Wikipedia

Sanskrit Wikipedia

Sanskrit Wikipedia (Sanskrit: संस्कृत विकिपीडिया; IAST: Saṃskṛta Vikipīḍiyā) (also known as sawiki) is the Sanskrit edition of Wikipedia, a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its five thousand articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world, with major concentration of contributors in India and Nepal.

Favicon of Wikipedia Sanskrit Wikipedia
संस्कृत विकिपीडिया
Sanskrit Wikipedia logo
Screenshot
Screenshot of Sanskrit Wikipedia's Main Page in January 2005
Type of site
Internet encyclopedia project
Available inसंस्कृतम् (Sanskrit)
OwnerWikimedia Foundation
Created bySanskrit wiki community
URLsa.wikipedia.org
CommercialCharitable
RegistrationOptional
LaunchedDecember 2003; 21 years ago (2003-12)
Current statusOnline
Content license
Creative Commons Attribution/
Share-Alike 4.0 (most text also dual-licensed under GFDL)
Media licensing varies
This article contains Indic text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks or boxes, misplaced vowels or missing conjuncts instead of Indic text.

Founded in December 2003, it reached five thousand articles by August 2011.[1][2][3][4]

The Sanskrit Wikipedia Community also participated in a project named Tell us about your Wikipedia,[5] and Community news from Sanskrit Wikipedia also came on WikiPatrika, a community-written and community-edited newspaper, covering stories, events and reports related to Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation sister projects in India.[2]

As of 30 December 2024, it has 12,264 articles and is the 159th largest version of Wikipedia.[6] The Times of India considered that "Sanskrit was making a comeback, thanks to Wikipedia community"[7] Mother India considered the Sanskrit Wikipedia as a "wonderful learning tool"[8]

Early history

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One of the earliest snapshots of the home page, dated 1 June 2004, can be seen at the earlier archives of Sanskrit Wikipedia.[9] The earliest article still available on Sanskrit Wikipedia's site is apparently Damana dīva, dated July 9, 2004, however the first article was made on 21 March 2004.[10][11]

The number of articles dropped from the 1,000-article mark to only 600 in August 2005 after nearly half were deleted; many of the deletions were due to the articles being in English.[12] The Sanskrit Wikipedia reached 9,405 articles as of 12 December 2013.

Collaboration with Samskrita Bharati

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Wikipedia Academy Volunteers

Sanskrit Wikipedia has a collaboration with Samskrita Bharati, a non-profit organisation working to revive Sanskrit.[2] The collaboration efforts started in the Wikipedia Academy organized in Bangalore on 23 January 2010. That Wikipedia Academy was also the first in India.

There were 11 Sanskrita Bharathi participants at the Academy. They were introduced to Wikipedia and contributing to Wikipedia content and were helped in this by a team of roughly 3 Wikipedians.

Later the first Sanskrit Wiki workshop was held in Sanskrit Bharati's office at Bangalore for an audience of 20 participants. The presentation was intended to give a basic working knowledge of Wikipedia and its interface.[2]

A second workshop was held at the same location on 26 March 2011 for another 15 participants from software companies and the Om Shantidham Gurukulam.[2]

Other collaborations

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Through an initiative by Gujarat University's Department of Sanskrit, around 150 Sanskrit teachers from different colleges in Gujarat gathered in July 2012 to add materials to the Sanskrit Wikipedia through a two-day-long workshop held titled Sanskrit Wikipedia — Introduction and Expectations.[13]

Referenced

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  1. ^ "Who Says Sanskrit Is Dead? It's Rocking the Wiki World". Quint. 27 October 2016. Retrieved 10 August 2023.
  2. ^ a b c d e "WikiPatrika/2011-06/Community News/sa". Wikimedia India Chapter. 9 June 2011. Archived from the original on 6 March 2016. Retrieved 22 September 2011.
  3. ^ "Wikimedia News". Meta, discussion about Wikimedia projects. 6 August 2011. Retrieved 21 September 2011.
  4. ^ "Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2011-08-08/News and notes". Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 11 August 2011. Retrieved 21 September 2011.
  5. ^ "Tell us about Sanskrit Wikipedia". Meta, discussion about Wikimedia projects. 20 May 2011. Retrieved 22 September 2011.
  6. ^ Meta contributors (28 August 2016). "List of Wikipedias". Meta, discussion about Wikimedia projects. Retrieved 28 August 2016. {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  7. ^ The Times of India: Sanskrit makes a comeback, thanks to Wikipedia community
  8. ^ The Mother India: Exploring Sanskrit Bharati’s Sanskrit Wikipedia (Internet Archive Copy)
  9. ^ "Main Page". Wikipedia. 1 June 2004. Retrieved 21 September 2011.
  10. ^ "दमन दीव" [Daman Diu] (in Sanskrit). Wikipedia. 9 July 2004. Retrieved 21 September 2011.
  11. ^ "Wikipedia:Milestones 2004". Wikipedia. 14 June 2011. Retrieved 22 September 2011.
  12. ^ "Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2005-08-22/News and notes". Wikipedia. 7 June 2010. Retrieved 22 September 2011.
  13. ^ DNA India - Sanskrit Wikipedia in the offing: Gujarat teachers planning details
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Sanskrit edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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