The World Sanskrit Conference (WSC) will be held in Nepal in 2024. The Online World Sanskrit Conference organized by the Australian National University has decided to hold the upcoming conference in Nepal. The conveynor of the 2023 conference and the secretary general of the International Association of Sanskrit Studies (IASS), Prof. McComas Taylor, announced that the next series of WSC will be held in Nepal in the next 11 months.
Along with the announcement, professor Bhimprasad Khatiwada, Rector of Nepal Sanskrit University, expressed his happiness that his University has been given the opportunity to host the World Sanskrit Conference. He said that Nepal is eager to welcome Sanskrit devoted scholars from all over the world.
Kashinath Neupane has been appointed as the convener for the next conference. Neupane, a professor at Nepal Sanskrit University, is a member of the Consultative Committee of the IASS. Neupane said Nepal is the birthplace of lord Buddha and Bhagavati Seeta and there is a collection of thousands of manuscripts of Sanskrit texts, and called for them to visit the country.
In the concluded conference, Neupane, Navraj Kattel, Mahanand Timilsina, Premraj Neupane, and Ranjan Sigdel presented their research papers from Nepal, while Rajendra Raj Timilsina was an attendee. About a dozen Nepalis who were ready to go to the Australian National University Canberra to present their paper did not participate in the online conference.
According to Taylor, there were 300 presentations and 50 special panel sessions at the conference. He informed the video recording of the conference will be kept online for 3 months and then removed.
President of IASS Dipti Tripathi had given a welcome speech at the conference which started on January 9, and Taylor gave the closing speech on the 13th. IASS was established in 1972. Its 2021 and 2022 arrangements were postponed due to the Covid pandemic.