Revival of Sanskrit - A Long Way to Go

In recent times, there have been tremendous efforts to revive Sanskrit both as a spoken language and as a language in vogue. Not to mention many educational establishments around the globe, but there are numerous groups, individuals who have taken up this effort as their lifelong mission. This is a very positive development and extremely laudable. Sanskrit is finding its place in the mainstream media, is becoming the subject of discussions and debates, more articles and books are being published.

In this great movement, there have been some voices to upgrade the language, revise its structure, to keep it current with the changing times. This stems from the fact that some of the Sanskrit phrases used by people now have no grammatical basis. For example: मां स्मारय (should be मया स्मारय), सर्वेषां नमः (should be सर्वेभ्यः नमः), हरि ॐ (should be हरिः ॐ) etc. Some be-modern enthusiast grammarians argue that everyone now-a-days uses such phrases. So, there needs to be a way in the grammar books to justify these kind of usages, or the grammar books need to be updated to include such usages, especially when the use of Sanskrit has increased. After all प्रयोगशरणाः वैयाकरणाः. Grammarians go as per the usage, they do not make up or invent their own rules. The language comes first, the grammar rules go according the usage. That is why there are Panini sutras defining the general rules of usage and also the exceptions to those general rules. And then there are “vaartikas” written by different people after Panini to include some corrections or more usage styles. Fair enough.

However, in this zeal of revival, we should be knowing where we stand and what we are doing. With all due respects to the grammarians and the people who are doing wonderful work of keeping this language alive and helping to spread it. When we say the use of Sanskrit is on the rise and lot of people are taking up Sanskrit, what does that mean? Yes, there is no doubt that the awareness of Sanskrit is on the rise in the last few years. Thousands of people may be attending some classes, seminars or camps conducted all over the world to know about the language. But this hardly qualifies as to count them as Sanskrit-speaking people. The Wikipedia page on Sanskrit mentions about 14,000 Indians with Sanskrit as their first language in the year 2001. Even if there is a ten fold increase in this number by this time, it is still a minuscule to say that the language has a critical mass. And currently, nobody in the world including the grammarians have their native tongue as Sanskrit (well, except maybe a handful in some very orthodoxical institutions). Most of the times, the knowledge of the grammarians appears to be confined to the rules and examples given in the classic treatises on grammar and many times hits the dead end in analyzing and applying various sutras. And people who are learning the language are trying to get a grip on the basics. It is obvious that their usage of Sanskrit is heavily influenced by grammatical constructs and their usages in their native languages.

In these situations, it would be very imprudent to start accepting the incorrect usages of the current times as valid. At the times of प्रयोगशरणाः वैयाकरणाः, entire mass of people across huge areas in and around India supposedly had everyday use of Sanskrit. People who could authenticate the शिष्टप्रयोग (use of words by knowledgeable people) and accordingly frame and re-frame the grammar rules were actually sages or equivalent to sages (ऋषि or ऋषिसदृशाः). Unfortunately, with the decline of Sanskrit for generations, that ability is currently lost. The good news is that with the efforts of thousands of selfless people, the language is growing despite many challenges. That is a tremendous achievement. But we are many generations away to get to the stage where the current grammatical structures can be played with and altered. Until then, the foundations of Sanskrit grammar are very profound to take on any usage needs in the modern times. It would be of great help if the enthusiast grammarians and academicians can guide the learners to understand and practice the correct usage. The responsibility of making an effort to learn Sanskrit in a correct way and passing it to the next generation lies with all of us.

अकबरः तथा बीरबलः कथा (देवः किमर्थम् अवतरति)

आसीत् अकबरः इति प्रसिद्धः राजा | तस्य आस्थानकः चतुरः बीरबलः | एकदा राजा बीरबलं पृच्छति | देवः सर्वत्र अस्ति इति भवान् वदति | सः देवः भक्तान् रक्षितुं भूतलं किमर्थम् आगच्छति | देवं परितः बहवः सेवकाः सन्ति | तान् सेवकान् किं न प्रेषयति इति | बीरबलः किमपि न भणति | कानिचन दिनानि अतीतानि | एकदा प्रातः राजा अकबरः बीरबलेन सह उद्यानं गच्छति | तम् उभयतः अङ्गरक्षकाः अपि सन्ति | राजा अन्यैः जनैः साकं जलाशयं प्राप्नोति | जलाशयस्य समीपे अकबरस्य पुत्रः कन्दुकेन खेलति | पुत्रः जलाशये पतति | अकबरः पुत्रं रक्षितुं स्वयं जले निपतति | रक्षितं राजपुत्रं दृष्ट्वा बीरबलः वदति | हे महाराज एतदेव देवस्य अवतरणस्य कारणम् | भवान् पुत्ररक्षणं सेवकैः न कारयति किन्तु स्वयमेव करोति | तथैव देवः अपि स्वभक्तान् त्रातुं स्वयमेव अवतरति | तत् वचनं श्रुत्वा राजा अकबरः प्रसन्नः बीरबलं पारितोषकेण संमानयति |

Song on Shiva - कैलासवास गौरीश ईश

शङ्करस्तुतिगीतम्

विजयदासविरचितकन्नडभक्तिगीतस्य संस्कृतानुवादः

कैलासवास गौरीश ईश |

तैलधारातुल्यमतिं देहि हरिचरणे शम्भो ||

लोकेस्मिन् अहोरात्रं चानुजाग्रणी भूत्वा

सर्वत्र भ्रमितोऽहं हे महादेव |

अहिभूषण मे त्वम् अवगुणान् नावलोक्य

धर्मविहिते सुपथि देहि वैष्णवभक्तिं शम्भो || १ ||

पापपुण्यानां न मनश्च कारणमस्ति

अनलाक्ष ननु तव विना प्रेरणाम् |

धनुजगतमदहारि भूरि ते प्रणमामि

नमय मे शिरः सुजनचरणकमले शम्भो || २ ||

भागीरथीधर मे भवभीतिं परिहृत्य

परिपालय मां त्वं सततं हि शर्वदेव |

भागवतजनप्रिय विजयविट्ठलस्याङ्घ्र्यां

सर्वात्मना भक्त्या सेवाभाग्यं मे देहि || ३ ||

Why learn Sanskrit?

There are already an umpteen number of articles on the Internet on this subject: Why learn Sanskrit language? Many of them assure that Sanskrit is not a dead language and also is easily palatable by various sections in the Indian society not withstanding their political, regional, religional differences. Some of them state that since most of the Indian languages are heavily influenced by Sanskrit, it would be easy for adults and children in India to learn Sanskrit. And also the articles about research and study by NASA. They are all good and strong arguments.

But from a pure linguistic perspective, here is the summary of the reasons I have come across:

1. Rich language:
   Arguably, Sanskrit has the richest and the most beautiful literary compositions. The only other languages coming close to it in this aspect are Greek, Latin and perhaps the old Persian. All these languages appear to have originated from a common ancestor (language).
2. Impeccable structure:
   Sanskrit language is phonetic (based on sounds) and has very well-defined structure to its grammar and etymology. For this reason, it is easy for anyone, including the non-Indians, to study the language by understanding its rules. The structure also makes it fit for the logical algorithms to decipher and derive different word forms.
3. Universal:
   Though it is the oldest language, infinite and new words can be formed using its structure. This makes it practically usable and relevant forever, for any place and any time, without depending on other languages. (See: The Tale of a Car)
4. Pronunciation:
   Sanskrit is based on sounds and expects clear pronunciation of words to convey the right meaning. Practicing to correctly pronounce different letters and words brings about improvements in one's abilities to differentiate the nuances in vocal sounds.
5. Brain activation using Devanagari script:
   Devanagari script is less prone to errors as it is phonetic, has very little punctuation marks (see uttiSTha bhArata blog), no differentiation between upper case and lower case. But, additionally it is good for our brains. How? Consonants are written in left-to-right order and the vowels mixed with them are either written to the left, top, bottom or right. But while speaking, those vowels always follow consonants. Studies suggest that this needs bilateral activation-participation from both left and right hemispheres of the brain-for reading phrases in Devanagari.
   
   I would like to add another important one:
6. Holistic approach while speaking:
   Because of Sanskrit's unique constructs and ability to join sounds and words in various combinations, it is up to the speaker (or author) to make use of these constructs in his/her own way and capacity to bring about the communication with the audience. Also, the coherence needed for verb usage, adjective/nouns (विशेषण/विशेष्य) forces one to think before uttering a sentence. This needs quick coordination within the brain to assemble the proper words in their proper forms. For a new learner, this may take some time to get used to this style. But, as with any fine arts (and science), with little practice, it becomes truly enjoyable and highly satisfying experience while one's brain stops thinking by words, but starts thinking in terms of overall meaning of the message to be conveyed. Perhaps this is similar concept to the alien script in the recent movie Arrival.

References:
The Analyst Blog, Sanskrit@James UK School