Modern and Ancient use of Sanskrit

[Jan Houben]

I.
sa.msk.rta-bhaa.saa   m.rta-bhaa.saiveti [-eva!-iti] ke cin manyante /
bhaarata-de;se tu bahava.h ;saastri.no jaina-munaya.h kavayo 'nye ca
sa.msk.rta-vaktaara.h santiiti mayaiva d.r.s.ta.m ca ;sruta.m ca /
tasmaad sa.msk.rta-bhaa.saam.rta-bhaa.seva [-iva!] jiivaty eva, yadi
vaabhii.s.taanabhii.s.taa vaa //

II.
The Atlas des langues du monde by Roland Breton (Paris 2003), small but
unsurpassed (in some respects not even by the World Atlas of Language
Structures), lists sanskrit as "extinct" on page 12, but elsewhere (p. 55)
notes that there are 60.000 speakers (according to the 2001 census). The
online Ethnologue (www.ethnologue.com) of the Summer Institute of
Linguistics (with a staff inspired by Christianity, noting for each language
when the first bible translation was made: for Sanskrit this was 1822)
registers a "population" (sic) of 6106 speakers (based on the 1981 census)
and 194,433 second language speakers. (Less clear to me is that this website
notes for Sanskrit: Literacy rate in first language: 60% to 100%. Literacy
rate in second language: 15% to 25% literate.)

III.
Through the ages Sanskrit has been employed, orally and in writing, in
various ways by learned and less learned speakers. Attempts to
teach "correct" Sanskrit are as old, yes even older than the name Sanskrit
(as "sa.msk.rtam" replaces the earlier name "bhaa.saa") for the language
which in spite of various differences remains largely understandable over
the centuries. From a sociolinguistic point of view there is little reason
to take pride in a half year of speaking ;suddha.m sa.msk.rtam and to look
down on those employing and enjoying, in preceding centuries and at
present, sarala.m sa.msk.rtam, not in order to advertise pedantic erudition
but parasparaabhipraayasammelanaartham ... as little as there is reason to
look down on the expressive popular ("vulgar") latin employed in graffiti in
Pompei or Rome around the time of Cicero. On the contrary: these are
interesting and important subjects for (socio-linguistic) study. When it was
discovered now two centuries ago in "the West" Sanskrit has
inspired generations of linguists, first of all the historical
comparativists (Bopp et al.), next the generative grammarians (see
introductory paragraph of Kiparsky's On the architecture of Panini's
grammar).
The rich treasure grove of Sanskrit literatures has not yet been made use of
from the point of view of other branches of modern language sciences to
which it has a potential to contribute significantly as well. As for
sociolinguistics and sociology of language, see nevertheless
several articles of H.H. Hock (I hope he will bundle them some time), Madhav
Deshpande's Sanskrit & Prakrit (Delhi 1993) and various articles, the book
on Ideology and Status of Sanskrit (edited by me in 1996), and now Pollock's
The Language of the Gods in the World of Men (Univ of California 2006). As
for Sanskrit and cognitive linguistics see my forthcoming article
"Bhartrhari as a cognitive linguist", which implies that Paa.nini's grammar
can in a revolutionary way be seen as a construction grammar; and that there
is NO place for a "structure given before hand", as implied in the famous
words of William Jones: (1786): "The Sanskrit language, whatever may be its
antiquity, is of a wonderful structure.".

IV.
Through the ages Sanskrit has been used to express various extreme and
maadhyamaka messages. In current times Sanskrit has been used to express the
views of various extremities: G.B; Palsule's Vainaayakam: an epic
description of the life of Sarvarkar (Pune, 1998); a certain Padma Sastri's
Leninaamr.tam published at VVRI in Hoshiarpur (1973) etc. Scholarly and
scientific works have currently been published in Sanskrit as well:
Palsule's work on Indo-european linguistics entitled Yubhaata.h sa.msk.rtam
prati; the book Kaa.naada.m paa.niniiya.m ca sarva;saastropakaarakam edited
by Maheswaran Nair. Whether one likes it or not: Sanskrit does have a
sociolinguistic reality, it is, to use a metaphor from biology, a "living"
phenomenon that includes grammar-independent use of the
language. Moreover, as McComas Taylor wrote somewhere on the ANU homepage,
the chance that future generations will understand a thought expressed in
Sanskrit, again whether one likes it or not, is considerably bigger than
that they will understand the same thought expressed in English: "In 1,000
years time, Sanskrit will still be the same, but every other language will
have changed beyond recognition."

V.
As for *spoken* sanskrit, various attempts have been made to teach and
promote it, for instance in the Giirvaa.napadamañjarii and the
Giirvaa.navaa:nmañjarii (prob. early 17th cent.) discussed by A.
Wezler (Ideology and Status of Sanskrit p. 327ff). Teaching material of
Aksara, Bangalore, is interesting as object of study but, if taken in
isolation, not the most suitable for serious Sanskrit students. On the other
hand, Aksara's staff and Svayamsevak funders may have an objectionable
agenda, but their proselytizing may have quite different effects than
foreseen by them. Did Pa.nini plan to help Buddhists and Jainas to get their
message in relatively reliable way across, synchronically and
diachronically? If Panini had any agenda beyond writing his grammar it must
have been to reinforce traditional Brahmanism.
In any case, there are other books for teaching Sanskrit. A praiseworthy
modern attempt is: Sa.msk.rtavyavahaara.h / Spoken Sanskrit by S.S. Janaki
published in Madras at The Kuppuswami Sastri Research Institute, 1990. The
older generations of "Western" Sanskrit teachers could afford to escape
learning spoken Sanskrit, but at present do serious university teachers of
sanskrit have a valid excuse not to master and impart at least some sarala.m
sa.msk.rtam to the students, in addition to the analytical knowledge of the
language derived from the study of sanskrit grammars such as those of ...
(see preceding discussion on this list, and add: J. Gonda's grammar,
available in German, French, English)? At present spoken sanskrit remains a
disputed domain of "symbolic capital" in india and a fascinating hobby for
western students, quite useful for increasing one's grasp of the language.

JH