THE BIRTH OF A NEWSPAPER

SUDHARMA is India’s oldest surviving Sanskrit daily. It was first published on JULY 15, 1970, IN

MYSURU. It has almost 4,000 subscribers from all over India,including 1,500 from Mysuru.

VARADARAJA IYENGAR, a Sanskrit scholar, is the founder of the paper. He launched it in the Maharaja’s Samskrit College, the oldest Sanskrit college in India. A deeply religious man, he had the paper blessed by seers. He also began a printing business. The returns from that business funded Sudharma, a practice his son Sampath Kumar and daughter-in-law Jayalakshmi continue.

Iyengar was instrumental in getting the government to start the FIRSTSANSKRIT BULLETIN (1974) on All India Radio. This followed IK Gujral, Minister of Information and Broadcasting in Indira Gandhi’s cabinet, accepting the demand raised by scholars like Iyengar.

BALDEVANAND SAGAR was part of the first batch of Sanskrit newsreaders on AIR. He read the first Sanskrit bulletin on Doordarshan, on August 21, 1994.Sudharma honoured him for his over 40-year-old career in Sanskrit journalism.

Sudharma is now edited by Iyengar’s son SAMPATH KUMAR. The paper gets no central government funding. The Karnataka government gives it ₹1,680/month in advertisements. The running cost of the paper is ₹1.5 lakh/month.