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yesterday

LUMS Reintroduces Sanskrit With Credit Course, First in Pakistan Since Partition

A pilot class finished with a small cohort, with plans to expand to a year-long offering by 2027.

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In a first since Partition, one scholar helps bring Sanskrit back to Pakistan: “It is ours too”
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Overview

  • LUMS has launched a four-credit Introduction to Sanskrit drawn from earlier Lahore workshops led by sociologist Shahid Rasheed.
  • The course exposes students to passages from the Mahabharata and Bhagavad Gita, plus cultural materials such as the Urdu rendition of the Mahabharat TV theme.
  • The inaugural semester recently concluded with about seven to eight students, and high fees limited access for many non-enrolled learners.
  • Director Ali Usman Qasmi says the program aims to become a year-long offering by 2027 and to train local scholars over the next 10–15 years.
  • Qasmi highlights long-neglected Sanskrit palm-leaf manuscripts catalogued in the 1930s at Punjab University, while Rasheed is drafting a Sanskrit grammar in Urdu.