****Sanskrit[part 2]****
A must read for every proud Bhartiya—
With a glorious life of over 3000 years, Sanskrit continues to be a living language even today, bobbing up during Hindu ceremonies when mantras (ritual verses) are chanted. And though restricted, it’s still a medium of literary expression, but ‘great works’ have long stopped being written.
“We have greatly underestimated the sacred power of language. When the power of language to create and discover life is recognized, language becomes sacred; in ancient times, language was held in this regard. Nowhere was this more so than in ancient India. It is evident that the ancient scientists of language were acutely aware of the function of language as a tool for exploring and understanding life, and their intention to discover truth was so consuming that in the process of using language with greater and greater rigor, they discovered perhaps the most perfect tool for fulfulling such a search that the world has ever known—the Sanskrit language.”
Although the Muslim invasion seems to be the ostensible historical cause of the decline of Sanskrit as the lingua franca of India from 1100 A.D., it seems important in the context of this article to consider some other possibilities. By the great body of philosophical, religious, literary, scientific, and linguistic knowledge that was held by succeeding generations with increasing reverence, the qualifications for being a learned man became more and more consuming, especially considering the great emphasis in Indian culture on the memorization of entire texts. This fact could easily have contributed to the decline of Sanskrit as a language tool for the discovery of the nature of reality, which was the real source of its own perfecting.
Apart from historical contexts there is one obvious explanation for Sanskrit’s decrease in popular use. Its function gradually became more and more mechanical as its practice increasingly served the purpose of only reviewing the discoveries of the past. When the esteem for knowledge as the mastery of what had already been learned replaced the thirst for new discovery, the widespread usage of Sanskrit declined. At the same time, this need not imply any detraction from the value and inspiration derived from a thorough knowledge of the great works of antiquity; it only helps to explain the decline of Sanskrit as a living language. But the striking lesson to be learned from the example of Sanskrit may be well worth the 2000 years it has taken. The attempt to recapture the truths discovered by the ancient Sanskrit explorers by the mere repetitions of their formulas actually may have destroyed the spirit of investigation and ended up dulling the language instrument.
If this were not so, there is no imaginable reason for the discontinuation of such a perfect language as the lingua franca of Bharat or its utilization by other civilizations throughout the world.
But one thing is certain — Sanskrit will only become the planetary language when it is taught in a way which is exciting and enjoyable.
Perhaps the greatest hope for the return of Sanskrit lies in computers. It’s precision play with computer tools could awaken the capacity in human beings to utilize their innate higher mental faculty with a momentum that could inevitably transform the world. In fact the mere learning by large numbers of people in itself would represent a quantum leap in consciousness.
References
1. The Mother on Sanskrit by Sri Aurobindo Society, Pondicherry, India.
2. A History of Sanskrit Literature by Arthur A. MacDonnell, M.A., Ph.D., Motilal Banarsidas, Delhi, 1962.
3. A Short History of Sanskrit Literature by H. R. Aggarwal, M.A., P.E.S., R.D.E., Munshi Ram Manohar Lal, Delhi, 1963.
4. A Companion to Contemporary Sanskrit by Hajime Nakamura, Motilal Banarsidas, Delhi, 1973.
5. Sanskrit by V. V. Ivanov and V. N. Toporov, Nauka Publishing House, Moscow, 1968.