Context: Recently, the Uttarakhand Government has decided to develop 'Sanskrit Grams' across the state. The decision was taken after noting significant progress in a pilot programme to teach Sanskrit to residents of two villages in Uttarakhand.
Key Points
Sanskrit Grams Programme

• Aim: To teach people to use Sanskrit regularly.

Villages Selected

• Several villages were selected according to the availability of Sanskrit schools so that teachers may visit the villages often and motivate residents to learn and use Sanskrit.
• Villages were selected at the meeting of the Uttarakhand Sanskrit Academy, chaired by the Uttarakhand Chief Minister.
• It has also been decided to rename the academy as Uttaranchal Sanskrit Sansthanam Haridwar, Uttarakhand.
• The academy was established in 2002.

Implementation Strategy

• The focus will be on the school-going children so that they can learn the language from a young age.
• The programme will start by teaching people smaller sentences which are used most commonly.
• The programme will run first at the district level and then at the block level for promotion of the Sanskrit language.

About the Pilot Programme

• Earlier, villages of Kimotha in Chamoli district and Bhantola in Bageshwar district were developed as Sanskrit villages.
• Residents have started using the language in their daily communication and they also sing folk songs in Sanskrit.

Usage of Sanskrit in Uttarakhand

• Sanskrit is the second official language in Uttarakhand after Hindi (Article 345 of the Constitution: Official language or languages of a State).
• The state government currently runs 97 Sanskrit schools, where an average of 2,100 students study each year.

Historical Significance of Sanskrit
Sanskrit

• It is an old Indo-Aryan language in which the most ancient documents, Vedas are composed in what is called Vedic Sanskrit.
• Classical Sanskrit, a language close to late Vedic as then used in the northwest of the subcontinent, was elegantly described in one of the finest grammars ever produced, the A??adhyayi (“Eight Chapters”) composed by Pa?ini (c. 6th–5th century BCE).
• Sanskrit has been written both in Devanagari script and in various regional scripts, such as Sarada from the north (Kashmir), Ba?gla (Bengali) in the east, Gujarati in the west, and various southern scripts, including the Grantha alphabet, which was especially devised for Sanskrit texts.

There are also major works of drama and poetry, although the exact dates of many of these works and their creators have not been definitively established. Important authors and works include:

• Bhasa (for example, his Svapnavasvavadatta - Vasavadatta in a Dream), who is assigned widely varying dates but definitely worked prior to Kalidasa, who mentions him.
• Kalidasa, dated anywhere from the 1st century BCE to the 4th century CE, whose works include Sakuntala, Vikramorvasiya, Kumarasambhava and Raghuva?sa.
• Sudraka and his M?cchakatika (“Little Clay Cart”), possibly dating to the 3rd century CE.
• Bharavi and his Kiratarjuniya (“Arjuna and the Kirata”), from approximately the 7th century.
• Magha, whose Sisupalavadha (“The Slaying of Sisupala”) dates to the late 7th century.
• The two epics Ramaya?a (“Life of Rama”) and Mahabharata (“Great Tale of the Bharatas”) were also composed in Sanskrit, and the former is esteemed as the first poetic work (adikavya) of India.
• Sanskrit is a classical and an eighth schedule language.