BackPhoto Essay: A for Sanskrit, B for Vedas
A photographer's pilgrimage to Vedic schools shows a world revolving around the ancient langauge
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Earlier this month, Union human resource development minister Smriti Irani created a stir by abruptly replacing German with Sanskrit as the third language in Centrally run Kendriya Vidyalayas in the middle of the school year.
Sanskrit has always been the focus in certain schools, however.
In 2012, Kolkata-based photographer Joydip Mitra was attending Janamashtami celebrations at a Krishna temple in Udupi, Karnataka, when he saw a few tonsured boys in white dhotis playing. He discovered that they were students of the Sanskrit Pathshala, a Vedic school.
“My first thought after speaking to these children was about their future," says the 44-year-old photographer, who took the principal’s permission and stayed at the residential pathshala for five days to document life in the school. He interacted with teachers, students, and some of the parents. He learnt that most of the students were the youngest in their families; their elder siblings had studied in mainstream schools and had gone on to pursue conventional careers.
A typical day at school starts at 6am, with students studying the Hindu scriptures till 11am. After lunch, they get the time to play kho-kho and kabaddi, and have to clean their rooms. They don’t have access to TVs, cellphones or computers. In the evening, says Mitra, they are taught Kannada, science, math, history and English.
Obviously, since these schools focus on teaching the scriptures, proficiency in Sanskrit is essential. But the idea of teaching the boys some of the regular subjects, he later learnt, was to let them choose between continuing at this school or moving to conventional schools.
There are five such Vedic schools in Udupi; all, says Mitra, are affiliated to the state education board.
From Udupi, Mitra went to Majuli, in Assam, to visit some of the Vedic schools there. “There it was a different concept," he says. The students, all boys, not only learn Sanskrit and the scriptures but are also trained in the classical dance form Sattriya Nritya. Some of them live at the Vedic school but study in the conventional schools and colleges from 11am-4pm. Some of the older boys have smartphones and motorbikes.
Mitra also visited a few Vedic schools in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh—all the students were Brahmins, unlike the schools in Assam and Karnataka. “There the students are taught more about rituals and less about scriptures," he says. “The idea is for them to become professional priests, therefore they don’t teach any other language or subject." The typical routine at these schools starts with puja and the study of rituals. It ends with the Ganga arti.
“I thought that these boys would be mature and more disciplined and have a certain monk-like air about them," says Mitra. “But like any other child, they were interested in cartoons and comics."
Mitra is now headed to Mattu village in Karnataka to visit yet another Vedic school.
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