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Sanskrit

Sanskrit is a member of the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language tree. Although commonly associated with ancient India, Sanskrit represents a global language, historically appearing in diverse contexts and scripts across a wide range of regions. It continues to be an important liturgical language for Hindu and Buddhist practitioners across Asia.

Origins

Two prevailing theories have been proposed to explain the origins of Sanskrit. First, proponents of the Aryan invasion (also referred to as the Aryan myth) argue that Sanskrit, along with other elements of Indian culture, entered India during the invasion of the Aryan people, sometime between the second and first millennium BCE. Regarding Sanskrit nomenclature, they point out that the lexis found in the earliest Vedic texts overlaps considerably with Iranian sources, most notably the Zoroastrian Avesta. Throughout the Vedic corpus, a number of Iranian loan words have been identified as well as terms that can be traced to the broader Indo-European branch.

The second theory holds that Sanskrit arose from within the Indian subcontinent and subsequently was exported to other Asian regions. Supporters of this theory argue that a large portion of vocabulary in Sanskrit texts is indigenous to India and not attested elsewhere.

In reality, both theories have some truth to them. It is clear that there has been, beginning with the ancient period, continuous contact and exchange between India and Iranian regions. This contact and exchange did not end in the Vedic period but can be found in almost every major historical period and political dynasty. The exchange was not unidirectional or a one-way diffusion either from some “Aryan” civilization to India or from India outward. Rather, Sanskrit, like most cultural phenomena, developed over time through a joint process of cross-fertilization and regional innovations.

Regardless of the origin, the Sanskrit language clearly was not limited to the Indian subcontinent but, rather, extended across a wide geographical area.

Sanskrit Manuscripts

The earliest known form of Sanskrit, Vedic, can be traced to the Vedas, with portions of the Rig Veda being dated to approximately 1500 BCE. The Vedas include a vast corpus of manuscripts, including the Samhitās (“hymns”), Brāhmanas and Āranyakas (“ritual commentaries”), and the Upanishads (philosophical speculations). The four Vedic schools, Rig, Sāma, Yajur, and Atharva, are far from homogeneous and collectively record a diverse range of beliefs and practices. The Vedic manuscripts were composed by multiple authors and in various geographical, historical, and cultural contexts.

In the fourth century BCE, Pānini, a grammarian from the Indo-Iranian region of Gandhāra, marked a transition between Vedic and classical Sanskrit. Pānini is best known for his voluminous work on Sanskrit grammar and morphology titled Ashtadhyayi. Auxiliary texts include the Shiva Sūtras, Dhatupatha, and Ganapatha. Although similar to Vedic Sanskrit, classical Sanskrit differs significantly in nomenclature, grammar, and syntax.

Sanskrit manuscripts, both Vedic and classical, typically have been associated with the Hindu traditions of India. However, it is important to note that a large number of East Asian Buddhist manuscripts were originally composed in Sanskrit before being translated into Chinese and subsequently transmitted to other regions of East Asia. Though translators claimed that the Sanskrit texts originated in India, significant portions of these Buddhist texts were composed in the Inner Asian regions of Kashmir, Gandhāra, and the Swat Valley and written in scripts found most prominently in Central Asia, not in India. Given the early dates attributed to some Chinese translations, combined with the absence of extant Sanskrit originals, it is probable that some manuscripts were not only written in Inner Asia, but that they came to India only after they were translated in China.

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