For thousands of
years, ancient traditions and knowledge were passed onm from generation to
generation through only one language – Sanskrit. Sanskrit thereof contained in
itself the very essence of Bharatiya culture. This was recognized by Macaulay,
known as the father of the Modern Indian Education System. In his infamous
Minutes of 1835, he made a historical speech in the British Parliament which
struck a blow at the centuries old system of Bharatiya Education. He said:
“I have traveled
the length and breadth of India
and have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief. Such wealth I
have seen in this country, such high moral values, people of such caliber, that
I do not think we would ever conquer this country, unless we break the very
backbone of this nation, which is her spiritual and cultural heritage, and,
therefore, I propose that we replace her old and ancient education system, her
culture, for if the Indians think that all that is foreign and English is good and
greater than their own, they will become what we want them, a truly dominated
nation.”
Macaulay
realized that he could achieve his goal by eliminating Sanskrit from being an
essential part of the Bharatiya Education System. He adopted a fourfold strategy
to achieve this end. 1) The British Government shut down several flourishing
Sanskrit schools; 2) introduced English as a modern and civilized language; 3)
Changed the method of teaching Sanskrit; 4) initiated a false propaganda about
Sanskrit being a ‘dead language’. Sadly
enough, this myth continues even today! And as foreseen we take pride in
speaking English while neglecting our own rich and invaluable language –
Sanskrit.
Listed
below are a few quotations on Sanskrit highlighting its different aspects:
Sanskrit is the greatest language in the
world.
Max
Muller
Sanskrit language, has been universally
recognized by those competent to form a judgement, as the most perfect, the
most prominent and wonderfully sufficient literary instruments developed by the
human mind.
Sri
Aurobindo
Sanskrit was at one time the only language
of the world. It is more perfect and copious than Greek and Latin.
Prof.
Bopp
The Sanskrit
language is the ‘Devabhasha’….It is the language of the Satya Yuga based
on the true and perfect relation of vak and artha. Everyone of
its vowels and consonants has a peculiar and inalienable force which exists by
the nature of things and not by development or human choice.
Sri
Aurobindo
‘Hymns
to the Mystic Fire
Sanskrit has moulded the minds of our
people to extent to which they themselves are not conscious. Sanskrit
literature is national in one sense, but its purpose has been universal. That
is why it commanded the attention of people who were not followers of a
particular culture…
Dr.Radhakrishnan
The intellectual
debt of Europe on Sanskrit literature has been
undeniably great. It may perhaps become greater still in the years that are to
come. We (Europeans) are still behind in making even our alphabet a perfect
one.
Prof.
Macdonell
Even Albert Einstein was well-versed in
Sanskrit. One day he tried talking to an Indian Scientist Dr.B.N.Gupta in
Sanskrit. When Dr.Gupta confessed that he did not speak the language,
Dr.Einstein was amazed at the poor response of the young Indian Scientist and
said, “you hail from India
which is the home of Hindu Philosophy, yet you have not cared to learn that
language. Come along and see my library which treasures classics from
Sanskritam.”
Quoted
by Samskrita Bharati
Our whole culture, literature and life
would remain incomplete so long as our scholars, our thinkers and our
educationists remain ignorant of Sanskrit.
Dr.Rajendra
Prasad
If I was asked
what is the greatest treasure which India possesses and what is her
finest heritage, I would answer unhesitatingly that it is the Sanskrit language
and literature and all that it contains. This is the magnificent inheritance
and so long as this endures and influences the life of our people, so long will
the basic genius of India
continue. If our race forgot the Buddha, the Upanishads and the great Epics (Ramayana
and Mahabharata), India
would cease to be India.
Jawarharlal
Nehru
There is no language in India, which
can take the place of Sanskrit because no other language has the same intimate
contact with the inner spirit of our lives. We may carry the dead weight of
English as long as we choose but it is not and can never be an Indian language.
It has no roots in our soil. Even Hindi, which is the language of a very large
section of the Indian population, is after all only a regional language,
although the region which it covers is by far the largest. Sanskrit and
Sanskrit alone is associated with the life of the people over the whole country.
It is heard in the family circle, in the, market place and in the temple. Let
us not play with this great heritage. It can never be replaced but once we lose
it, we shall cease to be Indians. Even our political independence will be of
hardly much value either to ourselves or to the world at large.
Sri
Sampurnananda
Samskritavishvaparishat,
Bangalore, May
1966, p.42
Without the study of Sanskrit one cannot
become a true Indian and a true learned man.
Mahatma
Gandhi
Indeed the role
of Sanskrit in modern India
is very great. In the words of Max Muller, “A people that can feel no pride in
the past, in its history and literature, loses the mainstay of its national
character. When Germany
was in the very depth of its political degradation, it turned to its ancient
literature and drew hope for the future from the study of the past.
Sri
Satyaranjan Banerjee.
The
Vedanta Keshari, Sri Ramakrishna Math, Mylapore, Madras, May 1962, p.12
In case of an Indian youth, he virtually
ceases to be an Indian if he does not have the atmosphere of Sanskrit in his
temperament, either directly or indirectly…it is exceedingly important, in
order to preserve the sense of self-respect of an Indian educated person, that
he should have an acquaintance with Sanskrit and its literature. Young men and
women passing out of High Schools and the Universities without any knowledge of
their national heritage as preserved in Sanskrit lack the very essential means
to approach the outside world confidently and with a sense of self-respect. The
main reason for this is that this Indian heritage has got the power to make
those who possess it feel a spiritual and intellectual assurance and
self-confidence.
Report
of the Sanskrit Commission, 1956-57, 1958, pp. 89-90
The reasons for studying Sanskrit today
are the same as they were; that the vast array of Sanskrit texts preserves for
us a valuable part of the cultural heritage of mankind, including much
beautiful literature and many interesting, even fascinating ideas.
Prof.
Richard Gombrich
Held
the Bolden Chair at Oxford
The only safety,
I tell you men who belong to the lower castes, the only way to raise your
condition is to study Sanskrit. Why do you not become Sanskrit scholars? Why do
you not spend millions to bring Sanskrit education to all castes of India? That is
the question. The moment you do these things, you are equal to the Brahmin.
The very sound
of Sanskrit words gives a prestige and a power and a strength to the race.
Sanskrit and prestige go together in India. As soon as you have that,
none dares say anything against you. That is the one secret; take that up.
Swami
Vivekananda
When the great philologists and scholars
of computational linguistics whole-heartedly accept Sanskrit as the best and
most scientific language of the world, on what basis can one say that Sanskrit
is a dead language?…Sanskrit being a natural language, there is no question of
its death. It is alive in the heart and mind of the people of India.” As
Professor Sampurnananda has said, “Sanskrit is not merely alive, it is also a
medicine to make the dead alive.”
Prof
Lakshmikanta Maitra
Samsara,
2 Nov.1948
If you have to adopt a language, why should
you not have the world’s greatest language?
Sri Najiruddin Ahmed
(While
discussing on the bill on the National Language of Bharat in the Constituent
Assembly)
Sanskrit is the language of every man, to
whatever race he may belong.
Dr.
Shaidullah
Sanskrit is not the language of any particular
sect or creed. It is the language of every Indian.
Fakruddin
Ali Ahmed
When questioned as to why he was among
those who sponsored Sanskrit as the official language of the Indian Union,
Dr.Ambedkar said: “What is wrong with Sanskrit?”
Dr.Ambedkar
Sanskrit is thus for India the symbol
and substance of its national unity and as a connecting bond with Asia and the
world…to study Sanskrit and disseminate Sanskrit among the people…would not
only be a tribute to Kalidasa but a way of preparing ourselves for the future.
K.R.Narayanan
Sanskrit flows through our blood. It is
only Sanskrit that can establish the unity of the country.
Dr.C.V.Raman
Nobel
Laureate on the need for Sanskrit to be the national language
Sanskrit ought still to have a future as
a language of the learned and it will not be a good day for India when the
ancient tongue ceases entirely to be written or spoken.
Sri
Aurobindo
If Sanskrit would be divorced from the
everyday life of the masses of this country, a light would be gone from the
life of the people and the distinctive features of the Hindu culture which have
won for it an honoured place in world-thought would soon be affected to the
great disadvantage and loss both of India and of the world.”
Sir
Mirza Ismail
Not I, scholars
say, even Western scholars opine that if Sanskrit is taught to our younger
generation there will be a gradual disappearance of violence and disturbance
from the social and national life. It will make people disciplined. The police
budget of a State will get safely reduced by one-fourth of its annual
provision, if emphasis is given on Sanskrit teaching.
Sri
Gopal Krishna Srichandan
The foundations of greater India were laid in Sanskrit. The role of Sanskrit through centuries has been to rejuvenate with its infinite resources local languages and cultures, to absorb local excellences, and to evolve a constructive and harmonious synthesis. And this role Sanskrit can still perform not only for all India but for the whole of South-East Asia.
Sri V.Raghavan
The Mother gave
a lot of importance to the use of simple Sanskrit. She believed that no one
could claim to be a true Indian if he/she did not have any knowledge of
Sanskrit. She was emphatic on this point, “Every child born in India should know it just as every child born in
France
has to know French.
The Mother
11.11.1967
The ideal would
be in a few years, to have a rejuvenated Sanskrit as the representative
language of India,
that is a spoken Sanskrit. Sanskrit is behind all the languages of India and it
should be that …
The
Mother
11.11.1967
Summarizing it
all, Shankar Dayal Sharma, the former president of Bharat said in “Legacy of
Sanskrit,” The Indian Nation, 11. Jan.1988:
On the practical
plane one must acknowledge that in terms of its grammar, phonetics, vocabulary
and the Devanagari script, Sanskrit becomes a wonderfully efficient vehicle of
communication. It is not surprising that recent empirical studies about the
relative suitability of different languages and scripts for use in Computer
programming and operation indicated that Sanskrit in devanagari script was not
only the most suitable but also that it perfectly satisfied every requirement
as an optimal medium for use…
The culture of
Sanskrit and Sanskrit literature is actually the culture of synthesis and
assimilation. The message of Sanskrit literature is one of humanism of unity of
mankind, of values, of peace and mutual understanding and of harmonious
development of the individual and the society. Acquaintance with such
literature can only elevate and widen one’s outlook. Far from being
obscurantist, the Sanskrit literature can be a positive force for progress and
growth in the right direction…
It would help us
to remain not too far behind those other countries that have surged far ahead
of us in reaping the benefits of study of Sanskrit and Sanskrit literature…
It would help
reviving the ethos of India
because synthesis, harmony and reconciliation comprise the essence of the culture
of Sanskrit.
It would help us
to unlock the treasure house of scientific insights and research results
concerning positive sciences in our ancient literature.
It would help us
in using Sanskrit as a medium par excellence in Computer operations and as a language
for the new technology.
It would help us
to invigorate various languages of India. As Gandhi-ji said, “Sanskrit
is like the river Ganga for all our languages.
I always feel that if it were to dry up, the regional languages also would lose
their vitality and power. It seems to me that an elementary knowledge of
Sanskrit is essential.”
It is not
sentiment on my part that makes me say so but practical consideration of the
utility to our country of this great language and the vast knowledge held in
it.
To quote
Jawaharlal, “The past is gone an the present is with us and we work for the
future. But I have no doubt that whatever shape that future may take, one of
the biggest, the strongest and most powerful and most valued of our legacies
will be the Sanskrit language.”
