The ‘Vedic language’ of Sanskrit is the oldest and richest language of India. It has been practiced here for almost five thousand years. Despite its glorious legacy, Sanskrit is perched on the threshold of extinction. Indians had almost lost the language over the period of 800 years of the Mughal rule and 200 years of British rule on them.
Rajnikant Vasistha
The answer to the question of what the common language of work and colloquialism has always been changing in accordance to the time and the situation. The change has occurred through its food, water even to its speech.
India having the history of various invaders who have ruled this country with about a dozen of languages and 250 dialects, have been imposing their working language upon India over the time. It is the very reason why sometimes it has been Arabic, sometime Persian, Urdu even Lashkar-e Hindi and sometimes British English.
Amongst all these languages the one which have survived in India till today is English of which the current version is “Hinglish”. It is the concoction of both Hindi and English. In this one thousand year of linguistic race India has somewhere lost her own mother tongue Sanskrit, which actually is the mother of all Indian languages.
The government has already initiated to develop Sanskrit-speaking villages. The villages will be located near Sanskrit Educational Institutions and the Ministry will recruit tutors to teach the language to the villagers and reach out to people living in the surrounding areas.
Two of these Sanskrit villages are planned to be built in Delhi. Following the Central Government’s initiative, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has decided to release official news releases in Sanskrit along with Hindi, English and Urdu.
There are three Sanskrit Universities run by the Central Government in India. Two of which are the Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan and Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri, the Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeeth are situated in Delhi itself, while the Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeeth is located at Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh.
The Ministry is yet to finalise the names of the villages, but it has started working on the scheme with the Heads of Sanskrit Universities.
A senior official of the Ministry of Human Resource Development has informed that the idea is that, teachers of Sanskrit institutions will go to classes and teach language to people of the villages and nearby areas. This is being done for the propagation of the ancient language. They are already in communication with the institutions and will soon start working on a scheme.
The government have already initiated the mission by adopting the village of Bhantola in the state of Uttarakhand.
The residents of Bhantola use both Hindi and Sanskrit to communicate amongst each other. Apart from Bhantola, there are atleast seven other villages in India where people use Sanskrit as a language of their communication.
In the first meeting with the Ministry’s Language Department, the chief had proposed the idea of developing Sanskrit-speaking villages. He has emphasised that highly qualified teachers should be engaged in Sanskrit Institutions and research should be encouraged to promote the language.
Pokhriyal also plans to build a Habitat Centre in the coming years, a building which will have offices of all Indian Language Institutions.
At present, Sanskrit is being taught in several states from class 1st to 12th at the school level.
For example, in Kerala, class 1st has Sanskrit as one of its languages. Uttarakhand imparts knowledge of Sanskrit from class 3rd.
Many State Boards offer Sanskrit as part of their three-language formula from classes 6th to 10th and as the second alternative language in classes 11th and 12th.
Languages are also offered at undergraduate and postgraduate levels in colleges and Universities. About 120 Universities provide Sanskrit at the UG and PG levels.
There are 15 Sanskrit Universities, including three-run by the Central Government. According to a report by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, an estimated five crore students study Sanskrit at the school level. About 10 lakh students study language in higher education.
Facts about Sanskrit
Today, we will be telling you some facts about Sanskrit that will raise the head of any Indian in pride:
(1) Sanskrit is considered to be the Mother of all languages.
(2) Sanskrit is the official language of Uttarakhand.
(3) Sanskrit was the National Language of India before the Arab people intervened.
(4) According to NASA, Sanskrit is the clearest language spoken on Earth.
(5) Sanskrit has more words than any language in the world. At present, the Sanskrit dictionary contains 102.78 crore 50 lakh words.
(6) Sanskrit is a wonderful treasure for any subject. For example, the word ‘Elephant’, has more than 100 synonyms in Sanskrit.
(7) In July1987, Forbes Magazine considered Sanskrit as the best language for computer software.
(8) It has been observed that Sanskrit in comparison to any other language is capable of completing sentences using minimum words.
(9) Sanskrit is the only language in the world that make use of all the tongue muscles while speaking.
(10) According to the American Hindu University, a man who speaks in Sanskrit will be free from BPA, Diabetes, Cholesterol, etc. By talking in Sanskrit, the nervous system of a human body remains active that triggers the body of the person to become active with a positive passion.
(11) Sanskrit speech therapy is also helpful in increasing concentration.
(12) The people of Muttur village in Karnataka speak only in Sanskrit.
(13) ‘Sudharma’ was the first Sanskrit newspaper to start in 1970. The online version is still available today.
(14) There is a huge demand of Sanskrit speakers in Germany. Sanskrit is taught in 14 German Universities.
15) You will be surprised to know that the method that the computer solves the Mathematics questions i.e. Algorithm, is made in Sanskrit and not in English.
(17) Learning Sanskrit intensifies the mind and increases the power to remember. So, Sanskrit has been made a compulsory subject in many schools at London and Ireland.
(18) At present, Sanskrit is taught in Technical Education courses in at least one University in more than 17 countries across the world.
Unfortunately, Indians have proudly adopted English as their language of communication discarding their own native language.
Scientists and linguists have also been saying for years that the knowledge acquired in one’s own Mother Tongue is the most sustainable and admissible.
If that wouldn’t have been so, why as many countries, including Germany, France, Japan, China, Russia, and many other countries, would have been educating themselves in their own language and becoming the world’s most powerful? That proves the origin of the progress of a country lies in the indigenous language.
