Intro
- I -
Of all the forces which bind the man and make him a social and cultural being, the most powerful is the ‘Word,’ In that sense, the worship of the Word, Sabda-Brahma, is one of the most all-pervading forces of life. For instance, geographically India owes everything to the Himalayas; in the sphere of social relationships, the mind and the spirit, India owes everything to Sanskrit.
Vedas
In India… over time, classical Sanskrit acquired extraordinary sanctity. This happened long before the Dasarajna, the Battle of Ten Kings, the great historical event recorded in the Rgveda. Although the Ten Kings fought each other, they were bound together by the spoken word. When the words came out in rhythmic chants in hymns they were mantras, divinities themselves. Those who would compose the mantras were demi-gods, worship-worthy. It was this belief that the perfect word was a divinity, that the man who commanded it was half divine that made Sanskrit in its infancy a living binding force of minds and people. This idea has been at the root of all that followed in India’s varied life. It was the mantras which kept the race together.
The Brahmanas again are described as the only genuine prose works which Sanskrit as a popular language can produce. Upanishads also were the vehicle of living thought in the dialect of the teachers and the pupil.
Sanskrit was recognised as the great unifying force, for the central idea of the Aryan culture Was Rta—the over-arching law of life; and Sanskrit was Rta in action unifying, uplifting and bringing one nearer to the gods.
-II-
bhArata war to Magadha
From the Bharata War to the rise of the Magadha, Sanskrit was not merely a living language of power in daily use among the people living in the valleys of the Sindhu and the Ganga and their tributaries. It was more. It was the language of literature, philosophy, and law, which the gods spoke and through which gods will hearken. It was best spoken in the Madhya-Desa where the sacred Brahmanas lived and taught; it was studied, spoken and taught in the hermitages, and elsewhere.
-III-
Mahabharata was growing into a vast literature of life: epic heroism; legends of kings and Rsis, sacred rivers and holy places; wise lessons in practical wisdom and philosophic and moral speculations resulting from man’s efforts to attain the Divine. The whole subconscious of the culture was made articulate and gathered. The Akhyanas were composed by poets and narrators for popular audiences of the time; some of the legends were taken from current folk stories. For many centuries after they were composed, they were recited in courts and halls and gatherings of men to inspire or to point a moral.
The Dharmasutra literature and the Manusmrti, the oldest law text, were for the use of the people who spoke the language. During this long period, Sanskrit evolved vigorously not only as the spoken and literary language of a vast educated public and the vehicle of higher intellectual, aesthetic and scientific expression but also as the visual embodiment as well as the instrument of Aryan culture.
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magadha
During the age of Imperial Magadha from 700 B. C. to 150 B. C. no doubt the people in different parts of the North spoke the Prakrts; in the South they spoke their own dialects. Even canonical texts like those of Buddhism and Jainism and folk stories which provided entertainment were composed in the Prakrts. But they were just popular dialects; Sanskrit was the language of polished expression; and their mutual reaction enriched Sanskrit and gave form and range to the Prakrts. But Sanskrit was accepted as the language of divine power. Wherever it was learnt men rose in the scale of culture, and Aryavarta was born.
Nationalist movements
Between 150 B. C. and 320 A. D., India saw the rise of an alien kingdom in the North-West and Western India and a powerful political and religious movement born in the Central and Southern India, which overthrew foreign rule and re-established Dharma. Sanskrit was the inspiration, the symbol and the vehicle of this national resurgence. The Satavahanas and the Nagas, the spearhead of this resistance movement, possibly made it the language of official intercourse; for inscriptions begin to be composed in Sanskrit from about the second century. The same movement gave vigour and influence to Saivism and Vaisnavism—the teachers of which at the highest level, accepted Sanskrit as the language of the gods.
By this time Rta had become the Dharma—law of life—and Sanskrit was Dharma in action. All higher intellectual and moral life was developed and expressed through Sanskrit.
Buddha and Mahavira Could preach in Prakrt in the sixth century B.C. In the early centuries of the Christian era, Mahayana Buddhists resorted to Sanskrit for their religious and philosophical works, and in the sixth century Siddhasena Divakara had to invest Jain teachings with the dignity of Sanskrit.
-V-
Gupta age
During the golden prime of the Guptas, Sanskrit became the mighty force which permeated the collective subconscious, and integrated it in the light of the fundamental values of the culture it stood for not only in the North but even among the enlightened settlements of the South.
In scope, form and quality, literary expression reached its high watermark during this period. It saw the works of Kalidasa, the final edition of Mahabharata; the Ramayana was accepted as the poem of perfect form and beauty. Under the rule of the Gupta emperors who were munificent patrons of literature and religion, Sanskrit grew in vigour as the embodiment, vehicle and instrument of a powerful all-pervading culture which went by the name of Sanatana Dharma.
The homes of Sanskrit learning multiplied. Royal dynasties vied with each other in patronizing Sanskrit poets and scholars. The dignity and graces of life came to be associated with it. Even the imagination and idioms of the illiterate and the vulgar in distant parts were filled with its richness.
In North India, it was the language of culture and learning, of polished life and respectability. Education was overwhelmingly in Sanskrit. In the South, it was the language of cultural inspiration and provided literary form and substance to early Kannada, Telugu and Malayalam. Sanskrit was very largely spoken in the country. Abhijnana Sakuntala’s effortless beauty and Santiparva’s wisdom were composed by men who sang and spoke in a living medium of power for the benefit of a large public who were moved or inspired directly by it.
Sanskrit during this period was the goddess of learning—Sarasvati, Bharati. Wherever it was worshipped, a new creative power was born; peoples of different origin and dialects were welded together by a common consciousness of the selfsame images, ideas and values. The Dharmachakra rolled on but the wheel was principally cast in Sanskrit; whoever taught or studied Sanskrit added to its speed.
Post-Gupta age: Aristocratic association
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From about 550 A.D. when the Gupta Empire fell to 950 A.D. when the Empire of the Pratiharas was dissolved, North India was dominated by Kanauj, the imperial capital. The striking features of that age which changed the face of the Indian history were the emergence of a North Indian Empire mainly controlled by North-Western India; the emergence of the South as a powerful factor in all-India politics and the segregation of the three main castes from each other. The powerful ruling houses drew their descent from outside the belt where Sanskrit was the spoken language. Varnashrama Dharma as originally understood was broken. Brahamanas, Ksatriyas and the Vaisyas were no longer indissoluble parts of one whole studying together and sharing the knowledge and reverence for Sanskrit and subject to the ban of pratiloma, intermarrying freely. Brahmanas with the importance attained during Gupta times, became the aristocrats of high learning.
Sanskrit equally became the language of highbrow culture. At a lower level, Prakrts and Apabhramsa were the languages of popular literature; and undeveloped dialects formed the media of intercourse among the common people; and they all assumed greater importance. But Sanskrit dominated the whole country. According to Rajasekhara’s Kavyamimamsa, it was spoken all over the country, but in Lata (Gujarat) they hated it; in Marwad, Rajputana and Saurashtra they mixed it with Apabhramsa; in Madhyadesa and in Gauda it was the language of the educated men.
Sanskrit literature in consequence, acquired an aristocratic and learned character written by the learned for the learned. The poets underwent an elaborate course of training, mastered several branches of learning including the drama, poetics and lexicography and rigidly followed strict rules. Naturally their works were not intended for popular audiences and lost the inspiration of direct experience. Of the age which began with Subandhu at the end of the sixth century, Bana was the great prototype and model.
The living literature found expression in Prakrt and Apabhramsa but never did it escape the influence of Sanskrit. Sanskrit thus became the language of gods attainable by a life-long devotion. As its sphere of use contracted, its importance as the ultimate source of all influence increased. It was indispensable to everyone who claimed to a respected place in life.
Fall of the Green curtain
Even when Mohammad Ghazni broke the spell of centuries, destroyed one kingdom after another, throughout the land, life was governed by Smrti texts. Mahabharata and Ramayana were the texture of men’s minds; poets and scholars pursued literary and grammatical acrobatics. Polymaths like Bhojadeva and Hemachandra wrote vast encyclopedic treatises in Sanskrit and allied languages. Innumerable universities and Pathashalas in different parts of the country conducted the study of Sanskrit as a spoken language. All learned intercourse was in it and the royal courts resounded with the learned discourses of eminent scholars in Sanskrit.
University destruction
-VII-
With Alla-ud-din Khilji, Sanskrit entered a new stage. He destroyed many of the universities in North India. Wherever there was Muslim rule, Sanskrit was deprived of patronage. Men of learning to whom Sanskrit was the breath of life fled to distant villages, where in their homes or little pathashalas, they kept alive the torch of their beloved learning. To the whole group of people, misery laden, flying before unsatiated vandals, Sanskrit remained the light, the strength, the hope of glorious future, the pathway to salvation, something more than life itself.
Learned men threw themselves on the generosity of the ordinary public, ignorant of Sanskrit, and took to popular literatures in the derivative languages. This led to the great Renaissance beginning with the 15th century of which the Bhakti and the Sant schools were the outstanding products. Spiritual and moral resurgence found expression through a study and adaptation of the Mahabharata, Ramayana, Bhagavta and Gitagovinda. In Hindu States, the patronage of Sanskrit scholars became a primary duty. Though the general public progressively lost direct touch with Sanskrit, every small town or a big village maintained a patashala and revered its students. In North India, Vrajabhasha was par excellence the medium through which Sanskrit spread all over the country its influence in literature.
British rule
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The next period began with the beginning of the 19th century. Sanskrit, as a spoken language, was confined to the pathashalas and its products. To maintain the pathashalas was the pride of every enlightened locality. Vast numbers of Brahmanas were required as priests, astrologers, Panditas, Pauranikas and the Sastras which they produced kept the influence of Sanskrit alive, though their quality ranged from the encyclopedic pandit who could quote every Sastra down to the village priest who could only mumble mutilated verses at the marriage or funeral ceremony.
Even those who did not study Sanskrit were familiar in their own languages with the numerous adaptations of great Sanskrit works. Sanskrit thus provided a vast agency for maintaining the bond throughout the land.
When the Moghul empire faded away, the vestige of a shadowy political bond disappeared. What was left was the unity provided by the culture which was derived from and dependent on Sanskrit.
Enlightened officials of the East India Company were fascinated by Sanskrit at a very early stage. They tried to preserve the great pathashalas. They collected Sanskrit manuscripts, edited and published them. When the universities were founded in the middle of the 19th century, they made Sanskrit the predominant second language in the country.
The Indian Universities were the birth-place of the powerful Sanskrit revival which in association with Western culture led to the modern Indian renaissance, and to the growth and enrichment of all our spoken languages and the development of Hindi. Sanskrit has been the language of gods; for it has brought us their gifts.
Current problems
-X-
Sanskrit, thus being the natural basis of our unity, culture and vitality, its future deserves a careful consideration.
First, the highly placed persons in this country, who have studied Sanskrit and believe in it as an integral element of our national life, are unorganized in their efforts to maintain Sanskrit in its pre-eminent position.
Secondly, in our Universities, and in the higher educational systems, there is a growing outlook borrowed largely from the West, that the study of a classical language is a superfluity, an outlook based on ignorance. However, for India, Sanskrit is not a classical language which serves but to add to the accomplishment of an educated man, it is a vital link in the nation’s evolution.+++(5)+++
Thirdly, the elimination of the princely order which, in spite of its many faults, gave generous patronage to the pathashalas, the centers of traditional Sanskrit learning which so far kept the language alive as a spoken language, and the decay of religious belief which denies to their products the means of livelihood.
Lastly, the outlook, fashionable in some westernized sections of the people, that a faith in Sanskrit as a vitalizing force in the modern world is a sign of revivalism. Their children no longer learn our Epics, which have made and preserved India, from the mother’s lips. Nothing could be more saddening than the fact that over sixty per cent of candidates for the I. A. S., the prospective rulers of India, did not know of Kunti, the noble mother, or of Karna, the soul of honour and generosity.+++(5)+++
With the dawn of freedom, one would have thought that the encouragement to the study of Sanskrit would have been accepted as one of the first responsibilities of our Governments. Some Governments like that of the Uttar Pradesh have done so. Others, however, have lacked the time or inclination to do so. But it is only a question of time. The basic importance of Sanskrit which underlies our lives, has had no opportunity to express itself fully through the governing class which the struggle for freedom threw up. To anyone, who does not bring to bear a superficial outlook, it would be clear that our freedom would have no meaning if India lost her soul; that we would have no future if she abandoned the principal source of her strength.+++(5)+++ I go one step further; the world could only be redeemed by a wider appreciation of what Sanskrit stands for; the efficacy of non-violence and Truth, Non-waste, Non-stealing and Non-possession, and faith in the integration of human personality, in the supremacy of the moral order and in the divine essence in man.
Path to revitalisation
The only way to vitalize the study of Sanskrit not merely as a matter of learning or research, but as a cultural force of universal value is to draw upon all the energy and resources which, at present, are being spent in promoting Sanskrit in diverse ways. At the same time, the general interest and widespread support for Sanskrit should not, by being too regulated or centralized, lose the element of spontaneity. The movement should, therefore, be vitalizing and not controlling or regulating.
At the same time, persons interested in Sanskrit should study the condition of Sanskrit studies each in his own sphere from the following points of view:
(i) the place occupied by Sanskrit in our Universities and system of higher education;
(ii) the assistance given by the Central and the State Governments to Sanskrit studies;
(iii) the recognition of Sastric titles as qualifying for University degrees;
(iv) the position of Pathashalas, their economic condition and the way of providing economic assistance to them and career possibilities to their students;
(v) the position of Sanskrit research;
(vi) the desirability of having easy examination programmes for those anxious to study Sanskrit privately;
(vii) the desirability of holding conferences of those interested in Sanskrit;
(viii) the ways and means to make Sanskrit literature and particularly the Epics an element in mass education.
Our appeal must necessarily be to the educationists, the professors, the school-masters, the lawyers, the men of literature and education, a vast majority of whom are interested in Sanskrit in one way or another.
It is for them to develop a conscious response to this movement. In the Universities and the colleges, particularly, groups of educationists, teachers and students could be found who can easily form themselves into centers of study.
Naturally, every Pathashala is a center of Sanskrit. On the Ministers, Vice-Chancellors and high officials who have interest in Sanskrit, lies a great responsibility; and if each one of them acts effectively in his own sphere, we can still preserve the vital strength which Sanskrit has given us through the ages.