Sanskrit and Classical Languages

One more Indian language viz. Malayalam has been accorded the status of a Classical language which means that it is at least 1500 years old. Tamil, Telegu, Kannada and of course Sanskrit have attained this status earlier. Many more are in the offing and as expected the decision will be more on political reasons than facts. It is interesting to note the richness of India even in terms of its languages. No other country or civilization in the entire world can boast of such a set of more than two dozen classical languages which have independent vocabulary and scripts. But Indian rulers are making a big mistake by continuing to neglect the mother of all such languages viz. Sanskrit.

One thousand years ago, when India was the richest country in the world with a GDP share of more than 40%, the glory of Sanskrit was also at its peak. No one would have imagined that reluctance of then rulers to universalize the study of Sanskrit would one day result in its decay. Lower sections of the society were kept away from the so called noble language to prevent them from learning the sacred literature which the Brahmins, especially the pseudo variety, wanted to monopolise for themselves. Sanatana Dharma stipulated Brahminhood to be attained by ones own efforts, but a few clever and cunning achievers made it a monopoly for their own progeny. The death and decay of Sanskrit language started from those days. Europeans saw a great opportunity in this scenario and made full use of it by smuggling out most of our literature.

I am sure there is not even a single Indian who would not have felt bad at least on one occasion in their life that he or she is doing a great blunder by not mastering Sanskrit. The mother of all languages has not only a vast repertoire of ancient literature but has also been declared as the most compatible one with modern computers. The simple fact that the mother tongues of all Indians contain at least 50% words of Sanskrit origin makes the mistake of not learning Sanskrit more glaring. It is one of the greatest tragedy of modern India that Sanskrit was not declared our national language when we got liberated from British and Pakistan got separated from India.

Genographic Politics

There is an ongoing Genographic Project as a genetic anthropological study that aims to map historical human migration patterns by collecting and analyzing DNA samples from hundreds of thousands of people from around the world. Apparently it sounds purely scientific, but the interpretations that have started emanating after about a few hundred thousand samples have been analysed point to sinister designs. The project team seems to be on right track with regard to the Journey of Mankind, but is smelling of ulterior motives when it comes to the associated Journey of Civilisation. As far as India is concerned, there are enough and more reasons to believe that the new project is nothing but an attempt to resurrect the ghosts of Max Muller and McCaulay.

It is now common knowledge that Aryan Invasion (later Migration) Theory (AIT) was propounded and propagated by the erstwhile colonial rulers in order to keep India divided forever. The mention of two races, Aryans and Dravidians, is found no where in any ancient Indian text, but the half-baked European scholars in Sanskrit thought it will be a brilliant tool to drive a permanent wedge between the North and South Indians. Not only did they succeed in their attempts for a few centuries, but could also get a few ardent devotees among Indian historians. However, AIT met its natural death and stands deleted forever from Indian history.

Another set of self-proclaimed historians associated with the Genographic Project have now started trekking on the same path. Their attempt is to map the Journey of Civilisation in the same path as Journey of Mankind. Even without the Genographic Project we know that African continent is the cradle of mankind. The first man evolved from their ‘animal’ forefathers in Africa and migrated to various parts of the world through various routes at different times. But the islands of civilisation are totally unconnected. India’s own Vedic Civilisation has nothing to do with anything that happened in Greece or Arabia or Europe, and stands unparalleled as one of the highest watermarks of human civilisation. Any pseudo-scientific attempts to belittle the same will meet the same fate as the Aryan Invasion Theory.

 

 

Tale of Two Tongues

Languages (tongues) are the most visible symbols of regional civilizations and religious culture. No civilization in any part of the world can be considered significant unless it has generated some outstanding literary works at some point of time during its existence. Many of the glorious civilizations are no more, but the differences between Inca and Greek civilizations provide a striking example about the importance of language and literature. While the former exists only in the books of History students, the latter is still a matter of delight merely because of Iliad and Odyssey. Whatever be their achievements in terms of monuments and territorial vastness, the literary content of a civilization far outweighs everything else when it comes to counting its greatness. In the eternal comparison of significance between physical and mental achievements, it is always the mental achievements that matters. The meaning of Akshara (letters) in Sanskrit is ‘that which does not perish’ and literature is its popular form. People of letters are far more respected than those who build monuments.

Language and literature are activities of the mind and it calls for far greater knowledge and capabilities to excel in them than in physical activities like annexing territories and building monuments. A casual comparison between two individuals trying to build up their body and brain respectively in a gym and library is enough to prove this point at micro level. Within an year or two the whole body can be built up to competitive levels, whereas it will take years and years of effort for anyone to reach the level of even attempting a literary work. And if such works are to be of outstanding nature, the amount of calibre and hard work required can be easily guessed. It will take generations of accumulated knowledge, skills and environmental encouragement to generate classical literary works. Perhaps no other civilization till date in the face of earth has produced more such outstanding classical literary works than Hindu Sanatana Dharma (HSD) and its associated Sanskrit literature. An update about its present condition vis-à-vis some richer tongues reveals a shocking picture for the entire human civilization.

Arabic Ascent

Arabic is the language of Arabs and their population is not significant. But Arabic language has become so much identified with Islam because of the simple reason that Koran, the Islamic holy book, is in that language. Muslim population in the world has increased significantly in the last few centuries and the importance of Arabic language is also increasing. Their disciplined uniformity throughout the world makes it obligatory on the part of all Muslims to learn Arabic in order to practice the religion properly. Without a significant knowledge of Arabic language it is almost impossible to offer the daily prayers, refer the holy book and perform their other rituals. Though spoken dialects vary from country to country the written Arabic language remains uniform. Classical literary works in Arabic language are few, but its religious association makes it one of the most prominent languages in today’s world.

The new found richness of Arabs has also raised the importance of their language. Millions of dollars are spent on its propagation and development. Muslim children are memorizing the entire holy book in their young age and the level of encouragement offered for such efforts is unprecedented. Just like the religion, the language has also become a convenient tool for realization of Arabian dreams for international domination. The British and their English provide a very good example of what a language can achieve for imperial dreams. Original speakers of any language remain the ultimate authorities in any language and such an eternal domination provides the psychological upper hand to rule over the new speakers. The goal posts for correctness in the language can always be shifted by its original owners. And it becomes inevitable and unquestioned, if the language owners happen to be rich, powerful and ambitious.

Sinking Sanskrit

In stark contrast to the continuing victory lap of Arabic language, the story of Sanskrit presents one of awful degeneration. The number of classic literature works in Sanskrit language far outweighs all other languages put together, both in terms of quantity and quality. If Islam is cent percent identified with Arabic language, the association of Sanskrit with Hindu Sanatana Dharma is also of very high significance. Almost all its original religious scriptures are in Sanskrit language, though commentaries and interpretations (which are freely allowed in HSD, unlike Islam) are available in many other languages. Sanskrit is considered the mother of almost all Indian languages, yet the efforts for its encouragement and development continues to be abysmally low. India is rich and millions of Indians are more than rich. But the condition of India’s most significant cultural symbol is pathetic with no turn around in sight.

One of the surprising reasons for the current state of Sanskrit language in India is the skewed secularism of Indian state. When India got partitioned in 1947 into a religious Pakistan and secular India, the ruling elite in India took extra efforts in segregating religions from state affairs. In this laudable attempt, they made the fatal error of associating Sanskrit language entirely with Hindu religion. The neglect has now gone to the extent of hatred for the language. Schemers and anti-nationals in the Indian state also used this opportunity to whip up caste feelings among the Hindus by their false propagation about Sanskrit being the language of only high caste Brahmins. The clever among them knew very well that killing Sanskrit language will be best way to conquer India again.

The future of Sanskrit is not at all bright, except for the knowledge explosion taking place over the electronic media and internet. Stray efforts are ongoing in different parts of the world for digitization of all the Sanskrit manuscripts available. There are also attempts to promote learning of the language in various pockets of the world, some of which unbelievably astonishing. Indian efforts in this direction continue to be apathetic, thanks to the overdose of vote bank politics and political correctness in the ‘clanocracy’ of India. Greatest symbol of Indian civilization is being destroyed by planned negligence and official antipathy in a systematic manner. But we should always bear in mind that a Dharmic Republic of India can become a world leader only on the strength of its own Sanatana Dharma and Sanskrit. There is absolutely no other way to reach the top by becoming a Ramarajya once again.