Friday, October 18, 2019

Sanskrit - Not a Natural Language

Recently, I came across a post on YouTube - भारतीय कालक्रम के मुख्य आधार by Vedveer Arya. He makes some interesting analysis of the timeline of the Vedas, Ramayana and Mahabharata. Per the analysis, Brahma was a historical great man, did Vedic academic revolution, lived in 14500 BC. Brahma's son was Svayambhuava Manu. Vishwamitra lived in 13500 BC. Brahmana composition of Vedas came into existence after 9200 BC. Krita yuga is of 4800 years, Treta yuga is of 3600 years, Dvapara yuga is of 2400 years and Kali yuga is of 1200 years (whoof, that is a relief!). But then he says for ease of calculation, a revised system of measuring the yugas was introduced. And the Kali yuga's duration changed to 432,000 years. Tretayuga started in 6777 BC. Rama was born in 5674 BC. Ravana died in 5635 BC. Mahabharata happened around 3200 BC. During the Ramayana time, the sea level was much below. There was already a natural stone structure between Rameshvaram and Sri Lanka. This used to submerge during high tides of the seas. Rama and his army had to just put some rocks and trees on the natural structure.

In context of deriving a timeline for the Indian history, Mr. Arya discusses the origins of the Sanskrit language. He classifies the Sanskrit literature timeline into three - ancient, transitional and modern. Here modern - means Ramayana and onward. He posits that Sanskrit is NOT a natural language. This language is based on grammar and (was) developed to perfect a language. He compares this to today's computer languages. Computer languages are technically languages, but not natural languages, are artificially created. The computer languages are subject to rigorous syntactical rules for consumption of computers, not for humans. During the Veda period, the grammar of Sanskrit was loose. Then its grammar evolved and matured further. He says आगन्तास्मि used in Vedas is considered invalid (दोषपूर्ण) in post-Vedic period. However, this observation is incorrect. This usage is still valid in today's Sanskrit.

Anyways, Mr. Arya's analysis strongly suggests the Sanskrit language was mainly a link language and not attached to any region, community or geography. In Ramayana, Hanuman's thoughts of how to present himself to Sita also suggest that Sanskrit as a link language. This was echoed in couple of my posts. One of them - Sanskrit - Is it a language? discussing how Sanskrit is different from other languages. The other post - The Tale of a Car - Why We Should Keep the Sanctity of Sanskrit Language.

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