’s level Sanskrit Program. It sounded like a dream come true when I heard about the MA program offered by Hindu University of America in partnership with MIT School of Vedic Sciences. I quickly took the prerequisite Sanskrit proficiency test. I was quite anxious as to how the program would unfold but once the classes began, all the anxiety turned into pure joy and I had a feeling of being offered something very very special.

The timing of the classes, assignments, availability of study material – everything was very well thought out by the faculty. As for the teachers, there are no words that can express their depth of knowledge, teaching skills, and the abundance of patience. Yet these are not just any regular university lecturers. These are the best of the class Acharyas in their own fields. Beyond just prescribing a book and conducting an exam at the end of the semester, this course had hands-on, interactive sessions with the rarest of the Acharyas, all in samskritam. Assignments made us think and express our understanding in samskritam. And each and every assignment was thoroughly examined and constructive feedback was given. The course is structured beautifully – starts off with a birds-eye view of Vedic literature and then dives into the important components of our Shastras with a goal of enabling students to be able to study the original Shastras – themselves!

If you are interested in the program pre-register here for more information: https://info.hua.edu/ma-sanskrit-prereg-form

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