Sanskrit Workshops

A nine-day Sanskrit Sambhashan workshop was held at the Mumukshu Ashram in Kota under the auspices of the Samyak Gyan Prachar-Prasar Trust. Its purpose was threefold: to build in the participants an affection for the Sanskrit language, to make them fluent in speaking it, and to give them the linguistic grounding that the study of Jain Darshan and the Agama literature requires.

At the inaugural session the scholars and guests spoke on the importance of Sanskrit and Prakrit, observing that a serious reading of the Jain canon is not possible without them. The plan of the nine days was then set out — Sanskrit conversation, the Laghu Siddhanta Kaumudi, grammar, self-study, Sanskrit games, Sanskrit commentary, online conversations with scholars, cultural activities and Sanskrit discourses. From the first day participants were encouraged to speak only in Sanskrit, so that the practice would become natural rather than exceptional.

Through the camp several scholars taught Sanskrit at both the practical and the classical level. Participants practised daily conversation, grammar, word-formation and composition alongside the study of Jain Agama and philosophical texts. Sanskrit games, group activities, presentations and vakyartha sabhas — assemblies for parsing the sense of a sentence — produced a marked gain in language skill, confidence and expression.

At the closing session the participants presented their experiences in Sanskrit, giving a clear demonstration of what they had gained. The discourse given on that occasion set out the founding principles of Jain philosophy — ahimsa, compassion, restraint, renunciation, equanimity, and the doctrines of naya and pramana — in both their philosophical and their reasoned aspect, and left the participants with an appetite for the more difficult subjects.

The guests and scholars praised the enthusiasm and discipline of the participants and the real progress they had made in speaking Sanskrit, and urged them to keep up a regular practice of the language and a continuing study of the Jain scriptures. The camp closed with thanks to all the scholars, teachers, volunteers and participants.

The Arhat Sanskrit Vangmaya Shivir was held under the joint auspices of the Samyak Gyan Prachar-Prasar Trust, Jaipur, and the Sarvarthasiddhi Kanya Mahavidyalaya, Bhopal, from 28 February to 5 March 2026. Its aim was to develop in the students a working knowledge of Sanskrit, to give them a way into the study of Jain literature, and to build their classical learning and their power of expression through literature, grammar and philosophy.

At the inaugural session the scholars and guests described Sanskrit as the root language of the Indian knowledge tradition and of the Jain Agamas, and pressed the need to study it. The shape of the camp was then set out: over the days that followed there would be classes in language proficiency, in literature — particularly the figures of speech — in voice change and grammatical case, in Jain literature, in self-study through the medium of Sanskrit, and in expression and composition. The students were encouraged to speak and to conduct themselves in a Sanskrit environment throughout.

Teaching was shared among several scholars — Su. Vidushi Arya, Dr. Vipasha Jain, Pt. Vinod Shastri, Shri Gyansindhu and Pt. Nayan Shastri among them — who taught language, literature and Jain philosophy in a plain and practical way. The students worked on the use of the alankaras, on the literary study of Jain texts, and on conversation, translation and composition in Sanskrit. The daily self-study and Sanskrit discourses drew out a particular interest in reading the scriptures directly, and with it a growth in confidence.

At the closing ceremony the report of the camp was read, and the students gave presentations in Sanskrit on the language, on the figures of speech, on grammar and on Jain philosophy. Speaker after speaker observed how much ground they had covered in so short a time — in speaking Sanskrit, in classical study, and in expressing themselves without hesitation. The guests urged them to keep a regular practice, to go deeper into the Jain literature, and to make what they had learnt part of their lives.

Thanks were offered at the close to the Samyak Gyan Prachar-Prasar Trust, to the Sarvarthasiddhi family, and to all the scholars, teachers and volunteers, with the hope that such Sanskrit-centred programmes would continue to serve both the students' formation and the wider study of Jain philosophy. The camp ended with good wishes for the students' future.

The National Sanskrit Sambhashan Workshop was organised under the joint auspices of the Samyak Gyan Prachar-Prasar Trust and the Pandit Todarmal Smarak Trust, and was held from 13 to 22 March 2026 at the Todarmal Digambar Jain Siddhant Mahavidyalaya in Jaipur. Students came from many regions for an enthusiastic, residential immersion in spoken Sanskrit.

The programme ran to more than fifty sessions — roughly fifty-four classes in all. Mornings were given to Sanskrit conversation practice and language games; the afternoon and evening sessions covered verse study, figures of speech, the history of Sanskrit and Jain Sanskrit literature, and grammar — cases, sandhi and compounds; while the night sessions were devoted to scripture discourse and self-study.

The workshop was convened and directed by Dr. Vipasha Jain, with a teaching panel that included Shri Naresh Singh, Shri Savin Kumar and Shri Liladhar Sharma for conversation, Prof. Ramkumar Sharma for verse, Dr. Ashwani Kumar Thakur for grammatical cases, Dr. Pramod Kumar Jain for compounds, and Shri Nayan Jain and Shri Sushmit Jain for figures of speech and literature.

By the close, participants reported a new confidence in conversing in Sanskrit, a firmer grasp of grammar, and the resolve to keep the practice alive in daily life. The closing ceremony framed the camp not as an end but as the beginning of a continuing habit of study.