Sanskrit

The name Sanskrit for the language—especially known for its rich heritage of ancient Indian literary, scientific, philosophical, and religious texts—is derived from saṁskṛta, past passive participle from sam + kṛ that means “to prepare (well),” “to make perfect,” “to polish.” Sanskrit or saṁskṛam (viz.: bhāṣaṇam or vacaḥ) thus means “well-prepared,” “perfected,” “polished” (viz.: speech or language). Paradoxically, this language that is “well-prepared” or “polished” (evidently suggesting conscious “polishing” efforts on the part of the speaker) has also been regarded as the originally divine language, daivī vāg, that deteriorates into Prakrits when left to generations of incapable speakers. Sanskrit is one of the very few languages in the world having a name not derived from an ethnonym, either as exonym or as self-designation, or from a country name derived from an ethnonym. As a language name, the word saṁskṛta is not attested in earlier literature (Vedic, Buddhist, early grammarians). Classical references to saṁskṛta as a noun as well as referring to a language in contradistinction to Prakrit are found, for instance, in Bharata’s Nāṭyaśāstra (composed between 200 bce and 200 ce) and in Bhāmaha’s Kāvyālaṅkāra (attributed to the 7th century). At present, the name Sanskrit is by extension also used for earlier stages of the language, especially Vedic and the language to which the ancient grammarian Pāṇini (c. 350 bce?) refers as bhāṣā “speech.” Other categories of Sanskrit—not always mutually exclusive—have been recognized, such as Classical, Epic, Buddhist, Jaina, Hybrid, Tantric, and Epigraphical Sanskrit. In addition, scholars have reflected on ancient spoken forms of Sanskrit, and a modern (revivalist) form of spoken Sanskrit is marginally employed in India. Sanskrit is also occasionally spoken in traditional training colleges (pāṭhaśālās, gurukulas), both in ancient and in modern times. Whichever subdivisions are accepted and whatever perspective is adopted, as a language Sanskrit does not comfortably fit into generally accepted categories. In a bibliography on Hinduism, the importance of Sanskrit derives from the fact that a large majority of generally accepted sacred texts for Hinduism are in Sanskrit: either Vedic Sanskrit or classical Sanskrit, or other forms of Sanskrit. This does not exclude texts in other languages—Tamil, Marathi, Braj Bhasha, etc.—to be sacred within Hinduism. Nor does it exclude numerous texts in Sanskrit to be sacred in other ancient religions than Hinduism, such as Jainism and Buddhism. The Bible and other Christian texts have been translated into Sanskrit from the early 19th century onward. The author thanks J. E. M. Houben for suggestions for the bibliography and the discussions.