[INDOLOGY] Sanskrit in Pakistan

Sat Dec 13 16:07:08 UTC 2025

Thanks, Antonia,

    This is a nice detailed article. Many years ago, when I was searching
for manuscripts of the Śaunakīya Caturādhyayika, I saw a reference to a
manuscript in the Lahore University library. I contacted the librarian, and
he responded by saying that there are many rooms filled with Sanskrit
manuscripts, but no one knows what they are. He was generous in offering to
help me if I could come to Lahore. Due to my home circumstances
that did not materialize. I hope someday the collection of Sanskrit
manuscripts in Pakistan would be digitized and made available for
researchers.

Madhav

Madhav M. Deshpande
Professor Emeritus, Sanskrit and Linguistics
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
Senior Fellow, Oxford Center for Hindu Studies
Adjunct Professor, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, India

[Residence: Campbell, California, USA]

On Sat, Dec 13, 2025 at 7:26 AM Antonia Ruppel via INDOLOGY <
indology at list.indology.info> wrote:

> The Tribune article shows up for me without any issues, but perhaps that's
> because I am in the EU? At any rate, I've pasted the text below:
>
>
> The teaching of Sanskrit has quietly returned to classrooms in the Islamic
> Republic of Pakistan for the first time since Partition, with the Lahore
> University of Management Sciences (LUMS) introducing a course in the
> classical language. What began as a three-month weekend workshop gradually
> evolved into a full four-credit university course after the overwhelming
> response it received.
>
> Dr Ali Usman Qasmi, Director of the Gurmani Centre, told The Tribune that
> Pakistan houses one of the richest but least-studied Sanskrit archives at
> the Punjab University library. “A significant collection of Sanskrit
> palm-leaf manuscripts were catalogued in the 1930s by scholar JCR Woolner,
> but no Pakistani academic has engaged with this collection since 1947. Only
> foreign researchers use it. Training scholars locally will change that,” he
> says.
>
> The LUMS also plans to offer courses on the Mahabharata and the Bhagavad
> Gita. “Hopefully, this sets a momentum,” says Dr Qasmi. “In 10-15 years, we
> could see Pakistan-based scholars of the Gita and the Mahabharata.”
>
> Dr Qasmi said initially, a weekend programme was offered that was open to
> everyone--students, researchers, lawyers and academics. “After we saw the
> response, we decided to introduce it as a proper university course. Even
> though the number of students is still small, we hope it will grow over the
> next few years. Ideally, by spring 2027, we should be able to teach the
> language as a year-long course.”
>
> At the heart of the initiative is Dr Shahid Rasheed, Associate Professor
> of sociology at Forman Christian College, whose interest in Sanskrit began
> long before the LUMS approached him. “Classical languages contain much
> wisdom for mankind. I started with learning Arabic and Persian, and then
> studied Sanskrit,” he told The Tribune. With no local teachers or
> textbooks, he turned to online platforms, studying under Cambridge Sanskrit
> scholar Antonia Ruppel and Australian Indologist McComas Taylor. “It took
> almost a year to cover classical Sanskrit grammar. And I’m still studying
> it.”
>
> After Dr Qasmi reached out, Dr Rasheed took a sabbatical from FC College
> to teach the course at the LUMS. “I mainly teach grammar. When I was
> teaching ‘subhashitas’, the wisdom verses or shlokas, many of my students
> were fascinated to discover that so many Urdu words come from Sanskrit.
> Many didn’t even know that Sanskrit was different from Hindi. In the first
> week, they found it a challenging language. But once they grasped the
> logical structure, they started enjoying it. The pleasure of solving
> something difficult is immense,” he says.
>
> “Modern languages derive from classical traditions. There is just a veil
> that separates them--once you cross it, you realise they are all our own,”
> adds Dr Rasheed.
>
> Dr Qasmi explains that the initiative also aligns with the university’s
> broader language ecosystem, which includes Sindhi, Pashto, Punjabi,
> Baluchi, Arabic and Persian. “We understand the importance of connecting
> with this incredible tradition, which is part of the Pakistani-Indian
> global heritage. So much of our literature, poetry, art and philosophy go
> back to the Vedic age. Many historians believe that the Vedas were written
> in this region. It then becomes even more important to read the classical
> texts in their original language.”
>
> Despite the political sensitivities involved, both scholars believe the
> intellectual climate is shifting. Dr Rasheed often encounters curiosity
> about his own study of the language. “People ask me why I’m learning
> Sanskrit. I tell them, why should we not learn it? It is the binding
> language of the entire region. Sanskrit grammarian Panini’s village was in
> this region. Much writing was done here during the Indus Valley
> Civilisation. Sanskrit is like a mountain--a cultural monument. We need to
> own it. It is ours too; it’s not tied to any one particular religion.”
>
> “If we want people to come closer, then it’s essential to understand and
> absorb our rich classical traditions. Imagine if more Hindus and Sikhs in
> India started learning Arabic, and more Muslims in Pakistan took up
> Sanskrit, it could be a fresh, hopeful start for South Asia, where
> languages become bridges instead of barriers,” concludes Dr Rasheed.
>
> On Sat, 13 Dec 2025 at 14:55, Shrinivas Tilak <shrinivast_k11612 at yahoo.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Members of the Indology group often provide links to very interesting
>> topics pertaining to Sanskrit etc to a newspaper in India. Unfortunately,
>> there is a torrent of ads that you need to negotiate before you finally are
>> able to reach to the story. I am often tempted to give up and not proceed.
>> Is there some way to archive the story in an ads-free location?
>>
>> On Saturday, December 13, 2025 at 12:20:39 a.m. EST, Ananya Vajpeyi via
>> INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
>>
>>
>> Congratulations are in order then, Antonia!
>> Warm best,
>> AV.
>>
>> On Sat, Dec 13, 2025 at 2:02 AM Antonia Ruppel via INDOLOGY <
>> indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
>>
>> Dear Madhav,
>>
>> Thank you for sharing this! Here's the original piece in the Tribune that
>> The Wire is referring to:
>>
>>
>> https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/india/sanskrit-returns-to-pak-varsity-first-time-since-partition/
>>
>> Shahid Rasheed, who is behind this initiative, is a true polymath and
>> co-founder of a school trust (
>> https://i-care-foundation.org/charity/zaawiya-trust-school/). I think he
>> began learning Sanskrit with McComas and has been doing Latin and Greek
>> (and some more Sanskrit) with me at Yogic Studies for a while now.
>>
>> Antonia
>>
>> On Thu, 11 Dec 2025 at 17:05, Madhav Deshpande via INDOLOGY <
>> indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
>>
>> A Welcome Development:
>> https://thewire.in/south-asia/in-a-first-since-independence-a-pakistan-university-is-teaching-sanskrit
>>
>> Madhav M. Deshpande
>> Professor Emeritus, Sanskrit and Linguistics
>> University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
>> Senior Fellow, Oxford Center for Hindu Studies
>> Adjunct Professor, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore,
>> India
>>
>> [Residence: Campbell, California, USA]
>>
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>>
>> --
>> *Ananya Vajpeyi*
>> https://www.csds.in/ananya_vajpeyi
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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