Sanskrit

We explain what Sanskrit is, its characteristics and examples of Sanskrit words. In addition, we tell you how its origin and its history were.

What is Sanskrit?

the sanskrit It is one of the ancestral languages ​​of India and one of the oldest known Indo-European languages. It is also the liturgical language of the Hindu religion, in which its mantras and hymns are written, as well as the ancient philosophical texts of the Indus Valley culture. the sanskrit It is one of the 22 official languages ​​of contemporary India even though it no longer has any native speakers.

The name of this language comes from the term samskrtawhich in Sanskrit means “perfect”, “refined”, “ornamented” or “cultivated”, since it is the cultured or literary language of the classical times of the ancient culture of India, around the year 2000 BC. In fact, the oldest surviving Sanskrit grammar dates back to the 6th or 5th century BC. C and is known as the Aṣṭādhyāyī (“The eight chapters”). Even so, Sanskrit coexisted for centuries with numerous popular languages ​​and dialects (called Prakritians).

Two historical variants of Sanskrit are usually distinguished, one older and the other younger, whose difference is equivalent to that between Homeric Greek and Classical Greek. These variants are:

• Vedic or archaic Sanskrit. The older of the two, it is the language in which the Vedas of the ancient Indus Valley culture are written (compiled between 2,000 and 1,000 BC), texts of great religious and cultural importance in the region. Despite being a language of ritual and literary importance, it originally lacked writing and was transmitted orally throughout the generations.
• Classic or refined Sanskrit. Emerged from the publication of Aṣṭādhyayīis an enriched version of the Vedic, with notable formal differences. Sanskrit texts after the 4th and 3rd centuries BC are written in this variant. C., like the Vākyapadīya (“Treatise on Prayer and the Word”) written by Bhartrhari (570-651 approx.).

Despite being so old, Sanskrit is not exactly a dead language. It is estimated that around 50,000 people in the world can speak it fluently. It is an Indo-Aryan language, currently spoken by less than 1% of the population of India, but which has an important presence in texts, inscriptions and manuscripts from practically all of Asia: China, Tibet, Burma, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia, among other countries.

Features of Sanskrit

Sanskrit, in general, is characterized by the following:

• Although it is not exactly a dead language, lacks native speakers in the world. Even so, it is one of the official languages ​​of today's India and a liturgical language for almost all Eastern religions.
• It is an ancestral language associated with culture, religion and literature but it is not a precursor of the current languages ​​of India.
• Grammatically, it has similarities with other classical Indo-European languages like ancient Greek or classical Latin. It presents, for example, inflection processes, and distinguishes three genders of words (masculine, feminine and neuter), three verbal numbers (singular, dual and plural), three verbal tenses (past, future and aorist) and seven verbal modes (nominative , accusative, instrumental, dative, ablative, genitive and locative).
• Originally it lacked its own writing system so over the centuries other spelling methods were used to represent it.
• Classical Sanskrit continues to be used in India within the formal educational system, in mass media and literary works.

Origin of Sanskrit

Sanskrit is the oldest of the Indo-European languages: its oldest known text, the Rigvedawas written around 1500 and 1000 BC. c. However, it is estimated that the sanskrit language It originated around 2000 BC. c when the arrival of the Indo-Aryan peoples to the north of the subcontinent revitalized the declining Indus Valley civilization.

This language arose from contact with the Indo-Aryan language, until reaching its archaic or Vedic form, in which the ancient Brahmanical religious texts were written. However, several centuries of grammatical study took shape in Panini's grammar, the Vākyapadīya, which introduced changes and modifications in the language, which gave rise to classical or official Sanskrit.

It quickly became a very useful language among the different peoples of the region, each of whom spoke a different dialect, thus allowing the unification of India as a single people endowed with its own traditions.

Examples of Sanskrit words

The following are some examples of Sanskrit words, with their respective meanings in Spanish:

Continue with: Linguistics

References

• “Sanskrit” on Wikipedia.
• “Sanskrit” in World History Encyclopedia.
• “Sanskrit: language, history and philosophy” by Pierre-Sylvain Filliozat in the University Repository of the Regional Center for Multidisciplinary Research of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).
• “Sanskrit language” in The Encyclopaedia Britannica.