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LUMS Completes First Semester-Long Sanskrit Course in Pakistan Since Partition

The effort positions Sanskrit as shared heritage to cultivate Pakistan-based scholarship on long-neglected texts.

Overview

  • LUMS’s Gurmani Centre formalized earlier workshops into a four-credit Introduction to Sanskrit taught by sociologist Shahid Rasheed.
  • The inaugural semester concluded weeks ago with roughly seven to eight students who reported strong satisfaction and interest in continuing.
  • University leaders plan a year-long offering by spring 2027 and project Pakistan-based scholars of classical texts could emerge within 10–15 years.
  • Pakistan holds extensive Sanskrit manuscripts, catalogued in the 1930s and largely unused by local academics since 1947, that the program seeks to unlock.
  • High fees have limited access for non-enrolled learners even as interest in the course has grown.