NEW DELHI: Claiming the passage of the Central Sanskrit Universities Bill, 2020 as a landmark moment, Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal said it will promote study of India’s ancient and traditional knowledge.The Bill was passed by Parliament on Monday, according central university status to three ‘deemed’ universities on Sanskrit studies. Speaking to TOI, Pokhriyal said it fulfils a long standing demand of Sanskrit lovers and scholars, as these universities will take the knowledge of Sanskrit language across the world.The three deemed universities — Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan( New Delhi); Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeeth (New Delhi); and Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeeth (Tirupati)— will now get the status of central university. Lok Sabha had already passed the Bill on December 12.Stating that Sanskrit is a scientific language and a language of wisdom which is also being taught in some top universities of the world, the minister said: “While the whole world is gaining from our ancient knowledge, we seem to be lagging behind.” In India, there are more than 5 crore students of Sanskrit, he said.“If we just look at Germany, Sanskrit is being taught in 14 universities. Indians and especially Sanskrit scholars here would be happy to know the long list of countries where Sanskrit is being studied today – Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Britain, Netherlands , Italy, Russia, Sweden, Japan, America, Bhutan, Indonesia , Mauritius, China, Iran, and Saudi Arabia among others. Harvard University has one of the biggest Sanskrit centres, while it’s worth a visit to the Sanskrit centre at Cambridge ... if we innovate and research on our ancient knowledge and repository and link these to modern science, India again will be ‘viswa guru’,” he said.He said Sanskrit is a gift of India for the entire humanity. “Sanskrit is not only a language but an identity of the great cultural diversity of this country ... Due to these factors, it has become imperative to promote the study and research in Sanskrit language.”