Sanskrit, the language of god. The language of ancient India. The language, which is considered to be of the purest form; was one of the most influential languages of not only India but the entire world. Its importance and contribution to India and world’s history are immeasurable and invaluable. Over thousands of years, the language has bloomed over a variety of topics from politics, administration, marriage, family, religion, spirituality, god, poetry and many more. Many great scholars have learned and contributed to the increasing stature of the language. It was unlike today, a common man’s language. For almost everyone in the country was able to speak Sanskrit. So how did it begin? How did it come to India? Let’s take a look at it.
The history of Sanskrit
The word “Sanskrit” has many meanings, which are: “perfected”, “perfectly made”, “put together”, or “assembled.” the language Sanskrit is found to be very similar with Greek and Latin language. Hence some of the scholars were of the opinion that all of them derived from the same language, which was not true. Agreeing to the fact that there are many similarities in them, there is plenty of evidence showing their differences. However, there is a hypothetical theory about the origin of Sanskrit which states that Sanskrit along with Greek and Latin have originated from a single language which was quite different from them. It was arrived in India through Euro-Asian gateway (today’s turkey) and interacted with the Dravidian language of south India. Hence the result of the interaction led to the formation of Sanskrit. The earlier Sanskrit language was used to construct Vedas, and many other mythologies and also religious and spiritual texts. It is also known as Vedic Sanskrit. However, around the 5th century B.C. a man called “Panini” transformed the language, popularizing it among the masses. Which is called as “normal Sanskrit”, which we are about to learn? So let us begin this journey of learning this sacred and intellectual phenomenon called Sanskrit.
