Samskrita Bharati Holds Shloka Spardha 2015

जाड्यं धियो हरति सिञ्चति वाचि सत्यं
मानोन्नतिं दिशति पापमपाकरोति |
चेत: प्रसादयति दिक्षु तनोति कीर्तिं
सत्सङ्गति: कथय कि, न करोति पुन्साम् ||

“Involvement with wise ones takes away dullness of mind, elevates the intellect, inspires the speech with truthfulness. What will it not do for men?” -- Bhartruhari’s Niti Shatakam

Samskrita Bharati USA held the Boston Shloka Spardha 2015, a Sanskrit recitation competition, on Saturday, December 15, 2015 at the Sadhu Vaswani Center, Dracut MA. The Shloka Spardha has become an annual event that has been held for the last several years, and has been used as an opportunity to introduce participants to original Sanskrit texts. This year the competition attracted over 50 registrants ranging in age from 5 to the 50’s and beyond, coming from near and far (one of the participants traveled from upstate New York!). More than 40 of the registrants actually made it to the event, and got to demonstrate their impressive mastery of the prescribed content. The challenge for the participants this year was the memorizing and reciting of selections from the original Sanskrit text of “Niti Shatakam”, an ancient composition of the great Sanskrit scholar Bhartruhari.

The Text

“Niti Shatakam” is a moral treatise from over two millennia ago that seeks to guide people to greatness. It is one of the “Shatakatrayam”, three collections of 100 verses each, composed by Bhartruhari, the other two being “Sringara Shatakam” and “Vairagya Shatakam”. Popular traditions suggest that the philosopher and poet Bhartruhari, who abdicated the throne of Ujjain to become an ascetic, was the elder brother of the legendary King Vikramaditya. The specific selections from the treatise that were the subject of this competition, focused on the importance of education, culture and the arts, and were meant to instill a love of knowledge and bring out the beauty of Sanskrit, while providing a reasonable level of challenge to the participants.

The Event

The participants in the competition were divided into 5 ganas or groups based on age. The groups were called “atishishu” (3 years-kindergarten), “shishu” (1^st-3^rd grades), “bala” (4^th-6^th grades), “yuva” (7^th grade- high school), and “praudha” (19 years and above). The younger groups were required to memorize and recite fewer verses than the older groups, with the number of verses increasing with the age range of the group. It was a wonderful experience to listen to the participants chant the verses, with some using animated movements to bring the verses to life. It was especially amazing to watch the younger children recite the verses from memory in their sweet voices. Memorizing so many verses in a language that is mostly foreign to the participants, and performing in public, can understandably be quite a challenge and require a lot of hard work, but most participants seemed to be having fun. A panel of judges including Harohalli Vijayakumar, Chandramouli Subbaraman, Kolar Kodandapani, Sooda Bhatt, Sharada Varadarajan, and Kaladhar Rao Tenneti graded the participants and announced the winners in each category:

·       atishishu – Deepthi Bharat (1^st),  Shriya Kanikaram (2^nd), Anish Saravanan (Honorable mention)

·       shishu – Rohan Mutupuru (1^st), Amrita Arumugam (2^nd), Rishi Rane (3^rd), Shrilakshmi Nekkaramoole (Honorable mention)

·       bala – Sadhana Venkatesh (1^st) Nikhitha Arumugam (2^nd), Namitha Arumugam (Honorable mention)

·       yuva – Sahana Venkatesh (1^st) Vennela Mannava (2^nd) Gautham Giridharan (Honorable mention)

·       praudha – Sireesha Varanasi (1^st) Ramana Adibhatla (2^nd) Radha Narayana (3^rd)

All participants were awarded medals and certificates for participation.

The mukhya athiti (chief guest) of the event this year, Narayanan Sathiamoorthy, was introduced to the audience by K. Arvind. Narayanan Sathiamoorthy is President of Global Organization for Divinity (GOD) USA, whose goal is to promote peace and harmony through inner transformation using Nama Sankeertana. He is a disciple of His Holiness Maharanyam Sri Muralidhara Swamiji of Chennai, under whose guidance he studied various scriptures, and is known in the Greater Boston area for his discourses on Srimad Bhagavatam. Narayanan spoke about the importance of Sanskrit, drawing from the Bhagavatam to highlight the beauty of Sanskrit. Giri Bharathan (Vice President, Samskrita Bharati) utilized the occasion to draw attention to the plight of the Chennai flood victims and pleaded with the audience to generously donate to various relief organizations trying to help the victims. Venkatesh Tyagasamudram (Acting Coordinator, Samskrita Bharati Boston Kendra) gave an eloquent vote of thanks in Sanskrit, and urged the audience to contribute to the “Samaja Nidhi” fundraising campaign of Samskrita Bharati. Vydhanathan Kamakoti honored the chief guest and the judges. A number of Samskrita Bharati karya kartas including Lakshminarayanan Vaidyanathan, Vimal Kaji, Ragini Kaji, Santhi Pasumarthi, Deepak, Sucharita and others whose names I am missing, worked hard to make the event a success. The event concluded with a prayer for the well-being of all and was followed by light refreshments.

Samskrita Bharati

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