The Renaissance Revival of Sanskrit
The history of education in ancient India could be traced back to the period of the Vedas. The Vedas have a history of about 3000 years of education.
Sanskrit is a highly revered language in India and abroad and as a classical language. It is a true reflection of Indian heritage and culture.
More over Sanskrit language is very closely related to modern Indian languages and linguistics. But in this age of science and technology, Sanskrit education in India has hit a major setback.
Sanskrit is universally recognized as the language containing the earliest literature in the world. It has been established as one of the ancient branches of the Indo-European family of languages, an elder sister of the ancient classical languages of Europe like Greek and Latin; modern North Indian languages are derived from it, and even the South Indian languages are saturated with Sanskrit words.
For expanding the vocabulary to cope with the development of civilization, all languages of India and some of the neighbouring languages like Singhalese, Burmese and Malaysian depend heavily on Sanskrit loan words. The discovery of Sanskrit as a sister language of the West made it an essential tool to understand the origin and early stages of the European languages.
The Unique Quality of its Grammar
The sound of each of the 36 consonants and the 16 vowels of Sanskrit are fixed and precise since the very beginning. They were never changed, altered, improved or modified. All the words of the Sanskrit language always had the same pronunciation as they have today. There was no ‘sound shift,’ no change in the vowel system, and no addition was ever made in the grammar of the Sanskrit in relation to the formation of the words. The reason is its absolute perfection by its own nature and formation.
The morphology of word formation is unique and of its own kind where a word is formed from a tiny seed root (called dhatu) in a precise grammatical order which has been the same since the very beginning. Any number of desired words could be created through its root words and the prefix and suffix system as detailed in the Ashtadhyayi of Panini. Furthermore, 90 forms of each verb and 21 forms of each noun or pronoun could be formed that could be used in any situation.
Just like the Sanskrit word matri, with a long ‘a’ and soft ‘t,’ became mater in Greek and mother in English. The last two words are called the ‘apbhransh’ of the original Sanskrit word ‘matri.’ Such apbhranshas of Sanskrit words are found in all the languages of the world and this situation itself proves that Sanskrit was the-
‘Mother language of the world’
The Nobel Laureate physicist, Dr. C.V. Raman, believed that Sanskrit was the only language that could be the national language of India. He said, “Sanskrit flows through our blood. It is only Sanskrit that can establish the unity of the country.”
It is true that a national language is a very important element in the growth and self-actualisation of a people and a nation. Says Sri Aurobindo, “It is of the utmost value to a nation, a human group-soul, to preserve its language and to make of it a strong and living cultural instrument. A nation, race or people which loses its language, cannot live its whole life or its real life.”
On the concluding day of two-day national seminar on languages organised by Vikram University (VU), expert speakers of Hindi, English, Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrit and Russian languages shared their views. The chief guest of the closing ceremony held at the University's Golden Jubilee Auditorium was Sanskritist and former vice-chancellor Radhavallabh Tripathi, Pune.
The programme was presided over by VU’s vice-chancellor Balakrishna Sharma. The distinguished guest was PK Verma, former vice-chancellor of Barkatullah University, Bhopal.
Prof Tripathi, in his address, said that in the eighteenth century a new awareness about Indology was born which had a worldwide impact. The unforgettable role of translation of Sanskrit texts played a vital role in the rise of the Indian Renaissance.
“During that period many translations of Sanskrit texts from Persian were translated into European languages. William Jones created a deep awareness of Sanskritology worldwide through translations. The Indian Renaissance freed Indians from despair and selflessness”, he added.
Prof Sharma said that knowledge is eternal and time immemorial. There are only a few people who understand Saraswat elements.
Prof Verma said that the role of teacher is changing with time. In the new era, teachers can make a huge contribution as guides. There is a need to bring curiosity in the coming times. In the new generation, thinking should be developed in an inter-disciplinary way, he added.
The Importance
One of the first written records was in Sanskrit
It has been attested that one of the first written records may have been in Sanskrit. It was probably the texts that make of the Rigveda, which is a collection of Hindu hymns that dates back to ancient times.
Though there isn’t a large body of evidence to support this, but even though Vedic Sanskrit was a purely spoken language, complete memorization in order for proper pronunciation was crucial, so we can safely say that the written accounts we have now were most likely the same as the ones then. These religious and ceremonial texts were extremely important in terms of both religion and philosophy.
Sanskrit is the philosophical language for a few religions
Besides its importance to Hinduism, Sanskrit is also a philosophical language used in Jainism, Buddhism, and Sikhism.
Jainism is a religion practiced by probably less than 1% of the population of India, and yet Jain literature has had a huge impact on Indian culture and history over the centuries.
One of the main languages used to write this literature is Sanskrit. The main language of Buddhism was Prakrits at first, but later Sanskrit was adopted, with some of the most important Buddhist literature being written in Sanskrit. The Guru Granth Sahib, the most important Sikh religious text, is written in a few different languages, one being Sanskrit.
It has had a huge influence on other languages
One of the most popular languages in India today, Hindi, is hugely influenced by Sanskrit, and is in fact a register of the Khariboli dialect that has been “Sanskritised”.
If you take a look at the modern Indo-Aryan languages, you will see that many of them directly borrow grammar and vocabulary from Sanskrit.
Beyond those of modern India, other languages in nearby regions have been influenced as well. Austronesian, Sino-Tibetan, and many languages of Southeast Asia show Sanskrit influence as well. Some have said that there are even words in English that were originally Sanskrit words.
The New Education Policy (NEP) 2020, approved by the Union Cabinet recently proposed the setting up of an Indian Institute of Translation and Interpretation (IITI) while also laying significant emphasis on Sanskrit and other Indian languages.
As per the NEP and IITT will be established that will make extensive use of technology to aid in its translation and interpretation efforts.
Another feature of the policy is that Sanskrit will be “mainstreamed” with strong offerings in school - including as one of the language options in the three-language formula as well as in higher education.
Sanskrit Universities too will move towards becoming large multidisciplinary institutions of higher learning.
Teaching and learning of Indian languages need to be integrated with school and higher education at every level. For languages to remain relevant and vibrant, there must be a steady stream of high-quality learning and print materials in these languages including textbooks, workbooks, videos, plays, poems, novels, magazines, etc.
Languages must also have consistent official updates to their vocabularies and dictionaries, widely disseminated, so that the most current issues and concepts can be effectively discussed in these languages, the policy has suggested.
India will equally broaden its institutes and universities finding out all classical languages and literature, with robust efforts to gather, protect, translate, and research the tens of 1000’s of manuscripts that haven’t but obtained their due consideration.
Sanskrit and all Indian language institutes and departments throughout the nation will probably be considerably strengthened. Classical language institutes will probably have to be merged with universities.
“If I was asked what is the greatest treasure which India possesses and what is her greatest heritage, I would answer unhesitatingly that it is the Sanskrit language and literature and all that it contains. This is a magnificent inheritance, and so long as this endures and influences the life of our people, so long will the basic genius of India continue.”
- Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (Quoted from ‘The Discovery of India’)
A vast and diverse country like India needs a national language that can unify and harmonise. It is of absolute no doubt that Sanskrit has the potential to achieve that!
