Panel on Sanskrit recommends laboratories to find out if Vedic sacrifices can induce rainfall

In its latest attempt to project a scientific base to a component of ancient Indian culture, a government-appointed panel has recommended laboratories for corroborating traditional beliefs, including whether Vedic sacrifices can induce rainfall, according to a report by The Indian Express .

The recommendation has been made by the second Sanskrit Commission, headed by Padma Bhushan awardee and Sanskrit scholar Satya Vrat Shastri.

In August, a DNA report had quoted a member of the commission as saying that Sanskrit does not promote obscurantism and “is not devoid of scientific temper”.

According to The Indian Express, apart from the recommendation about setting up laboratories, the commission also calls for studying the “healing power of sacrificial ashes.”

The commission had submitted its report to the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) in August, after which the government is said to be studying the recommendations.

The panel has even asks for road signs, government offices and hospitals in Sanskrit, according to The Indian Express.

The commission was set up in January last year, with the objective of evaluating the present condition of Sanskrit education and to include traditional knowledge in Sanskrit in the present education system, according to a report in the The Free Press Journal.

Several questionable claims about a basis in ancient beliefs with respect to modern knowledge have been made in the recent past. An Indian Express report in July had said that a book listed as compulsory reading for school students claimed that stem cell research was inspired by a story from the Mahabharata. In January, a paper presented at the Indian Science Congress had claimed that aeroplanes existed in India 7,000 years ago and they even travelled to other planets, while saying that there is a reference to aviation in the Rigveda.