SANSKRIT or SAMSKRITAM -A divine language

Origin and History

In India, Sanskrit has been the means of expressing, lofty spiritual insights in graceful
verses and skilful prose which have collectively taken the form of the illustrious Vedic
literature. The word Sanskrit has been derived from the word, samskritam, which means
elegant, refined, flawless, perfect. It is also called devavani. This distinguished language is
granted a divine status because of its unique beginnings. Whereas other languages are clearly
the product of human culture evolution, Sanskrit is believed to be of divine origin. It is said to
be apaurusheya, not created by man.
This bold claim is based on the fact that it is the language of the eternal Vedas, the
source scriptures for the entire Vedic tradition. The very first use of Sanskrit is found in the
Rig Veda Samhita, the most ancient part of the Vedas. Western scholars estimate this text to
be more than 3500 years old, but traditional Indian scholars allege that it’s actually timeless,
beginningless, eternal.

SAMSKRITAM -A divine language

According to this traditional view, the rishis did not independently compose the
Vedas. Instead, they discovered and gave verbal form to the knowledge that was created at
the beginning of time. For this reason, the rishis are called mantra-drashtraarah, the seers of
mantras, those who discovered the teachings of the Vedas. Somehow, they were able to
perceive what others could not perceive.That is why they were called rishis.
Another expression of Sanskrit’s divine origin occurs in a wonderful mythological
story that depicts Lord Shiva as Nataraja, engaged in his wild, cosmic dance of creation and
destruction. While dancing, he played his drum, his damaru. With each beat, letters of the
Sanskrit alphabet emerged from his drum, arranged in fourteen groups. This arrangement of
letters into fourteen groups were termed Siva sutras which became central in the work of the
great grammarian, Panini. No other language makes such a claim - to have a divine origin.

The Siva sutras

 There is a research paper from one of the European universities which quotes ‘Siva
sutras has Universal admiration” and also it quotes Panini’s work as one of the oldest
recorded grammar in the history and also it says that Siva sutras continues to inspire
Linguistics even today and is one of the greatest monuments of human intelligence.

Another book written almost 100 Years Ago by Leonard Bloomfield, considered as the father
of American Linguistics, regards samskritam as one of the finest linguistic achievements
known to mankind.
Linguists generally explain the origin of languages in terms of evolution. As you
know, all modern languages were derived from earlier ones, like English, which evolved
from the speech of the Anglo Saxons. Linguists show how languages develop by using a tree,
whose small branches represent modern languages, and whose larger limbs represent earlier
ones. This tree of Indo-European languages shows the evolution of English from Germanic
languages. It also shows how the vernaculars spoken in North India today are all the direct
descendants of Sanskrit. But, Sanskrit itself is not the descendent of any known language. It
is grouped with other Indo-European languages, because it shares certain features with them.
Western scholars theorize that Sanskrit, Latin and ancient Greek are sister languages, having
all evolved from a common ancestor. But, linguists are yet to discover that ancestral tongue!
 The language evolution tree

Lithuania shares very close routes with Sanskrit and that's why department of
the Lithuanian studies of the University of Lithuania, in 2019, published a book of 10,
000 common words between Sanskrit and Lithuania and the government of Lithuania
presented it to the Vice President of India, Sri Venkai Naidu.

Sanskrit and Lithuanian languages have much in common

Sanskrit, as we know today, is a collective effort of four great gurus.
Panini who gave Ashtadhyayi
Pingala who gave Chandas Shastra
Katyayani maharishi who gave Varthikakara
Patanjali who gave Maha Bhashyam

Structure of the Sanskrit

Sanskrit, although related to Latin and ancient Greek, stands out from them
due to the extremely sophisticated structure and organization of its alphabet.
Sanskrit, has a well-organized and highly-structured alphabet.
It begins with the vowels, short and long:
a aa, i ii, u uu,
r rr and lr, which doesn’t have a long form.
Then come the diphthongs which are basically combinations of vowels;
e, ai, o and au.
Next come the consonants, which are organized according to their place of articulation,
starting with the gutturals at the back of the throat to the labials at the lips
 Gutterals at the back of the throat :k kh, g gh, n,
 palatals at the hard palate; c ch, j jh, n,
 linguals at the roof of the mouth; t th, d dh, n,
 dentals behind the front teeth; t th, d dh, n,
 labials at the lips; p ph, b bh, m.
Each of these five groups has an internal order;
 the first pair is hard or unvoiced, like k kh and c ch,
 the second pair is soft or voiced, like g gh and j jh.
The fifth letter of each group is nasal.
 Each pair of consonants begins with an unaspirate, like k or g, followed by its
corresponding aspirate (breathing out), like kh or gh.
 These 25 consonants are followed by four semivowels, y r l v, three sibillants, sh sh
and s, and the letter h.

This highly organized structure helps insure the proper pronunciation of each letter.
Pronunciation of words in English is problematic for many, because English is non-phonetic -
the sound of each letter is not fixed. It varies depending on the word, like the letter ‘a‘is
pronounced differently in about, in car, in cat, and in skate.
 Sanskrit, on the other hand, is perfectly phonetic; each letter has one and only one
sound.
 Sanskrit also makes possible tremendous clarity and precision of expression due to its
exceptionally complex grammar.
 It has eight cases, compared to three in English,
 its verbs can be conjugated in ten different tenses and moods,
 it has a dual number, a neuter gender,
 and an extensive vocabulary that permits the addition of newly-coined words.
All this complexity makes Sanskrit perfectly suited for expressing subtle, philosophical and
spiritual teachings, the very teachings that are so central to its literature.

Panini’s Ashtaadhyaayi
Panini, the great grammarian, lived about 2500 years ago, and was recently
commemorated on a postage stamp. Panini is renowned for composing a text that codified all
the rules of Sanskrit grammar in about 4000 brief aphorisms called sutras. He modestly
called his brilliant work, Ashtaadhyaayi, the book of eight chapters. This work was so clear
and concise, that it soon became universally accepted as the standard text for Sanskrit
grammar, and it’s been used by scholars from the time of Panini right up to today.
Panini’s Ashtaadhyaayi has been used continuously for the past 2500 years.
Every work of Sanskrit literature composed after Panini’s time strictly adhered to the
grammatical rules set forth in his text. So, Panini’s work gave rise to complete grammatical
uniformity, and that had a surprising consequence, it prevented Sanskrit from evolving. As
older languages evolve into newer ones, the older languages eventually become archaic and
unintelligible.
For example, English works written before the time of Shakespeare, some 400 years ago,
cannot be understood without special training. But Sanskrit escaped this process of evolution
due to the strict conformance to Panini’s grammar. As a result of this, works written
thousands of years ago are as intelligible as works written mere decades ago. Knowing
English gives you access to 400 years of literature, but knowledge of Sanskrit is a magical
key that unlocks the door to 2500 years of literature. And that body of literature is
extraordinary.
Human culture has been immeasurably enriched by this vast body of Sanskrit literature which
has blessed thousands of past generations and will bless future generations for centuries to
come.

Panini’s Ashtaadhyaayi

Sanskrit for Verbal Transmission of Knowledge

The main feature of the ancient Indian education system was that it followed the Guru
Sishya Parampara which emphasizes on verbal transmission of knowledge from teacher to
student. The actual reason behind such a system was that one should be carrying the acquired
knowledge always with oneself at all times in one’s mind, to apply it as and when it is needed
instead of lying somewhere printed in a book. To make the knowledge more understandable
and memorisable, a lot of techniques were employed. Three most important techniques that
are found are:
First one is: All the knowledge is in the form of shlokas and sutras. A shloka, is any
type of rhythmic verse. It could be either a story, a song, or a hymn. If the words are
arranged in a particular rhythm or meter(length), it is called a shloka. A shloka can be a sutra,
based on how crisp it is, and the message it conveys. Basically, sutra is a phrase that is an
encoded message. The shlokas and sutras are framed using the techniques of chandas
shastra. According to rules of Chandas Shastra, there are only specific rhythms and lengths
of phrases which can be easily inculcated into human mind, can be recited, memorized and
recalled. This can be easily witnessed in our modern times when we see the learned pujaris
reciting complex shlokas with such ease during puja ceremonies in Bharat. So here is the
scientific importance of Chandas Shastra.
Second one is: The knowledge was dialectical, meaning that there was a storytelling
approach that was incorporated with all kind of knowledge. The beauty of this concept can be
realized while studying Jyotishshastra, where the properties of all planets and stars can be
easily remembered if we know the story related with them!
Third one is: being aphoristic in nature, that means condensing the information into a
sutra format that is condensing a huge piece of information into one or two lines in
samskritam, so that it is very easy for recitation, memorization and again using it as and when
it is needed.

Sanskrit for Verbal Transmission of Knowledge

Sanskrit and Technology

Akshara Sankhya System

Here is the deep-rooted connection between Sanskrit and technology! In Sanskrit
there is a system called the Akshara Sankhya System or simply, the alpha syllabic number
system.
Aryabhata in his book, The Aryabhattyam, has elaborated this system of expression of large
numbers in form of words, clubbed together to form shlokas.
According to this system, all the vowels were assigned the powers of 10 starting from zero
and all consonants were assigned a numerical value shown below in the figure:

Akshara Sankhya System

So, the aksharas of samskritam were assigned certain numbers, certain values and when we
use these letters to form words, those words actually represent the combination of the
numbers. Basically, in the positional number system, every number has its absolute value and
also a positional value. Absolute value is denoted by the consonants while the positional
value could be denoted by the vowel with which it is attached.
Let's take a number 30,600
30600 = 30,000 +600 which as you can see from the figure is
g and u becomes gu and cha plus e becomes chi so finally we have the word guchi. Now
guchi in the, akshara sankhya system represents 30,600! The following figures are shown to
make the concept more clear.

Now this cryptic way of articulation is not meant to hide the secrets but to make it
more memorisable, and recitable. Here is another instance where Aryabhata uses the term
“khryughru”which can be decoded to 4,32,000.So in a period of one Yuga, Sun rotates on its
own axis for khryughru or 4,32,000 times. Shown below is a snapshot of a research paper
published by Royal Asiatic Society in 1911, which shows detailed research done by the
British on this system. They clearly establish the fact that such a system of expression was
prevalent in Bharath for the purpose of making the knowledge memorisable and for retention
in memory.

Such was the depth of thinking of the ancient Indian scholars. Today we are trying to
change our education policy after every few years because of the tremendous shortcomings
faced every time. If only we could have taken some guidance from our illustrious scriptures,
we could land up making better policies. In fact, nobody thinks in that direction because of
lack of awareness of our rich ancient education system.
The above revelations about Sanskrit, makes it absolutely clear why it should be an
integral part of our education, as it holds the key to decode such technical concepts that have
the potential to make India, a land of innovations once again.