Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Aug 24: A five-day national workshop to revive Kashmiri script Sharada got underway at the Jammu University here today.
The workshop is being organized jointly by the University of Jammu and Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) in collaboration with Millennium India Education Foundation, a Delhi-based NGO.
The workshop was inaugurated by JU Vice-Chancellor Prof R D Sharma while Dr S S Toshkhani, renowned Kashmiri Linguist and Sharda expert, delivered the keynote address and presided over the function.
Prof Rampratap Vedalankar (Rashtrapati Awardee), Ex-Dean, Faculty of Arts & Head Department of Sanskrit, University of Jammu, Surinder Ambardar MLC J&K, Dr Kirti Kant Sharma (Sharda Expert IGNCA, New Delhi), H L Wangnoo (president Kashur Samachar) were the guests of hours. Prof Ramnika Jalali (Dean, Faculty of Arts), Prof Sushma Devi, Head of Department, Sanskrit, JU and Dr Uday Kakroo, Director Millennium India Education Foundation New Delhi, professors and students were also present at the occasion.
In the workshop besides teaching about Sharda alphabets, reading practice and translation of Sharda manuscripts will be taught to the participants. This is for the first time that such a workshop has been conducted in Jammu. MIEF has so far held various such workshops in New Delhi and Mumbai over last few years and have trained more than 300 scholars and interested persons in this script.
Speaking on the occasion, Prof R D Sharma hoped that such workshops would help in creating large pool of scholars to get engaged in researching and translating the manuscripts written in Sharda lying idle in different libraries across the world. He announced that Sanskrit Department will also sign an AOC with Millennium India Education Foundation on the same lines as the organization has done with JNU and Mumbai University to further strengthen the efforts for revival of Sharda script.
Dr Kakroo, Director MIEF, said that the main purpose that prompted MIEF to consider this project was that Sharda is facing virtual extinction because the script is not being taught anywhere in the India and the people who have knowledge about this script are fast aging and leaving this materialistic world.
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