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Sanskrit Language



This entire village talks in Sanskrit. From ordinary people, traders, laborers, old and young, men and women - every one - they greet, they communicate, they read and even gossip in Sanskrit. This is every day story of village Mattur in Shimoga District of Karnataka state, just 300 KM away from India's Information Technology capital (Bangalore).






Sanskrit is an old Indo-Aryan Language. Oldest Sanskrit text can be traced in Rig-Veda. Rig-Veda is written in Vedic-Sanskrit in 1500 BC (aprox). Rig-Veda is the oldest of all the four Vedas.

In the ancient times in India, Sanskrit was the language used by learned and priests.

All north Indian languages have evolved out of Vedic Sanskrit







Reach of Sanskrit outside India

Sanskrit was used across the borders for exchanging knowledge. Texts written in Sanskrit reached china in 402 CE which later were translated in Chinese.

A 5th-century Sanskrit inscription discovered in Java Indonesia


International presence of Sanskrit


Sanskrit Class Room in
German University
Until few years ago there were 14 Universities in Germany offering Sanskrit Language courses to the rising demand among native Germans.








However less than 1% people in India speak Sanskrit and most of them are the Hindu Priests. 

Dravidian Languages
Notably Dravidian Languages (Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada) have not originated from Sanskrit however there are influence of Sanskrit on these languages.

Summary

  1. Less than 1% people in India can speak Sanskrit 
  2. Outside India, Germany has high demand for Sanskrit Scholars 
  3. Dravidian (South Indian) Languages do not have Sanskrit as their origin 
  4. Oldest Sanskrit text is Rig-Veda
  5. Rig-Veda is estimated to be written in 1500 BCE (aprox) 
  6. Rig-Veda is the oldest of four Vedas 
  7. Mattur Village in Shimoga District of Karnataka uses Sanskrit as a daily working language.




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