Sangh Samachar Advisory Board for International Sanskrit Book Fair announced Sanskrit is not a mere language but a civilisation—Justice (Retd) MN Venkatachalaiah

“SANSKRIT is not a mere language but a civilisation. The literature of Sanskrit should not be understood as a literature of the rituals, it is something extraordinary. The world is going to change in next ten years beyond recognition, because all branches of knowledge will converge and the results will be spectacular. But will that change necessary be a progress? In this given situation the values in Sanskrit will provide you a touchstone to take the mankind to happiness. Extract this universal and eternal values laid through Sanskrit language. Universalisa-tion of this language should be propagated through the International Sanskrit Book Fair,” said the former Chief Justice of Supreme Court of India Shri MN Venkatachalaiah. He was speaking at a meeting organised in Bengaluru on May 7 for the preparations of the First International Sanskrit Book Fair which will be held in Bengaluru from January 7 to 10, 2011.

Samskrit Bharati with the sponsorship of Rashtriya Sanskrit Pratishthan (Government of India) and Karnataka Government, declared the Advisory Board for the Book Fair. After the introductory speech by Dr Pralhadacharya, secretary of the organising committee Shri CM Krishna Shastry unfolded the detail plan before the dignitaries present at the meeting from various states and institutions. There was discussion on every aspect of the fair and participants put forth many suggestions.

The National Advisory Board, announced at the meeting, includes former Chief Justice of Supreme Court Shri MN Venkatachalaiah (president), former Chief Justice of India Shri RC Lahoti, former Governor of Bihar Justice (retd) Dr M Rama Jois and former Chief Election Commissioner of India Shri N Gopalaswamy (vice presidents), former Vice Chancellor Dr Prahladacharya and secretary of Samskrit Promotion Foundation Shri Chamu Krishna Shastry (secretaries).

The members include Dr Radhavallabha Tripathi (VC, Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan), Dr Satyavrata Shastri (former VC of Jnanapeetha and Padmabhushan Awardee), Dr Vachaspati Upadhyaya (VC of Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeeth), Dr Kutumba Shastri (VC of Sampurnananda Sanskrit University, Varanasi), Dr Abhiraja Rajendra Mishra (former VC, Shimla), Dr Pankaj Chande (VC of Kavikulaguru Kalidasa Sanskrit University, Nagpur), Dr Saroja Bhate (general secretary of All India Oriental Conference), Dr Mithila Prasad Tripathi (chairman of Maharshi Patanjali Sanskrit Pratishthan, Bhopal), Dr Harekrishna Shatapathy (VC of Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeeth, Tirupati), Dr KV Ramakrishnama-charya (former VC of Tirupati), Dr Goutam Patel (former president of Gujarat Sanskrit Academy), Dr C Rajendran (Professor in Calicut University), Dr Dipti Tripathi (director of National Manuscript Mission), Shri SV Ranganath (Chief Secretary of Karnataka), Dr Roddam Narasimham (JN Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore), Dr VV Bhat (Secretary of Space Commission, Ocean Science Commission and Nuclear Energy Commission), Shri Aravinda Rao, (IPS, DGP (ACB), AP), Prof B Mahadevan (Dean, IIM Bangalore), Dr Chand Kiran Saluja (CIE, Delhi University and working president of Samskrit Bharati), Shri Dinesh Kamath (organising secretary of Samskrit Bharati) and Shri M Madan Gopal, (Principal Secretary, Higher Education, Karnataka).

(FOC)