We have seen a lot of courtroom dramas in Bollywood movies and in general life, where Lawyers generally used English and Hindi. Even English is a de-facto standard language for all the legal proceedings for more than a century. Amid this overwhelming dominance of English and Hindi, it seems impossible to use any other language in courtrooms.
How would you feel if we say that we have a Unique Lawyer in India who neither writes in English nor Hindi, he use Sanskrit for all his work? This lawyer is Acharya Shyam Upadhyay, who is exclusively using Sanskrit for more than 40 years for all legal works
Shyam Upadhyay lives in Varanasi and he has done BA LLB in Sanskrit and he not only writes the affidavit in Sanskrit, but he also cross-examines the court and makes strong arguments only in Sanskrit.
From where he got this inspiration to use Sanskrit?
He got the inspiration to use Sanskrit from his Father. His father, Late Sangha Prasad Upadhyay was a Sanskrit scholar and used to remind him that people believe that Sanskrit is a practically dead and defunct language, he was in an opinion that Sanskrit should be used for Judicial proceedings as well.
Taking a cue from his father, Shyam Upadhyay had decided that he would become a lawyer and use the Sanskrit language in the court. It was an extraordinary resolve as he was studying in the 7th class at that point in time. He believes that by doing this he can spread the awareness about the Sanskrit, which is famously considered as Devvani, the language of Gods.
He left everyone spellbound with his attire and Language
He is unique and anyone can distinguish him with his traditional black coat with Tripund and Tilak on the forehead, and the moment he starts making arguments in Sanskrit, people left spellbound. unbelievable fluent Sanskrit.
Not only this, he even explains cases to his client in Sanskrit only, in such an easy way that everyone can understand it. In fact, the judges too are moved by his persistence and passion and often render their judgment or ruling in either Sanskrit or Hindi.
Shyam Upadhyay, through his sharp advocacy and magnificent control on language, has settled many big cases. It is often said that whenever he start presenting his arguments in Sanskrit, the opposite party’s Lawyers look blank.
He is a man on the mission to promote Sanskrit since 1978, he has written about 60 novels in Sanskrit and appreciating his continuous and selfless service to the cause, the Human Resource and Development Ministry has awarded him the ‘Sanskrit Mitram’ award in 2003.
We are in the opinion that Sanskrit is not a dead or finished language, it’s just that we are not practicing it in day to day life, that is why people are shying away from using it. However, we should start applying Sanskrit in our daily communication. We are not asking anyone to use only Sanskrit, but at least we can use some words, sentences on daily basis, which at least keep us in touch with our Mother Language.
Amid such an overwhelming dominance of English, we have to appreciate the people like Acharya Shyam Upadhyay, who is promoting Sanskrit through his work by oneself.
