Sanskrit has the benefit of a body of work, still not comprehended fully by human intellect, even today.
“Let noble thoughts come to us from all directions”
– (Rg Veda I.89.1)
There is a beautiful imagery in Sanskrit poetry of a donkey carrying sandalwood on its back not knowing what it is! As far as the donkey is concerned any load is the same as it doesn’t have to do anything with it. That is not the case with human beings I believe. We should be knowing the value of everything we possess, including our heritage.
Sanskrit language, which is one among them, is in news these days for many right or wrong reasons. But is it the problem of Sanskrit? Not definitely.
Today, Sanskrit is not the mother tongue of many, the way Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Gujarati or any other Indian language is. It is a second language often learned in school, college, home or in a Pathashala. Still there are people who communicate in this language. A language is considered living only if people communicate in it on a daily basis. The Sanskrit word for language, ‘bhasha’ means ‘that in which people talk’. (bhāshyate anena iti bhāshā). Every Hindu child is expected to know at least a few prayers in Sanskrit. The way every Parsi child is taught the Zorastrian prayers (Gathas) in the Avestan language which is no longer spoken.
Curiously, Avestan is closer to Vedic Sanskrit in which the hymns of the Vedas are sung. But in reality, how many understand Sanskrit today? And why this old language be learned or taught to our children?
Sanskrit is considered to be one of the oldest of all living languages. Still this language, as we find today, is a complete one with a structured grammar (rather many grammars!), with a vast body of literature starting from the scriptures in oral and written form to modern literature. In between it holds a treasure of technical literature or Shāstra which is maligned day after day.
In this world, there will be no population which doubts, blames or belittle its own cultural heritage openly like the Indians. Just because it is written in this ancient language. The fact that the language itself is refined (saṁskṛta) and has regenerative capacity shows the level of development of human intellect during the evolution of this language. Panini, who structured the grammar into sutras (aphorisms) in the Ashtādhyayi, a text of Sanskrit grammar, came centuries after the language came into existence. He himself quotes many grammarians prior to him and this is believed to be in 7th Century BC.
Sanskrit has the benefit of a body of work, still not comprehended fully by human intellect, even today. It imparts knowledge on anything, be it karma, righteousness, rituals, statecraft, warfare, art, science, nature, astronomy, astrology, worship, economics, philosophy, after life and what not! Criticising the language just because some political ideology patronises it or some religion has its literature composed in it is not fair. In fact, this language is older than any political party or organised religion we see today. Further, none who criticise Sanskrit has learned it fully so as to appreciate its beauty or grandeur.
Once upon a time, even Hebrew language suffered the fate of Sanskrit. This ancient language of Israel was facing extinction as it got reduced to the language of the clergy. People had stopped using it as the medium of daily communication. It was the sacrifice and efforts of a few lovers of this language, especially, Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, which brought it back to its glory. Today it is the official language of Israel. This happened in 1948. The people of Israel embraced the language and understood the value of the treasure they bequeathed. Even decades after the architect of Constitution, Dr. B.R.Ambedkar’s suggestion that Sanskrit should be made the official language of India, we are still sceptic about this language’s worth and class.
The benefit of learning Sanskrit are many. The modern-day computing accepts Sanskrit as the most ideal language for its functioning. Medical science has done ample research on the health benefits of daily chanting of Sanskrit mantras and verses too. But the Indian philosophy, which is non-materialistic, left the issue of utility to lesser mortals and exhorted the finer souls to learn it for one’s own Self. Bhagavad Gita ordains it “Elevate the self by the self” (B.G.VI.5)
The perils of neglecting Sanskrit are more evident today. Every Indian language is anglicised today. Nothing against English, which is still the connecting language we value. The distancing from the roots is not good for any language, even though languages evolve over time. The farther we go away from Sanskrit, the more distanced we are from our mother tongue because not many Indian languages today can stand on their legs if Sanskrit is removed completely from its vocabulary, not even the Dravidian languages. The way there are loan words from the Dravidian languages in classical Sanskrit, there are immense number of loan words in the South Indian languages which belong originally to Sanskrit, and can be traced back to the proto-Indo European language family.
The similarity of roots of words in Persian language and Sanskrit and the similarities between Avesta and Vedic Sanskrit points out to the common parentage of these languages. The mother of all languages, at least in this language family, is believed to be the now lost proto-Indo-European, which linguists have tried to reconstruct based on the remaining evidences from the Vedas and the Avesta. This is evident from the similar words of relations and numbers seen in almost all these languages. Pitar (father) in Sanskrit become pedar in Persian, bhratr (brother) becomes berathar and anghusta (thumb) becomes angosht. Ekam (one) becomes yek and dasha (ten) becomes daha. As the Vedas declare, “ekam sad viprāḥ bahudhā vadanti” (Truth is one, but the wise speak it as many).
Tamil, belonging to the Dravidian family of languages is one of the ancient and is a world treasure. When Sanskrit is promoted or preserved, there is a misconception that Tamil or any other Dravidian language is ignored or degraded. Languages can co-exist; they have done it beautifully for centuries. Prakrit co-existed with Sanskrit, as we see in Kalidasa’s Abhijnāna Shākuntalam and many other works. Malayalam co-existed beautifully with Sanskrit and we have exquisite poetry in manipravālam (a combination of Sanskrit and Malayalam). Even today Indian languages co-exist with English, French, German and other foreign languages which our kids learn. In a sense, Sanskrit has the rare distinction of unifying the whole of India over the years as it was used as the connecting language when scholars from different regional languages came together to debate on various topics, the way English is used today.
Learning multiple languages broadens the mind as linguistic and medical research confirms. Our children have the golden opportunity to learn many ancient languages easily in this country, which can make them better humans by imbibing the rich cultural heritage preserved in multiple languages. The joy of reading Chilappatikaram of Ilango Adigal in chaste Sangam Tamil is nothing less than the joy of reading Raghuvamsa of Kalidasa in Sanskrit. Thirukkural stands high and lofty the way Ramayana adorns our literary throne. A deeper learning of these two alone will tell us how similar were the thoughts of those brilliant sages who left them for us.
Buddhist and Jaina literature used Sanskrit apart from Pali, Ardh-Magadhi, Prakrit and other similar languages. Preserving and understanding them is impossible without the knowledge of Sanskrit. Various projects are ongoing worldwide, to study, edit, translate and publish these valuable works preserved mostly in the form of manuscripts, for the benefit of posterity. It is our duty to handover these treasures in their actual glory, to future generations. It is with this noble intention that the Mughal prince Dara Shukoh, a devout Muslim, learned Sanskrit and translated the Bhagavad Gita and 51 Upanisads into Persian. Scholars from every part of the world have come to India to learn this language to understand the secret knowledge preserved in it. Even today it is taught in many foreign universities. But Indians are uniquely positioned in learning, propagating and preserving Sanskrit compared to other nations just because it is still a living language here. Instead of fighting over languages, should not we pause and reflect? We exist now and so we can think. We own this great treasure, and we are human beings who can differentiate between something which is valuable and not so.
Let noble thoughts alone come to us!
