Reviving Sanskrit
Did you know that the people of
Karnataka’s Muttoor village speak
fluent Sanskrit - on a regular basis?
They don’t say hi, hello, or even
Namaste to greet a visitor but “Hari
Om, katham asti” (meaning hello, how
are you?). Isn’t that awesome! But wait
there’s more. Muttoor isn’t the only
Sanskrit-speaking village. Hosahalli (in
Karnataka), Jhiri and Mohad (in Madhya
Pradesh) have also adopted Sanskrit as
the language of the masses.
Once upon a time, Sanskrit was
deemed the language of the gods. It
was saved for learned men and religious
priests. But that was thousands of years
ago. In Muttoor, however, everyone
speaks Sanskrit - even the non-Hindus.
About 25 years ago, Sanskrit was
brought to the limelight in this village.
An organisation called Samskrit Bharati
started the Sanskrit learning movement
here. They introduced a 10-day Speak
Samskritam course, which proved to be
quite a hit. Today there are at least 4
Samskrit Grams (or villages) in the country.
Want to learn Sanskrit too? Log onto
http://samskritabharati.in for more details.
Did you know?
Sanskrit is the official language of the state of Uttarakhand.
Extinct languages
Last year, an 85-year-old woman
called Boa Sr passed away in the
Andaman Islands. Her death
marked the end of a 65,000 year old
language called Bo. She was the last
person in the world to speak that ancient
tribal language. Boa Sr spent her
last days trying
hard to find a person
she could converse
and sing
songs with her in
her native tongue.
Unfortunately she
never did.
Sanskrit is now seeing something of
a revival, but not every ancient language
is as fortunate. Several Native
American languages have become extinct.
They’ve been replaced by
English, Spanish, French or Portuguese.
Similarly the Coptic language has been
replaced with Arabic in Egypt. Today,
there are some 6000 spoken languages
around the globe and roughly
half of them are in danger of becoming
extinct.
The world’s oldest languages
It’s really difficult to pinpoint the first
ever language to be spoken in the
world. Near impossible, actually (unless
we figure out a way to ask our
dead ancestors!). But if we were to
judge by written records, Sumerian
(used in ancient Mesopotamia - modern
Iraq) and Egyptian can be deemed
the world’s oldest languages. These
languages, dating back to about 3200
BC, relied on drawings and symbols
rather than alphabets. The Sumerian
script is known as cuneiform and
Egyptian is known as hieroglyphics.
The people of the Indus Valley
Civilisation had also developed a similar
writing style around the same time
as the Sumerians and Egyptians.
Unfortunately, historians haven’t been
able to decipher their language as yet.
These languages are no longer used
of course. They may have slowly developed
into other languages. Egyptian,
for instance, is said to have been the
precursor to Phoenician (spoken in
Phoenicia - around the Mediterranean
coast), Greek and Roman languages.
Sumerian evolved into Akkadian (used
by the Babylonians and Assyrians in
Mesopotamia).
Female Head Foot Hand
Examples of pictographs that were used by the Sumerians
The Written Word
The Rig Veda is considered to be India’s oldest
written text. It is written in Classical or Vedic
Sanskrit, which was used between 1700-600BC.
Some of the verses from the Rig Veda are still recited
during Hindu prayers and religious ceremonies.
But Sanskrit literature wasn’t limited to religious
text - it comprised poetry, drama, scientific and
philosophical texts too. What language do you
think the Mahabharata and Ramayana were written
in? Yep, Sanskrit it is!
Other Oldies
India is home to several other ancient languages
that have survived over 2000 years. Tamil and
Kannada are almost as old as Sanskrit. Luckily these
languages still have speakers and are not likely to
need a planned revival anytime soon.
The oldest written languages still in use today
are Chinese and Greek (which developed around
1500 BC). Both have been evolving quite a bit over
the years, though. So an ancient Chinese person
wouldn’t really understand much of what is spoken in
Beijing today. Think of how much trouble we
have understanding Shakespeare’s English! All
of these oldies, including Latin, Persian and Arabic,
are considered classical languages - ancient languages
that didn’t arise as an offshoot of another. A
language should also have a large body of ancient literature
to be termed “classical”.
Karnataka’s Muttoor village speak
fluent Sanskrit - on a regular basis?
They don’t say hi, hello, or even
Namaste to greet a visitor but “Hari
Om, katham asti” (meaning hello, how
are you?). Isn’t that awesome! But wait
there’s more. Muttoor isn’t the only
Sanskrit-speaking village. Hosahalli (in
Karnataka), Jhiri and Mohad (in Madhya
Pradesh) have also adopted Sanskrit as
the language of the masses.
Once upon a time, Sanskrit was
deemed the language of the gods. It
was saved for learned men and religious
priests. But that was thousands of years
ago. In Muttoor, however, everyone
speaks Sanskrit - even the non-Hindus.
About 25 years ago, Sanskrit was
brought to the limelight in this village.
An organisation called Samskrit Bharati
started the Sanskrit learning movement
here. They introduced a 10-day Speak
Samskritam course, which proved to be
quite a hit. Today there are at least 4
Samskrit Grams (or villages) in the country.
Want to learn Sanskrit too? Log onto
http://samskritabharati.in for more details.
Did you know?
Sanskrit is the official language of the state of Uttarakhand.
Extinct languages
Last year, an 85-year-old woman
called Boa Sr passed away in the
Andaman Islands. Her death
marked the end of a 65,000 year old
language called Bo. She was the last
person in the world to speak that ancient
tribal language. Boa Sr spent her
last days trying
hard to find a person
she could converse
and sing
songs with her in
her native tongue.
Unfortunately she
never did.
Sanskrit is now seeing something of
a revival, but not every ancient language
is as fortunate. Several Native
American languages have become extinct.
They’ve been replaced by
English, Spanish, French or Portuguese.
Similarly the Coptic language has been
replaced with Arabic in Egypt. Today,
there are some 6000 spoken languages
around the globe and roughly
half of them are in danger of becoming
extinct.
The world’s oldest languages
 |
| Examples of pictographs that were used by the Sumerians |
ever language to be spoken in the
world. Near impossible, actually (unless
we figure out a way to ask our
dead ancestors!). But if we were to
judge by written records, Sumerian
(used in ancient Mesopotamia - modern
Iraq) and Egyptian can be deemed
the world’s oldest languages. These
languages, dating back to about 3200
BC, relied on drawings and symbols
rather than alphabets. The Sumerian
script is known as cuneiform and
Egyptian is known as hieroglyphics.
The people of the Indus Valley
Civilisation had also developed a similar
writing style around the same time
as the Sumerians and Egyptians.
Unfortunately, historians haven’t been
able to decipher their language as yet.
These languages are no longer used
of course. They may have slowly developed
into other languages. Egyptian,
for instance, is said to have been the
precursor to Phoenician (spoken in
Phoenicia - around the Mediterranean
coast), Greek and Roman languages.
Sumerian evolved into Akkadian (used
by the Babylonians and Assyrians in
Mesopotamia).
Female Head Foot Hand
Examples of pictographs that were used by the Sumerians
The Written Word
The Rig Veda is considered to be India’s oldest
written text. It is written in Classical or Vedic
Sanskrit, which was used between 1700-600BC.
Some of the verses from the Rig Veda are still recited
during Hindu prayers and religious ceremonies.
But Sanskrit literature wasn’t limited to religious
text - it comprised poetry, drama, scientific and
philosophical texts too. What language do you
think the Mahabharata and Ramayana were written
in? Yep, Sanskrit it is!
Other Oldies
India is home to several other ancient languages
that have survived over 2000 years. Tamil and
Kannada are almost as old as Sanskrit. Luckily these
languages still have speakers and are not likely to
need a planned revival anytime soon.
The oldest written languages still in use today
are Chinese and Greek (which developed around
1500 BC). Both have been evolving quite a bit over
the years, though. So an ancient Chinese person
wouldn’t really understand much of what is spoken in
Beijing today. Think of how much trouble we
have understanding Shakespeare’s English! All
of these oldies, including Latin, Persian and Arabic,
are considered classical languages - ancient languages
that didn’t arise as an offshoot of another. A
language should also have a large body of ancient literature
to be termed “classical”.
nice,precuous
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