Reviving and Revitalizing Sanskrit Language

                                                                                              *Saumitra Mohan

            Language has always been a very powerful tool in the evolution and development of any civilisational entity. It has often been successfully harnessed for uniting or diving people as also witnessed in the Indian sub-continent. It was the basis of British Raj’s notorious ‘Divide and Rule’ policy, resulting in the emaciation and eventual colonisation of the glorious Indian civilization.

            Linguistic feud and persecution was one of the principal reasons that saw the creation of Bangladesh. It was the language-based solidarity movement which saw the creation of many states after India’s independence in 1947. In fact, the linguistic chauvinism and related agitation almost saw the unravelling of the nascent Indian state at one point of time, but it was India’s consociational politics, dirigiste welfarism and distributive justice steered by its founding fathers’ vision which turned this express weakness into strength.

            However, the language debate is still not over in this country what with the issue of Hindi hegemony or its top-down imposition often lurking and looming on the horizon from time to time. But this is also a truth that India is one country where umpteen languages and dialects are spoken. Most of these languages have been surviving and evolving by dint of their individual strength in their own specific ways. As per the 2011 Census of India, 19,569 languages were said to have been recorded as the mother tongues. While there are 22 official languages listed in the 8^th Schedule of Indian Constitution, the number of actually spoken languages and dialects were said to be 1652 as per the 1961 Census of India.

            As an individual, many of us have a fascination for learning newer languages. And one such language which should readily catch our fancy is Sanskrit. I, for one, picked up the basics of this beautiful language way back in the early nineteen eighties during my school days. Fortunately, I cut my teeth on Sanskrit at the hands of one Latika Renu (the third spouse of the legendary Hindi litterateur Phanishwar Nath Renu). One really loved her classes in the semi-government school named Ram Mohan Roy Seminary in Patna, established and run by the Brahma Samaj.

            Belonging to the Indo-European, Indo-Iranian and Indo-Aryan family of languages, Sanskrit is one of India’s 22 official languages. While it was spoken as the mother tongue only by 14000 Indians as per the 2001 Census, the number swelled to 24,821 as per the 2011 Census. However, Sanskrit is widely used all across India and beyond as a language for different religious and ceremonial rites and rituals by Hindus, Buddhists and Jains. Even though the number of people actually registering Sanskrit as the mother tongue appears really measly in a country of over 1.3 billion people, still the number of people actually conversant and capable of speaking the language is estimated to be in millions.

            While Latin as a ceremonial language of the Europeans may have met with a worse fate, Sanskrit as a language has somehow been surviving in this country. Sanskrit is not only taught and pursued as a subject in millions of educational institutions across India, it survives also because of the few dedicated language gladiators taking up the cudgel to revive and promote this classical Indian language with all their efforts.

            Organisations like Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan and Sanskrit Bharati led by the ilks of Chamu Krishna Shashtri, Kutumba Shashtri and many other devoted stalwarts have ensured that Sanskrit becomes much more acceptable than it ever was. Unfortunately, like Urdu is wrongly associated with Muslims despite having been germinated and developed in India through the collective efforts of Indian scholars and hoi polloi, similarly Sanskrit is also wrongly associated with Hindus and viewed as a language belonging to a particular religion which is something very gross.

            Carrying an entire history and civilization in its womb through its well-endowed cornucopia of literature and manuscripts, Sanskrit is way much richer than Hindi and many other Indian or European languages. While Hindi traces its origin to Hindustani which originated and evolved during 900-1100 AD, but the actual Hindi is actually said to have developed as a distinct language only in the 18^th century.

            So, while Hindi language can claim to be as old as 1000 years (if we treat Hindustani as its variant and original precursor and progenitor), the history of Sanskrit goes as far back as 4000 to 6000 years. And as such its literature and the knowledge enshrined therein is much richer than one could ever imagine or find in any other classical language. But for some strange reason, we have deliberately allowed it to rot in the wilderness, leaving it to the mercy and goodwill of some valiant language warriors.

            Today, Sanskrit as a language does not promise many livelihood avenues for its practitioners apart from the job of a teacher in a school, college or university. However, there are said to be thousands of vacancies of Sanskrit teachers in the educational institutions across India which remain unfilled for years together. While not many new vacancies have been created, the already sanctioned and existing vacancies have not been filled up on one or the other ground, thereby further discouraging its practitioners to take up Sanskrit as an optional subject in school or college. Notwithstanding being an ‘easy-to-learn-and-understand’ language with extremely rich vocabulary, it is often touted as a very difficult and incomprehensible language, thereby discouraging newer learners and students from taking it up at the school or college level.

            All our love and pride for our Indian civilization, its rich cultural heritage and profound knowledge base would come to naught if we don’t really do something to aid and encourage the revival of this rich language for being better equipped for ferreting and foraging through its hugely richer literature. It is true that a good number of such Sanskrit literatures have been translated into other languages including Hindi. However, there still remain many more millions (more than 45 hundred thousands) of untranslated manuscripts and literature which need to be perused and publicised for further enriching our knowledge and acquaintance with our own cultural roots.

            The truth is whatever most of us know today about ancient India and its rich cultural heritage is through secondary sources, brought before us through translated works. Very few of us have actually bothered to peruse and pore through the originals to fathom and appreciate the richness and profoundness of the same. Every time you read and study such originals, one always comes across newer facts, information and insights because everyone’s understanding brings better elucidation and clarity about the knowledge contained therein.

            Studies and practice have proven that many of the facts and insights in ancient Sanskrit literature on the subjects of medicine, law, mathematics, literature, music, drama, politics and statecraft, economics, architecture, science and commonsensical understanding are still very germane, approximating contemporary wisdom. It is also a fact that while many of us remained aloof or cut-off from some of the profound scientific and technological knowledge base hidden in ancient Sanskrit literature, many Western scientists and scholars benefitting from such knowledge, presented to the world the knowledge, wisdom and inventions which were originally lifted and recycled from our ancient Sanskrit literature and manuscripts.

            While imposition of Hindi as a national language still has the danders up for many in this country, Sanskrit could still have the potential to be a more acceptable lingua franca in this country because any and every Indian language excepting Tamil traces its origin to Sanskrit. Sanskrit definitely deserves to be treated much better than it has so far, more so when it has been dubbed as the best ‘computer-able’ language.

            As such, Sanskrit’s credentials to be a language of future India are definitely better and greater than we have understood so far. Revival of Sanskrit would not only renew and revive the pride in our own cultural heritage, but would also bring spiritualism and the concept of a meaningful life back into our life, thereby bringing order and peace all across the country, a desideratum for any developed society.