begin quote from:
- Sanskrit is not a dead language. How do you say that. Go through the following details and ... And yet Sanskrit did not survive as a language of the masses. Why ?
Why did Sanskrit become a dead language?
Most
of the important scriptures of Hinduism are in Sanskrit. Every ceremony
is accompanied by the chanting of Sanskrit Shlokas. Panini’s brilliant
Sanskrit grammar (Ashtadhyaayi) written 5th century BCE had no parallel
till 1850.
And yet Sanskrit did not survive as a language of the masses. Why?
25 Answers
Sanskrit is not a dead language. How do you say that. Go through the following details and rethink.
Today,
there are a handful of Indian villages (in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh,
Orissa, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh) where Sanskrit is still spoken as
the main language. For example in the village of Mathur in Karnataka,
more than 90% of the population knows Sanskrit.
Even a Sanskrit daily newspaper exists! Sudharma, published out of Mysore, has been running since 1970 and is now available online as an e-paper (Sudharma)!
In the 2001 census of India, 14,135 people reported Sanskrit as their native language.
Since the 1990s, movements to spread spoken Sanskrit have been increasing. Sanskrit
On
a more public level the statement that Sanskrit is a dead language is
misleading, for Sanskrit is quite obviously not as dead as other dead
languages and the fact that it is spoken, written and read will probably
convince most people that it cannot be a dead language in the most
common usage of the term. Pollock's notion of the "death of Sanskrit"
remains in this unclear realm between academia and public opinion when
he says that "most observers would agree that, in some crucial way,
Sanskrit is dead."
~ Hanneder
It
is clear that people are using Sanskrit as native language. Therefore
we have Sanskrit as a Language which is still being used by people for
day today communication. Therefore we can not say that it is a dead
language.
What we can say or ask is why it’s
not in use as it was in 5th century BCE. That is because of two reasons.
First Aryan’s did not believe in spreading their culture, language and
religion to outsiders. That’s why Hindus are found in India or near by
countries. Hindus are the people who used Sanskrit. Hindus do not
influence others to know or behave like they do. Instead, their way of
interacting with rest of the world is opposite of that. Means, they try
to host everyone they meet, in the process of hospitality they try to
adapt the small things from foreigners. Be that be language, culture or
religious activities. They keep on improvising. And that is the second
reason. As Aryans interacted to other civilizations, they adapted and
adapted changed in Sanskrit according to their languages. This happened
when Aryans interacted with European languages, or Persian or English.
We welcome all.
As Aryans restricted the spread
and adapted what available in rest of the world. Therefore, like
religion Language also evolved. It was Sanskrit, then Indo-ARyan,
Hindustani or Khari Boli then Urdu and today Hinglish.
We Indians are ourselves responsible for the decline of Sanskrit language.
I remember an article in a magazine wherein it describes an incident
that took place during one of the meetings of the Constituent Assembly.
According to that article, there was a debate on deciding the official
language of the Indian Union. Everyone had agreed to the use of English
as an official language but apparently there was a contest between
Sanskrit and Hindi.
The Constituent Assembly
was split on this decision. The vote was fairly even. The one point that
everyone must keep in mind is that Dr B R Ambedkar actually
opted for Sanskrit instead of Hindi and voted for it as he believed that
Sanskrit would be more socially acceptable to people across India than
Hindi. However, the deciding vote was of President Dr Rajendra Prasad
who voted for Hindi rather than Sanskrit.
If
Sanskrit had been chosen instead of Hindi as the official language, then
probably Sanskrit would have flourished. However regardless of this
supposed incident, certain agencies have misguided people with regard to Sanskrit.
People have termed Sanskrit as a language of elites, particularly as
the language of Brahmins. If that was true, then Ambedkar would never
have encouraged the use of Sanskrit. One more thing that they have done
is associated Sanskrit with the disputed Aryan-Dravidian theory.
People
have termed Sanskrit as an Aryan language and have resented its use. I
have seen people refusing to chant the holy Gita on the basis that it is
in Sanskrit, an Aryan language. I find this very sad and unfortunate
that they are associating one of the world’s greatest ever languages
with an unproven controversial theory.
However,
just because the usage of Sanskrit has declined doesn’t mean that
Sanskrit is dead. Sanskrit can never be dead as long as even person
knows how to chant the Vedas, how to recite the holy Gita, and the
remainder of Hindu scriptures which are majorly in Sanskrit. I studied
Sanskrit as my second language for a period of 5 years from 8th grade to
12th grade. I can speak a bit and read a bit of Sanskrit. It is my
earnest desire to learn Sanskrit perfectly as it is the one language
that I love as much as my I love my mother tongue Kannada.
There
are many organizations which are working tremendously well to promote
the great and wonderful Sanskrit. And the chief among them is the famous
organization Samskrita Bharati.
Look,firstly I’ll have to get into a bit of history.
All languages of the Indo-European family Indo-European languages - Wikipedia are from one root Proto-Indo-European which became Proto-European and Proto-indo-Iranian.
Proto-European
gave birth to all the languages of Europe(excluding Finnish,which is a
Finno-Uralic language) while Proto-Indo-Iranian made what are now the
languages of Indian(north) and Iran.
The common ancestor of all north Indian languages is Sanskrit.
Sanskrit primarily has three varieties
- Vedic Sanskrit.The earliest form of Sanskrit in which RigVeda was written.
- Classical Sanskrit.The most common form of Sanskrit.Usually simply “Sanskrit”.Most of the Sanskrit texts are in Classical http://Sanskrit.It was the language in which all the official work was to be done.
- Vulgar Sanskrit(not really Sanskrit,but Prakrit).The language of the masses;natural speech. It isn’t really Sanskrit;it isn’t refined.Much of the modern Indo-Aryan languages come from this.
Sanskrit
was the language of the masses in RigVedic time. As time passed;people
stopped speaking Sanskrit and the language started becoming corrupt due
to linguistic evolution.The Actual Sanskrit then became the official
language in which all the work was to be done.Thus,Classical Sanskrit
and Prakrit are inter-comparable with Classical Latina and Latina
Vulgaris respectively.
A large percentage of
the vocabularo-grammar of the modern Indo-Aryan languages is made out of
Prakrit;which in turn,comes from Sanskrit.
The question itself seems to be made out of ignorance.
I would have liked it if the OP had done some research on Sanskrit;anyways.
Post-RigVedic era;Sanskrit was not the language of the masses. It was only used for official works.Period.
It was also the lingua franca among the people who were speakers of different Prakrits(there were three Prakrits).
Yet there are people who think that we are not respecting our ethno-culture.
*Sigh*
Thanks for reading my answer.
Who
declared it a dead language? The Englishman. After the coming of the
British, Sanskrit was just restricted to a few schools that taught the
good ol' subjects that had religious importance. Committing to memory of
The Vedas, Learning to practise the rituals that are enjoined in The
Vedas: these persons would find employment in priesthood- in temples
and/or privately. A few would study the literature, and a few the
Sciences - that not all of them -but only those which had some real-life
application like Ayurveda so that someone could eke out a living by
what you studied in school. This is as true today as it was in that day.
The coming of the Englishman and the industrialized society that it
spawned shifted people's emphasis from enjoying the simple pleasures of
life to earning money and accumulating wealth. One might ask were these
not the drivers in the old world too? They were. But people did have
more leisure to look at finer and subtler things in life. Thus the first and foremost reason Sanskrit vanishing from public life was its utility to earn a living.
One could see how soon as the Englishman came in and established his
rule, and laws and use of English Language gave created great earning
potential for new graduates; a BA, even Secondary School Pass but as
commerce advanced one needed to learn different things, and these were
not available in Sanskrit then.
Was Sanskrit 'dead' by the Muslim period in Indian History? I don't think so, for we find seminal works in Sanskrit done even through the Muslim period. This is because commerce and industry-wise no great change had come about that needed the learning (more than that, unlearning something that could be done through Sanskrit) of a new language or subject for survival. And it was still the old world, and the Muslim rulers had not much interfered with our traditions. So Sanskrit lived through though there must have been a fall in the influence.
By the time the British left India Sanskrit was confined to pockets already, so much so that the newly formed Indian Parliament would not choose Sanskrit as the official language either. Thus royal/government patronage for Sanskrit was lost. This is the second reason for Sanskrit to lose ground.
We now need to understand what norms should one fix to call a language dead.<1> Is it when the number of speakers fall below some percentage of the total population?<2> Is it when no literature or works get produced in the language? <3>Is it when there is no way that language could be learnt?
This was the sate of Hebrew, but with efforts of the Jews of Israel it has been resurrected and brought it back into use. At least Sanskrit never went into that state.
It should be known that with Samskrita Bharati's efforts, Sanskrit is alive and kicking. They are dedicated to increasing the number of speakers to a considerable section of the population. Sanskrit today is available in schools and in a form that makes it possible to learn to converse and express freely.
In fact I would say the future of Sanskrit is bright. Well in a way Sanskrit is living through the other Indian languages which have borrowed heavily from it like say, Malayalam, and Bengali.
Was Sanskrit 'dead' by the Muslim period in Indian History? I don't think so, for we find seminal works in Sanskrit done even through the Muslim period. This is because commerce and industry-wise no great change had come about that needed the learning (more than that, unlearning something that could be done through Sanskrit) of a new language or subject for survival. And it was still the old world, and the Muslim rulers had not much interfered with our traditions. So Sanskrit lived through though there must have been a fall in the influence.
By the time the British left India Sanskrit was confined to pockets already, so much so that the newly formed Indian Parliament would not choose Sanskrit as the official language either. Thus royal/government patronage for Sanskrit was lost. This is the second reason for Sanskrit to lose ground.
We now need to understand what norms should one fix to call a language dead.<1> Is it when the number of speakers fall below some percentage of the total population?<2> Is it when no literature or works get produced in the language? <3>Is it when there is no way that language could be learnt?
This was the sate of Hebrew, but with efforts of the Jews of Israel it has been resurrected and brought it back into use. At least Sanskrit never went into that state.
It should be known that with Samskrita Bharati's efforts, Sanskrit is alive and kicking. They are dedicated to increasing the number of speakers to a considerable section of the population. Sanskrit today is available in schools and in a form that makes it possible to learn to converse and express freely.
In fact I would say the future of Sanskrit is bright. Well in a way Sanskrit is living through the other Indian languages which have borrowed heavily from it like say, Malayalam, and Bengali.
Sanskrit
is not a dead language simply because every Indian language uses
atleast 40% to 70% of Sanskrit words. Why Indian languages, even
European languages have borrowed so many words from Sanskrit.
Unknowingly we speak Sanskrit in our day to day conversation even while
we speak in English !!
Secondly its a myth that
Sanskrit was the preserve of only the upper caste Brahmins. It’s a
false propaganda. If the reading and writing of Sanskrit was confined to
Brahmins then how do you have the tribal Valmiki composing Ramayana?
Ved Vyas, who classified four Vedas and wrote Mahabharata, was born to a
fisher-woman. Sanskrit was used mostly by non-Brahmin writers - there
are very few scriptures in Sanskrit authored by Brahmins. We consider
the teachings of Ved Vyas, Vashishtha, Valmiki, Krishna, Rama, Agasthya,
Vishwamitra, Shrunga, Gowthama, Buddha, Mahavira, Tulsidas,
Thiruvalluvar, Kabir, Vivekananda, Gandhi, Narayana guru etc as most
valuable.
To encourage "Spoken Sanskrit", www.vydikshala.com
is making a small yet genuine attempt, by offering Live Virtual or
Online course that can be accessed by anybody living on this planet,
having access to internet enabled computer or smartphone. People across
all age groups (8 to 80) can access the course online from the comfort
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students can start conversing in Sanskrit from Day 1, with focus on
grammatical aspects given gradually in a subtle form.
You can even access the session on the GO …. on your tablet or smartphone using the App.
Next
time you speak your mother tongue and hear people speak other
languages, you will immediately understand why Sanskrit is called the
"Mother of all Languages" and you will then start beginning to
appreciate the language much more.
Visit HomePage
and enrol for the "Spoken Sanskrit" online course and enjoy learning
the divine language from the comfort of your home OR e-mail the team at info@vydikshala.com if you have any queries.
First Sanskrit is not a Dead language - How?
- There are many active professional (not just language studies) courses, such as Linguistics, Ayurveda, Yoga and Ganita through Sanskrit medium is still done in Universities and in IITs.
- There are many new books (only in Sanskrit and not translated) are published even today. Many old books are revised /republished and also reprints are also done by publishers like Chowkamba, Motilal Banarasidas, Nag publishers, Ramlal Kapoor trust and new ones like Samskrita bharati and Aurobindo ashram.
- There are many new writers who are writing new Kavyas (Mahakavya indeed) and Dramas even today, without any Government patronage
- There are 13 universities and 100+ colleges exclusively for Sanskrit
- Over 2 crore school students are studying Sanskrit as third language
- There are over 1000 Veda /Shastra paaTashaalas in the country - without any Government support or aid.
The above are just a few to point out that Sanskrit is not dead.
Now why Sanskrit’s decline ?
There are many reasons, I give below in the order of priority
- Muslim invasion and Turkish (initially) and then Persian being the official language in Key Sanskrit scholarly centers and also destruction of Seat/ higher education centers of learning - Takshashila (Taxila), Nalanda, Prayag, Kashmir (Kashmir is known to be the home of great Sanskrit scholars), Varanasi, etc. - This removed Sanskrit from the higher education circles
- From a good state patronage to absolutely zero state patronage for Sanskrit scholarship and education centers for a sustained period of 700 years in many places in Northern India initially and also in South India later. - This removed Sanskrit from the all other circles of learning
- Translation of key Sanskrit texts of Commerce (Arthashastra), Medicine (Ayurveda), Agriculture (Vrikshayurveda) and Administration (Rajaniti) into Persian language. Subsequently, the Persian language versions were only used widely in administrative circles. - This effectively removed Sanskrit from the official circles. For example when Government of India after independence started using English in official circles (even partially) had the effect of now people understanding only English in official communications just in a matter of 70 years. Imagine this being done with Persian for over 500 years !.
- Temples were acting as seats of culture and learning - when the funds and patronage to the temples were cut and also temple funds were looted. - This had very serious effect on the decline of Sanskrit as the language and mother of Culture
- All fundings to shastra studies were discontinued by the invaders - This had an effect in terms of no serious development on the scientific development (shastra) in Sanskrit - without science no development can take place even on the medium in which science is taught and learnt.
- Despite all these people were teaching and learning Sanskirt, till the time of Independence because small dukedoms and kingdoms were indirectly supporting Sanskrit - thus Swami Vivekananda could communicate with Maharaja Baskara Sethupathy of ‘Ramnadu’ in Tamil Nadu in Sanskrit. Such small state patronage were also stopped completely after independence - this totally removed Sanskrit from people
- After the 1952 division of states based on the linguistic lines and the subsequent promotion of local /state language by most of the states in India further cut down, whet ever the meager amount and opportunities available for Sanskrit - this further killed the minuscule number of Sanskrit scholars’ livelihood opportunities
- Finally, the people who overtly concerned only with the economic aspects, didn’t care for Culture, Root, Divinity, etc. and thus Sanskrit declined totally
Despite
all these Sanskrit is alive - every single year from 1947 to now -
there are many new Sanskrit works, that are created and also published.
Even though there aren’t many readers - the original works are still
being edited and published. Thus committed few (this No. itself is in
lakhs) are putting enormous efforts to make sure that the “Knowledge
treasure of Sanskrit” is passed on to the future generations
It
evolved, like every language. When that was noticed, people like Panini
and his predecessors tried to fix the language in a codified grammar,
so chants and prayers would not become corrupted. From that moment on,
spoken Snskrit developed into the Prakrits and finally modern Indo-Aryan
languages. Sanskrit itself was used by the elite, and it was nobody's
native language. such a language is called "dead" even though it
remained in heavy use through the centuries.
Do we really care for the dead ??
If there is care, then it is not Dead.
There are many levels of usage, survival and growth.
Even now Sanskrit (Sanskrit only and not translated) books are printed and sold in millions.
If Sanskrit is not a colloquial (corrupted) spoken language in a stage or a region - then that doesn’t mean it is dead.
Any language has to be flexible, creative and adaptable for it to propagate through generations and to cater to the contemporary needs of the society. Regular reformations and incorporation are needed for maintaining the flow down the centuries. It is the responsibility of the language users to identify the language's usage pattern, prevailing social trends so as to reform the language, that ensures it's growth. Again, class-based discrimination like casteism has to be nil in the society to ensure it's spread among the masses.
If these are not met for a language, it gradually becomes a dead-language. And that's what happened to Sanskrit, down the time-line.
Some of us revere 'Sanskrit' as the mother of all Indian languages, language of Gods (Deva Basha), perfectly structured, apt for programming, etc..
But! why a language of these many qualities is not in conventional use?:) Just emotional attachment and reverence won't hold up to keep a language on it's tracks.
You know, a language is meant for communication not just for reciting mantras or doing linguistic studies!
If these are not met for a language, it gradually becomes a dead-language. And that's what happened to Sanskrit, down the time-line.
Some of us revere 'Sanskrit' as the mother of all Indian languages, language of Gods (Deva Basha), perfectly structured, apt for programming, etc..
But! why a language of these many qualities is not in conventional use?:) Just emotional attachment and reverence won't hold up to keep a language on it's tracks.
You know, a language is meant for communication not just for reciting mantras or doing linguistic studies!
Language,
Newspaper & Currency become powerful only when its circulation is
high, else it exists at the mercy of institutions.
Same is the case with Sanskrit.
Any language, be it any - Sanskrit, Hindi, Spanish, whichever it is ... is an outcome of a economic phenomena which is an interconnect of several other phenomena.
Here is my attempt to analyze why Sanskrit is turning into a dead language....
1. Poor Economic Incentives: Any skill (including language) needs to throw an economic incentive to its pupils. And what economic incentive does Sanskrit throw in the contemporary times? Probably you can become a Teacher, Professor, Language Researcher, etc. So, around 99% of the jobs after learning Sanskrit are academia related jobs which are not financially rewarding, or offer any extra-ordinary rewards (other than financial) which may attract some of the most outstanding people in society to learn this skill.
2. Poor Demand, Poorer Supply: Since there is no real zeal to study Sanskrit, apart from some institutional pressure to be taught in schools and colleges, hence the teachers are also in short supply. People teaching Sanskrit in Indian Schools & Colleges are somehow convinced that their teaching has no real value for 99.99% of their students, and hence their duty towards Sanskrit is reaching newer depth with each passing year.
3. Socio-Economic changes: Sanskrit was always the language of high class people like Brahmins who read religious texts and then interpreted it to common languages like Hindi for the advantage of masses. So, as long as the class-hierarchy existed, Brahmins remained loyal to their Sanskrit related duties like Learning, Teaching, and Interpreting. However, once the classes in our society began to transform itself, Brahmins were no longer considered as the sole owner of religious texts, and then our religious texts began to get translated into local languages which started to bypass the traditional Brahmins who earlier chanted in Sanskrit. And hence a Brahmin started to lose his class supremacy and inherent economic incentive, and Sanskrit started to lose its followers.
I hope my analysis will be found useful by some of you. I am open to suggestions and relevant information you wish to provide. Thanks!
[Having written the points above, I am highly optimistic the Sanskrit would soon come back in higher academia that too in Science & Technology universities. Its no more a secret that Sanskrit language could become a starting point for next generation of Computer Programming Languages, and some of the research institutes are taking Sanskrit education seriously. We should soon see something concrete in the field of Sanskrit.]
Same is the case with Sanskrit.
Any language, be it any - Sanskrit, Hindi, Spanish, whichever it is ... is an outcome of a economic phenomena which is an interconnect of several other phenomena.
Here is my attempt to analyze why Sanskrit is turning into a dead language....
1. Poor Economic Incentives: Any skill (including language) needs to throw an economic incentive to its pupils. And what economic incentive does Sanskrit throw in the contemporary times? Probably you can become a Teacher, Professor, Language Researcher, etc. So, around 99% of the jobs after learning Sanskrit are academia related jobs which are not financially rewarding, or offer any extra-ordinary rewards (other than financial) which may attract some of the most outstanding people in society to learn this skill.
2. Poor Demand, Poorer Supply: Since there is no real zeal to study Sanskrit, apart from some institutional pressure to be taught in schools and colleges, hence the teachers are also in short supply. People teaching Sanskrit in Indian Schools & Colleges are somehow convinced that their teaching has no real value for 99.99% of their students, and hence their duty towards Sanskrit is reaching newer depth with each passing year.
3. Socio-Economic changes: Sanskrit was always the language of high class people like Brahmins who read religious texts and then interpreted it to common languages like Hindi for the advantage of masses. So, as long as the class-hierarchy existed, Brahmins remained loyal to their Sanskrit related duties like Learning, Teaching, and Interpreting. However, once the classes in our society began to transform itself, Brahmins were no longer considered as the sole owner of religious texts, and then our religious texts began to get translated into local languages which started to bypass the traditional Brahmins who earlier chanted in Sanskrit. And hence a Brahmin started to lose his class supremacy and inherent economic incentive, and Sanskrit started to lose its followers.
I hope my analysis will be found useful by some of you. I am open to suggestions and relevant information you wish to provide. Thanks!
[Having written the points above, I am highly optimistic the Sanskrit would soon come back in higher academia that too in Science & Technology universities. Its no more a secret that Sanskrit language could become a starting point for next generation of Computer Programming Languages, and some of the research institutes are taking Sanskrit education seriously. We should soon see something concrete in the field of Sanskrit.]
Do
not forget, that originally, Sanskrit was spoken almost throughout
ancient India. Yes, there were Prakrit and Pali, too, but Sanskrit was
extremely common.
However, during the medieval
era in India, new languages started emerging. Perhaps it was an attempt
to create simpler languages. Although actually easy, people considered
Sanskrit tough because its grammar has very strict rules and many words
are literally tongue-twisters. Otherwise Sanskrit is actually very easy
and people who love studying lamguage and grammar will definitely enjoy
learning Sanskrit grammar, which is very vast, too.
So
people are responsible, in a way. They found the languages simpler,
perhaps. Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam etc came into existence.
Sanskrit isn't really a dead language. Although having very less speakers, its status is far better than that of Latin.
Well
let me put it this way..It is not a dying language..instead its coming
out of its coffin..There was a time when it almost went out of daily
lives but now there are plenty of people studying it(i myself studied it
as 1st lang. in my high school and as 3rd lang. in Pre University so 5
years in total) in good numbers and to surprise few there is a village
in Karnataka where entire village speaks in samskruta in day today
basis..check this out:
Mattur
And to clear your doubt , it almost died because majority of science,history,medic books written in sanskrit was destroyed by foreign invasions so we lost a big resource..and language itself built on strict set of rules(grammar, pronunciation etc) which sounds bit odd to today s world where everything is FASTFOOD type..as a last point which comes to my mind i can say it is(or was??) because presently very few number of book,magazines or newspapers being published and people who use this language are not in that great number..I hope i answered your question
Mattur
And to clear your doubt , it almost died because majority of science,history,medic books written in sanskrit was destroyed by foreign invasions so we lost a big resource..and language itself built on strict set of rules(grammar, pronunciation etc) which sounds bit odd to today s world where everything is FASTFOOD type..as a last point which comes to my mind i can say it is(or was??) because presently very few number of book,magazines or newspapers being published and people who use this language are not in that great number..I hope i answered your question
Sanskrit
keep on evolving from vedic Sanskrit to Panini's sanskrit and then to
various Apbhramsha's and Prakirts and from these Apbrhamsha's evolved
modern dialects and languages such as Hindi , Bangla , Gujrati ,
Marathi. However Sanskrit kept surviving as language of priests instead
of dying out.
Only very localized languages in isolated areas which kept on being used for rudimentary day to day tasks survive for very long duration withour producing any tangible literature of epics. Most of the tribal languages of isolated / insular communities fall in this category.
Only very localized languages in isolated areas which kept on being used for rudimentary day to day tasks survive for very long duration withour producing any tangible literature of epics. Most of the tribal languages of isolated / insular communities fall in this category.
Its
upper class approach and the approach of the upper class people.The
language was studied/ reached only by the upper class society in ancient
India. The language often remained as a language for official
communication, recording the history, a language of the temple and
mostly as language of the court. This status of the language was
challenged by the Persian/arabic invasions. This lead to the downfall of
the language as they preferred Persian/arabic over Sanskrit. So the
language for struck with the elite upper class of the society. The upper
class society started learning Persian for the sake of retaining their
relations with the empire or to get accepted in the court. This lead to
low interest in learning the Sanskrit language. Then the British came
and then there was English.. So the usage of the Sanskrit as a language
got restricted to the temple. Hence the language became only as a
liturgical language.
Finally i would say though there is so much revitalisation which is happening the status of the language is effectively dead. Any language which is not the imparted as a social language for the kids or not taught as a primary language is at the brink of extinction. In the case of Sanskrit the language is not the primary language of the people. So it can be termed as effectively dead.
And Hindi evolved as a language from the hindhusthani, borrowing words primarily from Persian, Arabic, pali,prakrit till the standard hindi was introduced after independence. Sanskrit was then chosen as a language from where words should be borrowed technically. But withe boom of bollywood hindi now borrows words more from arabic and persian. So Hindi cannot be claimed as modern form of Sanskrit.
Finally i would say though there is so much revitalisation which is happening the status of the language is effectively dead. Any language which is not the imparted as a social language for the kids or not taught as a primary language is at the brink of extinction. In the case of Sanskrit the language is not the primary language of the people. So it can be termed as effectively dead.
And Hindi evolved as a language from the hindhusthani, borrowing words primarily from Persian, Arabic, pali,prakrit till the standard hindi was introduced after independence. Sanskrit was then chosen as a language from where words should be borrowed technically. But withe boom of bollywood hindi now borrows words more from arabic and persian. So Hindi cannot be claimed as modern form of Sanskrit.
This seems to be a troll question, but still it needs to be answered as such misconceptions are growing even in these days.
- There were many languages spoken before Sanskrit was first recorded-for eg.,Tamil, Prakrit languages and Pali.
- Sanskrit was/is not the mother tongue of Indians; may be a very small part of Indians had/have Sanskrit as their mother tongue.
- Sanskrit was an artificial language and because of the excessive marketing like “Divine Language” or “Mother Sanskrit Theory” people din’t/don’t buy it.
- If one sees the census from 1950–2001, the number of people claiming Sanskrit to be their mother tongue is always oscillation; they themselves don’t know for sure whether to say yes or no for Sanskrit.
- Because of the efforts of Government and people, Sanskrit is always kept at a near dead position for centuries.
- Sanskrit was/is never the communication language for a society(few exceptions like Matthur Village are there).
First
of all define what is a “Dead Language”! A language need not be spoken
at homes to be called “live”, if “dead” means language not spoken at
homes.
Are you aware that versions of Arabic
SPOKEN by different Arabs are vastly different from one another. For
example the Arabic spoken at the Gulf is almost “foreign” in Egypt! In
the Gulf they say “Kaif al Hal” for “how are you” as against “Issayack”
in Egypt! in some cases the differences are as deep as those between say
German and French!
But ALL ARABS IRRESPECTIVE
OF WHERE THEY COME FROM UNDERSTAND WRITTEN ARABIC. This is an
artificial, in your dictionary “dead” Arabic not spoken at any home! In
reality it is not a “Dead” language but a “standardized” language.
Likewise
SANSKRIT WAS NEVER ACTUALLY SPOKEN AT HOMES. The languages spoken at
homes were different. There were a dozen dialects grouped under Pali and
Prakrit which were actually spoken at homes. In fact “Pali” and
“Prakrit” were the left overs of earlier attempts at standardization.
Since documentation and official business cannot be in different
dialects the need for a standardized version arose.
SANSKRIT
WAS THE STANDARDIZED VERSION OF VARIOUS DIALECTS GROUPED UNDER PALI AND
PRAKRIT, USED IN FORMAL COMMUNICATION AND LITERATURE.
You
will find in Sanksrit literature particularly those of Kalidasa where
certain dramatis personae speak in local dialects which may be
incomprehensible for a person with knowledge of only formal Sanskrit!
Are
you aware that the Vedic Sanskrit and modern Sanskrit are as identical
as chalk and cheese? The root words for the former are in “Nigandu”
where as the root words for the later are in Amrakosha, Panini revised
the earlier standardized language taking into account actual changes in
due course of time in spoken dialects.
As it usually happens the standardized version affects the spoken language as it has happened in Hindi.
FYI
Hindi is also a standardized language while the actual spoken languages
were various dialects like Vraj Bhasa, Bundeli, Bhageli, Marwari,
Mythili etc. A formal Hindi for communication was CREATED from these
dialects.
In due course the dialects may
disappear and get slowly replaced by the formal as in the case of Hindi.
That does not mean that “Hindi was dead earlier or the dialects are
“dead” now!
Sanskrit
is a beautiful language. I once became very interested and tried to
find out what led to the language nearly becoming extinct. There were
various reasons, but two of the most important ones were:
If (you are free in the evening today) then {
We would like you to accompany us to a restaurant for dinner} else {
You may say no}
Not practical, right?
- The people of the upper castes, especially Brahmins, tried to restrict the learning and usage of the language to themselves. The common people were not allowed to learn the language. Thus its usage reduced and alternatives developed.
- The form and grammar of the language was kept too rigid. Panini wrote the rules of grammar of Sanskrit. It was considered sacred and not open to changes.Thus it did not adapt to the changing social structures. New words could not be added easily. Slowly it became difficult to communicate using the language.
If (you are free in the evening today) then {
We would like you to accompany us to a restaurant for dinner} else {
You may say no}
Not practical, right?
No
doubt Sanskrit was the Lingua-franka of our mother India in ancient
times. In my opinion after the advent of Buddhism Sanskritbegan loosing
its prominence . Bhagavan Buddha also gave death blow to Sanskrit by
propagating His philosophy through native tongue . people also began
loosing interest in Sanskrit by being attached more towards their native
tongues and culture. Nannaya , the first poet of Telugu literature who
belongs to 11th century A.D. composed Telugu grammar in Sanskrit. There
he writes
स्वस्थान वेषभाषास्वभिमता: सन्त: रसप्रलुब्धधिय:
लोके बहुमन्यन्ते वैकृतकाव्यानि च अन्यदपहाय ( आन्ध्रशब्दचिन्तामणि:)
people
becoming more attached to their native language ,culture and dress code
gave up Sanskrit honoring the kavyas of regional languages as they can
get (enjoy) aesthetic experience more, than in Sanskrit.(free
translation of the verse)
Not only this many more socio-economic factors contributed for the disappearance of Sanskrit as Lingua -franka.
I am sorry to say that I don’t know English well . sorry for my poor expression.
(This is purely my personal opinion)
Sanskrit
as the name suggests is a constructed language.. It was constructed
from vernacular languages called prakrit.. Maybe the motivation behind
it was to standardise language for liturgy and important tasks.. Even in
present we have standard versions of marathi which is used by
government and the vernacular versions used by people.. about
forgetting, i can tell a lot of high school students choose sanskrit as
an option in their school curriculum.. A lot many others study it in
college.. it is not used for everyday communication but a lot of
sanskrit literature is being written even in present times.. So it is
one of our heritage languages and best of them but not mother language..
and it is not forgotten we still use it with pride..
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