Sanskrit

ancient Indo-Aryan language of South Asia

Sanskrit is an ancient Indo-European language that originated in the Swat and northern Punjab regions of Pakistan.[3][4] It is considered sacred by Hindus. Many languages in Pakistan, India, Nepal and Bangladesh are derived from Sanskrit.[5] Today, only about 14,000 people use it as their daily language.[1] It is also one of the 22 officially recognised languages of India.

Sanskrit
संस्कृतम् saṃskṛtam
The word Sanskrit (संस्कृतम्) written in Sanskrit. Displayed in the Sarai font for Devanagari.
The word Sanskrit (संस्कृतम्) written in Devanagari.
RegionSouth Asia
Native speakers
14,000[1] (2001)
No native script.[2]
Today it is usually written in Devanagari, but it was also previously written in various Brāhmī-based scripts.
Official status
Official language in
One of the 22 scheduled languages of India.
Language codes
ISO 639-1sa
ISO 639-2san
ISO 639-3san
Part of a series on
Constitutionally recognised languages of India
Category
Scheduled Languages

A
Assamese
B
Bengali
Bodo
D
Dogri
G
Gujarati
H
Hindi
K
Kannada
Kashmiri
Konkani
M
Maithili
Malayalam
Marathi
Meitei (Manipuri)
N
Nepali
O
Odia (Oriya)
P
Punjabi
S
Sanskrit
Santali
Sindhi
T
Tamil
Telugu
U
Urdu

Related

Official languages of India
Languages with official status in India

A Sanskrit script

Sanskrit is a standardized dialect of Old Indo-Aryan and has a linguistic ancestry that can be traced back to Proto-Indo-European. The Indo-European Aryan migration theory proposes that the Indo-Europeans migrated from the Central Asian steppes into South Asia during the early 2nd millennium BC and brought the Indo-European language Sanskrit with them.[6] The main script used to write Sanskrit today is Devanāgarī. Historically, it was also written in the Brāhmī and Kharoshti scripts.[7]

William Jones, working as a judge in India in the 18th century, studied Sanskrit and recognised its similarities to Latin, Greek and other European languages. That led to the Indo-European languages being recognised as a group of related languages stretching from Europe to India.[source?]

Literature change

Sanskrit literature includes poetry and drama and has also scientific, technical, philosophical and religious texts.[8][9] Sanskrit continues to be widely used as a ceremonial language in Hindu religious rituals and also some Buddhist and Jain practice in the form of hymns and chants.

Grammar change

Sanskrit has a very complex grammar, with eight grammatical cases, three grammatical genders, and three grammatical numbers. Words are also described based on their qualities. Sanskrit is considered highly scientific, words in a sentence can describe the subect's number, gender and action.

References change

  1. 1.0 1.1 "Comparative speaker's strength of scheduled languages − 1971, 1981, 1991 and 2001". Census of India, 2001. Office of the Registrar and Census Commissioner, India. Retrieved 31 December 2009.
  2. Banerji, Suresh (1971). A companion to Sanskrit literature: spanning a period of over three thousand years, containing brief accounts of authors, works, characters, technical terms, geographical names, myths, legends, and twelve appendices. p. 672. ISBN 978-81-208-0063-2.[permanent dead link]
  3. Bronkhorst, Johannes (2010). Franco, Eli; Monika, Zin (eds.). "The spread of Sanskrit". From Turfan to Ajanta. Festschrift for Dieter Schlingloff on the Occasion of his Eightieth Birthday. Lumbini International Research Institute: 117–139 – via University of Lausanne.
  4. mushtaq-soofi (2013-02-15). "Language: Sanskrit and Prakrits!". DAWN.COM. Retrieved 2024-02-01.
  5. "Sanskrit is second official language in Uttarakhand – The Hindustan Times". Hindustantimes.com. 19 January 2010. Archived from the original on 2011-11-02. Retrieved 2012-04-05.
  6. Witzel, Michael 2005. Indocentrism. In Bryant, Edwin & Patton, Laurie L. The Indo-Aryan controversy: evidence and inference in Indian history. London: Routledge.
  7. Brown, W. Norman (1953). "Script Reform in Modern India, Pakistan, and Ceylon". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 73 (1): 1–6. doi:10.2307/595755. ISSN 0003-0279.
  8. Katju, Markandey (9 June 2014). "Sanskrit as a language of science". The Times of India.
  9. Katju, Markandey (5 December 2011). "Markandey Katju: What is India?". The Times of India.