This 9-year-old memorised 4,000 Panini sutras, then built an offline Gita app

Nine-year-old Vrishvardhan Sharma has memorised the Bhagavad Gita and Panini's Ashtadhyayi, competed against university students and built free technology around the texts he learnt. His GitaVardhan app works offline in 13 Indian languages, while his handmade voice-enabled devices bring Sanskrit texts together with software and hardware.

In Short

• Nine-year-old Vrishvardhan memorised the Gita at five and Panini’s Ashtadhyayi at eight
• He built GitaVardhan, a free offline app with the Gita in 13 Indian languages
• His voice-enabled Gita devices combine Sanskrit texts, C and Python code, and hardware

At nine, most children are still discovering what they like. Vrishvardhan Sharma has already built a rather unusual bridge between two worlds: ancient Sanskrit scholarship and modern technology.

The Bengaluru-based homeschooled student memorised the complete Bhagavad Gita, all 700 verses, at the age of five through self-study. By eight, he had memorised Panini’s Ashtadhyayi, containing roughly 4,000 sutras, along with the Amarakosha.

And then he started building software.

FROM 700 VERSES TO 4,000 SUTRAS

Vrishvardhan’s Sanskrit achievements are not limited to memorisation.

In March 2026, he secured first place in the Ashtadhyayi Kanthapatha category at the 63rd Akhil Bharatiya Shastrotsav in Kanchipuram. The competition was open to participants across ages, and the field he competed against was aged 18 to 25. It was his third consecutive year on the national podium, after silver medals at Ayodhya in 2024 and Haridwar in 2025.

His records also show that he has handwritten the complete Gita in 11 Indian scripts.

But memorising the texts was only one part of what he wanted to do with them.

THE NINE-YEAR-OLD WHO BUILT AN OFFLINE GITA APP

His most striking technology project is GitaVardhan, a free app containing the complete Bhagavad Gita in 13 Indian languages.

It includes the Sanskrit verses, audio recitations in Vrishvardhan’s voice, English grammar breakdowns and commentaries associated with Adi Shankaracharya and Ramanujacharya.

And it does not need the internet after installation.

There are no advertisements, subscriptions or trackers, according to the app's official documentation. The Google Play listing also describes it as fully offline and says no personal data is collected.

HE BUILT THE HARDWARE TOO

The app was not the end of the experiment.

Vrishvardhan has built pocket-sized Gita readers around an ESP32 microcontroller, microphone, amplifier and display. One uses an e-ink screen and another has a touchscreen. A third combines touch and voice controls.

The devices are designed to work without a network connection. His documentation says the software was written in C and Python.

He has also built Kannada, Tamil and Telugu learning applications, extending the same idea of using technology to make Indian languages and classical texts more accessible.

FROM SANSKRIT TO SILICON

That combination is what makes Vrishvardhan’s story unusual.

He is not simply memorising an ancient text or learning to code. He is using one skill to build tools around the other.

His documented achievements include national Sanskrit competition wins, technology projects and recognition from institutions including Central Sanskrit University. He was also felicitated at the Art of Living in Bengaluru in August 2026, where he demonstrated GitaVardhan and his voice-enabled device.

For Vrishvardhan, the old and the new are not competing interests.

The 4,000-year-old question may be what he can remember. The modern one is what he can build with it.

- Ends