May 31, 2009
Page: 24/35
Perspective
Sanskrit: A global language to be proud of
By Achyut Railkar
There are many mottos in Sanskrit which have been readily adopted,
like: Republic of India, Satyameva Jayate `Truth alone triumphs’; LIC
of India, Yogakshemam Vahâmyaham `I shall take care of welfare’;
Indian Navy, Shanno Varuna `May the ocean be peaceful to us’; Mumbai
Police, Sadrakshanaaya Khlaha Nigrahanayah `For protection of the good
and control of the wicked’; All India Radio, Bahujan Hitay Bahujan
Sukhay `For the benefit of all, for the comfort of all’; Indonesian
Navy, Jalesvava Jayamahe `On the sea, we are glorious’.
Sanskrit is the oldest and the living language on our planet. We see
its wonderful history passing through many millennia. It is the
language of the most ancient Indian scriptures belonging to various
faiths and it is the language of divinity.
Sanskrit was introduced on the earth, by the eternal sages along with
Vedas, Upanishads, Yogashastras and Puranas. A plethora of such
ancient texts mostly in verses represent highly civilised life,
creativity of the Indian mind and spiritual tradition which is unique
in its scope, depth and vitality. It has provided the basis of India’s
civilisation unity.
About 2,600 years ago, the sage Panini had re-established the science
of Sanskrit grammar in his Ashtadhayi and even today it is considered
as the standard authority. Westerners describe Sanskrit as one of the
greatest productions of the human mind. The philologists term it as an
ideal scientific work; the grammarians have identified it to be the
mother of most Indo-European languages, and also of Persian, Kurdish
or Armenian.
Research scholars have identified around 90 languages of the world,
especially English, Greek, Latin and Arabic to have either directly or
indirectly derived words from Sanskrit; it has been noticed by Dr
Varhadpande that about 25 per cent of the words in English have
emerged from Sanskrit.
Sanskrit and related languages have influenced Sino-Tibetan-speaking
neighbours through the spread of translated Buddhist texts. Buddhism
has also spread to China and thereafter to Japan and Korea by the
missionaries mostly through translations of Buddhist hybrid Sanskrit
and classical Sanskrit texts and was directly added to the Chinese
vocabulary. The Thai language contains many loan words from
Sanskrit. Many such loan words are also found in traditional Malay,
modern Indonesian, numerous Philippine languages, Javanese language
(nearly half) and to a lesser extent, Vietnamese, through hybrid
Sanskrit.
It has abundant literature of poetry, drama and philosophy and has
produced outstanding personalities such as Kalidasa, Banabhatt,
Bharavi, Bhaskaracharya, Chanakya, and Adishankaracharya etc,
equivalent to great lives in the world. It is a misconception that
Sanskrit is concerned only with spiritual wisdom. Its texts cover the
entire gamut of human activity including fine arts, branches of
science, and literature. Hence it is a foundation for a global
language of consciousness, any modern science and spiritual science.
The two great epics Ramayana and Mahabharata were originally written
in Sanskrit have influenced many people for a long time. The famous
German poet Goethe was very much impressed about them. Regarding the
play Mrichchakatikam enacted in New York with English rendering in
1924, the dramatic critic JW Crutch says, `Such a play could be
produced only by a civilisation which has reached stability.’ The
famous Indologist Max Muller said, `Sanskrit is the greatest language
of the world. Many world personalities love Bhagawat Gita for its
teachings on liberation through renunciation.’
There are many mottos in Sanskrit which have been readily adopted,
like: Republic of India, Satyameva Jayate `Truth alone triumphs’; LIC
of India Yogakshemam Vahâmyaham `I shall take care of welfare’;
Indian Navy Shanno Varuna `May the ocean be peaceful to us’; Mumbai
Police Sadrakshanaaya Khlaha Nigrahanayah `For protection of the good
and control of the wicked’; All India Radio Bahujan Hitay Bahujan
Sukhay `For the benefit of all, for the comfort of all’; Indonesian
Navy Jalesvava Jayamahe `On the sea, we are glorious’. The first two
stanzas of our national song Vande Mataram are in Sanskrit.
The Vedanta philosophy enshrined in our Constitution, needs to be
fully understood, a process in which Sanskrit has a crucial role to
play. Today there is tremendous international interest in the science
of yoga, meditation, eastern philosophy, stress management and
holistic medicine. All of them have roots in Sanskrit literature. The
language has many koshas (lexicons). Amarsinh’s Amarkosha (600 AD) has
around 3,000 thesaurus shlokas (entries); later on many more koshas
were added like Ekakshar (single letter words), Dwarthkosha (double
meaning words), etc.
Sanskrit is the only language available that has the letters and
sounds to make up the powerful mantra. No other language can meet the
power and energy of the true divine sound. Chanting mantras means that
you and others around will always be protected. Other languages may
have rhythm, harmony and poetic sounds but Sanskrit has all of that
plus more.
Sanskrit has direct link between sound and signs; it has sandhi
(coalescence) and samas (compound word) that will facilitate flow of
the language. It has unique pronunciation of its alphabets. The
chanting of Sanskrit text makes anybody achieve clear-cut voice. Its
sentence structure is flexible as order of the words does not
matter. It is systematised and perfect and its alphabets are
impeccably arranged. It has written rules of grammar, phonetics,
etymology and epistemology; it has power of forming infinite number of
words and many are used in computers; in the language both, brevity
and elaboration are possible. Because of its relatively high regular
structure, it is claimed to be applicable in the modern computers for
the machine translation and other areas of natural language
processing.
Aligarh Muslim University, Kashmir University and madarsas of Delhi,
Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal have Sanskrit teaching section. Our past
leaders Lokmanya Tilak, Swatantryavir Savarkar and famous economist CD
Deshmukh used to correspond in Sanskrit among their colleagues.
There have been numerous attempts at reviving Sanskrit in terms of
preservation of its literature and making it popular. Since 1981
Sanskrit Bharati, have been conducting Sanskrit camps and their
efforts met with huge success. It claims that now there are over four
million people around the world who can speak the language.
Even in the last two centuries, due to the rapid advances in
technology and science, Sanskrit abundant with new and improvised
vocabulary has come into existence. Furthermore, there are at least a
dozen periodicals published in Sanskrit, all-India news broadcast in
Sanskrit. Television shows and feature movies are produced in
Sanskrit. A village Ziri of 3,000 inhabitants in Madhya Pradesh and
Mattur village in central Karnataka communicate through Sanskrit
alone. There are countless smaller intellectual communities and many
schools and universities where Sanskrit is fostered throughout India.
`Contemporary Sanskrit’ is hence alive.
The former President Dr Abdul Kalam was greeted in Sanskrit when he
had been to Athens (Greece) in 2007. 2,300 students of MIT in US
received their degrees amid chants of Sanskrit prayers in 2005. A
British school in the heart of London has made Sanskrit a compulsory
subject for its junior division because it helps students grasp
mathematics, science and other languages better. The Indian guided
missile programme commenced in 1983 by DRDO has named the five
missiles as Prithvi, Agni, Akash, Nag and Trishul. India’s first
modern fighter aircraft is named Hal Tejas (spirited instrument) and
the first satellite over the moon as Chandrayan I. Recently, Sanskrit
also made a brief appearance in western pop music especially for
devotion to a higher power and a wish for peace on earth.
Sanskrit lovers from various countries met and agreed to form the
International Association of Sanskrit Studies (IASS). They have
Vedanta guided motto Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam meaning the whole planet is
one family. They held the first world Sanskrit conference at New Delhi
in March 1972. Fourteenth world conference is proposed to be held this
year during 1st to 5th September, 2009 at Kyoto (Japan).
Sanskrit is the heart of India and mind for the globe. It is a `world
language’ in the real sense of the term. But for the access to India’s
pristine glory, rich tradition and a vast literature of science and
philosophy, one has to learn Sanskrit with dedication. It has inspired
many Indian and global personalities. What needs to be done is to
promote Sanskrit education at elementary level and link it to the
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. There are enough universities for Sanskrit but
root is needed to be strengthened.
(The author is a former `Project Management Consultant’ for local and
abroad civil construction activities. He can be contacted at E-mail:
[email protected])