A Sanskrit scholar has embarked on a 20,000 km journey across the country on his bicycle, driven by a desire to connect with diverse cultures and raise awareness on the need to preserve and protect one’s mother tongue.

Gandhar Kulkarni from Pune refers to his expedition as ‘Cyclopasana’ (Worship on a Bicycle), and says he was spurred to embark on this journey after witnessing the younger generation’s declining interest in their mother tongue.

A daunting landscape awaits Mr. Kulkarni — from the arid Deccan Plateau to the thickets of the Western and Eastern Ghats, from the deserts of Rajasthan to the Gangetic plains, and the rainforests of the North-East to the mighty Himalayas.

‘Meghaduta route’

A postgraduate in Sanskrit, Mr. Kulkarni says the ‘Meghaduta’ is close to his heart.

“I initially chose the route that Kalidasa’s cloud takes in its journey. The cloud starts its journey from Ramagiri (the present-day Ramtek, near Nagpur) on the first day of the Ashada month and traverses Amarkantak, Vidisha, Ujjain, and Kurukshetra to reach Haridwar,” Mr. Kulkarni said.

“Starting from my Mumbai home, I traversed the same route, and went further to Rohtang Pass in Himachal Pradesh, Doda in Kashmir, and then towards western Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu before arriving in Tirupati,” Mr. Kulkarni told The Hindu.

Support for dialects

Mr. Kulkarni aims to reach out to rural schools where dialects are still alive. “Many dialects spoken by locals are still not part of any mainstream language. The language that surfaces in one’s sub-conscious state, say during meditation or sleep, is one’s mother tongue, not the one that is taught in schools,” he said.

During his meet with Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeetha Vice-Chancellor V. Muralidhara Sharma, Mr. Kulkarni discussed the need to disseminate the science in Sanskrit. From here, he plans to visit University of Hyderabad, and from there to Visakhapatnam, Odisha and West Bengal to Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.

“Linguistics can be a vital tool to perpetuate national integrity,” Mr. Kulkarni said.