Why Sanskrit ? - the importance of this holy language -  Join  Mantras  Sanskrit Dictionary  Sanskrit Alphabet  Chants Evidence today suggests Sanskrit is the oldest language of the world. Among the current languages from antiquity like Latin or Greek, Sanskrit is the only language which has retained purity. It has maintained its ancient structure and vocabulary up to our times.  The oldest texts of the world, which relate to the Indian subcontinent, are available in their original, millenia-old form. There are many scholars in India who can decifer them today, just as great scholars of India did years ago. Such revelations come not by merely studying earlier known interpretations, but through the assimilation of knowledge across disciplines, via Sanskrit. The oldest of surviving literature, the Vedas, evokes the panoply of human activity. The fact that many profound principles of our existence were given expression in Sanskrit, continues to astound devoted scholars, with a keen understanding of the world.   One can learn Sanskrit purely for the sake of the great epics of India. The Ramayana has 24,000 verses fully in metre and the Mahabharata qualifies as the world's largest epic with 100,000 verses. The Mahabharata says, "what is here may be elsewhere, what is not here is nowhere." The precision of the verses and diversity of relationships, make this the ultimate composition.  Sanskrit is a widely-spoken language today. The news service offered by the Government of India through television and radio continues to feature daily Sanskrit programs catering to local as well as international news. Sanskrit, the vocabulary of which is derived from root syllables, is ideal for coining new scientific and technological terms. The need to borrow words or special scientific terms does not arise. From the very beginning, scientific principles have been hidden in the verses found in the Vedas, Upanishads and the great epics of India. Concepts and principles seen in present day mathematics and astronomy, are hidden in the compositions and treatises of many early scholars of the country. Also, Sanskrit distinguishes itself in that it is the only known language which has a built-in scheme for pronunciation, word formation and grammar.  Unlike other languages, every word in Sanskrit is derived from a root. It is an accepted fact that all Indo-European languages have a common source. On the basis of the fact that all the words of Sanskrit are traceable to specific roots, a feature not seen in other languages, it is plausible that Sanskrit is that origin.  Sanskrit comprises fifty-one letters or aksharas. In other languages, we refer to the letters of the alphabet of the language. We know that the word alphabet is derived from the names of the first two letters of Greek. The term alphabet has no other meaning except to denote the set of letters in the language. In contrast, the word "akshara" in Sanskrit denotes something significant. One of the direct meanings of the word is that it denotes the set of letters of Sanskrit from the first to the last. The word also means that the sound of the letter does not ever get destroyed and thus signifies the eternal quality of the sound of the letters. The consequence of this meaning is that the sound of a word is essentially the sounds of the aksharas in the word, a concept which will help simplify text to speech applications with computers.  There are two aspects of non destruction in the above explanation. The first one refers to the phonetic characteristics of the language, i.e., in any word, the aksharas retain their sound. The second aspect of non destruction, is that the aksharas retain their individual meanings. To give an example, the word "guru" consisting of the aksharas "gu" and "ru" standing for teacher: one who dispels darkness (ignorance) of the the mind (person). "gu" means darkness and "ru" is the act of removal.  Sanskrit is a language of the heart that may easily elaborate upon the nuance of any emotion. The six keys to the vedas are the Vedangas. The first three describe the spoken Sanskrit. The first of the three, Siksha tells how to pronounce the letters of the aksharas. Siksha divides the letters into three classes: Swaras, Vyanjanas and Oushmanas. Depending on the effort (Prayatna), place of origin in the body (Sthana), the force used (bala) and the duration of time (Kala), the letters differ from each other in their auditory quality and meaning.  Vyakarna, known as the grammar of Sanskrit, is the second Vedanga illustrates useful word formations, referred to as Sphota or meaningful sound.  The third Vedanga, Niruktam describes certain fundamental root words used in the Vedas. Classification of words into groups of synonyms, like the hundred and twenty or so synonyms for water that are given in Nirukta.  The fourth Vedanga, Chandas describes the formation of sentences in metrical form. Unlike English which used a very limited number of metres (basically four), Sanskrit offers about two dozen Vedic metres and many more conventional metres.  The last two Vedangas, Kalpa and Jyothisha delve into space and time.  ^ Top ^ Mantra Kabbalah  Buddha says On Meditation Sanskrit Alphabet What is Darshan? Sanskrit Dictionary Yoga Links-I  and II  Vedic Links-I  and II    Sanskrit Zodiac-I and II   Upanishads Part 1   Part 2   Join  What's New   main links   photos   messages   YHVH Homepage