Kendrapara, March 25,By Manoj Kar
Sanskrit might have lost its eminence in today's world but a remote village in this coastal Odisha district continues to churn out Sanskrit Pundits from each of the household.

With Sanskrit Pundits found in almost every home, Sasana village under Shyamsundar gram panchayat near this district headquarters town has a rare privilege of sorts.

The comparatively developed village, fully Brahmin-inhabited, has little above 200 population in 32 households.In nearly all the families, one would come across Sanskrit Pundits employed in government-run Sanskrit medium educational institutions.

“We are proud patrons of Sanskrit. The ancient language is very much alive in the village though things are not so in other places,” said 76-year-old Baishnav Charan Pati, a Sanskrit Pundit who has retired from his teaching job.

For generations, we have made it a point that at least one child in every household is taught in Sanskrit medium of education.

Most of the Sanskrit educated have got themselves employed either in government schools or taking up career as priest to do Hindu rituals and ceremonies, Pati told.

Take the case of Pundit Trilochan Sadangi. Both his sons and daughter are Sanskrit educated and are doing Sanskrit teaching jobs in government run schools.

In these parts of the state, Sanskrit is widely used as a ceremonial language in Hindu religious rituals in the forms of hymns and mantras. Sanskrit as a spoken language is still in use in a few traditional institutions.

“By encouraging our children to learn Sanskrit, we are trying to revive the language. We are largely successful till now. We still pin the hope that our future generation would keep the tradition alive,” Pundit Pati said with a tinge of pride.

In hoary past, this language flourished in this region. A miniature temple dedicated to the great poet Kalidas, author of Abhigynam Shakuntalam and who is believed to have graced the court of Chandragupta Vikramaditya of the Gupta dynasty in the fourth century, finds its place in sleepy Babkarpur village of this district, according to Sanskrit researchers.