Sanskrit

Sanskrit संस्कृतम् saṃskṛtam
Pronunciation:	[sə̃skɹ̩t̪əm]
Spoken in:	India, Nepal
Total 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 of:	India (one of the scheduled languages),  Nepal
Regulated by:	no official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	sa
ISO 639-2:	san
ISO 639-3:	san
This page contains Indic text. Without rendering support you may see irregular vowel positioning and a lack of conjuncts. More...

Sanskrit (संस्कृता वाक् saṃskṛtā vāk, for short संस्कृतम् saṃskṛtam) is an ancient Indo-European classical language of South Asia, a liturgical language of Hinduism and Buddhism primarily, and utilized occasionally in Jainism. It is one of the twenty-two official languages of India, and an ancestor of the modern Indo-Aryan languages. Its position in the cultures of South and Southeast Asia is akin to that of Latin and Greek in Europe and it has evolved into, as well as influenced, many modern languages of the world. It appears in pre-Classical form as Vedic Sanskrit, which was a spoken language for centuries before the Vedas were written down. Around 600 B.C.E., in the classical period of Iron Age Ancient India, Sanskrit began the transition from a primary language to a second language of religion and learning, used by the educated elite. Classical Sanskrit is defined by the the oldest surviving Sanskrit grammar, Pāṇini's Aṣṭādhyāyī ("Eight-Chapter Grammar") dating to around the fifth century B.C.E.

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 B.C.E.

History

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

The language name saṃskṛtam is derived from the past participle saṃskṛtaḥ "self-made, self-done" of the verb saṃ(s)kar- "to make self," where saṃ- "with, together, self" and (s)kar- "do, make." In modern usage, the verbal adjective saṃskṛta- has come to mean "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-bhāṣā meaning "language of the gods."

Sanskrit does not belong to the Indo-Iranian sub-family of the Indo-European family of languages. It 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, Nepali, Assamese, Marathi, Konkani, Urdu, and Bengali).

Vedic Sanskrit

Sanskrit, as defined by Pāṇini, had evolved out of the earlier "Vedic" form. Vedic Sanskrit is the language of the earliest religious texts of India, the Vedas, a large collection of hymns, incantations, and religio-philosophical discussions which are the the shruti texts of Hinduism. It is an archaic form of Sanskrit, an early descendant of Proto-Indo-Iranian, attested during the period between roughly 1700 B.C.E. (early Rigveda) and 600 B.C.E. (Sutra language). It is closely related to Avestan, the oldest preserved Iranian language.

Scholars often distinguish Vedic Sanskrit and Classical or "Paninian" Sanskrit as separate dialects. Vedic Sanskrit differs from Classical Sanskrit to an extent comparable to the difference between Homeric Greek and Classical Greek; they are very similar and only differ in a few points of phonology, vocabulary, and grammar. Vedic Sanskrit had a pitch accent which could even change the meaning of the words, and was still in use in Panini's time, as we can infer by his use of devices to indicate its position. At some latter time, this was replaced by a stress accent limited to the second to fourth syllables from the end. Today, the pitch accent can be heard only in the traditional Vedic chantings. Vedic Sanskrit often allowed two like vowels to come together without merger during Sandhi (composition of words and phrases).

Classical Sanskrit is considered to have descended from Vedic Sanskrit. Modern linguists regard the metrical hymns of the Rigveda Samhita as 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 B.C.E. Around 600 B.C.E., in the classical period of Iron Age Ancient India, Sanskrit began the transition from a first language to a second language of religion and learning, marking the beginning of the Classical period.

Classical Sanskrit

Classical Sanskrit is defined by the the oldest surviving Sanskrit grammar, Pāṇini's Aṣṭādhyāyī ("Eight-Chapter Grammar") dating to circa the fifth century B.C.E. It is essentially a prescriptive grammar, 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.

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 considered to be the result of interference from prakrits, or "innovations" and not pre-Paninean" usages. Traditional Sanskrit scholars call such deviations aarsha (आर्ष), or "of the rishis," the traditional title for the ancient authors. In some contexts there are more "prakritisms" (borrowings from common speech) than in Classical Sanskrit proper. There is also a language called "Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit" by modern scholars, which is actually a prakrit ornamented with Sanskritized elements (see also termination of spoken Sanskrit). According to Tuwari, there were four principal dialects of Sanskrit; paścimottarī (Northwestern, also called Northern or Western), madhyadeśī (Middle Country), pūrvi (Eastern) and dakṣiṇī (Southern, originating 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), is regarded as being responsible for the discovery 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 (now Kolkata) on 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.

Phonology

Classical Sanskrit distinguishes about thirty-six phonemes. There is, however, some allophony and the writing systems used for Sanskrit generally indicate this, thus distinguishing forty-eight sounds

The sounds are traditionally listed in the order vowels (Ach), diphthongs (Hal), anusvara and visarga, plosives (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 English are listed below:

Letter	Diacritical mark with “प्”	Pronunciation	Pronunciation with /p/	IAST equiv.	ITRANS equiv.	English equivalent (GA unless stated otherwise)
अ	प	/ɐ/ or /ə/	/pɐ/ or /pə/	a	a	short near-open central vowel or schwa: u in bunny or a in about
आ	पा	/aː/	/paː/	ā	A	long open back unrounded vowel: a in father (RP
इ	िप	/i/	/pi/	i	i	short close front unrounded vowel: i in fin
ई	पी	/iː/	/piː/	ī	I	long close front unrounded vowel: ee in feet
उ	पु	/u/	/pu/	u	u	short close back rounded vowel: oo in foot
ऊ	पू	/uː/	/puː/	ū	U	long close back rounded vowel: oo in cool
ऋ	पृ	/ɻ/	/pɻ/	ṛ	R	short retroflex approximant: r in burl
ॠ	पॄ	/ɻː/	/pɻː/	ṝ	RR	long retroflex approximant r in burl
ऌ	पॢ	/ɭ/	/pɭ/	ḷ	LR	short retroflex lateral approximant (no English equivalent)
ॡ	पॣ	/ɭː/	/pɭː/	ḹ	LRR	long retroflex lateral approximant
ए	पे	/eː/	/peː/	e	e	long close-mid front unrounded vowel: a in bane (some speakers)
ऐ	पै	/əi/	/pəi/	ai	ai	a long diphthong: i in ice, i in kite (Canadian English)
ओ	पो	/oː/	/poː/	o	o	long close-mid back rounded vowel: o in bone (some speakers)
औ	पौ	/əu/	/pəu/	au	au	a long diphthong: Similar to the ou in house (Canadian English)

The long vowels are pronounced 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 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:
  • The diacritic ं called anusvāra, (IAST: ṃ). It is used both to indicate the nasalization of the vowel in the syllable ([◌̃] and to represent the sound of a syllabic /n/ or /m/; e.g. पं /pəŋ/.
  • The diacritic ः called visarga, represents /əh/ (IAST: ḥ); e.g. पः /pəh/.
  • The diacritic ँ called chandrabindu, not traditionally included in Devanagari charts for Sanskrit, is used interchangeably with the anusvāra to indicate nasalization of the vowel, primarily in Vedic notation; for example, 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.
• The ancient Sanskrit grammarians 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 (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 words, for example, shiva must be pronounced as /ɕivə/ and not as /ɕivɑː/.

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 [n̪]		ṇ ण [ɳ]		ñ ञ [ɲ]		ṅ ङ [ŋ]
Semivowel Antastha				v व [ʋ]					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/; somewhat similar to English: doghouse	ङ /ŋə/; English: ring
Palatal Tālavya	च /cə/; English: exchange	छ /cʰə/; English: church	ज /ɟə/; ≈English: jam	झ /ɟʱə/; somewhat similar to English: hedgehog	ञ /ɲə/; English: bench
Retroflex Mūrdhanya	ट /ʈə/; No English equivalent	ठ /ʈʰə/; No English equivalent	ड /ɖə/; No English equivalent	ढ /ɖʱə/; No English equivalent	ण /ɳə/; No English equivalent
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/; somewhat similar to English: clubhouse	म /mə/; English: mine

Non-Plosives/Sonorants

	Palatal Tālavya	Retroflex Mūrdhanya	Dental Dantya	Labial/ Glottal Ōshtya
Approximant Antastha	य /jə/; English: you	र /rə/; English: trip (Scottish English)	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 (for example, 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 (aspirated fricatives 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 [ɲ] is a conditioned allophone of /n/ (/n/ and /ɳ/ are distinct phonemes—aṇu "minute," "atomic" [nom. sg. neutr. of an adjective] is distinctive from anu "after," "along;" phonologically independent /ŋ/ occurs only marginally, for example, in prāṅ "directed forwards/towards" [nom. sg. masc. of an adjective]). 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 padapāṭha).

Writing System

Kashmiri Shaivaite manuscript in the Sharada script (seventeenth or eighteenth century)

Historically, Sanskrit was 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 nineteenth century, Devanagari has been considered as the de facto writing system for Sanskrit, possibly because of the European practice of printing Sanskrit texts in the script.

Writing came relatively late to India, introduced from the Middle East by traders around the fifth century B.C.E., according to a hypothesis by Rhys Davids. Even after the introduction of writing, oral tradition and memorization of texts remained a prominent feature of Sanskrit literature. In northern India, there are Brahmi inscriptions dating from the third century B.C.E. onwards, the oldest appearing on the famous Prakrit pillar inscriptions of king Ashoka. Roughly contemporary with the Brahmi, the Kharosthi script was used. Later (c. fourth to eighth centuries C.E.) the Gupta script, derived from Brahmi, became prevalent. From around the eighth century, the Sharada script evolved out of the Gupta script, and was mostly displaced in its turn by Devanagari from about the twelfth 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)

Romanization

Since the late eighteenth 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. 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 online.

European scholars in the nineteenth century generally preferred Devanagari for the transcription and reproduction of whole texts and lengthy excerpts. However, references to individual words and names in texts composed in European languages were usually represented with Roman transliteration. From the mid twentieth century, textual editions edited by Western scholars have mostly been in romanized transliteration.

Grammar

Grammatical tradition

Sanskrit grammatical tradition (vyākaraṇa, one of the six Vedanga disciplines) began in late Vedic India and culminated in the Aṣṭādhyāyī of Pāṇini, which consists of 3990 sutras (c. fifth century B.C.E.). After a century Pāṇini (around 400 B.C.E.) Kātyāyana composed Vārtikas on Pāninian sũtras. Patañjali, who lived three centuries after Pānini, wrote the Mahābhāṣya, the "Great Commentary" on the Aṣṭādhyāyī and Vārtikas. Because of these three ancient Sanskrit grammarians this grammar is called Trimuni Vyākarana. To understand the meaning of sutras, Jayaditya and Vāmana wrote the commentry named Kāsikā in 600 C.E.. Paninian grammar is based on fourteen Shiva sutras (aphorisms); here the whole Mātrika (alphabet) is abbreviated. This abbreviation is called Pratyāhara.

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, guṇa, and vṛddhi grades. If V is the vowel of the zero grade, the guṇa-grade vowel is traditionally thought of as a + V, and the vṛddhi-grade vowel as ā + V.

Tense systems

The verbs tenses, which express more distinctions than simply temporal sequence, are organized into four "systems" (as well as gerunds and infinitives, and forms such 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 ruṇadh from rudh "obstruct."
• 5) Suffixation of nu (guṇa form no), for example sunu from su "press out."
• 8) Suffixation of u (guṇa 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 krīṇa or krīṇī from krī "buy."

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

• 1) Suffixation of the thematic vowel a with guṇa 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 guṇa 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. abhūḥ "you were") and some of the forms of the ancient injunctive (used almost exclusively with mā in prohibitions, for example, mā bhūḥ "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 (for example, 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 iṣya and guṇa.

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	dvéṣmi	dviṣvás	dviṣmás	dviṣé	dviṣváhe	dviṣmáhe
	Second Person	dvékṣi	dviṣṭhás	dviṣṭhá	dvikṣé	dviṣā́the	dviḍḍhvé
	Third Person	dvéṣṭi	dviṣṭás	dviṣánti	dviṣṭé	dviṣā́te	dviṣáte
Imperfect	First Person	ádveṣam	ádviṣva	ádviṣma	ádviṣi	ádviṣvahi	ádviṣmahi
	Second Person	ádveṭ	ádviṣṭam	ádvisṭa	ádviṣṭhās	ádviṣāthām	ádviḍḍhvam
	Third Person	ádveṭ	ádviṣṭām	ádviṣan	ádviṣṭa	ádviṣātām	ádviṣata

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	dviṣyā́va	dviṣyā́ma	dviṣīyá	dviṣīvahi	dviṣīmahi
Second Person	dviṣyā́s	dviṣyā́tam	dviṣyā́ta	dviṣīthās	dviṣīyāthām	dviṣīdhvam
Third Person	dviṣyā́t	dviṣyā́tām	dviṣyus	dviṣīta	dviṣīyātām	dviṣīran

The imperative takes imperative endings. Accent is variable and affects vowel quality. Forms which are end-accented trigger guṇa strengthening, and those with stem accent do not have the vowel affected.

Imperative

	Active			Middle
	Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural
First Person	dvéṣāṇi	dvéṣāva	dvéṣāma	dvéṣāi	dvéṣāvahāi	dvéṣāmahāi
Second Person	dviḍḍhí	dviṣṭám	dviṣṭá	dvikṣvá	dviṣāthām	dviḍḍhvám
Third Person	dvéṣṭu	dviṣṭā́m	dviṣántu	dviṣṭā́m	dviṣā́tām	dviṣátām

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. 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.

Basic noun and adjective declension

The basic scheme of suffixation 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 predetermined 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 (Karta)	-स् -s (-म् -m)	-औ -au (-ई -ī)	-अस् -as (-इ -i)
Accusative (Karma)	-अम् -am (-म् -m)	-औ -au (-ई -ī)	-अस् -as (-इ -i)
Instrumental (Karana)	-आ -ā	-भ्याम् -bhyām	-भिस् -bhis
Dative (Sampradana)	-ए -e	-भ्याम् -bhyām	-भ्यस् -bhyas
Ablative (Apadana)	-अस् -as	-भ्याम् -bhyām	-भ्यस् -bhyas
Genitive (Sambandha)	-अस् -as	-ओस् -os	-आम् -ām
Locative (Adhikarana)	-इ -i	-ओस् -os	-सु -su
Vocative	-स् -s (- -)	-औ -au (-ई -ī)	-अस् -as (-इ -i)

a-stems

A-stems (/ə/ or /aː/) 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 (/aː/) are almost always feminine. A-stem adjectives take the masculine and neuter in short-a (/ə/), and feminine in long-A (/aː/) in their stems. This class is so big because it also comprises the Proto-Indo-European o-stems.

	Masculine (kāma-)			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	kā́meṣu	āsyè	āsyàyos	āsyèṣu	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	vā́riṇī	vā́rīṇi
Accusative	gátim	gátī	gátīs	vā́ri	vā́riṇī	vā́rīṇi
Instrumental	gátyā	gátibhyām	gátibhis	vā́riṇā	vā́ribhyām	vā́ribhis
Dative	gátaye, gátyāi	gátibhyām	gátibhyas	vā́riṇe	vā́ribhyām	vā́ribhyas
Ablative	gátes, gátyās	gátibhyām	gátibhyas	vā́riṇas	vā́ribhyām	vā́ribhyas
Genitive	gátes, gátyās	gátyos	gátīnām	vā́riṇas	vā́riṇos	vā́riṇām
Locative	gátāu, gátyām	gátyos	gátiṣu	vā́riṇi	vā́riṇos	vā́riṣu
Vocative	gáte	gátī	gátayas	vā́ri, vā́re	vā́riṇī	vā́rīṇi

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	śátruṇā	śátrubhyām	śátrubhis	mádhunā	mádhubhyām	mádhubhis
Dative	śátrave	śátrubhyām	śátrubhyas	mádhune	mádhubhyām	mádhubhyas
Ablative	śátros	śátrubhyām	śátrubhyas	mádhunas	mádhubhyām	mádhubhyas
Genitive	śátros	śátrvos	śátrūṇām	mádhunas	mádhunos	mádhūnām
Locative	śátrāu	śátrvos	śátruṣu	mádhuni	mádhunos	mádhuṣu
Vocative	śátro	śátrū	śátravas	mádhu	mádhunī	mádhūni

Long Vowel-stems

	ā-stems (jā- 'progeny')			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 dātṛ 'giver', though also include kinship terms like pitṛ́ 'father', mātṛ́ 'mother', and svásṛ 'sister'.

	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	pitā́	pitárāu	pitáras
Accusative	pitáram	pitárāu	pitṝ́n
Instrumental	pitrā́	pitṛ́bhyām	pitṛ́bhis
Dative	pitré	pitṛ́bhyām	pitṛ́bhyas
Ablative	pitúr	pitṛ́bhyām	pitṛ́bhyas
Genitive	pitúr	pitrós	pitṝṇā́m
Locative	pitári	pitrós	pitṛ́ṣu
Vocative	pítar	pitárāu	pitáras

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. for example, 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. For example, 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, for example, 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."

Tatpuruṣa (determinative)

There are many tatpuruṣas (one for each of the nominal cases, and a few others besides); in a tatpuruṣa, 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 "caturtitatpuruṣa" (caturti refers to the fourth case—that is, the dative). Incidentally, "tatpuruṣa" is a tatpuruṣa ("this man"—meaning someone's agent), while "caturtitatpuruṣa" is a karmadhārya, being both dative, and a tatpuruṣa. An easy way to understand it is to look at English examples of tatpuruṣas: "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, for example, uluka-yatu (owl+demon) is a demon in the shape of an owl.

Amreḍita (iterative)

Repetition of a word expresses repetitiveness, for example, 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:

1. éka-
2. dva-
3. tri-
4. catúr-
5. páñcan-
6. ṣáṣ-
7. saptán-
8. aṣṭá-
9. návan-
10. dáśan-

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 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. It is used as a liturgical language of Hinduism and Buddhism, and utilized occasionally in Jainism. Similar to the way in which Latin influenced European languages and Classical Chinese influenced 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, Nepali, Bengali, Assamese, Konkani 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), Sanskritized so as to be recognizable, but still archaic to the modern ear. The national song of India, Vande Mataram, 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.

Sanskrit is one of the twenty-two official languages of India, and an ancestor of the modern Indo-Aryan languages. It has the same status in Nepal as well.

Revival efforts

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 schools have the option 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, which are also affiliated to the ICSE board, especially in those states where the official language is Hindi. Sudharma, the only daily newspaper in Sanskrit, has been published out of Mysore in India since the year 1970.

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.

Symbolic usage

In the Republic of India and Indonesia, Sanskrit phrases are widely used as mottoes for various educational and social organizations (much as Latin is used by some institutions in the West). The motto of the Republic is also in Sanskrit.

Republic of India

Satyameva Jayate

Nepal

Janani Janmabhūmis ca Svargād api garīyasi "Mother and motherland are greater than heaven"

Goa

Sarve Bhadrāni Paśyantu Mā Kaścid Duhkhabhāg bhavet

Life Insurance Corporation of India

Yogakshemam Vahāmyaham

Indian Navy

Shanno Varuna

Indian Air Force

Nābha Sparsham Dīptam

Indian Police

sadd rakshanay khalah nighranayah

Indian Coast Guard

Vayam Rakshāmaha

All India Radio

Bahujana-hitāya bahujana-sukhāya

Indonesian Navy

Jalesveva Jayamahe

Aceh Province

Pancacita

Many of the post–Independence educational institutions of national importance in India and Sri Lanka have Sanskrit mottoes.

Interactions with eastern and southeastern 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 legendary emperor of Lanka, is called 'Thoskanth' which is a derivation of his Sanskrit name "Dashakanth" ("of ten necks"). The influence extends as far as the Philippines, where the Tagalog for 'teacher' is 'gurò' from 'guru,' probably acquired from the Hindu seafarers who traded there. Many Sanskrit loanwords are also found in traditional Malay and Modern Indonesian, Old Javanese language (close to 50 percent) and Vietnamese.

Modern usage

Many 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. 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.

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 Vinyasa Yoga chant (referenced above) set to music. The second, "Cyber-raga," released in 2000, 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. Composer John Williams also featured a choir singing in Sanskrit for Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.

The Sky One version of the title sequence in season one of Battlestar Galactica 2004 features the Gayatri Mantra, taken from the Rig Veda (3.62.10). The composition was written by miniseries composer Richard Gibbs.

Computational linguistics

There have been proposals 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. Classical Sanskrit is a regularized, prescriptivist form abstracted from the much more irregular and richer Vedic Sanskrit. This leveling of the grammar of Classical Sanskrit occurred during the Brahmana phase, after the language had fallen out of popular use.

See also

• Avestan
• Devanagari
• Sanskrit literature
• Sanskrit numerals
• Grantha Script
• Indo-European languages
• Languages of India

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Abhyankar, Kashinath V. A Dictionary of Sanskrit Grammar. Baroda: Oriental Institute, 1986.
• Burrow, T. The Sanskrit Language. London: Faber and Faber, 1955. ISBN 8120817672.
• Coulson, Michael, Richard Gombrich, and James D. Benson. Sanskrit: An Introduction to the Classical Language. Sevenoaks: Teach Yourself, 1992. ISBN 978-0340568675.
• Goldman, Robert P. Devavāṇīpraveśikā: An Introduction to the Sanskrit Language. Berkeley, CA: Center for South Asia Studies, University of California, 1999. ISBN 0944613403.
• Hall, Bruce Cameron. Sanskrit Pronunciation. Pasadena, CA: Theosophical University Press, 1992. ISBN 978-1557000217.
• Kale, Moreshwar Ramchandra. A Higher Sanskrit Grammar. Delhi: R.M. Lal, 1960. ISBN 8120801784.
• Macdonell, Arthur Anthony. A Sanskrit Grammar for Students. London: Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press, 1927. ISBN 8124600945.
• Maurer, Walter Harding. The Sanskrit Language: An Introductory Grammar and Reader. Surrey: Curzon Press, 1995. ISBN 978-0700703524.
• Oberlies, Thoams. A Grammar of Epic Sanskrit. de Gruyter, 2003. ISBN 978-3110144482.
• Shastri, Vagish. Vāgyoga Conversational Sanskrit. Varanasi: Vāgyoga Chetanāpitham, 2000. ISBN 8185570124.
• Tiwari, Bholanath. Bhasha-vigyan. Illahabad: Kitab Mahal, 1978.
• Whitney, William Dwight. Sanskrit Grammar. Dover Publications, 2003. ISBN 978-0486431369
• Williams, Monier. A Practical Grammar Of The Sanskrit Language Arranged With Reference To The Classical Languages Of Europe For The Use Of English Students. Oxford University Press, 1857.
• Witzel, Michael. Inside the Texts Beyond the Texts New Approaches to the Study of the Vedas. Harvard University Press, 1997. ISBN 978-1888789034.

External links

All links retrieved December 22, 2022.

• American Sanskrit Institute.
• Sanskrit at Ethnologue
• Sanskrit: The Language of Ancient India.
• GRETIL: Göttingen Register of Electronic Texts in Indian Languages, a cumulative register of the numerous download sites for electronic texts in Indian languages.
• Sanskrit texts at Sacred Text Archive.
• Clay Sanskrit Library publishes Sanskrit literature with facing-page text and translation. Also offers searchable corpus and numerous downloadable materials.
• Sanskrit and Tamil Dictionaries, searchable.
• The Sanskrit Heritage Dictionary.
• Sanskrit Dictionary.
• Glossary of Sanskrit Terms.
• Harivenu Dâsa: An Introductory Course based on S'rîla Jîva Gosvâmî's Grammar, a vaishnava version of Pânini's grammar (pdf-file).
• An Analytical Cross Referenced Sanskrit Grammar By Lennart Warnemyr. Phonology, morphology and syntax, written in a semiformal style with full paradigms.

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