Chennai: As many as 450 students are participating in the Inter-Patashala Vedic competition organised by OM Charitable Trust at Sri Krishnaswamy Kalyana Mandapam, T Nagar. The event, which commenced on Friday, will conclude tomorrow.

Students from all four southern States and Jammu & Kashmir, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Assam and West Bengal are competing, which is being held every year since 2009.

The competition is held in Rik, Shukla Yajur, Krishna Yajur and Sama Vedas. The students are examined by eminent pundits in their respective Vedas.

The three-day event, ‘Vaidikavinjyana Vikasini Karyakrama’ (Programme on development of Vedic wisdom) was inaugurated by renowned Upanyasakar Brahmasri Ananthapadmanabhan.

Mahamahopadhyaya Brahmasri Dr R Krishnamurthy Sastrigal, the chief examiner of the competition, gave the benedictory address.

“The sole aim of the contest is to encourage students to take up studies on Vedas. Also, competition on various Shastras are being held and  scholars from Sanskrit Colleges will examine the students and decide their merits,” said A S Kumar, one of the trustees.

“We started with 20 patashalas and now we have people from 69 patashalas across the country,” he said.

Noted columnist S Gurumurthy will give prizes to the winners of the competition tomorrow. The trust was started in 2008 by orthopaedic surgeon, Dr V Balaji Srinivasan, chartered accountant L Narayanan, Sundaram Finance Ltd managing director Srinivasaraghavan and equity and management consultant A S Kumar. The trust is providing monthly stipends to deserving children pursuing education on Indian heritage values.

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