Silver Jubilee Celebrations at Sandipani

Shri Babadeshwar Sanskrit Mahavidyalaya and Sandipani Vidyaniketan were founded on 15^th January 1984. A festival is held annually in January to celebrate the progress achieved and plan future activities. This year being the Silver Jubilee year, the festivities were celebrated with even more zest and fervour.

Various competitions like sloka antakshari, sutra antakshari, elocution and debating competitions were held from 9^th to 11^thJanuary, and were contested intensely by the students of Sandipani Vidyaniketan. The competitions were categorised into three groups: prathama – for standards 8, 9 and 10; madhyama – for standards 11 and 12; and shastri – for the first, second and third year students of college. The judges had a difficult time in awarding grades and choosing the winners due to the high standards and competitiveness of the participants.

The sloka antakshari was held from 11am to 4pm in which the rishikumars recited around 700 slokas. More than 40 students participated in the elocution competition. The debated were held in both English and Sanskrit. The topic for the debate in English was ‘India’s place in the world’ and for the debate in Sanskrit was, ‘Vidya dhanam sarva dhan pradhanam’.

One of the most challenging competitions was the shalaka competition in which a sutra along with a shalaka is asked from the Siddhant Kaumudi composed by Maharishi Panini and the contestant is expected to speak continuously expositing that sutra and shalaka.

Several Sports competitions were held from the 12^th to 15^th January. The following teams participated in the contests:

1) Adyashakti Eleven – TYBA

2) Shivashakti Eleven – SYBA

3) Vasudev Eleven – FYBA

4) Bajrang Eleven – H. S.C.

5) Vishvanath Eleven – 11^th

6) Dwarkadheesh Eleven – S.S.C.

7) Ashutosh Eleven – 9^th

8) Hari Om Eleven – 8^th

The teachers of Sandipani were the coaches for the individual teams. Pujya Bhaishri and other guests from Mumbai attended the final match. Girdhar Bagda and his team Shivashakti Eleven (SYBA) was awarded the Silver Jubilee trophy of 2009 by Pujya Bhaishri.

In addition, a special match was played by Pujya Bhaishri’s eleven team against Principal Bhattacharyaji’s eleven team. The trustees and ex-students of Sandipani constituted Pujya Bhaishri’s eleven while the teachers and young cricketers formed Principal Bhattacharyaji’s eleven. Pujya Bhaishri scored 24 runs including 4 boundaries. The popular Gujarati humorist Sairam Dave gave a live commentary of the match accompanied with music.

In addition a yagya for the progress and development of Sandipani Vidyaniketan was performed by the rishikumars on 16^th January.