Author:
Publication: The Free Press Journal
Date: January 30, 2003
Sheeghram Dhave" (run fast), shouts
a little boy in chaste Sanskrit to his fellow batsman while running between
the wickets holding the bat on a nondescript maidan in this village, where
the country's ancient language still remains alive and spoken among the
rustic folk, reports UNI.
At the sight of an outsider, the
lad is suddenly subdued and gives a nod to this correspondent: "Suprabhatam".
Sanskrit, touted as the mother of
all languages, has overcome a brief lull in its verbal existence and again
started blooming in this neat and tiny village located on the picturesque
banks of the river Tunga in Shimoga district. As had been the case during
its hoary past, a visitor to this place is greeted by a 'Good Morning'
in the Indian version and even with vedic chants sometimes.
Historically, the natives of this
village are settlers from Sankote located in Tamil Nadu-Karnataka border
and had made Mattur their home since almost five centuries ago following
a largesse sanctioned by Krishnadevaraya, the emperor of Vijayanagara in
1509-30. Known for his penchant to encourage all manifestations of culture
and languages, he doled out 120 acres of land here for the migrants to
five by practising and preaching the Vedas.
The advent of English education
in the early spans of the last century did make some dent into Sanskrit-speaking
habit of the successive generations. Until erosion was stemmed in 1992
by Udupi Pejawar Mutt pontiff Vishveshathirtha, who visited the village
and was impressed by its lush-green locale.
So moved was the swamiji at the
sight of Mattur's tranquil and pleasant ambience that he gave a clarion
call to develop it as a model 'Sanskrit village'. His exhortion to the
natives to rekindle the spirit of the ancient language eventually found
results in all ways of life and walks of people.
Coming to the current times, all
children in local schools invariably take Sanskrit as the optional language
and display keen interest in ensuring that it existed even outside classrooms.
Irrespective of caste and creed, the local people, totaling 3500, converse
In Sanskrit across the village, which has not experienced any communal
disturbance. Credit also goes to the Samskruta Bharati, a 1982-founded
organisation in the wake of some adverse comments aired about Sanskrit
language those days. Its functionaries took up the daunting task of helping
Sanskrit flourish by roping in the help of pandits settled in the village.
