Rekhta Foundation Announce “Anjas Mahotsav” To Revive and Rejuvenate Rajasthani Language

Languages are the only source to promote and preserve any culture's art, literature, poetry and rich traditions. If a language is extinct it results in the death of a culture. Fortunately, in India, we have hundreds of languages and thousands of, centuries-old rich cultures the Rajasthani language is a beautiful and important part of it. 

For the revival and rejuvenation of the Rajasthani Language, the Rekhta Foundation announced the “Anjas Mahotsav” (Anjas=pride) in Jodhpur of Rajasthan, on 29 and 30 October 2022. The 2-day event will be inaugurated by the Chief Minister of Rajasthan and the Maharaja of Jodhpur, said Rekhta Foundation. 

The Anjas Mahotsav is the first-ever festival, devoted to the Rajasthani language. It is a two-day celebration that will bring together literature, theatre, scholars and researchers, performing arts, music, films, traditional games, local food, storytelling, arts and crafts, design and architecture and various other intangible Rajasthani cultural practices to the forefront.

Also, in this fest Foundation has announced the launch of a first-of-its-kind digital repository of the Rajasthani language`s textual and oral literary tradition -Anjas.org.  It is Rekhta’s latest initiative to digitize and preserve the textual and oral knowledge traditions of Rajasthan. The website is live and will be officially launched at a two-day grand festival “Anjas Mahotsav” at Garh Govind, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, it added. 

So far, 4000 works of over 400 ranging from classical age poets like Chandbardai to modern age writers such as Vijaydan Detha have been updated on the website.

While speaking about the initiative, industrialist and founder of Rekhta Foundation Sanjiv Saraf said, “Owing to its exclusion from the 8th schedule of the constitution, the only way to learn Rajasthani is as a mother tongue. The multitude and richness of Rajasthani cultures and traditions are fading with the passing of time due to the lack of institutional infrastructure. We are on a vital turn of evolution where the mode of preservation is changing. Owing to the presence of technologies, today it is possible to preserve and enhance the accessibility of any language and literature more than ever. The foundation of Anjas has been laid to ignite the revival and rejuvenation of the Rajasthani language and tradition by the people of Rajasthan.”

“In its first edition at Jodhpur, the two-day literary and cultural festival will bring together a plethora of genres and art forms of the state such as literature, theatre, academia, performing arts, music, films, arts and crafts, and various other intangible cultural practices,” said Satish Gupta, Head Programs & Outreach, Rekhta Foundation.

Renowned artists and litterateurs including Shailesh Lodha, Ila Arun, Arjun Deo Charan, Mame Khan, Padma Shri Ustad Anwar Khan Manganiyar, Nathulal Solanki, Meer Mukhthiar Ali, Maheshram Meghwal, Madhu Acharya, Barmer Boys, Rahgir, Aruna Roy, Aidan Singh Bhati, Ramswaroop Kisan, Sharda Krishna, Malchand Tiwari, CP Deval among others will be participating in the festival. 

Also, the festival will see stalls of local craftsmen, artisans and food vendors and is totally free for the visitors. 

Rekhta foundation is founded in 2012 by industrialist Sanjiv Saraf, it runs rekhta.org an Urdu website In to preserve and promote Urdu literature, the foundation has so far digitized over lac books and 9 million pages. The foundation also hosts Jashn-e-Rekhta, an annual 3-day marquee celebration, where poets, filmmakers, writers, and known faces of television & performing arts gather to talk, discuss, and ideate various aspects of Urdu.