SANSKRIT

Module 1
INTRODUCTION
Sanskrit is an Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical [li túrjik’l] language of
Hinduism and Buddhism. Having the meaning refined language, Sanskrit is the classical
literary language of India. Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of
India.
Pāṇini, the great grammarian, structured Classical Sanskrit around the 4th century B.C.
Its position in the cultures of Greater India is similar to that of Latin and Greek in Europe.
It has significantly influenced most modern languages of the Indian subcontinent,
particularly the languages in India and Nepal.
The pre-Classical form of Sanskrit is known as Vedic Sanskrit and it is the language of
the Rigveda. The Sanskrit used in Rigveda is one of the oldest attestations of any Indo-
Iranian language. It belongs to one of the earliest attested members of the so-called Indo-
European language family, which includes English and most European languages.
The gamut [gámmət] of Sanskrit literature consists of a rich tradition of poetry and
drama as well as scientific, technical, philosophical and religious texts. Sanskrit is being
widely used as a ceremonial language in Hindu religious rituals in the forms of hymns
[him] and mantras. Spoken Sanskrit is still in use in a few traditional institutions in India.
There are many attempts to revive Sanskrit which is one of the most ancient languages of
India.
Etymology
The word saṃskṛta, translated as "put together", "well or completely formed", "refined",
"highly elaborated” is derived from the root saṃ(s)kar- "to put together, compose,
arrange or prepare” where saṃ- "together" (as same in English) and (s) kar- "do, or
make".
The language referred to as saṃskṛta "the cultured language" has by definition always
been a "sacred" and "sophisticated" language, used for religious and learned discourse in
ancient India, and contrasted with the languages spoken by the people, prākṛta- "natural,
artless, normal, ordinary". It is also called dēva-bhāṣā meaning the "divine language" or
the "language of devas or demigods".
History
Many scholars believes that the original speakers of what became Sanskrit arrived in
what is now India and Pakistan, from the north-west during the early second millennium
B.C. The close relationship of the Indo-Iranian tongues with the Baltic and Slavic
languages, vocabulary exchange with the non-Indo-European Finno-Ugric languages, and
the nature of the attested Indo-European words are the evidences they put forward to
support this theory.
The earliest Sanskrit texts are Hindu texts of the Rigveda, which date back to the mid-to-
late second millennium B.C. From the Rigveda until the time of Pāṇini, the development
of the Sanskrit language may be traced in other Hindu texts: the Samaveda, Yajurveda,
Atharvaveda, Brahmanas, and Upanishads. During this time, the prestige of the language,
its use for sacred purposes, and the importance attached to its correct enunciation all
served as powerful conservative forces resisting the normal processes of linguistic
change.
The oldest surviving Sanskrit grammar is Pāṇini's Aṣṭādhyāyī which is an authority on
the language. Knowledge of Sanskrit determined the social status and educational
attainment in ancient India and the language was taught mainly to members of the higher
castes.

Module 2
Vedic Sanskrit
Sanskrit, as defined by Pāṇini, had its origins from the earlier "Vedic" form. The
beginning of Vedic Sanskrit can be traced as early as around 1500 B.C. Scholars often
distinguish Vedic Sanskrit and Classical or "Pāṇinian" Sanskrit as separate 'dialects'.
Though they are similar, they differ in a number of essential points such as phonology,
vocabulary, grammar and syntax.

Vedic Sanskrit is the language of the Vedas, a large collection of hymns, incantations
(Samhitas), theological discussions, and religio-philosophical discussions (Brahmanas,
Upanishads) which are the earliest religious texts of the Hindu religion. Modern linguists
consider the metrical hymns of the Rigveda Samhita to be the earliest, composed by
many authors over centuries of oral tradition.

The end of the Vedic period is marked by the composition of the Upanishads. Around the
mid 1st millennium B.C, Sanskrit was pushed into a second language of religion and
learning, marking the beginning of the Classical period.

Classical Sanskrit
Due to the interface of vernacular Prakrits, the epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata
used a form of Sanskrit that is different from the Sanskrit language of Pāṇini. Traditional
Sanskrit scholars call such deviations aarsha (आआआआ), or "of the rishis. Buddhist Hybrid
Sanskrit is a Middle Indic literary language based on early Buddhist Prakrit texts which
was subsequently assimilated to the Classical Sanskrit standard in varying degree.

There were four principal dialects of classical Sanskrit: paścimottarī (Northwestern, also
called Northern or Western), madhyadeśī (lit., middle country), pūrvi (Eastern) and
dakṣiṇī (Southern, arose in the Classical period).

Decline of Sanskrit
Studies suggest that the decline of Sanskrit use in literary and political circles was due to
a weakening of the political institutions that supported it. Competition from vernacular
languages seeking literary-cultural dignity also contributed to the decline of the language.
In Kashmir, Kashmiri was used alongside Sanskrit as the language of literature after the
13th century. The Sanskrit works from the Vijayanagara Empire failed to circulate
outside at the time of their composition. And at that period works in Kannada and Telugu
flourished. Despite the presumed decline of Sanskrit, it continued to be widely used in
literary cultures in India.
European scholarship
European scholarship in Sanskrit, started by Heinrich Roth (1620–1668) and Johann
Ernst Hanxleden (1681–1731), is accountable for the theory of the Indo-European
language family by Sir William Jones. This scholarship played an important role in the
development of Western philology, or historical linguistics.

Phonology
Classical Sanskrit distinguishes about 36 phonemes. There are, 48vdistinguishing
allophonic sounds in English. The sounds are traditionally listed in the order of vowels
(Ach), diphthongs (Hal), anusvara and visarga, plosives (Sparśa) and nasals (starting in
the back of the mouth and moving forward), and finally the liquids and fricatives, written
in IAST (International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration).

Module 3
Writing system
Sanskrit was spoken in an oral society and the oral tradition was maintained through the
development of early classical Sanskrit literature. Writing was not introduced to India
until after Sanskrit had evolved into the Prakrits. When it was written, the choice of
writing system was influenced by the regional scripts. Records say that all the major
writing systems of South Asia have been used for the production of Sanskrit manuscripts.
Since the late 19th century, Devanagari has been considered as the de-facto writing
system for Sanskrit, possibly because of the European practice of printing Sanskrit texts
in this script.

The earliest known inscriptions in Sanskrit date back to the 1st century B.C. They are in
the Brahmi script, which was originally used for Prakrit, not Sanskrit. It has been
described as a "paradox" that the first evidence of written Sanskrit occurs centuries later
than that of the Prakrit languages which are its linguistic descendants. When Sanskrit was
written down, it was first used for texts of an administrative, literary or scientific nature.
The sacred texts were preserved orally, and were set down in writing, "reluctantly"
(according to one commentator), and at a comparatively late date.

Since the late 18th century, Sanskrit has been transliterated using the Latin alphabet. The
system most commonly used today is the IAST (International Alphabet of Sanskrit
Transliteration), which has been the academic standard since 1888/1912. It is also
possible now to type using an alphanumeric keyboard and transliterate to Devanagari
using software like Mac OS X's international support. European scholars in the 19th
century generally preferred Devanagari for the transcription and reproduction of whole
texts and lengthy excerpts.

Grammar
Sanskrit grammatical tradition (vyākaraṇa, one of the six Vedanga disciplines) began in
late Vedic India and culminated in the Aṣṭādhyāyī of Pāṇini, which consists of 3990
sutras.

About a century after Pāṇini (around 400 BCE) Kātyāyana composed Vārtikas on
Pāṇinian sũtras. Patañjali, who lived three centuries after Pāṇini, wrote the Mahābhāṣya,
the "Great Commentary" on the Aṣṭādhyāyī and Vārtikas. Because of these three ancient
Sanskrit grammarians this grammar is called Trimuni Vyākarana.

To understand the meaning of sutras Jayaditya and Vāmana wrote the commentary
named Kāsikā. Pāṇinian grammar is based on 14 Shiva sutras (aphorisms). Here whole
Mātrika (alphabet) is abbreviated. This abbreviation is called Pratyāhara.

Verbs
Sanskrit has ten classes of verbs divided into in two broad groups: athematic and
thematic. The thematic verbs are so called because the theme vowel ‘a’, is inserted
between the stem and the ending. This serves to make the thematic verbs generally more
regular. Exponents used in verb conjugation include prefixes, suffixes, infixes, and
reduplication. Every root has zero, guṇa, and vṛddhi grades - not necessarily all of them
are distinct. For instance, if V is the vowel of the zero grade, the guṇa-grade vowel is
traditionally thought of as a + V, and the vṛddhi-grade vowel as ā + V

The verb tenses (a very inexact application of the word, since more distinctions than
simply tense are expressed) are organized into four 'systems' (as well as gerunds [jérrənd]
and infinitives, and such creatures as intensives/frequentatives, desideratives, causatives,
and benedictives derived from more basic forms) based on the different stem forms
(derived from verbal roots) used in conjugation. There are four tense systems:

 Present
 Perfect
 Aorist [áyərist]
 Future (Future, Conditional)

Influence of on vernaculars
Like the Latin influenced European languages, Sanskrit has influenced most Indian
languages. Sanskrit exerted greatest influence on other languages of India, for instance
Hindi, which is a "Sanskritized register" of the Khariboli dialect. All modern Indo-Aryan
languages as well as Munda and Dravidian languages, have borrowed many words either
directly from Sanskrit (tatsama words), or indirectly via middle Indo-Aryan languages.
Words originating in Sanskrit are estimated to constitute roughly fifty percent of the
vocabulary of modern Indo-Aryan languages and the literary forms of (Dravidian)
Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada.
Sanskrit mantras are recited by millions of Hindus and most of the temple functions are
conducted entirely in Sanskrit, often Vedic in form. Of modern day languages, Nepali,
Bengali, Assamese, Konkani and Marathi still retain a largely Sanskrit and Prakrit
vocabulary base. The Indian national anthem, Jana Gana Mana, is written in a
Sanskritized literary form of Bengali (known as sadhu bhasha).The national song of India
Vande Mataram is also highly Sanskritized Bengali. Malayalam, Telugu and Kannada are
also influenced by Sanskrit vocabulary. Sanskrit also has influence on Chinese through
Buddhist Sutras.

Module 4
Revival attempts
The 1991 the Indian census recorded 49,736 persons using Sanskrit as their native
language. However, in 2001 census it became 14,135. Since the 1990s, efforts to revive
spoken Sanskrit have been commenced. Many organizations like the Samskrta Bharati
conduct Speak Sanskrit workshops to popularize the language. Uttarakhand in India has
adopted Sanskrit as its second official language. The Central Board of Secondary
Education of India has made Sanskrit a third language in the schools it governs.

In following Indian villages people of all castes speak Sanskrit:

 Mattur in Karnataka
 Jhiri - Rajgadh District, Madhya Pradesh
 Ganoda - Banswad District, Rajasthan
 Bawali – Bagapat District, Uttar Pradesh
 Mohad – Narasinhpur District, Madhya Pradesh

In the Republic of India, in Nepal and Indonesia, Sanskrit phrases are widely used as
mottoes for various educational and social organizations like the Latin is used by some
institutions in the West. It is to be noted that the mottos of the republics like India and
Nepal are in Sanskrit.

While Republic of India use Satyameva Jayate "Truth alone triumphs", Nepal uses Janani
Janmabhūmisca Svargādapi garīyasi "Mother and motherland are greater than heaven".

Corporations like Life Insurance Corporation of India also uses the Sanskrit phrase taken
from the Bhagavad Gita - Yogakshemam Vahāmyaham meaning “I shall take care of
welfare" as its motto. Many of the post–Independence educational institutions of national
importance in India and Sri Lanka too have Sanskrit mottoes.

Sanskrit and related languages have also influenced their Sino-Tibetan-speaking

neighbours to the north through the spread of Buddhist texts. Buddhism was spread to
China by Mahayanist missionaries sent by Emperor Ashoka mostly through translations
of Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit and Classical Sanskrit texts, and many terms were
transliterated directly and added to the Chinese vocabulary.
Although Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit is not Sanskrit, properly speaking, its grammar and
vocabulary are substantially the same, both because of genetic relationship, and because
of conscious implementation of Pāṇinian standardizations on the part of composers.
Buddhist texts composed in Sanskrit proper were primarily found in philosophical
schools like the Madhyamaka. The situation in Tibet is similar; many Sanskrit texts
survive only in Tibetan translation - in the Tanjur.

The Thai language contains many loan words from Sanskrit. For example, in Thai,
Rāvana—the emperor of Sri Lanka is called 'Thosakanth' which is a derivation of his
Sanskrit name 'Dashakanth' ("of ten necks"). Many Sanskrit loanwords are also found in
traditional Malay, Modern Indonesian, and numerous Philippine languages, Old Javanese
language (nearly half) and to a lesser extent, Cambodian and Vietnamese.

Usage of Sanskrit in modern times

Many of India's and Nepal's scientific and administrative terms are coined in Sanskrit, as
a counterpart of the western practice of naming scientific developments in Latin or
Greek. The Indian guided missile program that was commenced in 1983 by DRDO has
named the five missiles - ballistic and others - that it has developed as Prithvi, Agni,
Akash, Nag and Trishul. India's first modern fighter aircraft is named HAL Tejas.

Recital of Sanskrit shlokas as background chorus in films, television advertisements and

as slogans for corporate organizations has become a trend.

Recently, Sanskrit also made an appearance in Western pop music in two recordings by
Madonna. One, "Shanti/Ashtangi", from the 1998 album "Ray of Light", is the traditional
Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga chant referred above set to music. The second, "Cyber-raga",
released in 2000 as a B-side to Madonna's single "Music", is a Sanskrit-language ode of
devotion to a higher power and a wish for peace on earth. The climactic battle theme of
The Matrix Revolutions features a choir, singing a Sanskrit prayer from the
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad in the closing titles of the movie. Composer John Williams
also featured a choir singing in Sanskrit for Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.

The Sky1 version of the title sequence in season one of Battlestar Galactica 2004 features
the Gayatri Mantra, taken from the Rig Veda (3.62.10). The composition was written by
miniseries composer Richard Gibbs.

Computational linguistics
There have been suggestions to use Sanskrit as a meta-language for knowledge
representation in e.g. machine translation, and other areas of natural language processing
because of its relatively high regular structure. This is due to Classical Sanskrit being a
regularized, prescriptivist form abstracted from the much more complex and richer Vedic
Sanskrit. This levelling of the grammar of Classical Sanskrit began during the Brahmana
phase, and had not yet completed by the time of Pāṇini, when the language was out of
popular use.

Before concluding the topic, let us summarize the main ideas we have discussed so far.
This unit help you understand about Sanskrit language in general. It attempts to detail on
the etymology of the language and gives a brief history of the evolution of the language.
It also explains the difference between classical Sanskrit and Vedic Sanskrit. It shows
how Panini’s grammatical interventions structured the language. It details on the various
factors that caused the decline of Sanskrit.

The unit also speaks about how Sanskrit influenced various languages like Chinese and
other Indian languages. This chapter also deals with the writing system of the language.
The syntax and grammatical structure of the language is analysed in detail.

This unit throws light into the revival attempts done to resurrect the once widely used
administrative language of India. Modern day influences and the suggestions to use
Sanskrit as a meta-lnguage is also a topic of discussion.

Thus this unit tries to offer a comprehensive module about the most ancient writing
system in India by briefing the relevant stages of its history including the recent trend of
its revival.