Vrishvardhan Sharma वृषवर्धनः शर्मा

Scholarship

What is held in memory, and what is done with it.

Memorisation in this tradition is not an end. It is the condition for everything after it: explanation, chanting method, composition. He can recite the अष्टाध्यायी, and he can tell you what a sūtra means and why it sits where it does.

Vrishvardhan Sharma seated cross legged with his palms joined.

The texts

Held by heart.

  1. Age five

    श्रीमद्भगवद्गीता

    All seven hundred verses, memorised by self study. Since then, more than five hundred complete parayanas, start to finish.

    Kaṇṭhastha

  2. Age eight

    Pāṇini's अष्टाध्यायी

    Roughly four thousand sūtras, with the grammar and the meaning, not the sound alone.

    Kaṇṭhastha

  3. Age eight

    अमरकोशः, Amarakośa

    The complete classical Sanskrit lexicon in verse, all three kāṇḍas.

    Kaṇṭhastha

  4. Vedic chanting

    Ghana Pāṭha, and Ghanapāṭhī of Śrī Rudram

    Ghana Pāṭha is the most intricate of the Vedic recitation patterns, in which the words of a line are permuted and repeated in a fixed order so that the text cannot drift across generations. Kṛṣṇa Yajurveda.

    Mastery

  5. Beyond

    Hundreds of Vedic sūktas and Sanskrit stotras

    Including Viṣṇu Sahasranāma, Lalitā Sahasranāma, Śivatāṇḍava Stotra and Ekātmatā Stotra.

    Recited

Eleven scripts

The Gītā, written out by hand, eleven times over. Three times.

He can read and write thirteen Indian scripts. To make something of that, he has handwritten the complete Bhagavad Gītā in eleven of them: Devanagari, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Odia, Assamese, Gurmukhi and Roman transliteration. Seven hundred verses, eleven times over, by hand.

Not once. Three times. Three separate manuscripts, each the complete Gītā written out by hand across eleven scripts, the first of them finished at the age of seven.

The work is dedicated to the Prime Minister as an एक भारत श्रेष्ठ भारत offering toward Viksit Bharat 2047, and he intends to present it in person. The dedication itself is written in Sanskrit, in his own hand.

A hand writing a Sanskrit dedication in pencil on the opening page of a bound notebook.
Writing the dedication page, signed वृषवर्धनः शर्मा.
The finished dedication page in Sanskrit, dedicating the eleven script Gita to the Prime Minister as an Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat offering, signed and dated in his own hand.
The finished page, signed वृषवर्धनः शर्मा, सप्तवर्षीयः, seven years old, and dated मार्गशीर्ष शुक्ल एकादशी, संवत् २०८१. Read the full page

The pages themselves

One text, eleven hands.

A page from each of the eleven scripts, as he wrote them. Open any one to read it at full size.

A single sheet carrying Bhagavad Gita 18.66 written out in all eleven scripts one beneath the other, each line marked with a two letter code for its script.
One verse in all eleven at once: भगवद्गीता 18.66, the carama śloka, written out line by line with each script marked. The same verse the e-ink reader shows.
A page of the Bhagavad Gita, chapter 2, written out by hand in Devanagari script.
Devanagari Chapter 2, the second, in which Krishna begins to answer.
A page of the Bhagavad Gita, chapter 1, written out by hand in Bengali script.
Bengali Chapter 1, the first, on the field at Kurukshetra.
A page of the Bhagavad Gita, chapter 3, written out by hand in Telugu script.
Telugu Chapter 3, the third, on action.
A page of the Bhagavad Gita, chapter 4, written out by hand in Gujarati script.
Gujarati Chapter 4, the fourth, on knowledge.
A page of the Bhagavad Gita, chapter 5, written out by hand in Tamil script.
Tamil Chapter 5, the fifth, on renunciation.
A page of the Bhagavad Gita, chapter 6, written out by hand in Kannada script.
Kannada Chapter 6, the sixth, on meditation.
A page of the Bhagavad Gita, chapter 7, written out by hand in Malayalam script.
Malayalam Chapter 7, the seventh, on knowledge and realisation.
A page of the Bhagavad Gita, chapter 8, written out by hand in Odia script.
Odia Chapter 8, the eighth, on the imperishable.
A page of the Bhagavad Gita, chapter 9, written out by hand in Assamese script.
Assamese Chapter 9, the ninth, on the royal knowledge.
A page of the Bhagavad Gita, chapter 10, written out by hand in Gurmukhi script.
Gurmukhi Chapter 10, the tenth, on divine glory.
A page of the Bhagavad Gita, chapter 14, written out by hand in IAST, Roman script.
IAST, Roman Chapter 14, the fourteenth, on the three guṇas.

Each page is from one of the three complete manuscripts. Chapter numbers are as written on the page itself.

A ten verse Sanskrit prashasti handwritten in Devanagari on aged paper, with drawn corner ornaments, signed and dated.
प्रशस्ति-दशपदी, signed वृषवर्धनः and dated अधिक ज्येष्ठ कृष्ण दशमी, संवत् २०८३.

Composition

Not only reciting Sanskrit. Writing it.

In June 2026 he composed a प्रशस्ति, a formal eulogy, in ten Sanskrit verses, and wrote it out by hand with the corner ornaments drawn in.

Composing metrical Sanskrit is a different discipline from reciting it. It requires the grammar to be available rather than merely remembered, which is the whole purpose of holding the अष्टाध्यायी in memory in the first place.

Languages

Spoken, read and written.

Speaks
Hindi, English, Sanskrit, Spanish, Kannada and Marwari
Reads and writes
Thirteen Indian scripts
Handwritten Gītā
Eleven of those scripts, complete
Interviewed in
Sanskrit, Hindi and English, by the national broadcaster

The competition record

On film

Recitation, in his own voice.

The chanting method is easier heard than described. The complete अष्टाध्यायी recitation is below, in full.