Four of the Second year girls doing Sanskrit and one of their mothers, Trish Bunyan and myself went to India for just over two weeks before and during the Easter Holidays. This was a ground-breaking exercise as we have not yet brought a class to India for this purpose.
We flew to Bangalore via Paris and stayed the first and last night in the older boys’ gurukulam near the airport. Gurukulam means family of the Guru or teachers. It’s the ancient method of education, living as family with the teacher in a kind of boarding school, where everyone has jobs to look after the grounds, animals, buildings and cooking, apart from learning ancient and modern subjects. A holistic exercise.
We first had to stop in Bangalore to buy ‘uniforms’, which was a requirement for staying in Maitreyi Gurukulam. Because the girls could pick their own patterns and colours, they really enjoyed this. They cost around €6 each so they all got two uniforms consisting of loose fitting pants, a top and a shawl. The girls looked stunning!
We took half a day to get to the girls’ gurukulam in a taxi near Mangalore which is near the West coast at the same latitude as Bangalore. This boarding school is surrounded by a few hundred acres of Palm forests. There are about eighty girls staying there ranging from ten to 23 year olds. They were very kind and welcoming and looked after all our needs.
As this was a hot dry season the program was quite tough. A yoga class before sunrise between 5:30 and 6:30. All daily classes apart from one were taken by the more senior girls from the gurukulam. Our girls really appreciated that. They came to assembly each morning with prayers and a ritual, had breakfast followed by a Veda recitation class, physical service training including washing their clothes and cleaning their room. A dance class and a meeting with a teacher who tried to explain the meaning to them about what they were chanting.
They had a conscious rest for 30 minutes before lunch and after lunch they had a singing class and a Gita recitation class. During evening play time they could do their own thing or join the gurukulam girls who were learning a marshal art with a stick. In the evening after dinner they could just mingle.
Halfway through the trip we visited Sringeri, the Southern seat of the Shankara philosophical tradition. This is a huge Ashram with a lot of scholars and devotees. The river Tunga flows through it. Apart from visiting a Jain temple of a thousand pillars and a huge statue of Bahubali, we fed the big black fish in the river and got gently nibbled at by other little fish. There were two ceremonial elephants in the Asram as well, good for photo shoots. We also stopped in the young boys gurukulam on the way back and got a tour and coconut juice to drink there.
As the gurukulam food is mostly rice and various vegetarian gravies, we had dosas and other South Indian food on the way. The girls had to perform on the last evening, which was a full moon night, so we were all outside. With a little push from their young teachers our four danced, sang, recited and acted out a short play.
A national television station came to film the girls learning and broadcasted this on the 7 o’clock new for two nights. That was another challenge in public speaking. Also, one morning we were whisked away in a taxi to visit the school in a nearby village with a few thousand students watching us sitting on the stage. We then got a tour of the premises and some children performed for us.
We spent the last day in India in Bangalore shopping and the girls got their arms decorated with Mehndi. The next group cannot wait to get there, probably a bit earlier in the year like January when it is not so hot. The girls now take the lead in the yoga class on a Friday afternoon in turn and recite, learn and teach with fresh enthusiasm and vigour. It has made the learning of Sanskrit more real and therefore more lively and worthwhile.
Mr. Kortenhorst.
To see us as we appeared on the news in India please click below.(from 4 minutes to 7:15)
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