Sanskrit
Sanskrit is an ancient Indo-Aryan language that originated in the Swat and northern Punjab regions of Pakistan.[3][4] It is considered sacred by Hindus. Many languages in Pakistan, India, Nepal and Bangladesh are derived from Sanskrit.[5] Today, only about 14,000 people use it as their daily language.[1] It is also one of the 22 officially recognised languages of India.
| Sanskrit | |
|---|---|
| संस्कृतम् saṃskṛtam | |
_in_Sanskrit.svg) The word Sanskrit (संस्कृतम्) written in Devanagari. | |
| Region | South Asia |
Native speakers | 14,000[1] (2001) |
| No native script.[2] Today it is usually written in Devanagari, but it was also previously written in various Brāhmī-based scripts. | |
| Official status | |
Official language in | One of the 22 scheduled languages of India. |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | sa |
| ISO 639-2 | san |
| ISO 639-3 | san |
| Part of a series on | |
|---|---|
| |
| Constitutionally recognised languages of India | |
| Category | |
| Scheduled Languages | |
A | |
| Related | |
Official languages of India |
Sanskrit is a standardized dialect of Old Indo-Aryan and has a linguistic ancestry that can be traced back to Proto-Indo-European. The Indo-European Aryan migration theory proposes that the Indo-Europeans migrated from the Central Asian steppes into South Asia during the early 2nd millennium BC and brought the Indo-European language Sanskrit with them.[6] The main script used to write Sanskrit today is Devanāgarī. Historically, it was also written in the Kharoshti and Brahmic scripts.[7]
William Jones, working as a judge in India in the 18th century, studied Sanskrit and recognised its similarities to Latin, Greek and other European languages. That led to the Indo-European languages being recognised as a group of related languages stretching from Europe to India.[source?]
Literature
Sanskrit literature includes poetry and drama and has also scientific, technical, philosophical and religious texts.[8][9] Sanskrit continues to be widely used as a ceremonial language in Hindu religious rituals and also some Buddhist and Jain practice in the form of hymns and chants.
Grammar
Sanskrit has a very complex grammar, with eight grammatical cases, three grammatical genders, and three grammatical numbers. Words are also described based on their qualities. Sanskrit is considered highly scientific, words in a sentence can describe the subject's number, gender and action.
References
