Showcasing the Vibrant World of Samskrit like never before!
PREAMBLE WHY SAMSKRIT BOOK FAIR? Over the last few years, Sanskrit has gained a lot of momentum in reaching to people of all strata of society. Sanskrit is now seeing an unprecedented growth and has become the 3rd fastest growing language in the world. In the last three decades, the number of people who can converse in this language has risen phenomenally touching the 8 million mark. 1. CREATE A COMMON MEETING GROUND FOR PUBLISHERS AND BUYERS While the demand for Samskrit and related books are steadily rising, the publication of such books is not yet organized with lots of Individual and corporate publishers unable to package their wares under one roof. A World Samskrit Book Fair would be the apt place to bring together all these publishers and create a common meeting ground for Samskrit enthusiasts of all hues. 2. AN OUTLET FOR SCHOLARS Publications indicate the pulse of a community. Especially so is the Samskrit community. Scholars abound in every nook and corner of our country. Confined to their humble homes, they have come out with some excellent original contents. Such modern Samskrit literature hardly ever sees the daylight due to the financial requirement for publishing them. Being unable to publish their works to a larger audience for lack of funds, many scholars have resigned to publishing just a few copies with whatever their personal funding can afford, mostly handing out such copies to sincere readers whenever they chance to meet one. The World Samskrit Book Fair will provide a platform for such individual contributors and bring them to the fore by placing the works in-front of a world audience. 3. HARNESS OUR MANUSCRIPT WEALTH The manuscript wealth of country is an area which has not gained the required attention of the law-makers and general public till date. It is estimated that the number of manuscripts in which our country could easily touch a Crore if properly accounted for out of which 80% are in Sanskrit. Very few organizations exist who collect such manuscripts, protect them, study them and publish the contents. Such organizations have a collection of just about 25 Lakhs. Most of the rest is lying at homes unguarded and unprotected from the onslaught of termites and mites and age related issues. Concerted efforts are to be taken to preserve them, study, identify and publish their contents. This needs the support of the publishers also. The World Samskrit Book Fair would just do that.
Showcasing the Vibrant World of Samskrit like never before!
4. FOR THE YOUTH OF THE COUNTRY Even as our country is slowly and steadily moving forward in many fields of Science, Technology, Medicine, Education, Sports, Spirituality, Wealth creation etc in the global arena, the youth are now slowly turning towards enquiring into their own roots and have begun to dwelve deeply into our past desperately seeking answers to their questions from among the myriad of information that is freely available from many sources. Every small piece of information about our culture, our knowledge base and our contribution to the world, is being carefully treasured to serve as a proof for priding over being an Indian by many such young minds. This generation needs more impetus from all of us to restore in them a sense of security that they belong to a race which has been superior and to a culture which has survived the onslaught of foreign invasion for ages and still continues to conquer the world gradually, steadily. Combined with this is the awe that is being shown by the people from beyond our borders towards our ancient knowledge systems like Yoga & Ayurveda, Science & medicine. The youth are more willing to take up such studies and what better language to do that than Samskrit, which is the very storehouse of knowledge. Still somewhere lurking behind their minds is the concern regarding relevance of these to their survival today, their career and financial needs. So the youth needs to be inspired to pursue Samskrit as a Career. A World Samskrit Book Fair should be able to inspire them for obvious reasons. As such, the fair is more than a marketplace for Samskrit Books. It is a festival to celebrate Samskrit as the vehicle of a rich Universalist culture. Objectives of the World Samskrit Book Fair: • To give a fillip to modern Samskrit literature • Create a market for Samskrit Publications • Inspire youth to pursue Samskrit as a career • Mobilise public support for Samskrit promotion