Splashes from Hindu Maha Sagar - 39 - Sanskrit
Sanskrit Language
Sanskrit is the oldest language in the world, and mother of
all Indo-European languages. Rishis discovered Sanskrit and used it to create
the mantras that were made up of a combination of sound vibrations to create
specific effect on the mind and the psyche, when recited. It is the language of
the Vedas, Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, Mahabharata, Ramayana and the Puranas.
Sanskrit literature is the richest literature in the history of mankind. The
Sanskrit alphabet is called ‘devanagari’ and literally means ‘cities of the
gods’.
Until 1100 AD Sanskrit was without interruption the official
language of the whole of India.
The dominance of Sanskrit is indicated by the wealth of literature composed in
the language covering every subject under the Sun. On every subject a
masterpiece treatise can be found in the Sanskrit literature. The range expands
from Philosophy, Religion, Science, Fine Arts, Sex, Music, Astrology,
Palmistry, Astronomy, Chemistry, Mathematics, Martial Arts, and Diplomacy, just
to list the few.
The word Sanskrit literally means ‘Perfected Language’ or
‘Language brought to formal perfection’. This is quite an appropriate name to
describe Sanskrit, but unfortunately our convent educated secularists did not
reconcile to it, till NASA declared it to be ‘the only unambiguous language on
the planet’.
Sanskrit is a scientific and systematic language. Its
grammar is perfect and has attracted scholars worldwide except regrettably in India.
Well-known linguists and computer-scientists have also expressed the opinion
that Sanskrit is the best language for use with computers.
Development of Grammar – Panini‘s Ashtadhyayi
Panini's Sanskrit grammar, produced in about 300 BC is the
shortest and the fullest grammar in the world for its precision of statement,
and for its thorough analysis of the roots of the language and of the formative
principles of words. By employing an algebraic terminology it attains a sharp
succinctness unrivalled in brevity. It arranges, in logical harmony, the whole
phenomena, which the Sanskrit language presents. It is one of the most splendid
achievements of human invention in the science of Linguistics.
Panini's masterpiece Ashtadhyayi (Eight Chapters) stands out
as the first scientific analysis of any alphabet. The work is the more
remarkable since the author did not write it down. He worked it all out of his
head. Panini's disciples committed the work to memory and in turn passed it on
to their disciples. Though the Astadhayayi has long since been committed to
writing, rote memorization of the work, with several of the more important
commentaries, is still the approved method of studying grammar in India today.
Ashtadhyayi comprises of four thousand sutras or aphoristic
rules. Prior grammatical analysis is clearly evidenced by the fact that Panini
himself mentions over sixty predecessors in the field. For example, the sounds
represented by the letters of the alphabet had been properly arranged, vowels
and diphthongs separated from mutes, semivowels, and sibilants, and the sounds
had been grouped into gutturals, palatals, cerebrals, dentals, and labials.
Subsequent grammarians, especially Katyayana and Patanjali,
carried the work much further, and by the middle of the second century BC
Sanskrit had attained a stereotyped form, which remained unaltered for
centuries.
The Hindu grammar taught Europeans to analyze speech forms.
Ancient Indian work on grammar was objective, systematic, and brilliant than
that done in Greece or Rome.
Chand K Sharma