SHARDA
PEETH - ART AND CULTURE
News:
Government will attempt
to open corridor to Sharda Peeth in PoK for devotees: Amit Shah
What's
in the news?
●
Home Minister Amit Shah said that the Government
will move forward to open Sharda Peeth on the lines of the Kartarpur corridor.
Key
takeaways:
●
Sharda Peeth, a revered site for the Hindu
community, is located in Neelum Valley
in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) across Teetwal village in Kupwara
district of Jammu and Kashmir, along the Line of Control (LoC).
Sharda
Peeth:
●
Sharda Peeth, or the Seat of Sharda, is
thought to be an ancient center of learning established in Neelum Valley in 273 BC, even before the Takshila and
Nalanda universities.
●
It is named after the goddess of wisdom Saraswati.
●
It was founded in 237 BC during the reign
of Ashoka.
Sharada
Peeth
Features:
●
Sharada Peeth is an abandoned temple and
ancient learning center dedicated to the Hindu goddess of learning, Sharada.
●
Sharada Peeth was one of the most
important temple universities in the Indian subcontinent between the 6th and
12th centuries CE.
●
It's near the confluence of the KishanGanga and Mudhumati streams in Sharda
village, Neelum Valley.
●
Sharada Peeth is one of the 51 Shaktipeeths
- Sati's right hand fell here when Bhagwan Vishnu cut her dead body into 51
pieces that fell in 51 different places.
Sharada
University:
●
The temple complex was also home to
Sharada University, one of the country's oldest universities, with over 5,000
scholars and a library.
●
The peeth is also a historical seat of
learning, and it was formerly on par with Nalanda and Takshila's ancient sites
of learning.
●
Along with teaching Buddhist religion,
history, geography, structural science, logic, and philosophy were also taught.
●
This university had developed its own
script, Sharada. There were 5,000 resident scholars at one point, and it also
had the world's largest library.
Scholars
from Sharada Peeth:
This temple
university-educated many famous scholars from India and neighboring countries.
Few of them are:
●
Kalhana,
a
historian and author of Rajtarangini, a history book on Kashmir in Sanskrit.
●
Adi
Shankara, a philosopher who consolidated the doctrine of
Advaita Vedanta.
●
Vairotsana,
a Tibetan translator.
●
Kumarajiva,
a Buddhist scholar and translator; and
●
Thonmi
Sambhota, a Tibetan scholar who invented the Tibetan script.
Sharada
and Kashmiri Pandits:
●
Sharda is the most revered religious place
for Kashmiri Pandits.
●
They believe that Sharada in Kashmir is a
tripartite embodiment of the goddess Shakti - Sharada (goddess of learning),
Saraswati (goddess of knowledge), and Vagdevi (goddess of speech).