Sunday, July 16, 2000		Article

SANSKRIT is the language of India’s civilisation and culture. Hindu marriages and other ceremonies are conducted by reciting mantras and shlokas in Sanskrit.

In the various temples dotting the entire length and breadth of India, Sanskrit is the medium of worship.

Bearing all this in mind, it would be the height of ignorance to call it a dying language. It is being taught in nearly all the 200 universities of India as well as in several universities of Europe and America. During the British period it did not flourish because it faced competition from English.

Take the Bhagavadgita, it is one of the most translated books in the world. Its text has been translated into 75 world languages such as Greek, Latin, German, French, Arabic, Persian, Swedish, Spanish, Russian, Chinese and Hebrew. There are 2000 standard translations of this book.

It may be recalled that when our Constitution was framed, three retired Chief Justices of India advocated Sanskrit as the national language. If the 2000-year-old Hebrew can be the official language of Israel, why not Sanskrit?

Evaluating this ancient language Sir William Jones observed, "Sanskrit language is more perfect than Greek, more copious than Latin and more exquisitely refined than either". Max Mueller said, "Sanskrit may be said to be the only language spoken over the whole extent of this vast country (a great unifying force). Even at the present moment, after a century of English rule and English teaching, Sanskrit is more widely understood in India than Latin was in Europe at the time of Dante."

No other language in the world has such an authoritative and authentic literature in fine arts, architecture, sculpture, astronomy, astrology and different sciences, including atomic theory (Vaishaishik).

The original and pioneering works in all these subjects was written in Sanskrit. We made epoch-making discoveries such as the concept of zero, decimal, figures 1 to 10 (still called Hindes — from India).

There are some unique features of Sanskrit that are not found in any other language of the world. Before the coming of printing, nay before the invention of paper and writing material, (holy) texts could be distorted. The Mahabharata originally had 24,000 verses, but now it has over one lakh verses.

Compare this with the Vedas, whose text has not been tampered with at all. Not a word has been added or subtracted. Credit goes to the pioneering Rishis who introduced four safeguards — Pada Path, Jata Path, Ghan Path, Anukramanika Path — that made them tamper- proof.

The uniqueness of the language can be gauged by a book entitled Raghava Pandaveegya. Sanskrit has shleshas — words with double meaning. This book comprises both the Ramayana and the Mahabharata: Each shloka has two meanings, one advances the story of the Ramayana, the other meaning carries forward the story of the Mahabharata.

One of the most famous works written in Sanskrit is Panchtantra, in which the author Vishnu Sharma taught four princes state craft by narrating gripping stories. Some other famous works written in this language are Dev’s Katha Sarit Sagar (the ocean of the streams of stories) and Panchal Pachisi and Dandi’s Dash Kumar Charita.

In classical Sanskrit literature, Kalidasa’s works are amongst the most well known. His greatest work is the poetic play Shakuntala. Sir William Jones’ English translation of Shakuntala was published in 1789. Goethe also held it in great esteem.

Greek plays are tragedies that deal with evil, destiny and death, while Sanskrit plays are joyous. There is no tragedy. Bhavabhooti’s play Uttar Ram Charit deals with the second exile of Sita and her getting embraced by Mother Earth. The poet falsifies the story to give it a happy ending by making Sita the queen.

Mudra Rakshas is a political play dealing with Chandragupta Maurya and has his Prime Minister Chanakya (Kautilya) as the hero. His Arthashastra is still used as a textbook to train foreign service bigwigs.