Sanskrit

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Sanskrit (/ˈsænskrɪt/; attributively संस्कृत-,

saṃskṛta-;[15][16] nominally संस्कृतम्, saṃskṛtam,
IPA: [sɐ̃skr̩ tɐm][sɐmskr̩ tɐm][17][18][d]) is a
classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan
branch of the Indo-European languages.[20][21]
[22]
It arose in South Asia after its predecessor
languages had diffused there from the northwest
in the late Bronze Age.[23][24] Sanskrit is the
sacred language of Hinduism, the language of
classical Hindu philosophy, and of historical texts
of Buddhism and Jainism. It was a link language
in ancient and medieval South Asia, and upon
transmission of Hindu and Buddhist culture to
Southeast Asia, East Asia and Central Asia in the
early medieval era, it became a language of
religion and high culture, and of the political elites
in some of these regions.[25][26] As a result,
Sanskrit had a lasting effect on the languages of
South Asia, Southeast Asia and East Asia,
especially in their formal and learned
vocabularies.[27]

Sanskrit

संस्कृत-, संस्कृतम्
Saṃskṛta-, Saṃskṛtam

(top) A 19th-century illustrated Sanskrit manuscript

from the Bhagavad Gita,[1] composed c. 400 – 200 BCE.
[2][3]
(bottom) The 175th-anniversary stamp of the third-
oldest Sanskrit college, Sanskrit College, Calcutta. The
oldest was founded as Benares Sanskrit College in 1791.

Pronunciation [sɐ̃skr̩ tɐm] [sɐmskr̩ tɐm]

Region South Asia (ancient and

medieval), parts of
Southeast Asia
(medieval)

Era c. 1500 – 600 BCE (Vedic

Sanskrit);[4]
700 BCE – 1350 CE
(Classical Sanskrit)[5]

Revival There are no known

native speakers of
Sanskrit.[6][7][8][9][10][11]

Language family Indo-European

Indo-Iranian
Indo-Aryan
Sanskrit

Early form Vedic Sanskrit

Writing system Devanagari script

(present day). Originally
orally transmitted. Not
attested in writing until
the 1st century BCE,
when it was written in the
Brahmi script, and later
in various Brahmic
scripts.[a][12][13]

Official status

Official language in India (state-additional

official)[b]
Himachal Pradesh
Uttarakhand

Recognised minority South Africa[c]

language in

Language codes

ISO 639-1 sa

ISO 639-2 san

ISO 639-3 san – inclusive code

Individual codes:
cls – Classical Sanskrit
vsn – Vedic Sanskrit

Glottolog sans1269

This article contains IPA phonetic symbols.

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Sanskrit generally connotes several Old Indo-

Aryan language varieties.[28][29] The most archaic
of these is the Vedic Sanskrit found in the
Rigveda, a collection of 1,028 hymns composed
between 1500 BCE and 1200 BCE by Indo-Aryan
tribes migrating east from the mountains of what
is today northern Afghanistan across northern
Pakistan and into northwestern India.[30][31] Vedic
Sanskrit interacted with the preexisting ancient
languages of the subcontinent, absorbing names
of newly encountered plants and animals; in
addition, the ancient Dravidian languages
influenced Sanskrit's phonology and syntax.[32]
Sanskrit can also more narrowly refer to Classical
Sanskrit, a refined and standardized grammatical
form that emerged in the mid-1st millennium BCE
and was codified in the most comprehensive of
ancient grammars,[e] the Aṣṭādhyāyī ('Eight
chapters') of Pāṇini.[33] The greatest dramatist in
Sanskrit, Kālidāsa, wrote in classical Sanskrit, and
the foundations of modern arithmetic were first
described in classical Sanskrit.[f][34] The two
major Sanskrit epics, the Mahābhārata and the
Rāmāyaṇa, however, were composed in a range of
oral storytelling registers called Epic Sanskrit
which was used in northern India between 400
BCE and 300 CE, and roughly contemporary with
classical Sanskrit.[35] In the following centuries,
Sanskrit became tradition-bound, stopped being
learned as a first language, and ultimately
stopped developing as a living language.[9]

The hymns of the Rigveda are notably similar to

the most archaic poems of the Iranian and Greek
language families, the Gathas of old Avestan and
Iliad of Homer.[36] As the Rigveda was orally
transmitted by methods of memorisation of
exceptional complexity, rigour and fidelity,[37][38]
as a single text without variant readings,[39] its
preserved archaic syntax and morphology are of
vital importance in the reconstruction of the
common ancestor language Proto-Indo-
European.[36] Sanskrit does not have an attested
native script: from around the turn of the 1st-
millennium CE, it has been written in various
Brahmic scripts, and in the modern era most
commonly in Devanagari.[a][12][13]

Sanskrit's status, function, and place in India's

cultural heritage are recognized by its inclusion in
the Constitution of India's Eighth Schedule
languages.[40][41] However, despite attempts at
revival,[8][42] there are no first-language speakers
of Sanskrit in India.[8][10][43] In each of India's
recent decennial censuses, several thousand
citizens have reported Sanskrit to be their mother
tongue,[g] but the numbers are thought to signify
a wish to be aligned with the prestige of the
language.[6][7][8][44] Sanskrit has been taught in
traditional gurukulas since ancient times; it is
widely taught today at the secondary school
level. The oldest Sanskrit college is the Benares
Sanskrit College founded in 1791 during East India
Company rule.[45] Sanskrit continues to be widely
used as a ceremonial and ritual language in Hindu
and Buddhist hymns and chants.

Etymology and nomenclature

History

Influence

Geographic distribution

Phonology

Morphology

Writing system

Literature

Lexicon

Influence on other languages

Modern era

See also

Notes

References

Further reading

External links

Last edited 5 days ago by AchyuthaVM

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