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The Annual Sanskrit Speech Competition 2010
Friday 25th June 2010
This competition, perhaps unique in the Western world, again saw very high standards of Sanskrit recitation from all children. Two Vedic hymns featured, namely five verses from the Purusha Sukta, speaking of how spirit appears in creation, and the first hymn of the Rg Veda to Agni. Agni is normally translated as ‘Fire’, though the new translation used was ‘Divine Energy’. There were some beautiful passages recited from the Bhagavad Gita and Upanishads, and, for the first time, five verses from the ‘Crest Jewel of Discrimination’, a text speaking of the teaching of Non-Duality, with the refrain ‘There is no duality here whatsoever’.
The judge this year was Dr Whitney Cox, lecturer in Sanskrit at the School of Oriental and African Studies. As ever, fun prizes were awarded, and widely acclaimed as ‘cool’. In view of the date of the event (22nd June) inevitably many of the prizes were world cup orientated, and included (much to the disgust of many) English vuvuzelas!