Jamwal Mahadeep Singh
If you talk to a man, in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart - Nelson Mandela. One language sets you in a corridor for life. Two languages open every door along the way. Sanskrit is a beautiful contextual language; it is called "Dev Bhasha" the language of the soul. When we refer language (dialect) it is a system of signs for encoding and decoding information that enables humans to exchange verbal or symbolic utterances enabling humans to learn and use systems of complex communication. The development of language is part of the development of the personality, for words are the natural means of expressing thoughts and establishing understanding between people. Sanskrit has been the predominant language of Hindu texts encompassing a rich tradition of philosophical and religious texts, as well as poetry, music, drama, scientific, technical and others. It is the predominant language of one of the largest collection of historic manuscripts. Sanskrit in major form is used in India. It is an official language in the state of Uttarakhand. The Mattur village of Karnataka is famous for using Sanskrit in day-to-day speech. Sanskrit stands included in school curriculum. Apart from this, being the liturgical language of Hindus, Buddhists and Jains, it's also used in Nepal. Bengali has a vocabulary heavily derived from Sanskrit; a mild influence is seen in Bangladesh. It still influences the language and names of places which were under Hinduism's influence - Indonesia, Malaysia, and Sri Lanka. Though not much: but it continues to be present in minor form in the following countries: Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Mongolia, Taiwan, and China.
Among many ancient Sanskrit scholars some of them are: 'Bhartrhari' (5th century CE) is a Sanskrit writer to whom are normally ascribed two influential Sanskrit texts: the 'Vakyapadiya' (Sanskrit Grammer) and the 'Satakatraya' (a work of Sanskrit poetry). 'Katyayana' (c. 300 BC) was a Sanskrit grammarian, mathematician and Vedic priest who lived in ancient India. The writings 'Varttikakara' (core part of grammer) and 'Sulbasutras' a series of nine texts on the geometry of altar constructions, dealing with rectangles, right-sided triangles, rhombuses, etc are ascribed to him. 'Panini' was an ancient Sanskrit philologist, grammarian, and a revered scholar in Hinduism, considered as the father of Indian linguistics. 'Panini' is known for his text Ashtadhyayi, a sutra-style treatise on Sanskrit grammar. We are encountered with an information that Ye Shaoyong, a prominent Chinese Sanskrit scholar, found one of the oldest undiscovered Sanskrit text from India's 2nd. Century text in 2003 from Drepung, Tibet's most important monastery
The pages of message books are full of illuminating words about Sanskrit language by gems of the histories. "For thousands of year's ancient traditions and knowledge were passed on from generation to generation through only one language - Sanskrit. Sanskrit therefore contained in itself the very essence of Indian culture" - Macaulay known as father of our Modern Indian Education System - historical (infamous) speech in the British Parliament in 1835. "Sanskrit language, as has been universally recognized by those competent to form a judgment, as one of the most magnificent, the most perfect, the most prominent and wonderfully sufficient literary instruments developed by the human mind" - Sri Aurobindo. "Sanskrit flows through our blood. It is only Sanskrit that can establish the unity of the country" - Nobel Laureate, Dr. C. V. Raman, on the need for Sanskrit to be the National language. "Without the study of Sanskrit one cannot become a true Indian and a true learned man" - Mahatma Gandhi. "Our whole culture, literature and life would remain incomplete so long as our scholars, our thinkers and our educationists remain ignorant of Sanskrit" - Dr. Rajendra Prasad. "Sanskrit is not the language of any particular sect or creed. It is the language of every Indian" - Fakruddin Ali Ahmed. "Sanskrit literature is national in one sense, but its purpose has been universal. That is why it commanded the attention of people who were not followers of a particular culture" - Dr. Radhakrishnan.
Each year, a Sanskrit week is held in January, in Australia since 1990, where students can spend an extended period engaging with this most enchanting and ancient language. The eroding of ethical values in present time has developed feelings of inculcating the realization of significance of ethical values and propagation to move in a missionary mode towards this aspect. Accordingly week long celebrations in connection with 'Sanskrit Saptah' with the motive to defend the Sanskrit, glorious culture and Indian Civilization, took off on 24th August at Jammu also. Sanskrit, ancient Indian language, one of the three main languages of India, continued to be the language spoken in educated circles. There were different grades of spoken Sanskrit- Epic Sanskrit, Classical Sanskrit, and Ancient Sanskrit of the Vedas. By the end of the Mauryan period, 300 BC, Sanskrit became increasingly important for use in literature, culture and administration. In the early centuries AD, Sanskrit begins to appear on inscriptions. Sanskrit is now spoken by less than 1% of Indians and is mostly used by Hindu priests during religious ceremonies. There are almost no Sanskrit speakers in the countries north-east, Orissa, Jammu and Kashmir, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and even Gujarat. Sanskrit is a language which belongs to the Indo-Aryan group and is the root of many languages. Sanskrit one of the oldest of all attested human languages, traceable to the 2nd millennium BCE in a form known as the Vedic Sanskrit, with the Rigveda as the earliest surviving text, a language of ancient India with a documented history of nearly 3,500 years. Sanskrit and Indian culture are intertwined as most of the indigenous knowledge is available in this language. Sanskrit is one of the 22 languages listed in the eighth schedule of the Constitution of India. Sanskrit was the least spoken of the country's 22 scheduled languages with just 24.821 persons, listing it as their mother tongue. It was slotted below Bodo, Manipuri, Konkani and Dogri languages in terms of number of speakers as per data on languages released as part of Census 2011.
I refer to Professor, S K Magotra, Pardhan 'Sanskar Sanskriti Manch- Udhampur' for valuable information such as: Sudharma was Sanskrit's first newspaper, which started in 1870. Before the intervention of the Arab people, Sanskrit was the National language of India. Sanskrit is the only language in the world that is used to speak all the muscles of the tongue. Sanskrit has more words than any other language in the world. Currently there are 102 billion 78 million 50 million words in the Sanskrit dictionary. It is an amazing treasure for any topic, helpful in speech therapy, and it enhances concentration. The sentence in the least words in Sanskrit is completed in comparison to any other language. According to NASA, Sanskrit is the most pronounced language spoken on Earth. NASA has 60,000 manuscripts written on palm papers in Sanskrit, on which NASA is doing research. According to NASA scientists, when they used to send messages to space travelers their sentence were reversed, because of this, the meaning of the message was changed. He used many languages but every time this problem came. Finally he sent a message in Sanskrit because his words do not change. Forbes magazine considered Sanskrit as the best language for computer software in July 1987. According to American Hindu University, a person talking in Sanskrit will be free from diseases like BP, Diabetes, and Cholesterol etc. By speaking in Sanskrit, the human body's nervous system remains active so that person's body becomes active with positive changes. There is demand for a large number of Sanskrit speakers in Germany. Sanskrit is taught in 14 Universities of Germany, Learning of Sanskrit grows in the mind and the power to remember increase, therefore in many schools of London and Ireland, Sanskrit has been made a compulsory subject. At present at least one University of more than 17 countries in the world is studying Sanskrit in the courses of technical education. The methods of solving mathematical questions by computers those algorithms are made in Sanskrit and not in English. Sixth and seventh generation super computers, being created by NASA scientists will be based on the Sanskrit language, which will be ready by 2034. One must be in know of these facts that make us proud to be an Indian, because Sanskrit and Indian are considered synonyms of each other. Concluding words on script are only that there is dire need to teach Sanskrit language from early stages of education, the only way to preserve Sanskrit, culture and civilization. |
