Sanskrit - the Language of the Vedas

Sanskrit is the language of the Vedic culture. It has brought forward an immense treasure of literature, science, culture and philosophy. Outstanding are the Puranas and the 108 Upanishads which form the core of the Vedic philosophy. Equally well-known and important are the two great epic poems named Ramayana and Mahabharata, which contains the famous Bhagavad-gita. We also find many anthologies of fairytales and fables, headed by the Pancatantra, which served as a source book for many stories in our own culture. Further, there are numerous Sanskrit texts about the various Vedic fields of knowledge, like mathematics, astronomy, astrology, Ayurveda, Vasati (architecture), and so on.

The name Sanskrit means “joined together, arranged, decorated”. This hints at Sanskrit's grammar being exactly regulated. According to the academic opinion, the today still existing “classical Sanskrit” came about from the old Indian vernacular languages, the so-called prakrita dialects. They were sorted and structured by the grammarians. Prior to that, the so-called “Vedic Sanskrit” existed, the language of the four original Vedas (Rg-, Sama-, Yajur- and Atharva-veda) which were composed about 1000 BC. Thus, the academic circles date the age of Sanskrit at approx. 2500 years and see it as a “synthetic” language, composed from vernacular dialects.

The Vedic tradition promotes a different image of itself and the origin of the Sanskrit language — an image which is though graded as purely mythological by the indologists. Yet, we want to produce that version, since it is to be found in numerous Vedic scriptures, starting with the Bhagavata-purana, the most important Purana — and since it correspondents no less to the actual empiric presentation of evidence than the academic opinion.

According to this version, right at the beginning of the material creation the Vedic wisdom was spoken by Lord Vishnu (God in his creating aspect) directly to Lord Brahma, the creator of this universe. Brahma himself systematically passed this knowledge on to his descendants, thereby creating the Vedas. This original language of the Vedas was then adopted by the devas, the higher subtle living beings which are entrusted with the administration of the universe. Thus, it was called deva-nagari, the language of the devas. It is the original language of the universe.

The Vedic tradition informs us that human beings in former ages were physically and intellectually by far more able than nowadays. Knowledge was passed on by oral reception since the disciples were able to remember everything by hearing it once. Thus, no writing was necessary. But at the dawn of the present age — the kali-yuga, or “age of quarrel” — human mankind degraded more and more and gradually lost all good qualities. The duration of life decreased, and with the loss of the keen remembrance the traditional system of acquiring knowledge ceased to be applicable. In order to prevent its decay, the Vedic wisdom had to be conserved in written form. This happened about 5000 years ago by the divine incarnation Shrila Vyasadeva. He compiled the presently existing Vedic literature, namely the four Vedas, the Upanishads, the Puranas and the Mahabharata. Thus, he created no new knowledge but rather tried to preserve the original wisdom of human mankind for the oncoming generations.

At that time, devanagari was the language of the whole civilized population of the earth. But due to lack of training and careless pronunciation, the uneducated people began to develop numerous dialects. Before, such lingual alienation had been carefully avoided since it was well-known that the material and spiritual power of the language greatly depends on its purity. Now, however, various dialects came up which, after gradually deviating from the original language, could not be called devanagari anymore. New languages, called prakrita, came forth.

With the further progress of kali-yuga, these prakrita dialects spread more and more, up to the grade of dominating the original pure language. Finally, they were adopted even by the educated circles. The sages and scholars of that time became alarmed. Together with its language, they foresaw the dying-out of the root of Vedic culture. Thus, they invested enormous time and effort to design a standardized grammar, with the aim of preserving the devanagari language in its original purity. Although unnecessary before, this measure seemed to be the only means of counteracting the increasing cultural, intellectual and spiritual decay of the society.

The most successful, hence most prominent amongst these grammarians was Panini. His grammar, surpassing all others in tightness and precision, became the standard and remained so undisputedly until today. Panini was able to joint the original devanagari language into an exact framework of rules, thus preserving it for the posterity. Since his time, this language is called Sanskrit, “joined together, refined”.

Thus, according to the Vedic version Sanskrit is not the result of the prakrita languages; rather, they in opposite have developed from the original Sanskrit language, called devanagari. The present-day Sanskrit is nothing more than the successful attempt to conserve the original language and to prevent its further alienation. And the development of scriptural record is not at all considered as a progress of human civilization — rather, it is a symptom of the increasing degradation of human qualities.

Following this tradition, Sanskrit is the original language of the Vedas. They were transmitted directly from the spiritual world at the dawn of creation. Therefore, their language bears the power to connect the reciter and the receptors of mantras and shlokas with the eternal spiritual reality — especially if the mantras contain one of the numerous names of God. Consequently, Sanskrit produces a transcendental sound vibration which is able to liberate the living entity from the material existence called samsara, the circle of repeated births and deaths.

No more than now, as we are forced by an increasing number of archeological discoveries to date the age and origin of human mankind more and more backwards, this version appears to be absurd by no means. At least, no valid empiric reasons force us to dismiss it as mythological.

No matter, however, if we accept the academic opinion or the promotion of the Veda's own version — we have to regard Sanskrit as one of the great original cultural languages of this planet. It has influenced vast realms of our thinking and cognition and is still spoken by many scholars in and outside of India. Without knowledge of its Sanskrit culture, the present India and its traditions are not to be understood.