Tirupati: SC advocate bats for Shastric knowledge

Tirupati: Senior Advocate of Supreme Court of India PS Narasimha strongly felt that the Shastric knowledge is of utmost relevance to the present world and needs to be integrated into the modern system. Delivering the convocation address on "Importance of Sanskrit for the future of Law and Governance" at the 23rd convocation of Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeetha in Tirupati on Sunday, he stated that though language is primarily a medium of communication, it also becomes a barrier for those who do not know the language.

He pointed out that the modern-day professionals were unable to read and adopt the Shastric knowledge because they do not understand Sanskrit. The person who knows the language has the key to the wealth of knowledge. Having said this, he told the graduates who have received their degrees on this occasion that they have the key and the locker as well whom the country needs for the effective functioning of the institutions and survival of democracy.

He praised the Vidyapeetha for shouldering the responsibility of taking the language, culture, and strength of Sanskrit into the 21st century to meet the needs of the modern world. All the programmes and activities of the Vidyapeetha have enormously contributed to the overall development of Sanskrit studies. The young scholars should transfer their scholarship to the younger generations as it has to be available to the modern world.

The Chancellor of the University N Gopalaswami has said that Vidyapeetha's status will be changed from that of a Deemed University to a National University very soon which will bring in more responsibility as well. Saying that there is a vast store of knowledge available that can be accessed through interdisciplinary research work he said, a beginning was made by tying up with the French School of Asian Studies in this direction.

Vice-Chancellor Prof V Muralidhara Sharma in his address listed out the achievements of the Institution and presented the agenda for the future.

On this occasion, Vidyapeetha has conferred eight eminent scholars with Honoris Causa. Of them, four scholars – R Sundarama Vajapeyayajee, Prof S Venkata Rangaramanujacharyulu, Prof A Haridasa Bhat and Prof Sripada Subrahmanyam have received Mahamahopadhyaya. Prof Betavolu Ramabrahmam, Vidwan Janardhan Hegde, Dr HR Vishwasa and Prof Penna Madhusuan have been conferred with Vachaspati. A total of 494 degrees were awarded to the graduates of various courses out of which 457 were regular candidates while the remaining 37 are from distance education.