Speaker: Prof. Srinivasa Varakhedi, Vice Chancellor of Central Sanskrit University, New Delhi
The inaugural session of the Online Lecture Series, titled “Vision for Sanskrit Scholars,” was delivered by Prof. Srinivasa Varakhedi, Vice Chancellor of Central Sanskrit University, New Delhi. Moving beyond conventional questions about jobs, survival, or the relevance of Sanskrit, Prof. Varakhedi reframed the discussion around the responsibility of Sanskrit scholars in shaping the future of Bharat. He emphasized that Sanskrit is not merely a language but a civilizational framework connecting generations through knowledge, values, and cultural continuity, and stressed that its future must go beyond preservation to active creation of new disciplines, pedagogies, and narratives. He further called upon scholars to engage with contemporary fields such as technology, law, AI, social sciences etc., highlighting how classical intellectual traditions like Nyaya, Mimamsa, Vedanta and Vyakarana offer reasoning tools relevant to modern challenges, and how Sanskrit, in the age of artificial intelligence, can contribute not just as data but as a means of cultivating clarity of thought, logical rigour, and deeper human understanding.