The other day I saw the news on Facebook of Chandrakant Paudel’s arrest by the Baglung district administration in the midwestern hill district of Nepal. The young man, educated in Sanskrit schools and college, including in Kathmandu, and descendant of a priestly Brahmin family, had campaigned for some time to have the Dalit children admitted in the local Shree Muktinath Ved Vidyashram Sanskrit seminary established by his grandfather. His argument was that the seminary must admit Dalit and indigenous children because everyone had the right to Sanskrit education in our times.

 

Sanksrit seminaries are spread all over Hindu South Asia, where children of the priestly caste Brahmins get educated mostly with free room and board to be priests and Sanskrit scholars. These schools and their hostels are funded by charities and governments. Priestly Brahmin boys, mostly from impoverished families from rural areas, come from far and wide all over Nepal and India and receive a free education until they become graduates. Some do follow the priestly professions after finishing secondary education but many go on to be equal to college graduates and beyond to specialise in various classical Sanskrit degrees, such as the Vedas, Ayurveda, Astrology, Grammar and so on.