Sacred Sanskrit

For all those wishing to learn the texts, practices, traditions, and systems of Hindu thought, it is essential to understand the importance of Sanskrit. Sanskrit is the liturgical language of the SanatanDharm, along with being a standard language for Jain and Buddhist systems. Sanskrit, often called the language of the Gods, has had a vivid history of its own, from originating as the authentic collection of sounds passed orally, to being standardised for textual representation. The term Sanskrit itself is derived from two words, Sans, meaning perfected, and -krit, meaning done. That which is perfectly done, or polished, is Sanskrit. When one enters the fold of Sanskrit grammar, this name and its meaning becomes clear.

Unlike ancient Hebrew, Aramaic, and Arabic, the three liturgical languages of the Abrahamic religions, Sanskrit’s very origin is “religious.” Inscriptions and stonework throughout middle Asia have been carved in these ancient languages, well before any religious literature was written in them. Sanskrit of course has a very different history, with the earliest Sanskrit work being the Rig Ved. Vedic literature has not been written in Sanskrit, rathe Sanskrit as a language has been borne of Vedic literature. This of course continues the Hindu principle that the Ved are Apaurushey, not of man, and by definition, the language of the Ved also has not been created.

There seems to be much discussion about the difference between Vedic Sanskrit and classical Sanskrit, and where there are certain differences in standardization, there have been attempts to portray Vedic Sanskrit as an entirely different language, which of course is false. Vedic Sanskrit is the authentic unstandardized version of Sanskrit, predominantly found only in Vedic literature. With the advent of new-age grammarians, predominantly Panini, Vedic Sanskrit was standardized into its current form. Those who study Vyakaran (grammar) in the traditional process can tell the minute differences between a word or root form in Vedic Sanskrit, and in classical Sanskrit.

As mentioned earlier, the Ved, which are called the Shruti texts, were meant to be heard, transmitted from Guru to Shishya, orally. This is an important point to understand, because the oral Vedic tradition has of course been beneficial, but has had a few drawbacks. Firstly, in today’s age of carbon dating, archaeological forensics, and historic analysis, the oldest manuscripts of the Ved date back only around 3,500 years. This of course is only based on the scientific analysis of the materials used in the manuscripts. Additionally, up until the 5th and 6th century CE, most works in the field of Vedic sciences were not recorded. This is the reason why scholars can create a bifurcation between Vedic literature and Astronomy, Astrology, Surgery, Mathematics, Alchemy, and other sciences, which their respective author Acharyas claim are of Vedic origin. The greatest plus point of having an oral tradition is that phonetically, Sanskrit, and in particular, Vedic Sanskrit have been recited in the exact same manner through millennia. This is a tall claim that only the Vedic people can profess, as we have seen through centuries, ancient languages studied through texts alone can change in pronunciations, accents, and nuances. Even the traditionaland authentic Vedacharyas of today, recite the Ved in the way the ancient Rishis of the past would have.

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