Introduction

Uttarakhand, known as Devbhoomi all over the world, has been associated with the divine language Sanskrit since ancient times. All our religious texts such as Vedas, Upanishads, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Puranas, Dharmasmritiyas etc. are written in Sanskrit language. According to ancient beliefs, Maharishi Vedvyas composed 18 Puranas in Managaon near the famous Badrinath Dham of Uttarakhand. The Vyas cave situated there is still a witness to this.

All Sanskrit scholars are unanimous on the fact that the early life of Kavikulguru Mahakavi Kalidas was spent on the hills of Uttarakhand (Kaviltha village, Rudraprayag). The beauty and grace of the divine Himalayas is clearly reflected in his poems and plays. In Uttarakhand, daily worship, recitation, bhajan, kirtan and discourses are performed in Sanskrit language in many monasteries and temples including the four holy dhams of Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri. There are 90 Sanskrit schools and colleges in Uttarakhand where study and teaching is done in Sanskrit language only. It means that the Sanskrit knowledge Ganga stream flowed from Devbhoomi Uttarakhand to the entire world, sanctifying the land of India.

The importance of Sanskrit language is not only from the spiritual point of view but also from the scientific point of view. Along with knowledge, science is also present in abundance in our Vedas. The principle of gravity was propounded by Bhaskaracharya 500 years before Newton. Before the Wright brothers invented the airplane, the Tarapande couple built a solar powered flying machine called Marutsava in 1865 after studying the aeronautical chapter of Yantrasarvasva written by Maharshi Bharadwaj. Maharshi Kanad had discussed atomism in his Vaisheshik Darshan a thousand years before Ruther Ford.

Similarly, the value of Pi, the rotation speed of the earth, zero, decimal etc. are the pillars of many scientific and mathematical developments which were discovered by Indians but we know them as the inventions of foreigners. India got the identity of Vishwaguru in the world only because of Sanskrit language. During a research conducted abroad, it was found that the brain of Sanskrit speakers works faster than the brain of people speaking other languages. Apart from all these subjects, the most important fact is that the path of ‘human welfare’ is also paved by this language. Not only human welfare, social welfare, but world welfare also lies in this language. Only this language is capable of binding the entire world in the thread of unity. This is the reason why Western linguists like Prof. Bap, Dubois, Prof. Macdolan, Max Muller etc. have openly considered Sanskrit as the mother and growth promoter of all languages. Famous linguist Prof. Will Duran has said that ‘India is the birthplace of mankind and Sanskrit is the mother of European languages.’ Keeping in mind the scientific nature of Sanskrit, Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar supported Sanskrit as the official language of the Indian Union. Apart from all these subjects, Sanskrit is also important in Hindu religion because from birth to death, all the sixteen rituals are performed in this language through which a man becomes useful from personal and social point of view and moves towards success from worldly and spiritual point of view.

Establishment of Uttarakhand Sanskrit Academy

Uttarakhand Sanskrit Academy was established in the year 2002 under the chairmanship of the then Chief Minister Narayan Dutt Tiwari by the Government of Uttarakhand through Government Order No. 1249/U.S./2002 dated 20-12-2002, with the aim of regaining its ancient glory in the land of Uttarakhand, which sanctifies the entire world by flowing the sacred stream of divine words.