Importance of Sanskrit Language can be understood from its usage in modern times as a programming language most suited for computers as even proclaimed by none other than NASA.
The Sanskrit Language is one of the oldest languages of this earth. Scholars attempted to find out the exact era of this language, but precisely they could not succeed. More and more they establish the date of origin of this languages, the evidence emerges to take them back more in the past. Let us elaborate and dig deeper into the subject. Let us learn more about the importance of Sanskrit in a modern context.
The Origin:
The one which is introduced or produced in its perfect form is called Sanskrit. That is the Importance of Sanskrit Language. The word Sanskrit is formed from “sam + krit” where (sam) prefix means (samyak) ‘entirely’ or ‘wholly’ or ‘perfectly,’ and krit means ‘done.’ Sanskrit was first introduced by Brahma to the Sages of the celestial abodes and it is still the language of the celestial abode, so it is also called the Dev Vani.
Sanskrit was introduced on the earth planet, by the eternal Sages of
Sanatan Dharm along with the Divine scriptures such as the Vedas, the Upanishads, and the Puranas. That is the Importance of Sanskrit Language. A famous verse in Sage Panini’s Ashtadhyayi tells that the Panini grammar that is in use now is directly Graced by God Shiv. Once, at the end of His Divine ecstatic dance induced by the enthralling effects of Krishna love, God Shiv played on His Damru (the mini hand-drum which God Shiv holds in His hand). Fourteen very distinct sounds came out of it. Sage Panini conceived them in his Divine mind and on the basis of those Divine sounds, reestablished the science of Sanskrit grammar which already eternally existed.
Since the start of human civilization on the earth, people and the Sages both spoke pure Sanskrit language. The historical records indicate that three public programs of the recitation of the Bhagwatam and the discourses on Krishna Leela had happened in the Sanskrit language in 3072 BC, 2872 BC and 2842 BC in which Saints and the devotees participated. Later on, when the population increased, the Prakrit form of speech with partly mispronounced words (called apbhranshas) was developed in the less educated society and became popular.
The Manu Smriti says that the ambitious kshatriyas of
Bharatvarsh went abroad to the neighboring countries to establish their new kingdoms and, as they were cut off from the mainstream of the Bhartiya civilization and culture, they developed their own language and civilization as time went on. Natural calamities (such as ice ages) totally shattered their civilizations but still the survivors, in the spoken form of their primitive languages, held many apbhransh words of the original Sanskrit language which their remote ancestors had retained in their memory. As a result of this affiliation with Bhartiya culture and the Sanskrit language, Sanskrit became the origin of the growth of the literary development in other languages of the world.
The phonology (the speech sound) and morphology (the science of word formation) of the Sanskrit language are entirely different from all of the languages of the world. While studying the Importance of Sanskrit Language, we come to find out some of the unique features of Sanskrit, which are:
1. The sound of each of the 36 consonants and the 16 vowels of Sanskrit is fixed and precise since the very beginning. They were never changed, altered, improved or modified. All the words of the Sanskrit language always had the same pronunciation as they have today. There was no ‘sound shift,’ no change in the vowel system, and no addition was ever made in the grammar of the Sanskrit in relation to the formation of the words. The reason is its absolute perfection by its own nature and formation because it was the first language of the world.
2. The morphology of word formation is unique and of its own kind where a word is formed from a tiny seed root (called dhatu) in a precise grammatical order which has been the same since the very beginning. Any number of desired words could be created through its root words and the prefix and suffix system as detailed in the Ashtadhyayi of Panini. Furthermore, 90 forms of each verb and 21 forms of each noun or pronoun could be formed that could be used in any situation.
3. There has never been any kind, class or nature of change in the science of Sanskrit grammar as seen in other languages of the world as they passed through one stage to another.
4. The perfect form of the Vedic Sanskrit language had already existed thousands of years earlier even before the infancy of the earliest prime languages of the world like Greek, Hebrew and Latin etc.
5. When a language is spoken by unqualified people the pronunciation of the word changes to some extent; and when these words travel by word of mouth to another region of the land, with the gap of some generations, it permanently changes its form and shape to some extent. Just like the Sanskrit word matri, with a long ‘a’ and soft ‘t,’ became mater in Greek and mother in English. The last two words are called the ‘apbhransh’ of the original Sanskrit word ‘matri.’ Such apbhranshas of Sanskrit words are found in all the languages of the world and this situation itself proves that Sanskrit was the mother language of the world.
Considering all the five points as explained above, which also cites the Importance of Sanskrit Language, it is quite evident that Sanskrit is the source of all the languages of the world and not a derivation of any language. As such, the Sanskrit Language is the Divine mother language of the world.
A Glimpse of the Perfection of Sanskrit Grammar:
Sage Panini conceived fourteen very distinct sounds from God Shiv’s Damru (small hand-drum which God Shiv holds in His hand) and created the entire Sanskrit grammar called Ashtadhyayi. Those Divine sounds are known as Maheshwar Sutras:
1. अ इ उ ण् |
2. ऋ ऌ क् |
3. ए ओ ङ् |
4. ऐ औ च् |
5. ह य व र ट् |
6. ल ण् |
7. ञ म ङ ण न म् |
8. झ भ ञ् |
9. घ ढ ध ष् |
10. ज ब ग ड द श् |
11. ख फ छ ठ थ च ट त व् |
12. क प य् |
13.श ष स र् |
14. ह ल् |
There is a total of 52 letters (16 vowels and 36 consonants). The vowels are अ आ इ ई उ ऊ ए ऐ ओ औ अं अः ऋ . The consonants are क ख ग घ ङ च छ ज झ ञ त थ द ध न ट ठ ड ढ ण प फ ब भ म य र ल व स श ष ह क्ष त्र ज्ञ .
A glimpse of the perfection of Sanskrit grammar and the Importance of Sanskrit Language can be seen by the extensiveness of its grammatical tenses. There are ten tenses: one form for the present tense, three forms for the past tense and two forms for the future tense. There is also imperative mood, potential mood, benedictive mood (called asheerling, which is used for indicating a blessing), and conditional. Each tense has three separate words for each of the three grammatical persons (first person, second person and third person), and it further distinguishes if it’s referring to one, two, or more than two people (called eakvachan, dvivachan and bahuvachan). Then there are three categories of the verbs called atmanepadi, parasmaipadi and ubhaipadi. These forms indicate whether the outcome of the action is related to the doer or the other person or both. In this way, there are ninety forms of one single verb.
Sanskrit words are formed of a root word called dhatu. For instance: kri root word means ‘to do,’ gam root word means ‘to go.’ So, there are ninety forms of each of these verbs like, karoti, kurutah, kurvanti, and gachchati, gachchatah, gachchanti etc. In the English language, there are only a few words like: do, doing and done, or go, gone, going and went; then some more words have to be added to express the variations of the tense like: is, was, will, has been, had, had had, etc. But in the Sanskrit language, there are ready-made single words for all kinds of uses and situations and that is the Importance of Sanskrit Language.
This is elucidated with an example of kri-dhatu (parasmaipadi).
As far as nouns and pronouns are concerned, there are words for all the three genders and each word has twenty-one forms of its own which cover every situation. Then there is a very elaborate and precise system of composing, phrasing, making a sentence, joining two words and coining any number of words according to the need.
Regarding Sanskrit vocabulary, there is a dictionary of the root words and prefixes and suffixes called dhatu path at the end of Ashtadhyayi. It has an abundance of words and furthermore, Sanskrit grammar has the capacity for creating any number of new words for a new situation or concept or thing.
There is a detailed system of every aspect of the grammar. All the aspects of the Sanskrit grammar along with the dictionary were received as one packet from the very beginning along with the Vedas. Moreover, from the historical and logical point of view, since the very first day the linguists have learned about the existence of the Sanskrit language, they have seen it in the same perfect form. No ‘sound shift,’ no change in the vowel system, and no addition was ever made in the grammar of the Sanskrit in relation to the formation of the words.
In the last 5,000 years, since the Sumerians uttered the communicating words in a very limited scope and their wedge-shaped cuneiform writing came into existence, there has been no such genius born who could produce a grammar as perfect as Sanskrit.
All the languages of the world started in a primitive form with incomplete alphabet and vowels, having only a few words in the beginning which were just enough for the people to communicate with each other. Even the advanced international language of today, the English language, when it took its roots from West Germanic around 800 AD, was in an absolutely primitive form. As it developed, it assimilated about 30% of its words from Latin and numerous words from French and Greek. Slowly developing and improving its vocabulary, the style of writing and the grammar from Old English (which had only two tenses) to Middle English, to Early Modern English, and then to Modern English, took a very long time.
As late as the beginning of the 17th century when its first dictionary was published in London in 1604, there were only 3,000 words. The title of the dictionary was, “A Table Alphabetical, containing and teaching the true writing and understanding of hard unusual English words, borrowed from the Hebrew, Greek, Latine or French & c.” Somewhat similar is the story of all the ancient and modern languages which started from a very primitive stage of their literal representation with no regular grammar. Proper grammar was introduced at a much later date as their society reached a significant level of communication.
From the exacting nature of the pronunciation of its 52 letters to the science of word formation, there has never been any kind, class or nature of change in the science of Sanskrit grammar. Sanskrit has been in its perfect form since the very beginning. While annotating the Importance of Sanskrit Language, one can readily reckon this aspect Sanskrit language.
Importance of Sanskrit Language Understood by its World Wide Acknowledgments
In the series of overgrowing acknowledgments, recently Sanskrit got a new spokesperson in Professor Dean Brown, an eminent Theoretical Physicist, cosmologist, philosopher and Sanskrit scholar, whose translation of the Upanishads was published by the Philosophical Research Society. In a very interesting interview, Professor Dean Brown brings about an interesting Co-relation of Sanskrit and Physics.
Prof. Dean Brown points out and stresses upon the Importance of Sanskrit Language by saying that most European languages can be traced back to a root language that is also related to Sanskrit – the sacred language of the ancient Vedic religions of India. Many English words actually have Sanskrit origins. Similarly, many Vedic religious concepts can also be found in Western culture. He discusses the fundamental idea of the Upanishads – that the essence of each individual, the atman, is identical to the whole universe, the principle of Brahman. In this sense, the polytheistic traditions of India can be said to be monistic at their very core.
The Sanskrit Language maintained the glory of eternal Bhartiya scriptures in its perfect linguistic representation since its appearance on the earth planet. If someone’s conscience fails to comprehend the eternal authenticity of the Sanskrit language for some reason, then at least, according to the above descriptions, one can surely understand its unparalleled perfection that had the capacity of introducing hundreds of thousands of words according to its root system since the very beginning, when even the earliest known cursive writing systems of the world (Greek and Hebrew etc.) were in their infancy and were struggling to standardize the pronunciation and to improve their vocabulary. By the above sermons, one can understand the Importance of Sanskrit Language.
Reference: Wikipedia