003 Importance of Saṃskṛtam

Saṃskṛtam is one of the old languages spoken by the people of the Bharatavarsha. It is the finest and the most accurate language to have ever existed on earth.  It was the native language of the vedic times and it was a spoken language once upon a time. Our forefathers were speaking in that language. Now, we have lost the connection with the language and the culture. But we attempt to establish the connection and pray to the Lord that we achieve success to some extent.

Our cultural tradition and the language were attacked and subject to onslaught of the foreign invasions. Mughals ruled for more than 800 years and the British for 200 years. They damaged our culture and the tradition. Inspite of continuous onslaught of foreign invasion, this great language seems to fade into nothingness but thanks to initiatives of many people who have a love for the language – who understood the greatness of the language, this language is again coming back to its glory. Saṃskṛtam still survives. It is amazing and nobody can destroy it.

Saṃskṛtam belongs to a group of languages called Proto Indo-European languages. Latin – Greek and other languages are considered to be the part of this PIE. PIE is considered to be common ancestor of many of the Indo-European languages hypothetically. This theory which was arrived during the 19^th century. According to this theory, by comparing the most ancient languages, the parent language can be reconstructed. The parent language can be traced from the languages which they were descended from it. From that, parent language can be reconstructed. The reconstruction of the parent language is called Proto-Indo-Europoean Model.

PIE is said to have been a spoken language during the period from 4500 BC to 2500 BC. The linguistic reconstruction of PIE provides insight into the culture and the religion of the native speakers of the language. When the native speakers of the language became isolated due to migrations, it diverged into ancient and modern Indo-European languages.

The widely spoken offspring language of PIE are Spanish, English, Persian, French, German, Portuguese, Italian and Indian languages like Hindi, Urdu, Marathi, Bengali etc. It shows that Saṃskṛtam is the mother of many Indian and European languages.

We use the word “Sanskrit”. There is nothing wrong with the word. But the word “Sanskrit” is anglicized word – English word. We will use the word “Saṃskṛtam”, not Sanskrit. The language is Saṃskṛtam. Here, the transliterated word is used. It is based on “International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST)”.

In the year 2001, another international standard for Romanization – “ISO 15919 "Transliteration of Devanagari and related Indic scripts into Latin characters" was published, which uses diacritical marks to map consonants and vowels in Brahmi scripts to Latin script. Brahmi script is older than Devanagari script. Saṃskṛtam uses Devanagari script to represent the sound in the form of vowels and consonants, and their combinations.

Saṃskṛtam is a living language. How can a language be dead? You can say that a language is not in vogue anymore. But it is not proper to call it as a dead language.  Because we forgot the language, can we call a language as dead? It is cruel to call a language as dead. Saṃskṛtam is a living language. It has its roots in Vedas. Vedas are the प्राण of ईश्वर. Since Vedas are not subject to destruction, Saṃskṛtam also does not have destruction. It cannot be destroyed. That is why the letters of the language are called अक्षरम्.

अक्षरम् means that which cannot be destroyed. Saṃskṛtam has its roots in Vedas and therefore, it cannot be destroyed. Also, the language is still spoken in some parts of India – studied in schools and colleges – available for communication. It is the second official language of Jharkhand, India.Therefore, Saṃskṛtam is worth studying.

If you want to study Upanishads – Bhagavad Gita – Brahmasutra, then you must know Saṃskṛtam. You will be totally handicapped if you do not know Saṃskṛtam. Any amount of translated study will not help you to understand the scriptures. Now, you can decide whether it is worth pursuing Saṃskṛtam or to turn away if you find difficult in learning. In fact, the language is not difficult. It is our mindset towards the language which makes it difficult to learn.

Anything new you learn, it will be difficult in the beginning but you by continuous effort, you will learn and enjoy the fruit of learning.