Sanskrit - संस्कृतम्, संस्कृता वाक् Language
Sanskrit is a classical Indian language, a liturgical language in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism and one of the 23 official languages of India. This language also has the same status in Nepal.
Its position in South and Southeast Asian cultures is similar to the position of Latin and Greek in Europe. Sanskrit developed into many modern languages on the Indian subcontinent. This language appears in pre-classical form as the Vedic language. What is contained in the book of Rwanda is the oldest and most archaic phase. This text is derived from approximately 1700 BC and the Sanskrit Vedas are the oldest Indo-Aryan languages encountered and one of the oldest members of the Indo-European family.
The treasures of Sanskrit literature include poetry that has a rich tradition, drama and also scientific, technical, philosophical, and religious texts. At present Sanskrit still remains widely used as a ceremonial language at Hindu ceremonies in the form of stotra and mantra. The Sanskrit spoken is still used in several traditional institutions in India and there have even been several attempts to revive Sanskrit. What will be discussed in this article is Classical Sanskrit as reviewed in Panini's Sanskrit grammar, circa 500 BC.
The adjective saṃskṛta means "cultured". The language referred to as saṃskṛtā vāk "cultured language" by definition has always been "high" language, used for religious purposes and scientific purposes and contrary to the language used by commoners. This language is also called deva-bhāṣā which means "the language of the Gods". The oldest surviving Sanskrit is the essay of Pāṇini and the Aulkanādhyāyī ("Eighth Chapter Grammar") which dates back to the 5th century BC. This grammar is primarily a normative or prescriptive grammar which mainly regulates the standard and not descriptive way of use, although this grammar also contains descriptive passages especially regarding Vedic forms which have not been used anymore in the Panini era.
Sanskrit is included in the Indo-Arya branch of the Indo-European language family. Together with the Iranian language, Sanskrit includes the Indo-Iranian language family and is hereby part of the Satem Indo-European languages, which also includes the Balto-Slavic branch.
When the Sanskrit term appears in India, this language is not seen as a language that is different from other languages, but especially as a subtle or cultured form of speech. Knowledge of Sanskrit is a marker of social class and this language is mainly taught to members of high castes, through careful analysis of Sanskrit speeches such as Pāṇini. Sanskrit as an educated language in India is in addition to the Prakreta languages which are folk languages and eventually developed into modern Indo-Aryan languages (Hindi, Assamese, Urdu, Bengali and so on). Most Dravidian languages from India, although they are part of a different language group, they are strongly influenced by Sanskrit, especially in the form of loan words. Kannada, Telugu and Malayalam have the largest number of absorption words while Tamil has the lowest. The influence of Sanskrit on these languages is recognized by TadSama ("sama") and TadBhava ("rooted") discourses. Meanwhile Sanskrit itself also had the substrate influence of the Dravidian language from the very beginning.
"Sanskrit - संस्कृतम्, संस्कृता वाक्" is at the 8th Position in this list.
