129-532: Divisions Sama vedic Yajur vedic Atharva vedic Vaishnava puranas Shaiva puranas Shakta puranas The Yajnavalkya Smriti ( Sanskrit : याज्ञवल्क्य स्मृति , IAST : Yājñavalkya Smṛti ) is one of the many Dharma -related texts of Hinduism composed in Sanskrit . It is dated between the 3rd and 5th century CE, and belongs to the Dharmashastra tradition. The text
258-504: A dead language in the most common usage of the term. Pollock's notion of the "death of Sanskrit" remains in this unclear realm between academia and public opinion when he says that "most observers would agree that, in some crucial way, Sanskrit is dead." Charaka Samhita Divisions Sama vedic Yajur vedic Atharva vedic Vaishnava puranas Shaiva puranas Shakta puranas The Charaka Samhita ( IAST : Caraka-Saṃhitā , “Compendium of Charaka ”)
387-540: A desire for it or guided by ignorance. Only food that is beneficial should be eaten, after proper examination. Verily, the body is the result of food. — Caraka Samhita , 1.XXVIII.41-48 Charaka Samhita dedicates Chapters 5, 6, 25, 26 and 27 to "Aharatattva" (dietetics), stating that a wholesome diet is essential for good health and to prevent diseases, while unwholesome food is an important cause of diseases. The tastes are six. They are sweet, sour, saline, pungent, bitter and astringent. Properly used, they nourish
516-433: A focus on Indian philosophies and Sanskrit. Though written in a number of different scripts, the dominant language of Hindu texts has been Sanskrit. It or a hybrid form of Sanskrit became the preferred language of Mahayana Buddhism scholarship; for example, one of the early and influential Buddhist philosophers, Nagarjuna (~200 CE), used Classical Sanskrit as the language for his texts. According to Renou, Sanskrit had
645-534: A greater influence on medieval India's judiciary practice than Manusmriti . It later became influential in the studies of legal process in ancient and medieval India, during the colonial British India, with the first translation published in German in 1849. The text is notable for its differences in legal theories from Manusmriti, for being more liberal and humane, and for extensive discussions on evidence and judiciousness of legal documents. The text most likely dates to
774-468: A human body, and others. The Charaka Samhita is premised on the Hindu assumption that Atman (soul) exists, it is immutable, and thereafter the text defines physical and mental diseases as caused by a lack of correlation and imbalance in body, or mind, or both, because of external factors (Prakriti, objects of senses), age or a want of correlation (appropriate harmony, equilibrium) between the three humors or
903-423: A knowledge of the same science, such discussion leads to increase of knowledge and happiness". The verses that follow an outline that discussions can be hostile or peaceful, the former are unproductive, the latter useful; even if one faces hostile criticism, one must persuade with gentle words and manner, asserts the text. The Charaka Samhita, like many ancient Hindu literature, reveres and attributes Hindu gods as
1032-591: A language competed with numerous, less exact vernacular Indian languages called Prakritic languages ( prākṛta - ). The term prakrta literally means "original, natural, normal, artless", states Franklin Southworth . The relationship between Prakrit and Sanskrit is found in Indian texts dated to the 1st millennium CE. Patañjali acknowledged that Prakrit is the first language, one instinctively adopted by every child with all its imperfections and later leads to
1161-508: A lifestyle lacking exercise is linked to sexual dysfunctions (Kṛcchra Vyavāya), dedicating many verses to this. The text, states Arnold, contains many verses relating to women's sexual health, suggesting "great antiquity of certain methods and therapeutic agents used in the treatment of gynecological cases", for example, the cautery, pessaries, and astringent washes. Chapter VIII of the Charaka Samhita's Vimana Sthana book includes
1290-658: A limited role in the Theravada tradition (formerly known as the Hinayana) but the Prakrit works that have survived are of doubtful authenticity. Some of the canonical fragments of the early Buddhist traditions, discovered in the 20th century, suggest the early Buddhist traditions used an imperfect and reasonably good Sanskrit, sometimes with a Pali syntax, states Renou. The Mahāsāṃghika and Mahavastu, in their late Hinayana forms, used hybrid Sanskrit for their literature. Sanskrit
1419-454: A natural part of the earliest Vedic language, and that these developed in the centuries after the composition had been completed, and as a gradual unconscious process during the oral transmission by generations of reciters. The primary source for this argument is internal evidence of the text which betrays an instability of the phenomenon of retroflexion, with the same phrases having sandhi-induced retroflexion in some parts but not other. This
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#17327721088831548-479: A negative evidence to Pollock's hypothesis, but it is not positive evidence. A closer look at Sanskrit in the Indian history after the 12th century suggests that Sanskrit survived despite the odds. According to Hanneder, On a more public level the statement that Sanskrit is a dead language is misleading, for Sanskrit is quite obviously not as dead as other dead languages and the fact that it is spoken, written and read will probably convince most people that it cannot be
1677-546: A pan-Indo-Aryan accessibility to information and knowledge in the ancient and medieval times, in contrast to the Prakrit languages which were understood just regionally. It created a cultural bond across the subcontinent. As local languages and dialects evolved and diversified, Sanskrit served as the common language. It connected scholars from distant parts of South Asia such as Tamil Nadu and Kashmir, states Deshpande, as well as those from different fields of studies, though there must have been differences in its pronunciation given
1806-578: A refined and standardized grammatical form that emerged in the mid-1st millennium BCE and was codified in the most comprehensive of ancient grammars, the Aṣṭādhyāyī ('Eight chapters') of Pāṇini . The greatest dramatist in Sanskrit, Kālidāsa , wrote in classical Sanskrit, and the foundations of modern arithmetic were first described in classical Sanskrit. The two major Sanskrit epics, the Mahābhārata and
1935-426: A reputed scholar known for his wisdom, is free from tautology, ascribed to a Rishi , well compiled and has bhasya (commentaries), which treats nothing but the professed subject, is devoid of slang and unfamiliar words, explain its inferences, is non-contradictory, and is well illustrated. The teacher for apprenticeship should be one who knows the field, has experience gained from successfully treating diseases, who
2064-538: A restrained language from which archaisms and unnecessary formal alternatives were excluded". The Classical form of the language simplified the sandhi rules but retained various aspects of the Vedic language, while adding rigor and flexibilities, so that it had sufficient means to express thoughts as well as being "capable of responding to the future increasing demands of an infinitely diversified literature", according to Renou. Pāṇini included numerous "optional rules" beyond
2193-408: A section for the student aiming to become a physician. The text asserts that any intelligent man who knows the challenge and patience necessary to become a physician must first decide on his guru (teacher) and the books he must study. The Charaka Samhita claims, according to Kaviratna and Sharma translation, that "diverse treatises on medicine are in circulation", and the student must select one by
2322-453: A series of Atharvaveda hymns to show that almost all organs and nomenclature found in Charaka Samhita are also found in the Vedic hymns. The aim of life science Life is of four kinds: Sukha (happy), Duhkha (unhappy), Hita (good) and Ahita (bad). Sukham-Ayuh is a life unaffected by bodily or psychic diseases is endowed with vigor, capabilities, energy, vitality, activity, knowledge, successes and enjoyment. The opposite of this
2451-470: A similar format in terms of organization and content. Chapter 1 and chapter 3 are influenced by Manu, while chapter 2, focusing on legal procedure, draws from both Manu and Kautilya's Arthashastra. The text includes sections discussing embryology and anatomy, drawn from medical texts such as Charaka Samhita . It also contains concise portions on music and yogic meditation, likely derived from early treatises on these subjects. Yajnavalkya also claims authorship of
2580-439: A similar phonetic structure to Tamil. Hock et al. quoting George Hart state that there was influence of Old Tamil on Sanskrit. Hart compared Old Tamil and Classical Sanskrit to arrive at a conclusion that there was a common language from which these features both derived – "that both Tamil and Sanskrit derived their shared conventions, metres, and techniques from a common source, for it is clear that neither borrowed directly from
2709-824: A sin, thou shalt behave like my son, never be impatient, always be attentive, behave with humility, act after reflection, and always seek whether sitting or standing the good of all living creatures". The most celebrated commentary on this text is the Carakatātparyaṭīkā "Commentary on the Meaning of the Caraka" or the Ayurveda Dīpikā , "The Lamp to Ayurveda" written by Chakrapani Datta (1066). Other notable commentaries are Bhattaraka Harichandra's Carakanyāsa ( c. 4th-6th century), Jejjaṭas Nirantarapadavyākhyā (c.875), Shivadasa Sena's Carakatattvapradīpikā (c.1460). Among
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#17327721088832838-558: A yoga treatise within the text. The text is laid out as a frame story in which the sages of Mithila approach Yājñavalkya and ask him to teach them dharma . The text opens its reply by reverentially mentioning ancient Dharma scholars, and asserting in verses 1.4-5 that the following each have written a Dharmasastra (most of these are lost to history) – Manu, Atri, Visnu, Harita, Yajnavalkya, Ushanas, Angiras, Yama, Apastamba, Samvarta, Katyayana, Brihaspati, Parashara, Vyasa, Samkha, Likhita, Daksha, Gautama, Shatatapa and Vashistha. The rest of
2967-746: Is a Sanskrit text on Ayurveda (Indian traditional medicine). Along with the Sushruta Samhita , it is one of the two foundational texts of this field that have survived from ancient India. It is one of the three works that constitute the Brhat Trayi . The text is based on the Agnivesha Samhitā, an older encyclopedic medical compendium by Agniveśa . It was revised by Charaka between 100 BCE and 200 CE and renamed Charaka Samhitā . The pre-2nd century CE text consists of 8 books and 120 chapters. It describes ancient theories on
3096-711: Is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages . It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late Bronze Age . Sanskrit is the sacred language of Hinduism , the language of classical Hindu philosophy , and of historical texts of Buddhism and Jainism . It was a link language in ancient and medieval South Asia, and upon transmission of Hindu and Buddhist culture to Southeast Asia, East Asia and Central Asia in
3225-461: Is a scholarly tradition on Dharma rather than a Law book, as understood in the western languages. In contrast, Robert Lingat states that the text is closer to presenting legal philosophy and a transition from being Dharma speculations found in earlier Dharma-related texts. Yajnavalkya, known for his concise style, drew heavily from Manu's legal treatise and Kautilya 's Arthashastra in this text. The text mirrors Manusmriti 's structure and follow
3354-516: Is akin to that of Latin and Ancient Greek in Europe. Sanskrit has significantly influenced most modern languages of the Indian subcontinent , particularly the languages of the northern, western, central and eastern Indian subcontinent. Sanskrit declined starting about and after the 13th century. This coincides with the beginning of Islamic invasions of South Asia to create, and thereafter expand
3483-593: Is also widely commented upon, and referenced in popular works such as the 5th-century Panchatantra . The text is profusely quoted in chapters 253-258 of the extant manuscripts of the Agni Purana , and in chapters 93-106 of the Garuda Purana . Sanskrit language Sanskrit ( / ˈ s æ n s k r ɪ t / ; attributively 𑀲𑀁𑀲𑁆𑀓𑀾𑀢𑀁 , संस्कृत- , saṃskṛta- ; nominally संस्कृतम् , saṃskṛtam , IPA: [ˈsɐ̃skr̩tɐm] )
3612-404: Is calculated to do good to the patient", and maintain the patient's privacy. There is no end in the knowledge of medical science, claims verse 3.8.12 of the Charaka Samhita, and the physician must constantly learn and devote himself to it. The text asserts that a physician should discuss his findings and questions with other physicians because "when one discusses with another that is possessed of
3741-604: Is called Anu-taila . The text, thereafter, asserts that this Anu-taila is to be used as a rubbing oil and as a nasal drop for a certain class of ailments. Glucklich mentions other medical texts from ancient India which include the use of Anu-taila in skin therapy. The Charaka Samhita discusses sexual diseases as well as its theory of treatment of sexual dysfunctions and virility ( Vajikarana ). The text emphasizes methods of body cleansing, sexual health-promoting conduct, behavior and diet. Certain herb and mineral combinations are part of its regimen. The text asserts that obesity and
3870-468: Is compassionate towards who approach him, who lives a life of inner and outer Shaucha , is well equipped, who knows the characteristics of health and disease, one who is without malice towards anyone, is free of anger, who respects privacy and pain of his patients, is willing to teach, and is a good communicator. When one finds such a teacher, asserts the Caraka Samhita, the student must revere
3999-471: Is essential for expedient recovery from sickness or surgery. The Charaka Samhita suggests a regimen of Mamsa Rasa (meat soup) during pregnancy from the 6th month onwards. Freshly cut meat is also recommended by the text for treatment of poison: the cut meat is pressed against the affected part or spot of insect or reptile bite to absorb the poison. Ray et al. list medicinal substances from over 150 animal origins that are described in Charaka Samhita, and
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4128-452: Is found in the writing of Bharata Muni , the author of the ancient Natya Shastra text. The early Jain scholar Namisādhu acknowledged the difference, but disagreed that the Prakrit language was a corruption of Sanskrit. Namisādhu stated that the Prakrit language was the pūrvam ('came before, origin') and that it came naturally to children, while Sanskrit was a refinement of Prakrit through "purification by grammar". Sanskrit belongs to
4257-475: Is named after the revered Vedic sage Yajnavalkya , who appears in many major Upanishads of Hinduism, as well as other influential texts such as the Yoga Yajnavalkya . However, as the text is believed to have been composed more than a millennium after his life, it is possible that it has been attributed to him out of respect, as has been common in the Hindu traditions. The text was likely composed in
4386-532: Is rare in the later version of the language. The Homerian Greek, like Ṛg-vedic Sanskrit, deploys simile extensively, but they are structurally very different. The early Vedic form of the Sanskrit language was far less homogenous compared to the Classical Sanskrit as defined by grammarians by about the mid-1st millennium BCE. According to Richard Gombrich—an Indologist and a scholar of Sanskrit, Pāli and Buddhist Studies—the archaic Vedic Sanskrit found in
4515-479: Is taken along with evidence of controversy, for example, in passages of the Aitareya-Āraṇyaka (700 BCE), which features a discussion on whether retroflexion is valid in particular cases. The Ṛg-veda is a collection of books, created by multiple authors. These authors represented different generations, and the mandalas 2 to 7 are the oldest while the mandalas 1 and 10 are relatively the youngest. Yet,
4644-763: Is the Ahitam-Ayuh . The aim of Ayurveda is to teach what is conducive to these four kinds of life. — Caraka Samhita Chapters 1.1, 1.30 (Abridged) The extant text has eight sthāna (books), totalling 120 chapters. The text includes a table of contents embedded in its verses, stating the names and describing the nature of the eight books, followed by a listing of the 120 chapters. These eight books are Seventeen chapters of Cikitsā sthāna and complete Kalpa sthāna and Siddhi sthāna were added later by Dṛḍhabala. The text starts with Sūtra sthāna which deals with fundamentals and basic principles of Ayurveda practice. Unique scientific contributions credited to
4773-474: Is the Asukham-Ayuh . Hitam-Ayuh is the life of a person who is always willing to do good to all living beings, truthful, non-stealing, calm, self-restrained, taking steps after examining the situation, virtuous, achieve Dharma - Artha - Kama , without conflict with others, worshipping whatever is worthy, devoted to knowledge-understanding-serenity of mind, and to charity and peace. The opposite of this
4902-589: Is the predominant language of one of the largest collection of historic manuscripts. The earliest known inscriptions in Sanskrit are from the 1st century BCE, such as the Ayodhya Inscription of Dhana and Ghosundi-Hathibada (Chittorgarh) . Though developed and nurtured by scholars of orthodox schools of Hinduism, Sanskrit has been the language for some of the key literary works and theology of heterodox schools of Indian philosophies such as Buddhism and Jainism. The structure and capabilities of
5031-453: The Caraka Saṃhitā include: The text asserts that there are four important parts to medical practice – the patient, the physician, the nurse and the medicines. All four are essential to recovery and return to health, states the text. The physician provides knowledge and coordinates the treatment. He is who can "explore the dark interior of the body with the lamp of knowledge", according to
5160-540: The Bhagavata Purana , the Panchatantra and many other texts are all in the Sanskrit language. The Classical Sanskrit with its exacting grammar was thus the language of the Indian scholars and the educated classes, while others communicated with approximate or ungrammatical variants of it as well as other natural Indian languages. Sanskrit, as the learned language of Ancient India, thus existed alongside
5289-483: The Charaka Samhita are uncertain. Meulenbeld's History of Indian Medical Literature dates it to be between the 4th century BCE to the 2nd century CE, with Charaka's compilation likely between 100 BCE and 200 CE. The Dṛḍhabala revision and completion, the source of current texts, is dated to the 6th century CE. In Sanskrit, charaka is a term for a wanderer, sannyasi (ascetic), and sometimes used in
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5418-580: The Dalai Lama , the Sanskrit language is a parent language that is at the foundation of many modern languages of India and the one that promoted Indian thought to other distant countries. In Tibetan Buddhism, states the Dalai Lama, Sanskrit language has been a revered one and called legjar lhai-ka or "elegant language of the gods". It has been the means of transmitting the "profound wisdom of Buddhist philosophy" to Tibet. The Sanskrit language created
5547-597: The Gupta period , roughly between the 3rd and 5th century CE. There is some debate as to whether it is to be placed in the earlier or later part of that time span. Patrick Olivelle suggests the likely date may be in the 4th to 5th century CE. Arguments for particular dating are based on the concise, sophisticated vocabulary found throughout the text and on the use of certain terms such as nāṇaka (a coin), and references to Greek astrology (which has been known in India since
5676-613: The Indo-European family of languages . It is one of the three earliest ancient documented languages that arose from a common root language now referred to as Proto-Indo-European : Other Indo-European languages distantly related to Sanskrit include archaic and Classical Latin ( c. 600 BCE–100 CE, Italic languages ), Gothic (archaic Germanic language , c. 350 CE ), Old Norse ( c. 200 CE and after), Old Avestan ( c. late 2nd millennium BCE ) and Younger Avestan ( c. 900 BCE). The closest ancient relatives of Vedic Sanskrit in
5805-728: The Mithila region of historic India (in and around modern Bihar ). The text is in classical Sanskrit, and is organized in three books. These are achara-kanda (368 verses), vyavahara-kanda (307 verses) and prayascitta-kanda (335 verses). The Yājñavalkya Smṛti consists of a cumulative total of 1,010 ślokas (verses), and its presentation is methodical, clear and concise instead of the poetic "literary beauty" found in Manusmriti according to Robert Lingat. Ludo Rocher states that this treatise, like others in Dharmasastras genre,
5934-753: The Rigveda had already evolved in the Vedic period, as evidenced in the later Vedic literature. Gombrich posits that the language in the early Upanishads of Hinduism and the late Vedic literature approaches Classical Sanskrit, while the archaic Vedic Sanskrit had by the Buddha 's time become unintelligible to all except ancient Indian sages. The formalization of the Saṃskṛta language is credited to Pāṇini , along with Patañjali's Mahābhāṣya and Katyayana's commentary that preceded Patañjali's work. Panini composed Aṣṭādhyāyī ('Eight-Chapter Grammar'), which became
6063-532: The Rigveda , a collection of 1,028 hymns composed between 1500 BCE and 1200 BCE by Indo-Aryan tribes migrating east from the mountains of what is today northern Afghanistan across northern Pakistan and into northwestern India. Vedic Sanskrit interacted with the preexisting ancient languages of the subcontinent, absorbing names of newly encountered plants and animals; in addition, the ancient Dravidian languages influenced Sanskrit's phonology and syntax. Sanskrit can also more narrowly refer to Classical Sanskrit ,
6192-531: The Rāmāyaṇa , however, were composed in a range of oral storytelling registers called Epic Sanskrit which was used in northern India between 400 BCE and 300 CE, and roughly contemporary with classical Sanskrit. In the following centuries, Sanskrit became tradition-bound, stopped being learned as a first language, and ultimately stopped developing as a living language. The hymns of the Rigveda are notably similar to
6321-406: The sandhi rules, both internal and external. Quite many words found in the early Vedic Sanskrit language are never found in late Vedic Sanskrit or Classical Sanskrit literature, while some words have different and new meanings in Classical Sanskrit when contextually compared to the early Vedic Sanskrit literature. Arthur Macdonell was among the early colonial era scholars who summarized some of
6450-500: The verbal adjective sáṃskṛta- is a compound word consisting of sáṃ ('together, good, well, perfected') and kṛta - ('made, formed, work'). It connotes a work that has been "well prepared, pure and perfect, polished, sacred". According to Biderman, the perfection contextually being referred to in the etymological origins of the word is its tonal—rather than semantic—qualities. Sound and oral transmission were highly valued qualities in ancient India, and its sages refined
6579-414: The 13th century, a premier center of Sanskrit literary creativity, Sanskrit literature there disappeared, perhaps in the "fires that periodically engulfed the capital of Kashmir" or the "Mongol invasion of 1320" states Pollock. The Sanskrit literature which was once widely disseminated out of the northwest regions of the subcontinent, stopped after the 12th century. As Hindu kingdoms fell in the eastern and
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#17327721088836708-500: The 2nd century; see Yavanajataka ). The argument arises when considerations are made as to who was exchanging the nāṇaka and when the level of Greek thought which the author understood is brought into question. Attested written legal documents Every loan transaction, where any amount has been agreed to be repaid with interest by a contract entered into by mutual consent, should be reduced to writing and should be attested by witnesses. — Yajnavalkya Smriti 2.84 The text
6837-532: The 7th century where he established a major center of learning and language translation under the patronage of Emperor Taizong. By the early 1st millennium CE, Sanskrit had spread Buddhist and Hindu ideas to Southeast Asia, parts of the East Asia and the Central Asia. It was accepted as a language of high culture and the preferred language by some of the local ruling elites in these regions. According to
6966-470: The Charaka Samhita are dedicated to identifying and classifying seeds, roots, flowers, fruits, stems, aromatic leaves, barks of different trees, plants juices, mountain herbs, animal products ranging from their milk to their excretory waste after the animals eat certain diet or grasses, different types of honey, stones, salts and others. The text also describes numerous recipes, detailing how a particular formulation should be prepared. A typical recipe appears in
7095-466: The Cikitsa Sthana book of the Caraka Samhita as follows: Anu Taila recipe Take a measure of sesame seeds. Macerate them in goat's milk. Then pound them in goat's milk. Place the pounded product on a piece of clean cloth. Place the product and cloth over a vessel filled with goat's milk. Apply mild heat to the vessel. Let vapors from heated milk slightly boil the sesame paste. Mix
7224-425: The Classical Sanskrit language launched ancient Indian speculations about "the nature and function of language", what is the relationship between words and their meanings in the context of a community of speakers, whether this relationship is objective or subjective, discovered or is created, how individuals learn and relate to the world around them through language, and about the limits of language? They speculated on
7353-532: The Dravidian languages borrowed from Sanskrit vocabulary, but they have also affected Sanskrit on deeper levels of structure, "for instance in the domain of phonology where Indo-Aryan retroflexes have been attributed to Dravidian influence". Similarly, Ferenc Ruzca states that all the major shifts in Indo-Aryan phonetics over two millennia can be attributed to the constant influence of a Dravidian language with
7482-521: The Dravidian words and forms, without modifying the word order; but the same thing is not possible in rendering a Persian or English sentence into a non-Indo-Aryan language. Shulman mentions that "Dravidian nonfinite verbal forms (called vinaiyeccam in Tamil) shaped the usage of the Sanskrit nonfinite verbs (originally derived from inflected forms of action nouns in Vedic). This particularly salient case of
7611-476: The Indo-Aryan language underwent rapid linguistic change and morphed into the Vedic Sanskrit language. The pre-Classical form of Sanskrit is known as Vedic Sanskrit . The earliest attested Sanskrit text is the Rigveda , a Hindu scripture from the mid- to late-second millennium BCE. No written records from such an early period survive, if any ever existed, but scholars are generally confident that
7740-519: The Indo-European languages are the Nuristani languages found in the remote Hindu Kush region of northeastern Afghanistan and northwestern Himalayas, as well as the extinct Avestan and Old Persian – both are Iranian languages . Sanskrit belongs to the satem group of the Indo-European languages. Colonial era scholars familiar with Latin and Greek were struck by the resemblance of
7869-532: The Muslim rule in the form of Sultanates, and later the Mughal Empire . Sheldon Pollock characterises the decline of Sanskrit as a long-term "cultural, social, and political change". He dismisses the idea that Sanskrit declined due to "struggle with barbarous invaders", and emphasises factors such as the increasing attractiveness of vernacular language for literary expression. With the fall of Kashmir around
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#17327721088837998-496: The Muslim rulers. Hindu rulers such as Shivaji of the Maratha Empire , reversed the process, by re-adopting Sanskrit and re-asserting their socio-linguistic identity. After Islamic rule disintegrated in South Asia and the colonial rule era began, Sanskrit re-emerged but in the form of a "ghostly existence" in regions such as Bengal. This decline was the result of "political institutions and civic ethos" that did not support
8127-499: The Saṃskṛta language, both in its vocabulary and grammar, to the classical languages of Europe. In The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World , Mallory and Adams illustrate the resemblance with the following examples of cognate forms (with the addition of Old English for further comparison): The correspondences suggest some common root, and historical links between some of
8256-638: The South India, such as the great Vijayanagara Empire , so did Sanskrit. There were exceptions and short periods of imperial support for Sanskrit, mostly concentrated during the reign of the tolerant Mughal emperor Akbar . Muslim rulers patronized the Middle Eastern language and scripts found in Persia and Arabia, and the Indians linguistically adapted to this Persianization to gain employment with
8385-447: The Vedic Sanskrit in these books of the Ṛg-veda "hardly presents any dialectical diversity", states Louis Renou – an Indologist known for his scholarship of the Sanskrit literature and the Ṛg-veda in particular. According to Renou, this implies that the Vedic Sanskrit language had a "set linguistic pattern" by the second half of the 2nd millennium BCE. Beyond the Ṛg-veda, the ancient literature in Vedic Sanskrit that has survived into
8514-451: The Vedic Sanskrit's bahulam framework, to respect liberty and creativity so that individual writers separated by geography or time would have the choice to express facts and their views in their own way, where tradition followed competitive forms of the Sanskrit language. The phonetic differences between Vedic Sanskrit and Classical Sanskrit, as discerned from the current state of the surviving literature, are negligible when compared to
8643-476: The ability to describe how he or she feels, remember and respectfully follow the physician instructions. The Charaka Samhita, states Curtin, was among the earliest texts that set a code of ethics on physicians and nurses, attributing "moral as well as scientific authority to the healer". The text, in chapters 8 and 9 of the Vimana Sthana dedicates numerous verses to discussing the code. It mandates that
8772-407: The alphabet, the structure of words, and its exacting grammar into a "collection of sounds, a kind of sublime musical mold" as an integral language they called Saṃskṛta . From the late Vedic period onwards, state Annette Wilke and Oliver Moebus, resonating sound and its musical foundations attracted an "exceptionally large amount of linguistic, philosophical and religious literature" in India. Sound
8901-515: The bandhus, with ornaments, clothes and food. — Yajnavalkya Smriti 3.82 1. Pioneered the structure which was adopted in future dharmaśāstric discourse: 2. Documentary evidence as the highest foundation of Legal Procedure: 3. Restructured the Courts: 4. Changed the placement of the discussion of Ascetic Orders: 5. Focused on Mokṣa : Five medieval era bhasya (review and commentaries) on Yajnavalkya Smrti have survived into
9030-682: The body. Improperly used (excess or deficient), they verily lead to the provocation of the Dosha . The Dosha are three: Vata , Pitta and Kapha . When they are in their normal state, they are beneficial to the body. When, however, they become disorganized, verily they afflict the body with diseases of diverse kinds. The text suggests that foods are source of heat, nutritive value as well as physiological substances that act like drugs inside human body. Furthermore, along with medicine, Caraka Samhita in Chapters 26 and 27, states that proper nutrition
9159-469: The boiled paste with pulverized liquorice, adding an equal measure of goat's milk. Press the oil out of the mixed product. Add this oil to the (standard) decoction of ten roots in the ratio of one to four. To this oil mix, add paste of Rasna , Madhuka and Saindhava salt in the ratio of four to one. Boil all these together. Filter. Extract and collect the oil. Repeat the root-paste-salt-oil combining and boiling process ten times. The resulting oil
9288-437: The book himself because this portion had been lost, and that he also re-wrote the last part of the book. Based on textual analysis, and the literal meaning of the Sanskrit word charaka , Chattopadhyay speculated that charaka does not refer to one person but a lineage or sect of people. Vishwakarma and Goswami state that the text exists in many versions and entire chapters are missing in some versions. Dates of composition of
9417-440: The capacity to understand the old Prakrit languages such as Ardhamagadhi . A section of European scholars state that Sanskrit was never a spoken language. However, evidences shows that Sanskrit was a spoken language, essential for oral tradition that preserved the vast number of Sanskrit manuscripts from ancient India. The textual evidence in the works of Yaksa, Panini, and Patanajali affirms that Classical Sanskrit in their era
9546-423: The chapters these are found in. These range from meat of wild animals such as fox and crocodile, to that of freshly cut fish, fish oil, eggs of birds, bee's wax. Additionally, the text describes hundreds of formulations (gruel) it asserts to be of medicinal value from a mixture of animal products and herb or plant products, as well as inert minerals such as various salts, soots and alkalis. Numerous chapters in
9675-527: The close relationship between the Indo-Iranian tongues and the Baltic and Slavic languages , vocabulary exchange with the non-Indo-European Uralic languages , and the nature of the attested Indo-European words for flora and fauna. The pre-history of Indo-Aryan languages which preceded Vedic Sanskrit is unclear and various hypotheses place it over a fairly wide limit. According to Thomas Burrow, based on
9804-614: The context of a speech or language, is found in verses 5.28.17–19 of the Ramayana . Outside the learned sphere of written Classical Sanskrit, vernacular colloquial dialects ( Prakrits ) continued to evolve. Sanskrit co-existed with numerous other Prakrit languages of ancient India. The Prakrit languages of India also have ancient roots and some Sanskrit scholars have called these Apabhramsa , literally 'spoiled'. The Vedic literature includes words whose phonetic equivalent are not found in other Indo-European languages but which are found in
9933-596: The context of the ancient tradition of wandering physicians who brought their medical expertise and magico-religious rites from village to village. Surendranath Dasgupta states that the medical tradition of wandering physicians is traceable to the Atharvaveda , particularly the Caranavaidya shakha – one of the nine known shakha of Atharvaveda-based Vedic schools. The name of this school literally means "wandering physicians". Their texts have not survived into
10062-653: The crystallization of Classical Sanskrit. As in this period the Indo-Aryan tribes had not yet made contact with the inhabitants of the South of the subcontinent, this suggests a significant presence of Dravidian speakers in North India (the central Gangetic plain and the classical Madhyadeśa) who were instrumental in this substratal influence on Sanskrit. Extant manuscripts in Sanskrit number over 30 million, one hundred times those in Greek and Latin combined, constituting
10191-467: The detailed and sophisticated treatise then transmitted it through his students. Modern scholarship generally accepts that he knew of a form of writing, based on references to words such as Lipi ('script') and lipikara ('scribe') in section 3.2 of the Aṣṭādhyāyī . The Classical Sanskrit language formalized by Pāṇini, states Renou, is "not an impoverished language", rather it is "a controlled and
10320-471: The differences between the Vedic and Classical Sanskrit. Louis Renou published in 1956, in French, a more extensive discussion of the similarities, the differences and the evolution of the Vedic Sanskrit within the Vedic period and then to the Classical Sanskrit along with his views on the history. This work has been translated by Jagbans Balbir. The earliest known use of the word Saṃskṛta (Sanskrit), in
10449-460: The distant major ancient languages of the world. The Indo-Aryan migrations theory explains the common features shared by Sanskrit and other Indo-European languages by proposing that the original speakers of what became Sanskrit arrived in South Asia from a region of common origin, somewhere north-west of the Indus region , during the early 2nd millennium BCE. Evidence for such a theory includes
10578-490: The early medieval era, it became a language of religion and high culture , and of the political elites in some of these regions. As a result, Sanskrit had a lasting impact on the languages of South Asia, Southeast Asia and East Asia, especially in their formal and learned vocabularies. Sanskrit generally connotes several Old Indo-Aryan language varieties. The most archaic of these is the Vedic Sanskrit found in
10707-534: The essence of dharma, and it elevates yoga and self-perception ( atmadarsana ) as the highest form of dharma. There are influential differences from the Manu Smriti and earlier Dharma texts, especially with regard to statecraft, the primary of attested documentary evidence in legal process, and in jurisprudence. Women must be honored Woman is to be respected by her husband, brother, father, kindred, mother-in-law, father-in-law, husband's younger brother, and
10836-652: The evidence of later additions of some Brahminic ideas. There is a close relationship between the philosophic presuppositions and the approach to medicine in Caraka Samhita. Diet and health Innumerable diseases, bodily and mental, have for their root Tamas (stupefaction, darkness). Through fault of the understanding, one indulges in the five injurious objects, suppresses the urgings of nature and accomplishes acts that are highly rash. The man of Ignorance then becomes united with conditions for disease. The man of Knowledge, however, purified by knowledge avoids those conditions. One should never take any food, acting only from
10965-548: The first language of the respective speakers. The Sanskrit language brought Indo-Aryan speaking people together, particularly its elite scholars. Some of these scholars of Indian history regionally produced vernacularized Sanskrit to reach wider audiences, as evidenced by texts discovered in Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Maharashtra. Once the audience became familiar with the easier to understand vernacularized version of Sanskrit, those interested could graduate from colloquial Sanskrit to
11094-412: The foundation of Vyākaraṇa, a Vedānga . The Aṣṭādhyāyī was not the first description of Sanskrit grammar, but it is the earliest that has survived in full, and the culmination of a long grammatical tradition that Fortson says, is "one of the intellectual wonders of the ancient world". Pāṇini cites ten scholars on the phonological and grammatical aspects of the Sanskrit language before him, as well as
11223-537: The gods Varuna, Mitra, Indra, and Nasatya found in the earliest layers of the Vedic literature. O Bṛhaspati, when in giving names they first set forth the beginning of Language, Their most excellent and spotless secret was laid bare through love, When the wise ones formed Language with their mind, purifying it like grain with a winnowing fan, Then friends knew friendships – an auspicious mark placed on their language. — Rigveda 10.71.1–4 Translated by Roger Woodard The Vedic Sanskrit found in
11352-399: The good of all creatures. — Charak Samhita 3.VIII.6 (Abridged) The Charaka Samhita states that the content of the book was first taught by Atreya , and then subsequently codified by Agniveśa , revised by Charaka, and the manuscripts that survive into the modern era are based on one completed by Dṛḍhabala. Dṛḍhabala stated in the Charaka Samhita that he had to write one-third of
11481-431: The historic Sanskrit literary culture and the failure of new Sanskrit literature to assimilate into the changing cultural and political environment. Sheldon Pollock states that in some crucial way, "Sanskrit is dead ". After the 12th century, the Sanskrit literary works were reduced to "reinscription and restatements" of ideas already explored, and any creativity was restricted to hymns and verses. This contrasted with
11610-630: The human body, etiology , symptomology and therapeutics for a wide range of diseases. The Charaka Samhita also includes sections on the importance of diet, hygiene, prevention, medical education, and the teamwork of a physician, nurse and patient necessary for recovery to health. The ideal medical student He should be of a mild disposition, noble by nature, never mean in his acts, free from pride, strong memory, liberal mind, devoted to truth, likes solitude, of thoughtful disposition, free from anger, of excellent character, compassionate, one fond of study, devoted to both theory and practice, who seeks
11739-486: The intense change that must have occurred in the pre-Vedic period between the Proto-Indo-Aryan language and Vedic Sanskrit. The noticeable differences between the Vedic and the Classical Sanskrit include the much-expanded grammar and grammatical categories as well as the differences in the accent, the semantics and the syntax. There are also some differences between how some of the nouns and verbs end, as well as
11868-432: The largest cultural heritage that any civilization has produced prior to the invention of the printing press. — Foreword of Sanskrit Computational Linguistics (2009), Gérard Huet, Amba Kulkarni and Peter Scharf Sanskrit has been the predominant language of Hindu texts encompassing a rich tradition of philosophical and religious texts, as well as poetry, music, drama , scientific , technical and others. It
11997-412: The linguistic expression and sets the standard for the Sanskrit language. Pāṇini made use of a technical metalanguage consisting of a syntax, morphology and lexicon. This metalanguage is organised according to a series of meta-rules, some of which are explicitly stated while others can be deduced. Despite differences in the analysis from that of modern linguistics, Pāṇini's work has been found valuable and
12126-514: The literary works. The Indian tradition, states Winternitz , has favored the learning and the usage of multiple languages from the ancient times. Sanskrit was a spoken language in the educated and the elite classes, but it was also a language that must have been understood in a wider circle of society because the widely popular folk epics and stories such as the Ramayana , the Mahabharata ,
12255-511: The modern age include the Samaveda , Yajurveda , Atharvaveda , along with the embedded and layered Vedic texts such as the Brahmanas , Aranyakas , and the early Upanishads . These Vedic documents reflect the dialects of Sanskrit found in the various parts of the northwestern, northern, and eastern Indian subcontinent. According to Michael Witzel, Vedic Sanskrit was a spoken language of
12384-520: The modern era, but manuscripts from two competing schools – Paippalada and Saunakiya, have. The Atharvaveda contains chapters relating to medicine, surgery and magico-religious rites. This Atharvaveda layer of text was likely compiled contemporaneously with Samaveda and Yajurveda , in about 1200 BCE–1000 BCE. Dasgupta and other scholars state that the Atreya-Charaka school and its texts may have emerged from this older tradition, and he cites
12513-674: The modern era. These are by Visvarupa ( Bālakrīḍā , 750-1000 CE), Vijanesvara ( Mitaksara , 11th or 12th century, most studied, from the Varanasi school), Apararka ( Apararka-nibandha , 12th-century, from the Kashmir school), Sulapani ( Dipakalika , 14th or 15th century) and Mitramisra ( Viramitrodaya , 17th-century). The legal theories in this text were likely very influential in medieval India, because its passages and quotes are found inscribed in every part of India, and these inscriptions are dated to be from around 10th to 11th century CE. The text
12642-429: The more advanced Classical Sanskrit. Rituals and the rites-of-passage ceremonies have been and continue to be the other occasions where a wide spectrum of people hear Sanskrit, and occasionally join in to speak some Sanskrit words such as namah . Classical Sanskrit is the standard register as laid out in the grammar of Pāṇini , around the fourth century BCE. Its position in the cultures of Greater India
12771-401: The most advanced analysis of linguistics until the twentieth century. Pāṇini's comprehensive and scientific theory of grammar is conventionally taken to mark the start of Classical Sanskrit. His systematic treatise inspired and made Sanskrit the preeminent Indian language of learning and literature for two millennia. It is unclear whether Pāṇini himself wrote his treatise or he orally created
12900-602: The most archaic poems of the Iranian and Greek language families, the Gathas of old Avestan and Iliad of Homer . As the Rigveda was orally transmitted by methods of memorisation of exceptional complexity, rigour and fidelity, as a single text without variant readings, its preserved archaic syntax and morphology are of vital importance in the reconstruction of the common ancestor language Proto-Indo-European . Sanskrit does not have an attested native script: from around
13029-545: The numbers are thought to signify a wish to be aligned with the prestige of the language. Sanskrit has been taught in traditional gurukulas since ancient times; it is widely taught today at the secondary school level. The oldest Sanskrit college is the Benares Sanskrit College founded in 1791 during East India Company rule . Sanskrit continues to be widely used as a ceremonial and ritual language in Hindu and Buddhist hymns and chants . In Sanskrit,
13158-403: The oral transmission of the texts is reliable: they are ceremonial literature, where the exact phonetic expression and its preservation were a part of the historic tradition. However some scholars have suggested that the original Ṛg-veda differed in some fundamental ways in phonology compared to the sole surviving version available to us. In particular that retroflex consonants did not exist as
13287-431: The other." Reinöhl further states that there is a symmetric relationship between Dravidian languages like Kannada or Tamil, with Indo-Aryan languages like Bengali or Hindi, whereas the same relationship is not found for non-Indo-Aryan languages, for example, Persian or English: A sentence in a Dravidian language like Tamil or Kannada becomes ordinarily good Bengali or Hindi by substituting Bengali or Hindi equivalents for
13416-518: The physician must seek consent before entering a patient's quarters, must be accompanied by a male member of the family if he is attending a woman or minor, must inform and gain consent from the patient or the guardians if the patient is a minor, must never resort to extortion for his service, never involve himself in any other activities with the patient or patient's family (such as negotiating loans, arranging marriage, buying or selling property), speak with soft words and never use cruel words, only do "what
13545-414: The possible influence of Dravidian on Sanskrit is only one of many items of syntactic assimilation, not least among them the large repertoire of morphological modality and aspect that, once one knows to look for it, can be found everywhere in classical and postclassical Sanskrit". The main influence of Dravidian on Sanskrit is found to have been concentrated in the timespan between the late Vedic period and
13674-439: The previous 1,500 years when "great experiments in moral and aesthetic imagination" marked the Indian scholarship using Classical Sanskrit, states Pollock. Scholars maintain that the Sanskrit language did not die, but rather only declined. Jurgen Hanneder disagrees with Pollock, finding his arguments elegant but "often arbitrary". According to Hanneder, a decline or regional absence of creative and innovative literature constitutes
13803-480: The problems of interpretation and misunderstanding. The purifying structure of the Sanskrit language removes these imperfections. The early Sanskrit grammarian Daṇḍin states, for example, that much in the Prakrit languages is etymologically rooted in Sanskrit, but involves "loss of sounds" and corruptions that result from a "disregard of the grammar". Daṇḍin acknowledged that there are words and confusing structures in Prakrit that thrive independent of Sanskrit. This view
13932-609: The regional Prakrit languages, which makes it likely that the interaction, the sharing of words and ideas began early in the Indian history. As the Indian thought diversified and challenged earlier beliefs of Hinduism, particularly in the form of Buddhism and Jainism , the Prakrit languages such as Pali in Theravada Buddhism and Ardhamagadhi in Jainism competed with Sanskrit in the ancient times. However, states Paul Dundas , these ancient Prakrit languages had "roughly
14061-497: The relationship between various Indo-European languages, the origin of all these languages may possibly be in what is now Central or Eastern Europe, while the Indo-Iranian group possibly arose in Central Russia. The Iranian and Indo-Aryan branches separated quite early. It is the Indo-Aryan branch that moved into eastern Iran and then south into South Asia in the first half of the 2nd millennium BCE. Once in ancient India,
14190-562: The role of language, the ontological status of painting word-images through sound, and the need for rules so that it can serve as a means for a community of speakers, separated by geography or time, to share and understand profound ideas from each other. These speculations became particularly important to the Mīmāṃsā and the Nyaya schools of Hindu philosophy, and later to Vedanta and Mahayana Buddhism, states Frits Staal —a scholar of Linguistics with
14319-496: The same relationship to Sanskrit as medieval Italian does to Latin". The Indian tradition states that the Buddha and the Mahavira preferred the Prakrit language so that everyone could understand it. However, scholars such as Dundas have questioned this hypothesis. They state that there is no evidence for this and whatever evidence is available suggests that by the start of the common era, hardly anybody other than learned monks had
14448-556: The semi-nomadic Aryans . The Vedic Sanskrit language or a closely related Indo-European variant was recognized beyond ancient India as evidenced by the " Mitanni Treaty" between the ancient Hittite and Mitanni people, carved into a rock, in a region that now includes parts of Syria and Turkey. Parts of this treaty, such as the names of the Mitanni princes and technical terms related to horse training, for reasons not understood, are in early forms of Vedic Sanskrit. The treaty also invokes
14577-615: The social structures such as the role of the poet and the priests, the patronage economy, the phrasal equations, and some of the poetic metres. While there are similarities, state Jamison and Brereton, there are also differences between Vedic Sanskrit, the Old Avestan, and the Mycenaean Greek literature. For example, unlike the Sanskrit similes in the Ṛg-veda, the Old Avestan Gathas lack simile entirely, and it
14706-575: The teacher like a deity or one's own father, because it is by his grace that one becomes educated. When the teacher accepts a student as his apprentice, asserts the Charaka Samhita, he should in the presence of fire initiate the student with the following mandates during the period of apprenticeship – "thou shalt be a brahmacharin , wear beard and mustache, thou shalt be always truthful, abstain from meat and unclean diet, never harbor envy, never bear weapons, thou shalt do anything I say except if that may lead to another person's death or to great harm or to
14835-424: The text and Valiathan's translation. The physician must express joy and cheer towards those who can respond to treatment, masterfully avoid and save time in cases where the patient suffers from an incurable disease, while compassionate towards all. The nurse must be knowledgeable, skilled at preparing formulations and dosage, sympathetic towards everyone and clean. The patient is responsible for being positive, have
14964-426: The text is Yājñavalkya's theories on dharma, presented under Ācāra (proper conduct), Vyavahāra (criminal law) and Prāyaścitta (expiation). The Yajnavalkya Smriti extensively quotes the Manu Smriti and other Dharma-texts, sometimes directly paraphrasing passages from these, often reducing earlier views into a compendium and offering an alternate legal theory. The text places emphasizes the act of giving ( dana ) as
15093-574: The text presumes proper goals to include both spiritual and physical health. The Charaka Samhita, in addition to initial recitations, uses the foundational assumptions and values embedded in various layers of the Vedas . These assumptions include the Vedic doctrine that a human being is a microcosmic replica of the universe, and the ancient Hindu theory of six elements (five Prakriti and one Brahman ), three humors (Vata, Pitta, Kapha), three Guṇas (Sattva, Rajas and Tamas) as constituent forces innate in
15222-483: The three Gunas . The Sushruta Samhita and Charaka Samhita have religious ideas throughout, states Steven Engler, who then concludes, "Vedic elements are too central to be discounted as marginal". These ideas appear, for example, in the theoretical foundations and Vedic metaphors used in these texts. In addition, states Engler, the text includes another layer of ideas, where empirical rational ideas flourish in competition or cooperation with religious ideas, as well as
15351-653: The turn of the 1st-millennium CE, it has been written in various Brahmic scripts , and in the modern era most commonly in Devanagari . Sanskrit's status, function, and place in India's cultural heritage are recognized by its inclusion in the Constitution of India 's Eighth Schedule languages . However, despite attempts at revival, there are no first-language speakers of Sanskrit in India. In each of India's recent decennial censuses, several thousand citizens have reported Sanskrit to be their mother tongue, but
15480-431: The ultimate source of its knowledge. The Charaka Samhita mentions Bharadvaja learning from god Indra , after pleading that "poor health was disrupting the ability of human beings from pursuing their spiritual journey", and then Indra provides both the method and specifics of medical knowledge. The method, asserts the text, revolves around three principles: etiology, symptomology and therapeutics. Thus, states Glucklich,
15609-408: The variants in the usage of Sanskrit in different regions of India. The ten Vedic scholars he quotes are Āpiśali, Kaśyapa , Gārgya, Gālava, Cakravarmaṇa, Bhāradvāja , Śākaṭāyana, Śākalya, Senaka and Sphoṭāyana. In the Aṣṭādhyāyī , language is observed in a manner that has no parallel among Greek or Latin grammarians. Pāṇini's grammar, according to Renou and Filliozat, is a classic that defines
15738-564: The vernacular Prakrits. Many Sanskrit dramas indicate that the language coexisted with the vernacular Prakrits. The cities of Varanasi , Paithan , Pune and Kanchipuram were centers of classical Sanskrit learning and public debates until the arrival of the colonial era. According to Lamotte , Sanskrit became the dominant literary and inscriptional language because of its precision in communication. It was, states Lamotte, an ideal instrument for presenting ideas, and as knowledge in Sanskrit multiplied, so did its spread and influence. Sanskrit
15867-502: The Ṛg-veda is distinctly more archaic than other Vedic texts, and in many respects, the Rigvedic language is notably more similar to those found in the archaic texts of Old Avestan Zoroastrian Gathas and Homer's Iliad and Odyssey . According to Stephanie W. Jamison and Joel P. Brereton – Indologists known for their translation of the Ṛg-veda – the Vedic Sanskrit literature "clearly inherited" from Indo-Iranian and Indo-European times
15996-408: Was a spoken language ( bhasha ) used by the cultured and educated. Some sutras expound upon the variant forms of spoken Sanskrit versus written Sanskrit. Chinese Buddhist pilgrim Xuanzang mentioned in his memoir that official philosophical debates in India were held in Sanskrit, not in the vernacular language of that region. According to Sanskrit linguist professor Madhav Deshpande, Sanskrit
16125-427: Was a spoken language in a colloquial form by the mid-1st millennium BCE which coexisted with a more formal, grammatically correct form of literary Sanskrit. This, states Deshpande, is true for modern languages where colloquial incorrect approximations and dialects of a language are spoken and understood, along with more "refined, sophisticated and grammatically accurate" forms of the same language being found in
16254-472: Was adopted voluntarily as a vehicle of high culture, arts, and profound ideas. Pollock disagrees with Lamotte, but concurs that Sanskrit's influence grew into what he terms a "Sanskrit Cosmopolis" over a region that included all of South Asia and much of southeast Asia. The Sanskrit language cosmopolis thrived beyond India between 300 and 1300 CE. Today, it is believed that Kashmiri is the closest language to Sanskrit. Reinöhl mentions that not only have
16383-738: Was also the language of some of the oldest surviving, authoritative and much followed philosophical works of Jainism such as the Tattvartha Sutra by Umaswati . The Sanskrit language has been one of the major means for the transmission of knowledge and ideas in Asian history. Indian texts in Sanskrit were already in China by 402 CE, carried by the influential Buddhist pilgrim Faxian who translated them into Chinese by 418 CE. Xuanzang , another Chinese Buddhist pilgrim, learnt Sanskrit in India and carried 657 Sanskrit texts to China in
16512-596: Was composed after the Manusmriti , but like it and Naradasmriti , the text was composed in shloka (poetic meter) style. The legal theories within the Yajnavalkya Smriti are presented in three books, namely achara-kanda (customs), vyavahara-kanda (judicial process), and prayascitta-kanda (crime and punishment, penance). The text is the "best composed" and systematic specimen of this genre, with large sections on judicial process theories, one which had
16641-442: Was visualized as "pervading all creation", another representation of the world itself; the "mysterious magnum" of Hindu thought. The search for perfection in thought and the goal of liberation were among the dimensions of sacred sound, and the common thread that wove all ideas and inspirations together became the quest for what the ancient Indians believed to be a perfect language, the "phonocentric episteme" of Sanskrit. Sanskrit as
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