Gargi Gurukula: Cradle of Vedic learning for girls

Anjali Ramtel (Kathmandu) / April 4: The Gargi Kanya Gurukula at local Naxal is a place where young girls can learn the Vedas and oriental culture.

There are 14 girls of 12 to 13 years age learning the slokas from the Hindu scripture, Veda. A visit to the school will offer one the rare sight of these young girls chanting the Vedic mantras in perfect harmony and intonation.

It is the only Sanskrit school for girls in the country. Here, the teaching-learning takes place in a different environment than in other schools. The girls wake up at 5 in the morning and after the morning wash attend yoga classes.

Talk to these energetic girls and they are so very definite about their aim in life – to promote Sanskrit teaching, yoga and Vedic philosophy.

“Although other subjects are taught at schools in our village, Sanskrit is not taught. So, after finishing my school and higher studies, I will go back to my village and teach Sanskrit,” said Chetana Wagley, a fourth grader, who comes from Okhaldhunga district. She says that everyone respects the Sanskrit teacher. To put things in perspective, she also recited a Sanskrit sloka about the importance of education.

Sunita Batala of Kalikot who studies in grade 5 also wants to become a teacher and she wants to teach the Veda. Apeart from Veda, she wants to become a yoga instructor and propagate it.

Bijaya Khanal of Ilam has the same goal. She also wants to become a Sanskrit teacher in future. She chanted some hymns from the Bhagavad Gita.

Besides Sanskrit, other subjects as Nepali, English, Science and Mathematics are also taught at the Gargi Gurukula. Similarly, yoga, art and craft and music and dance are also taught as co-curricular activities. As part of the core Sanskrit paper, the girls are also initiated into the recitation of the Rudri scriptures.

The Gargi Gurukula is the brainchild of noted educationalist Dr Angur Baba Joshi. Worried at the gradual extinction of the Sanskrit language and decline in oriental values, Dr Joshi opened the Gargi Gurukula after the name of Gargi, a woman scholar of Sanskrit. Not only Dr Joshi, she is supported by the likes of Dr Kamala Subedi, Dr Nirmala Pokharel and Mana Kafley among others in her endeavours of reviving Sanskrit education and especially girls education in Nepal.

The Gargi Gurukula was established four years back and within this short time has been able to make its mark in girl education. In a break away from tradition that only Brahmin boys are to study the Veda, the Gargi Gurukula has selected girls from various castes and ethnic groups from different districts across the country. RSS