Bonding over Sanskrit, India, Lithuania script new horizons
They are located thousands of miles away, but India and the southernmost Baltic state of Lithuania find it easy to connect culturally and do business, with the ancient Sanskrit language serving as an enduring bond between the two nations.
There are some 10,000 Sanskrit words in Lithuanian language, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevičius told his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj during his recent visit to New Delhi. Mrs Swaraj, who has deftly woven core values of Indian culture in her diplomatic outreach, was delighted as the minister gifted her a dictionary of 108 common Sanskrit and Lithuanian words, called the “Sanskrit-Lithuanian Mala.”
Sanskrit and the Lithuanian language, as the oldest surviving languages, share a unique phonetic and grammatical bond. Last year, at the Make in India Week in Mumbai, Lithuania had presented Prime Minister Narendra Modi with a specially published small Sanskrit-Lithuanian dictionary.
It’s not just Sanskrit and yoga that are scripting a new phase in India-Lithuania relationship. Building on spiritual bonds, India and Lithuania, a picturesque country known as land of wood and water, are now stepping up their efforts to fashion a contemporary multi-faceted relationship, which was reflected during the Lithuanian foreign minister’s Oct 8-11 visit to India.