New awards for OCHS students

 

Drs Bheeshma and Giri Rajagopalan.have very kindly funded two annual bursaries of 500 Pounds to help two needy students each year. To qualify, students must have passed a first level Sanskrit course and be undertaking academic study in major areas of Hindu Studies. The donors have named the grant of the Asvatta Narayana Scholarships in honour of Bheeshma Rajagopalan's father.

 

Many students of the centre come from distant countries and continents to study Hindu culture at Oxford University. Gifts such as these help them to meet the core costs of college and tutorial expenses, and the extra costs of maintenance and accommodation, books and equipment. We need many more such concerned citizens to invest in our gifted students in this way.

 

A silver medal has been offered to the OCHS to reward scholars or students for excellence in the study of Sanskrit or Hindu Studies. The Hindu Swatantryavir Smruti Sansthanam, Milton Keynes, has asked the Centre to select candidates for this annual award. The medal is in memory of Pandit Shyamaji Krishnavarma, the first Indian lecturer in Sanskrit and oriental languages in Oxford and a personal assistant to Sir Monier Monier-Williams, Boden Professor of Sanskrit at Oxford University.

 

The first recipient of this award was Kiyokazu Okita, a Doctoral student from Osaka, Japan. Since arriving in Oxford, Kiyo has excelled in his scholarship, particularly in the study of Sanskrit. The Centre would like to extend its warm congratulations to Kiyo for his award and for taking so much responsibility in the daily life of the Centre.