M Mishra/Lucknow

The students of India’s largest Islamic seminary Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulama, Lucknow, will have the opportunity to learn Sanskrit, one of the most ancient languages in the world that originated some 5,000 years before Christ was born.

The Nadwa Management will soon start a Diploma Course in Sanskrit for the students who can take it up as an elective subject.

At Nadwa, students have the choice of picking from courses in Quran, Hadith, Islamic Studies, Persian language, Language and Journalism, apart from Arabic, Urdu, English and Hindi, and English-speaking courses.

According to Nadwa's secretary and manager Maulana Jafar Hasni Nadvi, most of the students are keen to study Sanskrit.

Arabic scholar and teacher at Nadwatul Ulama, Maulana Hifzur Rahman was also fluent in Sanskrit and French languages. He used to teach Sanskrit to a large group of interested students in the evening.

After he passed away in 2022, there is nobody to teach Sanskrit.

Taking this situation into account, Nadwatul decided to launch a course in the language. The management is finalizing the syllabus for a Diploma course in Sanskrit.

Initially, one Sanskrit teacher will be appointed and the management may add one more teacher later.

At Nadwa, the Sanskrit language was taught some 118 years ago. Dr. Ubaid Ur Rehman, who did his Ph.D. on Nadwatul Ulama from Calcutta University, says that English was compulsory for students of the seminary in 1905.

At the same time, the study of Sanskrit also started here. Although it was not mandatory, a lot of students took it up as an elective subject.\