Sanskrit

Sanskrit
संस्कृतम् saṃskṛtam
Region	India, S.E. Asia, liturgical language of Hinduism
Native speakers	49,736 fluent speakers (1991 Indian census)
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Sanskrit
Writing system	Devanāgarī and several other Brāhmī-based scripts
Official status
Official language in	India (one of the scheduled languages)
Language codes
ISO 639-1	sa
ISO 639-2	san
ISO 639-3	san

The Sanskrit language (

संस्कृता वाक् saṃskṛtā vāk, for short

संस्कृतम् saṃskṛtam) is a classical language of the Indian subcontinent, a liturgical language of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, and one of the 23 official languages of India.

Its position in the cultures of South and Southeast Asia is akin to that of Latin and Greek in Europe. It appears in pre-Classical form as Vedic Sanskrit (appearing in the Vedas), with the language of the Rigveda being the oldest and most archaic stage preserved, dating back to at least 1500 BC, making it one of the earliest attested members of the Indo-European language family; it is considered a base language of many modern-day Asian languages.

The corpus of Sanskrit literature encompasses a rich tradition of poetry and drama as well as scientific, technical, philosophical and religious texts. Today, Sanskrit continues to be widely used as a ceremonial language in Hindu religious rituals in the forms of hymns and mantras. Spoken Sanskrit is still in use in a few traditional institutions in India, and there are some attempts at revival.

The scope of this article is the Classical Sanskrit language as laid out in the grammar of Panini, around 500 BC.

History

Devimahatmya manuscript on palm-leaf, in an early Bhujimol script, Bihar or Nepal, 11th century.

The adjective

saṃskṛta- means "cultured". The language referred to as

saṃskṛtā vāk "the language of cultured" has by definition always been a "high" language, used for religious and learned discourse and contrasted with the languages spoken by the people. It is also called deva-bhā

ṣā meaning "language of the gods". The oldest surviving Sanskrit grammar is [[Pāṇini|

Pāṇini]]'s [[Ashtadhyayi|

Aṣṭādhyāyī]] ("Eight-Chapter Grammar") dating to ca. the 5th century BC. It is essentially a prescriptive grammar, i.e., an authority that defines (rather than describes) correct Sanskrit, although it contains descriptive parts, mostly to account for Vedic forms that had already passed out of use in Panini's time.

Sanskrit belongs to the Indo-Aryan sub-family of the Indo-European family of languages. Together with the Iranian languages it belongs to the Indo-Iranian branch and as such is part of the Satem group of Indo-European languages, which also includes the Balto-Slavic branch.

When the term arose in India, "Sanskrit" was not thought of as a specific language set apart from other languages, but rather as a particularly refined or perfected manner of speaking. Knowledge of Sanskrit was a marker of social class and educational attainment and the language was taught mainly to members of the higher castes, through close analysis of Sanskrit grammarians such as

Pāṇini. Sanskrit as the learned language of Ancient India thus existed alongside the Prakrits (vernaculars), which evolved into the modern Indo-Aryan languages (Hindi, Assamese, Urdu, Bengali etc.). Most of the Dravidian languages of India, despite being a separate linguistic family in their own right, are highly influenced by Sanskrit, especially in terms of loanwords. Kannada, Telugu and Malayalam have the highest incidence of loans while Tamil has the lowest. This influence of Sanskrit on these languages is recognized by the notions of Tat Sama (equivalent) and Tat Bhava (rooted in). Sanskrit itself has also been exposed to Dravidian substratum influence since very ancient times.

Vedic Sanskrit

Main article: Vedic Sanskrit

Sanskrit, as defined by

Pāṇini, had evolved out of the earlier "Vedic" form, and scholars often distinguish Vedic Sanskrit and Classical or "Paninian" Sanskrit as separate dialects. However, they are extremely similar in many ways and differ mostly in a few points of phonology, vocabulary, and grammar. Classical Sanskrit can therefore be considered a seamless evolution of the earlier Vedic language. Vedic Sanskrit is the language of the Vedas, a large collection of hymns, incantations, and religio-philosophical discussions which form the earliest religious texts in India and the basis for much of the Hindu religion. Modern linguists consider the metrical hymns of the Rigveda Samhita to be the earliest, composed by many authors over centuries of oral tradition. The end of the Vedic period is marked by the composition of the Upanishads, which form the concluding part of the Vedic corpus in the traditional compilations. The current hypothesis holds that the Vedic form of Sanskrit survived until the middle of the first millennium BC. It is around this time that Sanskrit began the transition from a first language to a second language of religion and learning, marking the beginning of the Classical period.

Hinduism believes that the language of the Vedas is eternal and revealed in its wording and word order. Evidence for this belief is found in the Vedas itself, where in the Upanishads they are described as the very "breath of God" (niḥśvāsitam brahma). The Vedas are therefore considered "the language of reality", so to speak, and are unauthored, even by God, the rishis or seers ascribed to them being merely individuals gifted with a special insight into reality with the power of perceiving these eternal sounds. At the beginning of every cycle of creation, God himself "remembers" the order of the Vedic words and propagates them through the rishis. Orthodox Hindus, while accepting the linguistic development of Sanskrit as such, do not admit any historical stratification within the Vedic corpus itself.

This belief is of significant consequence to Indian religious history, for the very sacredness and timelessness of the language encouraged exact memorization and transmission and discouraged textual learning via written propagation (see: Apaurusheyatva). Each word is believed to have innate and eternal meaning and, when properly pronounced, mystic expressive power. Erroneous learning of repetition of the Veda was considered a grave sin with immediate potentially negative consequences. Consequently, Vedic learning was encouraged and prized among Brahmins. Various ways of recitation, called pathas, were developed to achieve optimal memorization.

Classical Sanskrit

A significant form of post-Vedic Sanskrit is found in the Sanskrit of the Hindu Epics—the Ramayana and Mahabharata. The deviations from

Pāṇini in the epics are generally on account of interference from Prakrits, and not because they are 'pre-Paninean'. "In fact, almost all 'un-Paninean' forms of Epic Sanskrit are innovations" [Oberlies, "A Grammar of Epic Sanskrit", p.XXIX, emphasis in the original]. Traditional Sanskrit scholars call such deviations aarsha (आर्ष), or "of the rishis", the traditional title for the ancient authors. In some contexts there are also more "prakritisms" (borrowings from common speech) than in Classical Sanskrit proper. Finally, there is also a language dubbed "Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit" by scholars, which is actually a prakrit ornamented with Sanskritized elements (see also termination of spoken Sanskrit). According to Tiwari ([1955] 2004), there were four principal dialects of Sanskrit, viz., paścimottarī (Northwestern, also called Northern or Western), madhyadeśī (lit., middle country), pūrvi (Eastern) and dakṣiṇī (Southern, arose in the Classical period). The first three are even attested in the Vedic Brāhmaṇas, of which the first one was regarded as the purest (Kauṣītaki Brāhmaṇa, 7.6).

European Scholarship

European scholarship in Sanskrit, begun by Heinrich Roth (1620–1668) and Johann Ernst Hanxleden (1681–1731), put forth the proposal of the Indo-European language family by Sir William Jones, and played an important role in the development of Western linguistics.

Sir William Jones, speaking to the Asiatic Society in Calcutta, February 2, 1786, said:

The Sanskrit language whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure; more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either, yet bearing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs and in the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident; so strong, indeed, that no philologer could examine them all three, without believing them to have sprung from some common source, which, perhaps, no longer exists.

Indeed, linguistics (along with phonology, etc.) first arose among Indian grammarians who were attempting to catalog and codify Sanskrit's rules. Modern linguistics owes a great deal to these grammarians, and to this day, key terms for compound analysis such as bahuvrihi are taken from Sanskrit.

Phonology

Further information: Śikṣā

Classical Sanskrit distinguishes 48 sounds. Some of these, are, however, allophones. The number of phonemes is smaller, at about 35, see below.

The sounds are traditionally listed in the order vowels (Ach), diphthongs (Hal), anusvara and visarga, stops (Sparśa) and nasals (starting in the back of the mouth and moving forward), and finally the liquids and fricatives, written in IAST as follows (see the tables below for details):

a ā i ī u ū ṛ ṝ ḷ ḹ;

e ai o au

ṃ ḥ

k kh g gh ṅ; c ch j jh ñ; ṭ ṭh ḍ ḍh ṇ; t th d dh n; p ph b bh m

y r l v;

ś ṣ s h

An alternate traditional ordering is that of the Shiva Sutra of

Pāṇini.

Vowels

The vowels of Classical Sanskrit with their word-initial Devanagari symbol, diacritical mark with the consonant

प् (/p/), pronunciation (of the vowel alone and of /p/+vowel) in IPA, equivalent in IAST and ITRANS and (approximate) equivalents in Standard English are listed below:

Letter	Diacritical mark with “ प्” !! Pronunciation !! Pronunciation with /p/ !! IAST equiv. !! ITRANS equiv. !! Approximate English equivalent
अ|| प||/ɐ/ or /ä/ (two sounds are represented by the same letter)||/pɐ/ or /pä/ ||a||a|| short open central vowel or near-open central vowel: as the a in above or sometimes like the u in under.
आ|| पा||/ɐ̙ː/||/pɐ̙ː/||ā||A||long Open back unrounded vowel: as the a in father
इ|| पि||/ɐ ʲ/||/pɐ ʲ/||i||i||short close front unrounded vowel: as i in bit
ई|| पी||/ɐ ʲː/||/pɐ ʲː/||ī||I||long close front unrounded vowel: as i in machine
उ|| पु||/ɐ ʷ/ or /u̫/||/pɐ ʷ/||u||u||short close-back compressed vowel: as u in put
ऊ|| पू||/ɐ ʷː/ or /u̫ː/||/pɐ ʷː/||ū||U|| long close back compressed vowel: as oo in school
ऋ|| पृ||/ɻ ʲ/||/pɻ ʲ/|| ṛ||R|| short syllabic vowel-like retroflex approximant
ॠ|| पॄ||/ɻ ʲː/||/pɻ ʲː/|| ṝ||RR|| long syllabic vowel-like retroflex approximant: a longer version of /r̩/
ऌ || पॢ||/ɹ ʲ/||/pɹ ʲ/|| ḷ||LR|| short syllabic vowel-like retroflex lateral approximant: approx. as handle
ॡ || पॣ||/ɹ ʲː/||/pɹ ʲː/|| ḹ||LRR|| long syllabic vowel-like retroflex lateral approximant: longer version of /l̩/
ए|| पे||/ɐ̙ ʲ/||/pɐ̙ ʲ/||e||e|| long close-mid front unrounded vowel: as a in game (not a diphthong), or é in café
ऐ|| पै||/ɐ̙ ʲː/||/pɐ̙ ʲː/||ai||ai|| a long diphthong:
ओ|| पो||/ɐ̙ ʷ/||/pɐ̙ ʷ/||o||o|| long close-mid back rounded vowel: as o in tone (not a diphthong)
औ|| पौ||/ɐ̙ ʷː/||/pɐ̙ ʷː/||au||au|| a long diphthong: approx. as ou in house

The long vowels are held about twice as long as their short counterparts. Also, there exists a third, extra-long length for most vowels, called pluti, which is used in various cases, but particularly in the vocative. The pluti is not accepted by all grammarians.

The vowels

e and

o continue as allophonic variants of Proto-Indo-Iranian /ai/, /au/, and they are phonologically (conceptually) /ai/ and /au/ still in Sanskrit, and are categorized as diphthongs by Sanskrit grammarians even though they are realized phonetically as simple long vowels. (See above).

Additional points:

• There are some additional signs traditionally listed in tables of the Devanagari script. They are :
  • The diacritic

ं called anusvāra, pronounced as /əŋ/ (IAST:

ṃ). It is used both for nasalizing the vowel in the syllable and for the sound of a vowel-like /n/ or /m/; eg.

पं /pəŋ/.

• • The diacritic

ः called visarga, pronounced as /əh/ (IAST:

ḥ); eg.

पः /pəh/.

• • The diacritic

ँ called candrabindu, not traditionally included in Devanagari charts for Sanskrit, is used interchangeably with the anusvāra to indicate nasalization of the vowel, primarily in Vedic notation; eg.

पँ /pə̃/.

• If a lone consonant needs to be written without any following vowel, it is given a halanta/virāma diacritic below (

प्).

• The vowel /aː/ in Sanskrit is realized as being more central and less back than the closest English approximation, which is ɑː. But the grammarians have classified it as a back vowel. (Tiwari, [1955] 2004).
• Note that the ancient Sanskrit grammarians have classified the vowel system as velars, retroflexes, palatals and plosives rather than as back, central and front vowels. Hence

ए and

ओ are classified respectively as palato-velar (a+i) and labio-velar (a+u) vowels respectively. But the grammarians have classified them as diphthongs and in prosody, each is given two mātrās. This does not necessarily mean that they are proper diphthongs, but neither excludes the possibility that they could have been proper diphthongs at a very ancient stage (see above). These vowels are pronounced as long /eː/ and /oː/ respectively by learned Sanskrit Brahmans and priests of today. Other than the "four" diphthongs, Sanskrit usually disallows any other diphthong—vowels in succession, where they occur, are converted to semivowels according to sandhi rules.

• In the Devanagari script used for Sanskrit, whenever a consonant in a word-ending position is without any virāma (ie, freely standing in the orthography:

प as opposed to

प्), the neutral vowel schwa (/ə/) is automatically associated with it—this is of course true for the consonant to be in any position in the word. Word-ending schwa is always short. But the IAST a appended to the end of masculine noun words rather confuses the foreigners to pronounce it as /ɑː/—this makes the masculine Sanskrit words sound like feminine! e.g., shiva must be pronounced as /ɕivə/ and not as /ɕivɑː/. Tiwari ([1955] 2004) argues that in Vedic Sanskrit, अ was simply short ɑ, and became centralized and raised in the era of the Prakrits.

Consonants

IAST and Devanagari notations are given, with approximate IPA values in square brackets.

		Labial Ōshtya		Labiodental Dantōshtya	Dental Dantya		Retroflex Mūrdhanya		Palatal Tālavya		Velar Kanthya		Glottal
Stop Sparśa	Unaspirated Alpaprāna	p प [p] || b ब [b] || || t त [t̪] || d द [d̪] || ṭ ट [ʈ] || ḍ ड [ɖ] || c च [c͡ç] || j ज [ɟ͡ʝ] || k क [k] || g ग [g]
	Aspirated Mahāprāna	ph फ [pʰ] || bh भ [bʱ] || || th थ [t̪ʰ] || dh ध [d̪ʱ] || ṭh ठ [ʈʰ] || ḍh ढ [ɖʱ] || ch छ [c͡çʰ] || jh झ [ɟ͡ʝʱ] || kh ख [kʰ] || gh घ [gʱ]
Nasal Anunāsika		m म [m]			n न [n͇]		ṇ ण [ɳ]		ñ ञ [ɲ]		ṅ ङ [ŋ]
Semivowel Antastha				v व [β̞]					y य [j]
Liquid Drava					l ल [l]		r र [r]
Fricative Ūshman					s स [s̪]		ṣ ष [ʂ]		ś श [ɕ]				ḥ ः [h]	h ह [ɦ]

The table below shows the traditional listing of the Sanskrit consonants with the (nearest) equivalents in English/Spanish. Each consonant shown below is deemed to be followed by the neutral vowel schwa (/ə/), and is named in the table as such.

Plosives – Sprshta

	Unaspirated Voiceless Alpaprāna Śvāsa	Aspirated Voiceless Mahāprāna Śvāsa	Unaspirated Voiced Alpaprāna Nāda	Aspirated Voiced Mahāprāna Nāda	Nasal Anunāsika Nāda
Velar Kantya	क /kə/; English: skip	ख /kʰə/; English: cat	ग /gə/; English: game	घ /gʱə/; Aspirated /g/	ङ /ŋə/; English: ring
Palatal Tālavya	च /cə/; ≈English: chat	छ /cʰə/; Aspirated /c/	ज /ɟə/; ≈English: jam	झ /ɟʱə/; Aspirated /ɟ/	ञ /ɲə/; English: finch
Retroflex Mūrdhanya	ट /ʈə/; American Eng: hurting	ठ /ʈʰə/; Aspirated /ʈ/	ड /ɖə/; American Eng: murder	ढ /ɖʱə/; Aspirated /ɖ/	ण /ɳə/; American Eng: hunter
Apico-Dental Dantya	त /t̪ə/; Spanish: tomate	थ /t̪ʰə/; Aspirated /t̪/	द /d̪ə/; Spanish: donde	ध /d̪ʱə/; Aspirated /d̪/	न /n̪ə/; English: name
Labial Ōshtya	प /pə/; English: spin	फ /pʰə/; English: pit	ब /bə/; English: bone	भ /bʱə/; Aspirated /b/	म /mə/; English: mine

Non-Plosives/Sonorants

	Palatal Tālavya	Retroflex Mūrdhanya	Dental Dantya	Labial/ Glottal Ōshtya
Approximant Antastha	य /jə/; English: you	र /rə/; American Eng: tearing	ल /l̪ə/; English: love	व (labio-dental) /ʋə/; English: vase
Sibilant/ Fricative Ūshman	श /ɕə/; English: ship	ष /ʂə/; Retroflex form of /ʃ/	स /s̪ə/; English: same	ह (glottal) /ɦə/; English behind

Phonology and Sandhi

The Sanskrit vowels are as discussed in the section above. The long syllabic l (

ḹ) is not attested, and is only discussed by grammarians for systematic reasons. Its short counterpart

ḷ occurs in a single root only,

kḷp "to order, array". Long syllabic r (

ṝ) is also quite marginal, occurring in the genitive plural of r-stems (e.g.

mātṛ "mother" and

pitṛ "father" have gen.pl.

mātṝṇām and

pitṝṇām).

i, u, ṛ, ḷ are vocalic allophones of consonantal

y, v, r, l. There are thus only 5 invariably vocalic phonemes,

a, ā, ī, ū, ṝ.

Visarga

ḥ

ः is an allophone of

r and

s, and anusvara

ṃ, Devanagari

ं of any nasal, both in pausa (ie, the nasalized vowel). The exact pronunciation of the three sibilants may vary, but they are distinct phonemes. An aspirated voiced sibilant /zʱ/ was inherited by Indo-Aryan from Proto-Indo-Iranian but lost shortly before the time of the Rigveda (note that aspirated sibilant are exceedingly rare in any language). The retroflex consonants are somewhat marginal phonemes, often being conditioned by their phonetic environment; they do not continue a PIE series and are often ascribed by some linguists to the substratal influence of Dravidian. The nasal

ñ is a conditioned allophone of

n (

n and

ṇ are distinct phonemes – one has to distinguish

aṇu "minute, atomic" (nom. sg. neutr. of an adjective) from

anu "after, along"; phonologically independent

ṅ occurs only marginally, e.g. in

prāṅ "directed forwards/towards" (nom. sg. masc. of an adjective) and can thus be omitted). There are thus 31 consonantal or semi-vocalic phonemes, consisting of four/five kinds of stops realized both with or without aspiration and both voiced and voiceless, three nasals, four semi-vowels or liquids, and four fricatives, written in IAST transliteration as follows:

k, kh, g, gh; c, ch, j, jh; ṭ, ṭh, ḍ, ḍh; t, th, d, dh; p, ph, b, bh; m, n, ṇ; y, r, l, v; ś, ṣ, s, h or a total of 36 unique Sanskrit phonemes altogether.

The phonological rules to be applied when combining morphemes to a word, and when combining words to a sentence are collectively called sandhi "composition". Texts are written phonetically, with sandhi applied (except for the so-called padapā

ṭha).

Writing system

Kashmiri Shaivaite manuscript in the Sharada script (17th or 18th century)

Historically, Sanskrit is not associated with any particular script. The emphasis on orality, not textuality, in the Vedic Sanskrit tradition was maintained through the development of early classical Sanskrit literature. When Sanskrit was written, the choice of writing system was influenced by the regional scripts of the scribes. As such, virtually all of the major writing systems of South Asia have been used for the production of Sanskrit manuscripts. Since the late 19th century, Devanagari has been considered as the de facto writing system for Sanskrit, quite possibly because of the European practice of printing Sanskrit texts in the script.

In northern India, there are Brahmi inscriptions dating from the 3rd century BCE onwards, the oldest appearing on the famous Prakrit pillar inscriptions of king Ashoka. Roughly contemporary with the Brahmi, the Kharosthi script was used. Later (ca. 4th to 8th centuries AD) the Gupta script, derived from Brahmi, became prevalent. From ca. the 8th century, the Sharada script evolved out of the Gupta script, and was mostly displaced in its turn by Devanagari from ca. the 12th century, with intermediary stages such as the Siddham script. In Eastern India, the Bengali script and, later, the Oriya script, were used.

In the south where Dravidian languages predominate, scripts used for Sanskrit include Kannada in Kannada and Telugu speaking regions, Telugu in Telugu and Tamil speaking regions, Malayalam and Grantha in Tamil speaking regions.

Sanskrit in modern Indian scripts. May Śiva bless those who take delight in the language of the gods. (Kalidasa)

Verbal learning occupied the pride of place in ancient India and bears an influence which can still be felt in Indian schooling today. High value was placed on the memorization of texts, often using sophisticated mnemonic techniques. As such, propagation and learning through writing was correspondingly deemphasized, and it is hypothesized that writing was introduced relatively late to India. Rhys Davids suggests that writing may have been introduced from the Middle East by traders, with Sanskrit remaining a purely oral language until well into India's Classical age.

It is interesting to note the importance that Sanskrit orthography and Vedic philosophy of sound play in Hindu symbolism, as the varnamala, or sound-garland/alphabet, of 51 letters is also seen to be represented by the 51 skulls of Kali. In the Upanishads, the transcendent-immanent nature of Brahman is represented by the half-matra, or sphota of sound that is inherent to a beat of sound in the Sanskrit system.

Romanization

Main article: Devanagari transliteration

Since the late 18th century, Sanskrit has been transliterated using the Latin alphabet. The system most commonly used today is the IAST (International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration), which has been the academic standard since 1912, and which is used in this article. ASCII-based transliteration schemes have evolved due to difficulties representing Sanskrit characters in computer systems. These include Harvard-Kyoto and ITRANS, a lossless transliteration scheme that is used widely on the Internet, especially in Usenet and in email, for considerations of speed of entry as well as rendering issues. With the wide availability of Unicode aware web browsers, IAST has become common also for online articles.

For scholarly work, Devanagari in the 19th century was generally preferred for the transcription and reproduction of whole texts and lengthy excerpts also by European scholars; however, references to individual words and names in texts composed in European languages are usually represented using Roman transliteration, and from the mid 20th century, textual editions edited by Western scholars have also been mostly in romanized transliteration.

Grammar

Grammatical tradition

Main article: Sanskrit grammarians

Sanskrit grammatical tradition (

vyākaraṇa, one of the six Vedanga disciplines) begins in late Vedic India, and culminates in the

Aṣṭādhyāyī of

Pāṇini (ca. 5th century BC).

Patañjali, who lived several centuries after Panini, is the reputed author of the

Mahābhāṣya, the "Great Commentary" on the

Aṣṭādhyāyī. Recent work on Sanskrit grammar has been done by Dr. B.P.T. Vagish Shastri. He has developed a mnemonic method VAGYOGA, which proposes learning grammar in a mathematical way.

Verbs

Classification of verbs

Sanskrit has ten classes of verbs divided into in two broad groups: athematic and thematic. The thematic verbs are so called because an a, called the theme vowel, is inserted between the stem and the ending. This serves to make the thematic verbs generally more regular. Exponents used in verb conjugation include prefixes, suffixes, infixes, and reduplication. Every root has (not necessarily all distinct) zero, [[guna|gu

ṇa]], and [[vrddhi|v

ṛddhi]] grades. If V is the vowel of the zero grade, the gu

ṇa-grade vowel is traditionally thought of as a + V, and the v

ṛddhi-grade vowel as ā + V.

Tense systems

The verbs tenses (a very inexact application of the word, since more distinctions than simply tense are expressed) are organized into four 'systems' (as well as gerunds and infinitives, and such creatures as intensives/frequentatives, desideratives, causatives, and benedictives derived from more basic forms) based on the different stem forms (derived from verbal roots) used in conjugation. There are four tense systems:

• Present (Present, Imperfect, Imperative, Optative)
• Perfect
• Aorist
• Future (Future, Conditional)

Present system

The present system includes the present and imperfect tenses, the optative and imperative moods, as well as some of the remnant forms of the old subjunctive. The tense stem of the present system is formed in various ways. The numbers are the native grammarians' numbers for these classes.

For athematic verbs, the present tense stem may be formed through:

• 2) No modification at all, for example ad from ad 'eat'.
• 3) Reduplication prefixed to the root, for example juhu from hu 'sacrifice'.
• 7) Infixion of na or n before the final root consonant (with appropriate sandhi changes), for example rundh or ru

ṇadh from rudh 'obstruct'.

• 5) Suffixation of nu (gu

ṇa form no), for example sunu from su 'press out'.

• 8) Suffixation of u (gu

ṇa form o), for example tanu from tan 'stretch'. For modern linguistic purposes it is better treated as a subclass of the 5th. tanu derives from tnnu, which is zero-grade for *tannu, because in the Proto-Indo-European language [m] and [n] could be vowels, which in Sanskrit (and Greek) change to [a]. Most members of the 8th class arose this way; kar = "make", "do" was 5th class in Vedic (krnoti = "he makes"), but shifted to the 8th class in Classical Sanskrit (karoti = "he makes")

• 9) Suffixation of nā (zero-grade nī or n), for example krī

ṇa or krī

ṇī from krī 'buy'.

For thematic verbs, the present tense stem may be formed through:

• 1) Suffixation of the thematic vowel a with gu

ṇa strengthening, for example, bháva from bhū 'be'.

• 6) Suffixation of the thematic vowel a with a shift of accent to this vowel, for example tudá from tud 'thrust'.
• 4) Suffixation of ya, for example dī́vya from div 'play'.

The tenth class described by native grammarians refers to a process which is derivational in nature, and thus not a true tense-stem formation. It is formed by suffixation of ya with gu

ṇa strengthening and lengthening of the root's last vowel, for example bhāvaya from bhū 'be'.

Perfect system

The perfect system includes only the perfect tense. The stem is formed with reduplication as with the present system.

The perfect system also produces separate "strong" and "weak" forms of the verb — the strong form is used with the singular active, and the weak form with the rest.

Aorist system

The aorist system includes aorist proper (with past indicative meaning, e.g. abhū

ḥ "you were") and some of the forms of the ancient injunctive (used almost exclusively with mā in prohibitions, e.g. mā bhū

ḥ "don't be"). The principal distinction of the two is presence/absence of an augment – a- prefixed to the stem.

The aorist system stem actually has three different formations: the simple aorist, the reduplicating aorist (semantically related to the causative verb), and the sibilant aorist. The simple aorist is taken directly from the root stem (e.g. bhū-: a-bhū-t "he was"). The reduplicating aorist involves reduplication as well as vowel reduction of the stem. The sibilant aorist is formed with the suffixation of s to the stem.

Future system

The future system is formed with the suffixation of sya or i

ṣya and gu

ṇa.

Verbs: Conjugation

Each verb has a grammatical voice, whether active, passive or middle. There is also an impersonal voice, which can be described as the passive voice of intransitive verbs. Sanskrit verbs have an indicative, an optative and an imperative mood. Older forms of the language had a subjunctive, though this had fallen out of use by the time of Classical Sanskrit.

Basic conjugational endings

Conjugational endings in Sanskrit convey person, number, and voice. Different forms of the endings are used depending on what tense stem and mood they are attached to. Verb stems or the endings themselves may be changed or obscured by sandhi.

		Active			Middle
		Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural
Primary	First Person	mi	vás	más	é	váhe	máhe
	Second Person	si	thás	thá	sé	ā́the	dhvé
	Third Person	ti	tás	ánti, áti	té	ā́te	ánte, áte
Secondary	First Person	am	vá	má	í, á	váhi	máhi
	Second Person	s	tám	tá	thā́s	ā́thām	dhvám
	Third Person	t	tā́m	án, ús	tá	ā́tām	ánta, áta, rán
Perfect	First Person	a	vá	má	é	váhe	máhe
	Second Person	tha	áthus	á	sé	ā́the	dhvé
	Third Person	a	átus	ús	é	ā́te	ré
Imperative	First Person	āni	āva	āma	āi	āvahāi	āmahāi
	Second Person	dhí, hí, —	tám	tá	svá	ā́thām	dhvám
	Third Person	tu	tā́m	ántu, átu	tā́m	ā́tām	ántām, átām

Primary endings are used with present indicative and future forms. Secondary endings are used with the imperfect, conditional, aorist, and optative. Perfect and imperative endings are used with the perfect and imperative respectively.

Present system conjugation

Conjugation of the present system deals with all forms of the verb utilizing the present tense stem (explained under Tense Stems above). This includes the present tense of all moods, as well as the imperfect indicative.

Athematic inflection

The present system differentiates strong and weak forms of the verb. The strong/weak opposition manifests itself differently depending on the class:

• The root and reduplicating classes (2 & 3) are not modified in the weak forms, and receive

guṇa in the strong forms.

• The nasal class (7) is not modified in the weak form, extends the nasal to ná in the strong form.
• The nu-class (5) has nu in the weak form and nó in the strong form.
• The nā-class (9) has nī in the weak form and nā́ in the strong form. nī disappears before vocalic endings.

The present indicative takes primary endings, and the imperfect indicative takes secondary endings. Singular active forms have the accent on the stem and take strong forms, while the other forms have the accent on the endings and take weak forms.

Indicative

		Active			Middle
		Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural
Present	First Person	dvé ṣmi || dvi ṣvás || dvi ṣmás || dvi ṣé || dvi ṣváhe || dvi ṣmáhe
	Second Person	dvék ṣi || dvi ṣṭhás || dvi ṣṭhá || dvik ṣé || dvi ṣā́the || dvi ḍḍhvé
	Third Person	dvé ṣṭi || dvi ṣṭás || dvi ṣánti || dvi ṣṭé || dvi ṣā́te || dvi ṣáte
Imperfect	First Person	ádve ṣam || ádvi ṣva || ádvi ṣma || ádvi ṣi || ádvi ṣvahi || ádvi ṣmahi
	Second Person	ádve ṭ || ádvi ṣṭam || ádvis ṭa || ádvi ṣṭhās || ádvi ṣāthām || ádvi ḍḍhvam
	Third Person	ádve ṭ || ádvi ṣṭām || ádvi ṣan || ádvi ṣṭa || ádvi ṣātām || ádvi ṣata

The optative takes secondary endings. yā is added to the stem in the active, and ī in the passive.

Optative

	Active			Middle
	Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural
First Person	dviṣyā́m	dvi ṣyā́va || dvi ṣyā́ma || dvi ṣīyá || dvi ṣīvahi || dvi ṣīmahi
Second Person	dvi ṣyā́s || dvi ṣyā́tam || dvi ṣyā́ta || dvi ṣīthās || dvi ṣīyāthām || dvi ṣīdhvam
Third Person	dvi ṣyā́t || dvi ṣyā́tām || dvi ṣyus || dvi ṣīta || dvi ṣīyātām || dvi ṣīran

The imperative takes imperative endings. Accent is variable and affects vowel quality. Forms which are end-accented trigger gu

ṇa strengthening, and those with stem accent do not have the vowel affected.

Imperative

	Active			Middle
	Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural
First Person	dvé ṣāṇi || dvé ṣāva || dvé ṣāma || dvé ṣāi || dvé ṣāvahāi || dvé ṣāmahāi
Second Person	dvi ḍḍhí || dvi ṣṭám || dvi ṣṭá || dvik ṣvá || dvi ṣāthām || dvi ḍḍhvám
Third Person	dvé ṣṭu || dvi ṣṭā́m || dvi ṣántu || dvi ṣṭā́m || dvi ṣā́tām || dvi ṣátām

Nominal inflection

Sanskrit is a highly inflected language with three grammatical genders (masculine, feminine, neuter) and three numbers (singular, plural, dual). It has eight cases: nominative, vocative, accusative, instrumental, dative, ablative, genitive, and locative.

The number of actual declensions is debatable. Panini identifies six karakas corresponding to the nominative, accusative, dative, instrumental, locative, and ablative cases [1]. Panini defines them as follows (Ashtadhyayi, I.4.24-54):

1. Apadana (lit. 'take off'): "(that which is) firm when departure (takes place)." This is the equivalent of the ablative case, which signifies a stationary object from which movement proceeds.
2. Sampradana ('bestowal'): "he whom one aims at with the object". This is equivalent to the dative case, which signifies a recipient in an act of giving or similar acts.
3. Karana ("instrument") "that which effects most." This is equivalent to the instrumental case.
4. Adhikarana ('location'): or "substratum." This is equivalent to the locative case.
5. Karman ('deed'/'object'): "what the agent seeks most to attain". This is equivalent to the accusative case.
6. Karta ('agent'): "he/that which is independent in action". This is equivalent to the nominative case. (On the basis of Scharfe, 1977: 94)

Possessive (Sambandha) and vocative are absent in Panini's grammar.

In this article they are divided into five declensions. The declension to which a noun belongs to is determined largely by form.

The basic declension suffix scheme for nouns and adjectives

The basic scheme is given in the table below—valid for almost all nouns and adjectives. However, according to the gender and the ending consonant/vowel of the uninflected word-stem, there are predermined rules of compulsory sandhi which would then give the final inflected word. The parentheses give the case-terminations for the neuter gender, the rest are for masculine and feminine gender. Both devanagari script and IAST transliterations are given.

	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	-स् -s (-म् -m)	-औ -au (-ई -ī)	-अस् -as (-इ -i)
Accusative	-अम् -am (-म् -m)	-औ -au (-ई -ī)	-अस् -as (-इ -i)
Instrumental	-आ -ā	-भ्याम् -bhyām	-भिस् -bhis
Dative	-ए -e	-भ्याम् -bhyām	-भ्यस् -bhyas
Ablative	-अस् -as	-भ्याम् -bhyām	-भ्यस् -bhyas
Genitive	-अस् -as	-ओस् -os	-आम् -ām
Locative	-इ -i	-ओस् -os	-सु -su
Vocative	-स् -s (- -)	-औ -au (-ई -ī)	-अस् -as (-इ -i)

a-stems

A-stems (/ə/ or /ɑː/) comprise the largest class of nouns. As a rule, nouns belonging to this class, with the uninflected stem ending in short-a (/ə/), are either masculine or neuter. Nouns ending in long-A (/ɑː/) are almost always feminine. A-stem adjectives take the masculine and neuter in short-a (/ə/), and feminine in long-A (/ɑː/) in their stems. This class is so big because it also comprises the Proto-Indo-European o-stems.

	Masculine (kā́ma- 'love')			Neuter (āsya- 'mouth')			Feminine (kānta- 'beloved')
	Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	kā́mas	kā́māu	kā́mās	āsyàm	āsyè	āsyā̀ni	kāntā	kānte	kāntās
Accusative	kā́mam	kā́māu	kā́mān	āsyàm	āsyè	āsyā̀ni	kāntām	kānte	kāntās
Instrumental	kā́mena	kā́mābhyām	kā́māis	āsyèna	āsyā̀bhyām	āsyāìs	kāntayā	kāntābhyām	kāntābhis
Dative	kā́māya	kā́mābhyām	kā́mebhyas	āsyā̀ya	āsyā̀bhyām	āsyèbhyas	kāntāyai	kāntābhyām	kāntābhyās
Ablative	kā́māt	kā́mābhyām	kā́mebhyas	āsyā̀t	āsyā̀bhyām	āsyèbhyas	kāntāyās	kāntābhyām	kāntābhyās
Genitive	kā́masya	kā́mayos	kā́mānām	āsyàsya	āsyàyos	āsyā̀nām	kāntāyās	kāntayos	kāntānām
Locative	kā́me	kā́mayos	kā́me ṣu || āsyè || āsyàyos || āsyè ṣu || kāntāyām || kāntayos || kāntāsu
Vocative	kā́ma	kā́mau	kā́mās	ā́sya	āsyè	āsyā̀ni	kānte	kānte	kāntās

i- and u-stems

i-stems

	Masc. and Fem. (gáti- 'gait')			Neuter (vā́ri- 'water')
	Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	gátis	gátī	gátayas	vā́ri	vā́ri ṇī || vā́rī ṇi
Accusative	gátim	gátī	gátīs	vā́ri	vā́ri ṇī || vā́rī ṇi
Instrumental	gátyā	gátibhyām	gátibhis	vā́ri ṇā || vā́ribhyām || vā́ribhis
Dative	gátaye, gátyāi	gátibhyām	gátibhyas	vā́ri ṇe || vā́ribhyām || vā́ribhyas
Ablative	gátes, gátyās	gátibhyām	gátibhyas	vā́ri ṇas || vā́ribhyām || vā́ribhyas
Genitive	gátes, gátyās	gátyos	gátīnām	vā́ri ṇas || vā́ri ṇos || vā́ri ṇām
Locative	gátāu, gátyām	gátyos	gáti ṣu || vā́ri ṇi || vā́ri ṇos || vā́ri ṣu
Vocative	gáte	gátī	gátayas	vā́ri, vā́re	vā́ri ṇī || vā́rī ṇi

u-stems

	Masc. and Fem. (śátru- 'enemy')			Neuter (mádhu- 'honey')
	Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	śátrus	śátrū	śátravas	mádhu	mádhunī	mádhūni
Accusative	śátrum	śátrū	śátrūn	mádhu	mádhunī	mádhūni
Instrumental	śátru ṇā || śátrubhyām || śátrubhis || mádhunā || mádhubhyām || mádhubhis
Dative	śátrave	śátrubhyām	śátrubhyas	mádhune	mádhubhyām	mádhubhyas
Ablative	śátros	śátrubhyām	śátrubhyas	mádhunas	mádhubhyām	mádhubhyas
Genitive	śátros	śátrvos	śátrū ṇām || mádhunas || mádhunos || mádhūnām
Locative	śátrāu	śátrvos	śátru ṣu || mádhuni || mádhunos || mádhuṣu
Vocative	śátro	śátrū	śátravas	mádhu	mádhunī	mádhūni

Long Vowel-stems

	ā-stems ( jā- 'prodigy')			ī-stems ( dhī- 'thought')			ū-stems ( bhū- 'earth')
	Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	jā́s || jāú || jā́s	dhī́s || dhíyāu || dhíyas	bhū́s || bhúvāu || bhúvas
Accusative	jā́m || jāú || jā́s, jás	dhíyam	dhíyāu || dhíyas	bhúvam	bhúvāu || bhúvas
Instrumental	jā́ || jā́bhyām || jā́bhis	dhiyā́	dhībhyā́m || dhībhís	bhuvā́ || bhūbhyā́m || bhūbhís
Dative	jé	jā́bhyām || jā́bhyas	dhiyé, dhiyāí || dhībhyā́m || dhībhyás	bhuvé, bhuvāí || bhūbhyā́m || bhūbhyás
Ablative	jás	jā́bhyām || jā́bhyas	dhiyás, dhiyā́s || dhībhyā́m || dhībhyás	bhuvás, bhuvā́s || bhūbhyā́m || bhūbhyás
Genitive	jás	jós	jā́nām, jā́m	dhiyás, dhiyā́s || dhiyós || dhiyā́m, dhīnā́m	bhuvás, bhuvā́s || bhuvós || bhuvā́m, bhūnā́m
Locative	jí	jós	jā́su	dhiyí, dhiyā́m || dhiyós || dhīṣú	bhuví, bhuvā́m || bhuvós || bhūṣú
Vocative	jā́s	jāú || jā́s	dhī́s || dhiyāu || dhíyas	bhū́s || bhuvāu || bhúvas

====

ṛ-stems====

ṛ-stems are predominantly agental derivatives like dāt

ṛ 'giver', though also include kinship terms like pit

ṛ́ 'father', māt

ṛ́ 'mother', and svás

ṛ 'sister'.

	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	pitā́	pitárāu	pitáras
Accusative	pitáram	pitárāu	pit ṝ́n
Instrumental	pitrā́	pit ṛ́bhyām || pit ṛ́bhis
Dative	pitré	pit ṛ́bhyām || pit ṛ́bhyas
Ablative	pitúr	pit ṛ́bhyām || pit ṛ́bhyas
Genitive	pitúr	pitrós	pit ṝṇā́m
Locative	pitári	pitrós	pit ṛ́ṣu
Vocative	pítar	pitárāu	pitáras

See also Devi inflection, Vrkis inflection.

Personal Pronouns and Determiners

The first and second person pronouns are declined for the most part alike, having by analogy assimilated themselves with one another.

Note: Where two forms are given, the second is enclitic and an alternative form. Ablatives in singular and plural may be extended by the syllable -tas; thus mat or mattas, asmat or asmattas.

	First Person			Second Person
	Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	aham	āvām	vayam	tvam	yuvām	yūyam
Accusative	mām, mā	āvām, nau	asmān, nas	tvām, tvā	yuvām, vām	yuṣmān, vas
Instrumental	mayā	āvābhyām	asmābhis	tvayā	yuvābhyām	yuṣmābhis
Dative	mahyam, me	āvābhyām, nau	asmabhyam, nas	tubhyam, te	yuvābhyām, vām	yuṣmabhyam, vas
Ablative	mat	āvābhyām	asmat	tvat	yuvābhyām	yuṣmat
Genitive	mama, me	āvayos, nau	asmākam, nas	tava, te	yuvayos, vām	yuṣmākam, vas
Locative	mayi	āvayos	asmāsu	tvayi	yuvayos	yuṣmāsu

The demonstrative ta, declined below, also functions as the third person pronoun.

	Masculine			Neuter			Feminine
	Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	sás	tāú	té	tát	té	tā́ni	sā́	té	tā́s
Accusative	tám	tāú	tā́n	tát	té	tā́ni	tā́m	té	tā́s
Instrumental	téna	tā́bhyām	tāís	téna	tā́bhyām	tāís	táyā	tā́bhyām	tā́bhis
Dative	tásmāi	tā́bhyām	tébhyas	tásmāi	tā́bhyām	tébhyas	tásyāi	tā́bhyām	tā́bhyas
Ablative	tásmāt	tā́bhyām	tébhyam	tásmāt	tā́bhyām	tébhyam	tásyās	tā́bhyām	tā́bhyas
Genitive	tásya	táyos	téṣām	tásya	táyos	téṣām	tásyās	táyos	tā́sām
Locative	tásmin	táyos	téṣu	tásmin	táyos	téṣu	tásyām	táyos	tā́su

Compounds

One other notable feature of the nominal system is the very common use of nominal compounds, which may be huge (10+ words) as in some modern languages such as German. Nominal compounds occur with various structures, however morphologically speaking they are essentially the same. Each noun (or adjective) is in its (weak) stem form, with only the final element receiving case inflection. Some examples of nominal compounds include:

Dvandva (co-ordinative)

These consist of two or more noun stems, connected in sense with 'and'. There are mainly two kinds of dvandva constructions in Sanskrit. The first is called itaretara dvandva, an enumerative compound word, the meaning of which refers to all its constituent members. The resultant compound word is in the dual or plural number and takes the gender of the final member in the compound construction. e.g. rāma-lakşmaņau – Rama and Lakshmana, or rāma-lakşmaņa-bharata-śatrughnāh – Rama, Lakshmana, Bharata and Satrughna. The second kind is called samāhāra dvandva, a collective compound word, the meaning of which refers to the collection of its constituent members. The resultant compound word is in the singular number and is always neuter in gender. e.g. pāņipādam – limbs, literally hands and feet, from pāņi = hand and pāda = foot. According to some grammarians, there is a third kind of dvandva, called ekaśeşa dvandva or residual compound, which takes the dual (or plural) form of only its final constituent member, e.g. pitarau for mātā + pitā, mother + father, i.e. parents. According to other grammarians, however, the ekaśeşa is not properly a compound at all.

Bahuvrīhi (possessive)

Bahuvrīhi, or "much-rice", denotes a rich person—one who has much rice. Bahuvrīhi compounds refer (by example) to a compound noun with no head -- a compound noun that refers to a thing which is itself not part of the compound. For example, "low-life" and "block-head" are bahuvrihi compounds, since a low-life is not a kind of life, and a block-head is not a kind of head. (And a much-rice is not a kind of rice.) Compare with more common, headed, compound nouns like "fly-ball" (a kind of ball) or "alley cat" (a kind of cat). Bahurvrīhis can often be translated by "possessing..." or "-ed"; for example, "possessing much rice", or "much riced".

[[Tatpurusha|

Tatpuruṣa]] (determinative)

There are many tatpuru

ṣas (one for each of the nominal cases, and a few others besides); in a tatpuru

ṣa, the first component is in a case relationship with another. For example, a doghouse is a dative compound, a house for a dog. It would be called a "caturtitatpuru

ṣa" (caturti refers to the fourth case—that is, the dative). Incidentally, "tatpuru

ṣa" is a tatpuru

ṣa ("this man"—meaning someone's agent), while "caturtitatpuru

ṣa" is a karmadhārya, being both dative, and a tatpuru

ṣa. An easy way to understand it is to look at English examples of tatpuru

ṣas: "battlefield", where there is a genitive relationship between "field" and "battle", "a field of battle"; other examples include instrumental relationships ("thunderstruck") and locative relationships ("towndwelling").

Karmadhāraya (descriptive)

The relation of the first member to the last is appositional, attributive or adverbial, e. g. uluka-yatu (owl+demon) is a demon in the shape of an owl.

[[Amredita|

Amreḍita]] (iterative)

Repetition of a word expresses repetitiveness, e. g. dive-dive 'day by day', 'daily'.

Dvigu

Syntax

Because of Sanskrit's complex declension system the word order is free (with tendency toward SOV).

Numerals

The numbers from one to ten are:

1. éka
2. dví
3. trí
4. catúr
5. pañca
6. ṣáṣ
7. saptá, sápta
8. aṣṭá, áṣṭa
9. náva
10. dáśa

The numbers one through four are declined. Éka is declined like a pronominal adjective, though the dual form does not occur. Dvá appears only in the dual. Trí and catúr are declined irregularly:

	Three			Four
	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine
Nominative	tráyas	trī́ṇi || tisrás || catvā́ras || catvā́ri || cátasras
Accusative	trīn	trī́ṇi || tisrás || catúras || catvā́ri || cátasras
Instrumental	tribhís		tisṛ́bhis	catúrbhis		catasṛ́bhis
Dative	tribhyás		tisṛ́bhyas	catúrbhyas		catasṛ́bhyas
Ablative	tribhyás		tisṛ́bhyas	catúrbhyas		catasṛ́bhyas
Genitive	triyāṇā́m		tisṛṇā́m	caturṇā́m		catasṛṇā́m
Locative	triṣú		tisṛ́ṣu	catúrṣu		catasṛ́ṣu

Influence

Modern-day India

Influence on vernaculars

Sanskrit's greatest influence, presumably, is that which it exerted on languages that grew from its vocabulary and grammatical base. Especially among élite circles in India, Sanskrit is prized as a storehouse of scripture and the language of prayers in Hinduism. Like Latin's influence on European languages and Classical Chinese's influence on East Asian languages, Sanskrit has influenced most Indian languages. While vernacular prayer is common, Sanskrit mantras are recited by millions of Hindus and most temple functions are conducted entirely in Sanskrit, often Vedic in form. Of modern day Indian languages, while Hindi and Urdu tend to be more heavily weighted with Arabic and Persian influence, Bengali and Marathi still retain a largely Sanskrit vocabulary base. The national anthem, Jana Gana Mana, is written in a literary form of Bengali (known as shuddha bhasha), so Sanskritized as to be recognizable, but still archaic to the modern ear. The national song of India Vande Mataram was originally a poem composed by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay and taken from his book called 'Anandamath', is in a similarly highly Sanskritized Bengali. Malayalam, Telugu and Kannada also combine a great deal of Sanskrit vocabulary.

Revival attempts

Main article: Sanskrit revival

The 1991 Indian census reported 49,736 fluent speakers of Sanskrit. Since the 1990s, efforts to revive spoken Sanskrit have been increasing. Many organizations like the Samskrta Bharati are conducting Speak Sanskrit workshops to popularize the language. The CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) in India has made Sanskrit a third language (though it is an option for the school to adopt it or not, the other choice being the state's own official language) in the schools it governs. In such schools, learning Sanskrit is an option for grades 5 to 8 (Classes V to VIII). This is true of most schools, including but not limited to Christian missionary schools, affiliated to the ICSE board too, especially in those states where the official language is Hindi.

Sanskrit is spoken natively by the population in Mattur village in central Karnataka. Inhabitants of all castes learn Sanskrit starting in childhood and converse in the language. [2]

Symbolic Usage

In the Republic of India, Sanskrit phrases are widely used as mottoes for various educational and social organizations. The motto of the Republic is also in Sanskrit.

Republic of India

Satyameva Jayate

Nepal

Janani Janmabhūmischa Svargādapi garīyasi "Mother and motherland are greater than heaven"

Goa

Sarve Bhadrāni Paśyantu Mā Kaścid Dukkha Bhābhavet

Life Insurance Corporation of India

Yogakshemam Vahāmyaham

Indian Navy

Shanno Varuna

Indian Air Force

Nābha Sparsham Dīptam

Indian Coast Guard

Vayam Rakshāmaha

All India Radio

Bahujana-hitāya bahujana-sukhāya

Many of the post – Independence educational institutions of national importance in India and Sri Lanka have Sanskrit mottoes. For a fuller list of such educational institutions, see List of educational institutions which have Sanskrit phrases as their mottoes.

Interactions with Eastern Asiatic languages

Sanskrit and related languages have also influenced their Sino-Tibetan-speaking neighbors to the north through the spread of Buddhist texts in translation. Buddhism was spread to China by Mahayanist missionaries mostly through translations of Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit and Classical Sanskrit texts, and many terms were transliterated directly and added to the Chinese vocabulary. (Although Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit is not Sanskrit, properly speaking, its vocabulary is substantially the same, both because of genetic relationship, and because of conscious imitation on the part of composers. Buddhist texts composed in Sanskrit proper were primarily found in philosophical schools like the Madhyamaka.)

The Thai language contains many loan words from Sanskrit. For example, in Thai, the Rāvana – the emperor of Sri Lanka is called 'Thoskonth' which is a derivation of his Sanskrit name 'Dashakanth' ("of ten necks"). The influence extends as far as the Philippines, e.g., Tagalog 'gurò' from 'Guru', or 'teacher', with the Hindu seafarers who traded there. Many Sanskrit words are also found in modern day Malay 9 10% of the words are Sanskrit), Old Javanese language (close to 50%) and Vietnamese.

Sanskrit's usage in modern times

All of India's scientific discoveries and developments are named in Sanskrit, as a counterpart of the western practice of naming scientific developments in Latin or Greek. The Indian guided missile program that was commenced in 1983 by DRDO has named the five missiles (ballistic and others) that it has developed as Prithvi, Agni, Akash, Nag and Trishul. India's first modern fighter aircraft is named Tejas. The Indian Space Research Organization ISRO has named all of its propulsion rockets after mythological characters found in Sanskrit literature.

This practice is usually followed in scientific institutions in India also.

Recital of Sanskrit shlokas as background chorus in films, television advertisements and as slogans for corporate organizations has become a trend.

Recently, Sanskrit has also made an appearance in Western pop music in recent years, in two recordings by Madonna. One, "Shanti/Ashtangi," from the 1998 album "Ray of Light," is the traditional Ashtanga yoga chant referenced above set to music. The second, "Cyber-raga," released in 2000 as a B-side to Madonna's single "Music," is a Sanskrit-language ode of devotion to a higher power and a wish for peace on earth. The climactic battle theme of The Matrix Revolutions features a choir singing Sanskrit prayer in the closing titles of the movie.

See also: Sanskrit in the West

Computational linguistics

There have been suggestions to use Sanskrit as a metalanguage for knowledge representation in e.g. machine translation, and other areas of natural language processing because of its highly regular structure. This is due to Classical Sanskrit being a regularized, prescriptivist form abstracted from the much more irregular and richer Vedic Sanskrit. This levelling of the grammar of Classical Sanskrit occurred during the Brahmana phase, after the language had fallen out of popular use, arguably qualifying Classical Sanskrit as an early engineered language.

See also

• Sinhala
• Akshara
• Devanagari
• Sanskrit literature
• Indian numerals
• Sanskrit numerals
• Vrddhi
• Grantha Script
• Indo-European languages
• [3] The Panini-Backus Form in Syntax of Formal Languages
• Languages of India
• List of national languages of India
• List of Indian languages by total speakers

References

Bibliography

Introductions

• The Sanskrit Language – T. Burrow – ISBN 81-208-1767-2
• Sanskrit Pronunciation – Bruce Cameron – ISBN 1-55700-021-2
• Teach Yourself Sanskrit – Prof. M. Coulson – ISBN 0-340-85990-3
• Devavāṇīpraveśikā: An Introduction to the Sanskrit Language – Robert P. Goldman – ISBN 0-944613-40-3
• A Higher Sanskrit Grammar – M. R. Kale – ISBN 81-208-0178-4
• A Sanskrit Grammar for Students – A. A. Macdonell – ISBN 81-246-0094-5
• The Sanskrit Language: An Introductory Grammar and Reader – Walter Harding Maurer – ISBN 0-7007-1382-4
• Conversational Sanskrit – Dr. Vagish Shastri – ISBN 81-85570-12-4
• भाषा विज्ञान (Bhasha Vigyan) — Bholanath Tiwari — [1955] 2004 — ISBN 81-225-0007-2
• A Practical Grammar Of The Sanskrit Language Arranged With Reference To The Classical Languages Of Europe For The Use Of English Students - Monier Monier-Williams (1846) [4]

Grammars

• W. D. Whitney, Sanskrit Grammar: Including both the Classical Language and the Older Dialects
• W. D. Whitney, The Roots, Verb-Forms and Primary Derivatives of the Sanskrit Language: (A Supplement to His Sanskrit Grammar)
• Wackernagel, Debrunner, Altindische Grammatik, Göttingen.
  • vol. I. phonology [5] Jacob Wackernagel (1896)
  • vol. II.1. introduction to morphology, nominal composition, Wackernagel (1905) [6]
  • vol. II.2. nominal suffixes, J. Wackernagel and Albert Debrunner (1954)
  • vol. III. nominal inflection, numerals, pronouns, Wackernagel and Debrunner (1930)
• B. Delbrück, Altindische Tempuslehre (1876) [7]

Dictionaries

• Otto Böhtlingk, Rudolph Roth, Petersburger Wörterbuch, 7 vols., 1855-75
• Otto Böhtlingk, Sanskrit Wörterbuch in kürzerer Fassung 1883–86 (1998 reprint, Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi)
• Monier Monier-Williams, Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1898, 1899)
• Manfred Mayrhofer, Kurzgefasstes etymologisches Wörterbuch des Altindischen, 1956-76
• Manfred Mayrhofer, Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Altindoarischen, 3 vols., 2742 pages, 2001, ISBN 3-8253-1477-4

External links

• Sanskrit Siddham (Bonji) Numbers
• Sanskrit Documents Documents in ITX format of Upanishads, Stotras etc. and a metasite with links to translations, dictionaries, tutorials, tools and other Sanskrit resources.
• Samskrita Bharati
• American Sanskrit Institute
• Sanskrit Scriptures in streaming realplayer
• Ethnologue: Languages of the World (unknown ed.). SIL International.
• Transliterator from romanized to Unicode Sanskrit transliterator.
• Sanskrit transliterator with font conversion to latin and other Indian Languages
• Sanskrit Alphabet in Devanagari, Gujarati, Thai scripts with an extensive list of Devanagari and Gujarati conjuncts
• Glossary of Sanskrit Terms
• HinduWiki.Com – A collaborated wiki web site covering all aspects of Hinduism.
• Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon
• Clay Sanskrit Library publishes Sanskrit literature with facing-page text and translation. Also offers searchable corpus and numerous downloadable materials.
• GRETIL: Göttingen Register of Electronic Texts in Indian Languages a cumulative register of the numerous download sites for electronic texts in Indian languages.
• Sanskrit as a career option -- an article in The Statesman

Dictionaries

• Monier-Williams Dictionary – Searchable
• Monier-Williams Dictionary – Printable
• Sanskrit Translation
• Online Hypertext Dictionary
• Sanskrit-French Dictionary by Gérard Huet

Primers

• Discover Sanskrit A concise study of the Sanskrit language
• Sanskrit Self Study An introduction to Sanskrit Language in 54 self study lessons by Chitrapur Math
• Harivenu Dâsa – An Introductory Course based on S'rîla Jîva Gosvâmî's Grammar a vaishnava version of Pânini's grammar: (pdf-file)
• A Sanskrit Tutor
• Sanskrit Audio Lessons from NCERT
• Samskrit Video Lessions
• Ancient Sanskrit Online from the University of Texas at Austin

Grammars

• An Analytical Cross Referenced Sanskrit Grammar By Lennart Warnemyr. Phonology, morphology and syntax, written in a semiformal style with full paradigms.