Sanskrit is the oldest language known to
man. It is considered to be the very origin of language itself; that from which
all languages have arisen or evolved. Unlike popular belief, Sanskrit is not a
language only of scriptures or hymns and chants chanted in rituals and
ceremonies; it was used in earlier times by everyone - philosophers,
scientists, mathematicians, poets and playwrights, grammarians etc. In grammar,
Panini and Patanjali (authors of Ashtadhyayi and the Mahabhashya) have no
equals in the world; in astronomy and mathematics the works of Aryabhatta,
Brahmagupta and Bhaskaracharya opened up new frontiers for mankind, as did the
works of Charak and Sushrut in medicine. In literature, the works of Kalidas
(Shakuntala, Meghdoot, Malavikagnimitra, etc.), Bhavabhuti (Malti Madhav, Uttar
Ramcharit, etc.) are known all over the world. Thus, Sanskrit literature is
easily the richest literature in the history of mankind.
Infact in 1786, when Sir William Jones, in
a paper presented to the Royal Asiatic Society, in Calcutta, stated, "the
wonderful structure" of the Sanskrit language, is "more perfect than
the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than
either," the West had been busy learning from Sanskrit and prestigious universities
like Oxford, Cambridge and Edinburgh offered full-time courses in Sanskrit.
The Perfect One
The word Sanskrit is formed from 'sam +
krit' where (sam) prefix means (samyak) 'entirely' or 'wholly' or 'perfectly',
and krit means 'done'. Thus, the one which is introduced or produced in its
perfect form is called Sanskrit. It was not for nothing that it is called 'the most perfect literary instrument
developed by the human mind' by many.
Scientific Alphabet System
Sanskrit, like various other Indian and
Southeast Asian languages, uses the Devanāgarī alphabet. Devanāgarī is a
phonetic alphabet that consists of 16 vowels (svara) and 36 consonants
(vyanjana).
Let me try and explain what 'phonetic'
means. In the English language the alphabets from A to Z is not arranged in any
logical or rational manner. There is no reason why F is followed by G or why P
is followed by Q etc. On the other hand, alphabets of Sanskrit language are
arranged in a very scientific and logical manner, based on close observation of
the sounds in human speech. For example the vowels a, aa, i, ee, u, oo, ae, ai,
o, ou are arranged according to the shape of the mouth when these sounds are
emitted, a and aa, are pronounced from the throat, i and ee from the palate, o
and oo from the lips etc. In the same way the consonants have been arranged in
a sequence on a scientific pattern. The (ka) varga (i.e. ka, kha, ga, gha, nga)
are emitted from the throat, the (cha) varga from the palate, the (ta) varga
from the roof of the mouth, the (ta) varga from the teeth, and the (pa) varga
from the lips.
It is also known as a 'syllabic script',
which means that every letter has a unique sound and is a single syllable of
each word. Unlike in English where each consonant has an individual sound
(b=bee, f=ef, k=kay, z=zed), the Sanskrit letters representing consonants
incorporate an 'a' sound (ka, ta, pa) making each symbol a single syllable.
This vowel 'a' can be replaced by any other vowel by the addition of extra
symbols.
Based On Root Sounds Or Vibrations Of The
Universe
As Quantum physics has now revealed to us
and vedic rishis have maintained for eons, anything and everything consists of
vibration. The primary essence of any object or phenomena, then, could be
thought of as its own unique pattern, or composite patterns of vibration
(prana).
It is said that the language of Sanskrit
itself arises from these very root sounds or vibrations of the Universe. The
various vowels and consonants that make up Sanskrit words represent these core
sounds known as bijas. Whilst in states of deep resonance with the cosmos (in
other words, while in meditation), the rishis, the ancient spiritual scientists
could perceive these bija sounds and from this profound sense of perception,
they recognized the inherent sounds of each and every thing.
A Sanskrit word, then, is not merely a word
chosen to name something, but an actual reflection of the inherent 'sound' of
that object, concept or phenomena. In fact, proper or rather perfect
pronunciation of Sanskrit words, it is told, can replicate the exact nature or
essence of that which it is referring too. This is, at heart, is the essence of
one of the principles behind mantra chanting in
the vedic tradition. Today there are very
few who possess this precise knowledge and ability of 'perfect enunciation' and
this gyan is not contained in books but revealed to sadhaks in states of dhyan.
At Dhyan Ashram, practitioners of Sanatan Kriya have practically experienced
the power of mantras and routinely witness manifestation of energy and forms
through the right chants.
Perfect Grammar
Sanskrit grammar has attracted scholars
worldwide. Infact, its rules of grammar and the shabdabodh are of great utility
in the development of computer language and this has been acknowledged by many
computer experts including Rick Briggs, a NASA researcher, who asserted in AI
Magazine in 1985, “Among the accomplishments of the grammarians can be reckoned
a method for paraphrasing Sanskrit in a manner that is identical not only in
essence but in form with current work in Artificial Intelligence.”
A glimpse of the perfection of Sanskrit
grammar can be seen by the extensiveness of its grammatical tenses. There are
ten tenses, each tense has three separate words for each of the three
grammatical persons (first person, second person and third person) and it
further distinguishes if it's referring to one, two or more than two people
(called eakvachan, dvivachan and bahuvachan). Then there are three categories
of the verbs that indicate whether the outcome of the action is related to the
doer or the other person or both. In this way there are ninety forms of one
single verb. Also Sanskrit words are formed of a root word called dhatu. For
instance: kri root word means 'to do', gam root word means 'to go'. So, there
are ninety forms of each of these verbs like karoti, kurutah, kurvanti and
gachchati, gachchatah, gachchanti etc. Infact, Sanskrit grammar has the
capacity for creating any number of new words for a new situation or concept or
thing.
In English language there are only a few
words like: do, doing and done, or go, gone, going and went; then some more
words have to be added to express the variations of the tense like: is, was,
will, has been, had, had had etc. But in the Sanskrit language there are
ready-made single words for all kinds of uses and situations.
There is a detailed system of every aspect
of the grammar. All the aspects of the Sanskrit grammar along with the
dictionary were received as one packet from the very beginning along with the
Vedas. No 'sound shift', no change in the vowel system and no additions were
ever made in the grammar of Sanskrit in relation to the formation of words. On
the contrary, all the languages of the world started in a primitive form with
incomplete alphabet and vowels, having only a few words in the beginning which
were just enough for the people to communicate with each other.
Even the advanced international language of
today, the English language, when it took its roots from West Germanic around
800 AD, was in an absolutely primitive form. As it developed, it assimilated
about 30% of its words from Latin and numerous words from French and Greek.
Slowly developing and improving its vocabulary, the style of writing and the
grammar from Old English (which had only two tenses) to Middle English, to
Early Modern English, and then to Modern English, took a very long time.
As late as the beginning of the 17th
century when its first dictionary was published in London in 1604, there were
only 3,000 words. The title of the dictionary was, 'A Table Alphabeticall,
conteyning and teaching the true writing and understanding of hard unusual
English wordes, borrowed from the Hebrew, Greeke, Latine or French & c'.
Somewhat similar is the story of all the ancient and modern languages which started
from a very primitive stage of their literal representation with no regular
grammar. Proper grammar was introduced at a much later date as their society
reached a significant level of communication.
From the exacting nature of the
pronunciation of its 52 letters to the science of word formation, there has
never been any kind, class or nature of change in the science of Sanskrit
grammar. Sanskrit has been in its perfect form since the very beginning.
And incase you are one of those who thinks
Sanskrit to be a 'dead', forgotten language, no longer in use, then do check
out this video on youtube about just one of the villages in Madhya Pradesh,
Jhiri, whose residents almost always converse in Sanskrit since it was
introduced in their village 3 years ago and they also claim that speaking
Sanskrit has brought positive changes in their society.
WINNER ALL THE WAY
- Sanskrit is a natural language. We write it exactly as we say it which means that the writing is based on the sound of the spoken form. In other words, Sanskrit has no spelling, neither are there any silent letters. Contrast this to English where you can't read many words properly unless you know English to a certain extent. This means that a student is assumed to have known the English language already before one starts learning it! Sanskrit's coalescence (SANDHI) is yet another example of the natural flow in Sanskrit.
- There is only one set of alphabet in Sanskrit. This avoids many complexities of writing capital/small and italic letters as they are in the Roman alphabet/European scripts. There aren't many punctuation marks found in Sanskrit (Devanāgarī) script.
- There is logic in its sound system, and a natural continuity in its word-making as well as sentence-making. Compare this with languages of countries other than India. For example, unless one has visited England, one cannot guess the correct reading of the names/places like Reading, Gloucester, Leicester, Peugeot and Plymouth. Chaos in English follows, if not pre-learnt.
- Sanskrit's sentence structure is flexible. The declensions and the conjugations have a wide range. Hence every student has more freedom in composing sentences in Sanskrit. In contrast to this, every English sentence has to follow syntax (the law of particular order of words). In Sanskrit, the order of words in a sentence does not matter.
- The perfect form of the vedic Sanskrit language had already existed thousands of years earlier even before the infancy of the earliest prime languages of the world like Greek, Hebrew, Latin etc.
Well written and explained....
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