SANSKRIT IN VEDIC AGE

 

Sanskrit is the name of the language that was spoken by the sages of ancient India.  They have expressed their knowledge, wisdom and thoughts in that language.  This language is called SAMSKRTAM means refined because it was regulated by the strict rules of grammar.  So that it was used in that refined form by the learned and highly cultured people from very early times.

Though this language was branded with divine and Brahmin by those who didn’t know about the reality, it is not applicable because Valmiki, Vyasa, Kalidasa were not Brahmins, without whom this language Sanskrit is unimaginable.  This language was been in use in India not only for religious but also for secular purpose even before 700 B.C.

Two main stages are found to mark the growth of this language.  

They are 1. Vedic period and 2. Classical period. 

During the Vedic period it is called Vedic Sanskrit - the language was simple, natural and forcible.  The Vedas and the texts allied to them represented the literature during this period.

Chronological position of some important works 

Vedas=Indian Vedic texts

Itihasa=Epics

 Puranas- MahaKavyas= Major Court Epics with the forms of  Padya-Gadya-Campu(Poetry, Prose and Mixture of Poetry and Prose),

KhandaKavyas=Erotic and Devotional Lyrics

NitiGranthas = Gnomic and Didactic Poetries 

PasuPakshiKathaGranthas=Tales and Fables, 

Rupakas=Plays or Dramas, 

Alankara Sastras=Poetics, 

Sahitya-Sastras=Dramaturgy, 

UpaVedas or Sastras=Allied subjets to Vedic texts and Scientific Literature and their authors and commentators of above all works, accepted by many Sanskrit scholars, generally found in Indian History.

The Indus valley civilization goes back to the third millennium B.C, while the date usually assigned to the Rig-Veda does not go beyond the second millennium B.C.  But some would place the Vedic civilization before that of the Indus valley and shift the date of the Rig-Veda to a period before 3000 B.C.

The earlier portions of the Rgveda were composed about 3000 B.C.     

The art of poetry was in full bloom as is evidenced through Vedic-Sanskrit  by the splendid collection of lyrics known as the Rk-Samhita which consists of hymns in praise of different gods. The number hymns is 1,017.  These are grouped into books termed Ashtakas or mandalas containing eight and ten hymns respectively, which were recited by priests styled Hotas or Reciters.  Their names are Grtsamada, Visvamitra, Vamadeva etc.

  A knowledge of the art of writing has deduced from references to ASHTAKARNI cows, where the epithets ASHTAKARNI is interpreted to mean “having the sign for the number 8 marked on the ear”.  Architecture made some advance in Rig-Vedic India.  The medical art of the age distinguished quite a number of diseases.  But the physician was called Bhishaj means a fiend-slayer as well as a healer of disease. 

Goddesses like Prithivi, Aditi, Ushas and Sarasvati occupy a very subordinate position.  Another important feature of the Vedic religion is the tendency towards monotheism and even monism.  Sacrifices occupy a prominent place in the Vedic ritual.

The Vedas, in their entirely, were available before 600 B.C when Gautama Buddha preached his doctrines opposing certain doctrines recorded in them.

As regards the interpretation of the Vedas, it must be admitted that the line of traditional interpretation is not an unbroken one.  There were many attempts made to interpret the Vedas before Yaska i.e., before 800 B.C.  Yaska wrote his Nirukta on the etymology of the Vedic words.  He has mentioned about seventeen interpreters of the vedas, prior to him.  None of these works are now available.

After Yaska, the Vedas were commented by many Indian scholars.      The Rgveda was commented by Skandasvamin (600 B.C).