Plight of Sanskrit education!

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, July 20: The plight of a Sanskrit Tool (Chatuspathi) in Guwahati makes one feel that some monkey business is going on in the State on the fate of Sanskrit education.

Pragjyotishpur Sanskrit Vidyapith (a tool) near bagraha Temple atop the Chitrachal hillock in the city bears testimony to the pathetic condition of Sanskrit tools in the State. The tool, set up probably in Shok 1891 (as the me plate reads) in the city is totally off the grid – with no power connection, water supply and road to reach it. The tool has three classes – Praveshika, Madhyama and Shastri – with 25 students and four teachers – two for teaching Sanskrit and one each for teaching Arts and Science subjects. The infrastructure of the tool is nil.

As building infrastructure the tool had only a shed with CI sheets atop the head and no walls to cover and as such the need of a door did not arise. In the me of walls it had some very old and broken bamboo structures that somehow clung to a few of the posts, leaving huge gaps between them. With former Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi erecting two rooms in the campus for taking classes in his first term, the former ramshackle structure is now used as the quarters of the Pradhan Adhyapok (Head Professor) Prab Goswami. Earlier such tools were gurukulas where students used to stay with their teachers. The system is long passé now. However, this guru has to stay at the ramshackle structure.

The irony is that the tool has sanitary facilities only to lie idle. In the absence of water supply such facilities are of no use. A question that arises is: what will a girl student do to answer ture’s call?         

This is not all. The tool has no road to reach. The students have to trek the sheer steep amidst grass and shrubs to reach the institution – getting educated in Sanksrit is no less difficult than mountain trekking for them.

Talking to this reporter, Goswami, who was appointed in the tool in 1978 and who has been serving as its Pradhan Adhapok since 2000, said: “The tool was renovated in 1964 and it was taken up in 1969 by the State Government. The successive governments at Dispur didn’t pay any heed to our repeated pleas for the development of its infrastructure. The State Government doesn’t supply books for tool students.”

Located atop the hill amidst thick jungle, one cannot stand there at ease for a minute due to mosquito bites. Monkeys also create problems for the students and the teachers as well.