Bhasha Van
An outdoor extension of the Vaacha Museum is Bhasha Van, literally meaning ‘a forest
of languages’ and created to provide a real-time experience of India’s linguistic
diversity. The idea of Bhasha Van emerged from The Peoples Linguistic Survey of
India, a nationwide survey on existing languages carried by Bhasha Centre across
India, to seek answer to the question 'How many living languages does India have?'
The survey, being published in 50 volumes, presents 780 living Indian languages.
Still in the making, Bhasha Van is envisioned as a metaphorical forest, representative
of both the diversity of flora and languages of our country. Since language is oral
before it is written, Bhasha Van takes the visitor through the physical area of
the Van while moving aurally through the tales of its linguistic traditions.
As visitors wander through the walkway of trees, they are provided with audio guides/tablets
containing conversations, stories, songs, tales, music and jokes in the languages
they choose. Some of these trees are hung with plaques on which tri-lingual information
about little known languages are presented. Soon, visitors will be able to read
and hear these on their cellphones.
There are rest-stops designed within the Van space to allow visitors to rest their
feet and engage with interactive displays on language families, Scheduled Languages,
Non-Scheduled languages and even contribute narratives in their own mother tongues.
Folk art, in the form of paintings, pottery and wood work installed at various locations
forms an integral part of this the Van. Located outside the the Vaacha Museum of
Voice, Bhasha Van as a thriving forest of linguistic diversity complements the diversity
of living traditions and material cultures housed within the Museum building.
Presently, there are 80 recordings available to visitors; more language recordings
bearing information on languages, their songs, tales, music and jokes are being
added gradually.