Two special lectures on Dayanand Saraswati held in PU

Chandigarh, December 21, 2023: Panjab University’s Sanskrit department organised two special lectures on Swami Dayanand Saraswati today. These lectures had been organised under the celebration of Swami Dayanand Saraswati’s 200th birth anniversary.

Speaker of the first lecture was Acharya Harishankar Agnihotri from Agra, the topic of which was ‘Ikkeesveen Shataabdi men Dayanand Saraswati ki Praasangikta’. The second lecture was by Prof. V. K. Alankar, academic incharge of the department, the topic of which was ‘Dayanand-yugeen Paristhitiyan’. The lectures were attended by teachers, research scholars and students of the department and Dayanand Chair for Vedic Studies.

Acharya Harishankar Agnihotri in his lecture talked about different kinds of education system prevalent throughout Indian history. “The Vedic Gurukul system of education provides for holistic development of humans”, he said. He added that Swami Dayanand Saraswati emphasised on such Gurukuls, for both men and women. Regarding rights of women he said, “in the Vedic culture, women weren’t given a status equal to men, but were given a higher one.”

Academic incharge of the department Prof. V. K. Alankar said in his lecture that during Swami Dayanand’s time, a lot of myths about Shastras had crept in. “Swami Dayanand burst those myths by providing evidence from Shastras themselves”, he added. Prof. Alankar especially asked the female students to read Swami Dayanand’s book Satyarth Prakash.