Sanskrit, Mother of All Human Speech and Thought

Some Sound Advice

Potency of Sound by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

It is stated also in the Vedanta-sutra that sound is the origin of all objects of material possession and that by sound one can also dissolve this material existence. Anavrittih shabdat means "liberation by sound." The entire material manifestation began from sound, and sound can also end material entanglement, if it has a particular potency. more

A paper read at the Royal Asiatic Society observed about Sanskrit:

"It was an astounding discovery, that Hindustan, over which so many conquerors had passed in wrath and left footprints as they went, possessed in spite of the changes of realm and changes of time a language of unrivalled richness and variety, a language the parent of all those dialects that Europe has fondly called classical, the source alike of Greek flexibility and Roman strength, a philosophy compared with which, in point of daring speculation, Plato's boldest speculations were tame and commonplace, a poetry more purely intellectual than any of those of which we had before any conception, and systems of science whose antiquity baffled all powers of astronomical calculation. This literature, with all its colossal proportions, which can scarcely be described without the semblance of bombast and exaggeration, claimed of course a place for itself—it stood alone, and it was able to stand alone. To acquire the mastery of this language is almost the labour of a lifetime. The utmost stretch of imagination can scarcely comprehend its boundless mythology. Its philosophy has touched upon every metaphysical difficulty; its legislation is as varied as the castes for which it was designed.[1]

Indian Antiquities (seven volumes published between 1792 and 1800), edited by Thomas Maurice, observes (on page 415 of Vol. IV) that Mr. Hallhead "seems to hint that it (i.e. Sanskrit) was the original language of the Earth."

All Western scholars who really apply their mind to the problem will find themselves concurring with Mr. Hallhead that Sanskrit is the oldest language, and that it was spoken all over the world. To this we should like to add that Sanskrit was a language which was bestowed, as embodying the Vedas, by divinity on humanity. It was not developed by a human agency. Other world languages are shattered, twisted bits of Sanskrit.

Sanskrit Spoken by All

Some Western scholars and their camp followers have propagated an erroneous assumption that Sanskrit was only the language of the elite. This is an assumption based on faulty knowledge of history. We know from experience that in any given society, say English or French, the same language is spoken by everybody from prince to pauper, though their style and standard of expression may differ. On the same analogy it should be realized that from time immemorial up to the Mahabharat war and for some centuries thereafter too, everybody from prince to pauper, master to servant, holy man to the devil, old men to children, judge or criminal, policeman or soldier or housewife, midwife, sweepers to prostitutes and burglars to burghers, everybody spoke Sanskrit, because there was no other language then. That is why all literature of ancient times for thousands of years is entirely in Sanskrit.

Remnants of those ancient Sanskrit-speaking communities may still be traced in different parts of the world. For instance, The Times of India of July 9, 1980, reported the finding of D.D. Sharma Reader in the Sanskrit department of Punjab University, that Sanskrit was spoken even by the low-caste. According to him, the Chinal community living in the Pattan Valley of the Himalayan region speaks a language "very close to Sanskrit", not only in vocabulary but even in grammatical structure. Similarly, the community of Lohars (i.e. blacksmiths) in Shamsu village also speak a language akin to Sanskrit, though less pure than that of the Chinals.

Maxmueller's Conclusion

That Maxmueller, the German scholar in British service, at least vaguely realised the primordiality of Sanskrit is apparent from his obervation that:

"Sanskrit no doubt has an immense advantage over all the other ancient languages of the East. It is so attractive and has been so widely admired that it almost seems at times to excite a certain amount of feminine jealousy. We are ourselves Indo-Europeans. In a certain sense we are still speaking and thinking Sanskrit, or more correctly, Sanskrit is like a dear aunt to us, and she takes the place of a mother who is no more."[2]

The meandering logic of Maxmueller in the above quotation typifies the confusion that exists in the minds of all Western scholars and their understudies. Maxmueller's first mistake is that he reckons Sanskrit only as one of the ancient languages and that too only of the East, while actually Sanskrit is the first and only language that global humanity used for millions of years. Later Maxmueller says that Indo-Europeans still "speak and think Sanskrit". He doesn't realise the inconsistency in first stating that Sanskrit is a language only of the East, and then adding that even Europeans think in it and speak in it. Therefore it would be right to conclude that though Maxmueller had vaguely realised, because of his scholarship, that Sanskrit formed the foundation of all languages, yet as a Christian, as a European and as a highbrow official of the mighty British Empire then at the very zenith of its glory, Maxmueller was unwittingly trying hard to key down the importance of Sanskrit against his own scholarly convictions.

Picket records:

"Sanskrit is the most beautiful perhaps of all languages, the language already perfected to a very high degree."[3]

Sanskrit Aarsha Literature

Indian tradition unequivocally asserts that ancient Sanskrit literature comprising the Vedas, Upanishads, the Puranas and the epics is of divine origin and is "aarsha", i.e. transcribed by inspired sages. The German philosopher Augustus Schlegel uncannily realised this, as is apparent from his remark: "It cannot be denied that the early Indians possessed a knowledge of God. All their writings are related with sentiments and expressions, noble, clear, severely grand, as deeply conceived in any human language in which men have spoken of their God."[4]

At another place Schlegel remarks, "Even the loftiest philosophy of the Europeans, the idealism of reason as is set forth by Greek philosophers, appears in comparison with the abundant light and vigour of Oriental idealism, like a feeble Promethean spark in the full flood of heavenly glory of the noonday sun, faltering and feeble and even ready to be extinguished."[5]

Another German scholar, Schopenhuar, opines: "In the whole world there is no study so beneficial and so elevating as that of the Upanishads. It has been the solace of my life and will be the solace of my death." [6]

Latin Derives from Sanskrit

Contradicting the popular notion that Latin language developed out of Greek, Godfrey Higgins observes, "There are many objections to the derivation of the Latin from the Greek. Latin exhibits many terms in a more rude form than Greek. ... Latin was derived from Sanskrit."[7]

KOI=OM IIA= These words which were not understood by the Greeks are pure Sanskrit and are used at this day by the Brahmins at the conclusion of religious rites. They are thus written in the language of the gods, as the Hindus call the language of the sacred books.

"'Causcha, OM, Pachsa.' Causcha signifies the object of our most ardent wishes. OM is the famous monosyllable used both at the beginning and the end of prayer or any religious rite, like "Amen". Pachsa answers to the obsolete Latin word viz; it signifies change, course, stead, place, turn of work, duty, fortune. It is used particularly after making libations in honour of the gods and pitris. I have no doubt that these mysteries came from the same quarter and by the same people who brought the Sanskrit language in Italy.... The Hindu polity was certainly established long before the Greeks had any historical accounts of their Elusian mysteries. When the Greeks began to write histories they knew not whence they came."[8]

From what is noted above it is quite clear that the Vedic practice of beginning and ending Vedic chants with OM, and Sanskrit, the language of those chants, constituted the common heritage of all mankind.

India the Origin

About all human civilization having originated from India and Hinduism, Higgins observes:

The peninsula of India would be one of the first peopled countries, and its inhabitants would have all the habits of the progenitors of man before the flood in as much perfection or more than any other nation. ... In short, whatever learning man possessed before his dispersion ... may be expected to be found here, and of this Hindustan affords innumerable traces ... notwithstanding all ... the fruitless efforts of our priests to disguise it."[9]

Higgins is a very discerning and honest Christian author, because he clearly realises that India, Vedic culture and Sanskrit form the very roots of world culture, and he accuses Christian priests of trying to hide the fact that all so-called Christian practices originate in Vedic culture.

The Divine Origin of Sanskrit

The Encylcopaedia Britannica (page 70, Vol. 13, 1951 edition) by implication concedes the primordiality and divine origin of Sanskrit in observing that "Some scholars (among them quite recently W. Schmidt) se the insufficienty of usual theories, and giving up all attempts at explaining it in a natural way fell back on the religious belief that the first language was directly given to first man by God through miracle."

Logical, metaphysical thinking must not e dismissed as "religious". It needs to be recognized that metaphysics is not only as much a science as physics but is in fact a wider science encompassing every branch of human learning under the sun. Unlike other sciences, metaphysics cannot afford to take a one-sided or lop-sided view of the universe or a certain portion. Metaphysics has to correlate them all and present a composite and consistent picture of cosmic life. When endeavouring to think about linguistics, therefore, if top-class thinkers are forced to admit that at the start of the world there must have been a universal God-given language, that must be considered as a scientific conclusion and not merely religious, philosophical or spiritual. If conferring such a language on humanity at the start was a miracle, what is wrong? Because everything and every event in this world is a miracle, if we come to think of it.

Another author frankly concedes: "After much futile discussion, linguists have reached the conclusion that the data with which they are concerned yield little or no evidence about the origin of human speech."[10]

Another author admits: "If there is one thing on which all linguists are fully agreed, it is that the problem of the origin of human speech is still unsolved."[11] On page 315 of the same volume it is stated that "the problem of the origin of language does not admit of any satisfactory solution."

When some of the best scholars of linguistics thus openly confess at being baffled at the origin of languages, why not pay a little more serious and sympathetic attention to the consistent and categorical Vedic tradition that human civilisation began with a head-start given by divinity itself by creating the first few generations of human beings equipped with the Sanskrit language and comprehensive Vedic knowledge about running human affiars with all their arts and sciences.

All Alphabets Derive from a Single Source

Regarding the alphabet in particular, L.W. King, S.H. Langdon, F.L. Griffith, W.F. Petrie, L.A. Waddell, E. Burrows, hunter, A.J. Evans have all tried unsuccessfully to wrestle with the problem of the original alphabet or alphabets. An Italian author, David Dringer, has tentatively concluded (on page 195 of the English translation of his book titled The Alphabet) as a sort of a nutshell finding that "In dealing with the history of the alphabet I include all the alphabets, because all of them probably derived from one original alphabet."

In the foreword (page XI) to that book, Sir Ellis Minns observes, "Our author proves with a new completeness the astonishing fact that almost certainly every alphabetic writing of any importance derives from one source, and the obscure scripts were derived by men who were aware of the existence of perfected alphabets. This is a fascinating result. it is so rare in life that so sweeping a generalisation is tenable."

Rigveda Belongs to All Humanity

In the context of the above conclusions about the origin of human speech and alphabet, let us consider the observation of Rev. Morris Philip: "After the latest researches into the history and chronology of the book of Old Testament, we may safely now call the Rigveda as the oldest book not only of the Aryan community but of the whole world."[12]

The reference to an Aryan community in the above quotation is of course not right, because the term Arya signifies Vedic culture and not a race or community. But for that little flaw, the main assertion in the above extract that the Rigveda is the oldest book of the whole world is absolutely right. And Rigveda marks the beginning of God-given knowledge, Sanskrit speech and the Sanskrit alphabet.

Sanskrit the Common Language of All

Another scholar, H. H. Wilson, has observed: "The affinities of the Sanskrit language prove the common origin of the now widely scattered nations amongst whose dialects they are traceable, and render it unquestionable that they must all have spread abroad from some central spot in that part of the globe first inhabited by mankind according to the inspired record."[13]

Thus a number of Western scholars of several nations tend to conclude that the Vedas, Sanskrit language and the Sanskrit alphabet form the very core and root of all human civilisation.

1. P. 392, Appendix No. XVI, W.C. Taylor's Paper of December, 1834, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Vol. II, quoted by E. Pococke in his book titled India in Greece. [return to text]

2. P. 163, Vol. I, Chips from a German Workshop [back to text]

3. P. 12, Origin of Indo-Europeans[back to text]

4. Wisdom of the Ancient Indians by A. Schlegel [back to text]

5. History of Literature, A. Schlegel [back to text]

6. P. 61, The Upanishads, Introduction, Schopenhauer [back to text]

7. P. 61, The Celtic Druids by Godfrey Higgins [back to text]

8. P. 64-65, ibid. [back to text]

9. P. 66, ibid. [back to text]

10. P. 40, An Introduction to Linguistic Science, New Haven [back to text]

11. P. 18, The Story of Languages, London [back to text]

12. P. 213, The Teaching of the Vedas by Rev Morris Philip [back to text]

13. P. ciii, Preface to Vishnu Puran, Oxford [back to text]

Sanskrit, Mother of All Human Speech and Thought/ WORLD SANKIRTAN PARTY