Textbook for higher educational institutions - M.: Philology, 1994. - 336 p.
This textbook introduces the basics of epic and classical Sanskrit. It is designed for intensive study of Sanskrit under the guidance of a teacher or independently. In this case, it is possible to become familiar with the language system without mastering the devanaagarii script.
The textbook is intended for linguists and, first of all, for comparative scholars, as well as for specialists in various fields of Indology and for everyone interested in India.

Preface

Sanskrit is an ancient Indian literary language belonging to the Indian group of Indo-European languages. Ancient Indian languages ​​are reflected in monuments of several historical periods; these monuments differ not only chronologically, but also functionally and in the dialect basis of their languages.
When in the 2nd - early 1st millennium BC. Indo-European Aryan tribes invaded the territory of Hindustan from the North-West; they spoke several closely related dialects. Western dialects probably formed the basis of the language reflected in the Vedas (veda - sacred knowledge) and called Vedic.
The Vedic language represents the earliest period of ancient Indian. Scientists consider the time of its formation to be the 15th - 10th centuries BC. In the Vedic language there are four collections (saMhita): Rigveda (R^igveda) Veda of hymns, Yajurveda (yajurveda) - Veda of sacrificial spells, Samaveda (saamaveda) - Veda of melodies, sounds and Atharvaveda (atharvaveda) - Veda of atharvana (priest of fire), a collection of spells and incantations.
Each of the four collections is accompanied by treatises that were later created: Brahmanas (braahmaNa) - priestly books, Aranyakas (aaraNyaka - lit. “relating to the forest, forest”) - books of hermits and Upanishads (upaniSad lit. “sitting (student to teacher) )") - esoteric teachings, a corpus of texts crowning the religious and philosophical tradition of the Vedic period.
Four additions (upaveda) were created to the Vedas, among them the famous treatise on medicine Ayurveda (aayurveda) - the Veda of health or life.
Eastern dialects of Indo-European formed the basis of the ancient Indian language, which was later called Sanskrit (saMskR^ita - “processed, perfect”). It has been preserved in numerous monuments of ancient and medieval literature of various genres.
From the middle of the 1st millennium BC. to III - IV centuries AD. The Indian epic poems Mahabharata (mahaabhaarata) - “The Great (Battle) of the Descendants of Bharata" and Ramayana (raamaayaNa) - “The Wanderings of Rama” took shape. The ancient Indian language of these poems is called epic Sanskrit. The historical and cultural significance of the monuments created over centuries in epic Sanskrit is enormous. They were and remain a source for the study of religion, philosophy, history, mythology of ancient India and continue to nourish the literature and art of modern India.
Epic monuments were associated with the genre of Smriti (smR^iti - “memory, recollection”) - legends, which also include the Puranas (puraaNa - “ancient, old”) - collections of myths and legends. They are also adjacent to the Tantras (tantra - “rule, code”) - a class of works of religious and magical content.
Most of the Sanskrit monuments were created in classical Sanskrit, the language of the 4th - 7th centuries. This is fiction of various genres: prose - collections of stories and fables Panchatantra (pa~ncatantra) - “Five Guides”, Hitopadesha (hitopadesha) - “Good Instruction” and others, and later - medieval Indian novels Dandina, Subandhu and Bana; lyric poetry, poetic aphorisms and poems; dramaturgy - plays by Bhasa (III century), Shudraka (V century), Kalidasa (IV - V centuries); works of Bhartrihari (V - VI centuries) and others.
A variety of scientific literature has been preserved in classical Sanskrit: works on philosophy - a presentation of the six orthodox systems of Indian philosophy, treatises on poetics and drama theory, shastras (shaastra) - collections of commandments in various branches of knowledge, which set out the ethical and legal norms of the society of ancient and medieval India .
The traditions of oral transmission of text even earlier led to the emergence of a special style of presentation of scientific and ritual literature, extremely condensed, designed for memorization - to the appearance of sutras (suutra). Even in the 11th century, the moralist and philosopher Kshemendra used the sutra form in his works.
Works on the natural sciences - medicine, mathematics, astronomy and astrology, and chemistry - were written in Sanskrit.
A special place among the monuments in ancient Indian is occupied by works on linguistics - lexicographic works, descriptions of the sound composition and grammatical structure of the language. The works of numerous grammarians were in the 5th - 4th centuries. BC. systematized by the scientist Panini (paaNini) in the treatise “The Eight Books” (aSTaadhyaayi). Panini's work recorded linguistic norms, the observance of which later became mandatory in literary works in classical Sanskrit.
The term "Sanskrit" is used in a narrow and broad sense. In a narrow sense it implies an epic and classical language, in a broad sense (including Vedic) it is used as a synonym for ancient Indian. We use this term in a narrow sense.
For many centuries, Sanskrit as a literary language coexisted and interacted with other Indian languages ​​- with late Vedic, with Central Indian languages, with Dravidian languages ​​(languages ​​of South India). The teachings of the unorthodox philosophical systems of India - Buddhism (in Pali) and Jainism - were preached in the Central Indian languages ​​Pali (paali) and Prakrit (praakR^ita - lit. “raw, natural”). The Central Indian languages ​​were inferior to Sanskrit as the exponent of a more ancient and rich cultural tradition and were subject to its powerful influence. The Sanskritization of the Central Indian languages ​​led to the creation of the Buddhist hybrid Sanskrit and Jain Sanskrit. They, like the forms of late Sanskrit, represent phenomena of the pseudo-historical evolution of the language.
Sanskrit has played an extremely important role in India as the language of cultural unity of the country. Until now, the study of Sanskrit is part of the traditional Indian education system. Sanskrit is used as the language of worship in Hindu temples; Newspapers and magazines are published in Sanskrit; scientists correspond on it; Sanskrit is recognized as the working language at scientific Sanskrit conferences. The literary and scientific heritage in Sanskrit is carefully preserved, researched and republished by scholars of modern India.
European scientists became acquainted with Sanskrit at the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries. In 1786, the founder of the Asiatic Society in Calcutta, William Jones, drew the attention of Europeans to the ancient Indian language and its similarities with the ancient languages ​​of Europe. “No matter how ancient Sanskrit is, it has a wonderful structure,” noted William Jones, “it is more perfect than Greek, richer than Latin, and more refined than either of them, and at the same time it carries such close resemblance to these two languages, both in verb roots and grammatical forms, that it can hardly be an accident; this similarity is so great that no philologist who would study these languages ​​could fail to believe that they arose from a common source that no longer exists" (quoted in A Reader in Nineteenth-Century Historical Indo- European Linguistics." Bloomington - London, 1967, p. 10).
Since the 19th century, the systematic study of Sanskrit and the intensive development of the spiritual heritage of ancient India began. The latter was facilitated by extensive work on translation into European languages ​​and commentary on ancient Indian legal literature, excerpts from epic poems (including a translation of the famous Bhagavad Gita - bhagavadgiitaa), drama and prose, and work on the study and interpretation of the Vedas. Philological works of the 19th century laid the foundations for further study of ancient Indian literature as an original and significant phenomenon of world culture.
The discovery of Sanskrit by Europeans led to the creation of scientific Indo-European studies and to the establishment of the comparative-historical method in linguistics. The study of Sanskrit and the formation of comparative studies, the development of the concept of the genealogical relationship of Indo-European languages, developed in an inextricable connection. Numerous works of a comparative historical nature, articles in periodicals on Indo-European studies, dictionaries, grammatical descriptions, monographs, as well as works of a generalizing nature give an idea of ​​the ways of studying Sanskrit.
At the beginning of the 19th century, it was believed that “Indian is older than its related languages ​​and was their common ancestor” (F. Schlegel), but comparativists soon abandoned the view of Sanskrit as a “proto-language”. However, Sanskrit was considered the standard of comparison in the study of other Indo-European languages, since scientists (F. Bopp, A. Schleicher, I. Schmidt and others) recognized it as the language closest to Proto-Indo-European.
Leaving aside the change in views on Proto-Indo-European, on the base language, in the comparative studies of subsequent decades (A. Meillet, F.F. Fortunatov, N.S. Trubetskoy), let us turn to the change in the idea of ​​Sanskrit. New comparative historical studies, based on long-term study of factual material, shook the opinion that Sanskrit was archaic at the end of the 19th century (the period of neogrammatism). Thus, the “law of palatalization” forced a change in opinion about the Sanskrit vocal system as the most ancient. Later, the “laryngeal theory” (F. de Saussure, E. Kurylovich) introduced clarifications into the previously established ideas about phonetics, morphonology and morphology of Sanskrit. This was facilitated by the discovery of Hittite and other previously unknown Indo-European languages ​​at the beginning of the 20th century. It forced scientists to finally abandon the view of Sanskrit as the most ancient of the Indo-European languages, since monuments in Hittite (18th century BC) gave an idea of ​​a language system closer to the prehistoric phase of the existence of the Indo-European linguistic community. Thus, in the 20th century there was a change in the standard of comparison in comparative studies. Further research in the field of comparative historical linguistics continues to clarify the ideas about the Sanskrit system that developed in the 19th century (“glottal theory” by T.V. Gamkrelidze and Vyach.V. Ivanov, the works of K. Watkins, Y. Gonda and others).
Sanskrit is one of the most important “support” languages ​​of comparative studies. It represents an example of the language in which the comparative historical method and its research techniques were developed. Sanskrit classes provide an opportunity for constant excursions into the field of history and theory of comparative studies and thereby lay the foundation for mastering the methodology of comparative historical research.
The enduring significance of Sanskrit for the science of language lies in the fact that there is a unique linguistic literature about it. Scientists of ancient India left information not only about the sound and interpretation of the words of their language, but also a description of the morphology and morphology of Sanskrit that is amazing in its completeness. Their syntactic theories are interesting, closely related to the philosophical views of the ancients. The similarity of the techniques and methods for describing language by ancient Indian scientists to the methods of modern linguistics has been noted more than once by specialists (M.B. Emeno, P. Thieme, V.N. Toporov).
The living connection between Sanskrit and the languages ​​of modern India is not interrupted. Modern Indian languages ​​grew up, “figuratively speaking, in the atmosphere of Sanskrit” (S.K. Chatterjee). In their vocabulary there are words that have passed unchanged from Sanskrit (tatsama) and arose from it (tadbhava). “Neo-Sanskritisms” are being intensively created - words formed from Sanskrit roots, according to Sanskrit word-formation models, but denoting modern phenomena. Sanskrit vocabulary is the main source of enriching the vocabulary of modern Indian languages, especially in the field of terminology.
Indian languages ​​in their historical development have been recorded in monuments for at least four thousand years. Sanskrit has existed in written form alone for more than two thousand years. Studies of Indian languages ​​in diachrony can rely on exceptionally rich and varied factual material, and the range of changes in the type of language - from inflectional, synthetic in Sanskrit to analytical with elements of agglutination - in modern languages, turns historical studies of Indian languages ​​towards typology.
In recent decades, researchers of literature and mythology, culture and history, religion and philosophy, mathematics, medicine have turned to the study of sources in Sanskrit... Domestic specialists are not satisfied with obtaining information on their science “second-hand,” that is, from translations into European languages, which was often practiced in the past. In this regard, textual studies are currently acquiring great importance. Access to the treasury of knowledge stored in the texts of ancient and medieval India is opened only by knowledge of the basics of Sanskrit.
The “Textbook of Sanskrit” was created in the process of many years of teaching Sanskrit at Moscow University - at the Faculty of Philology, at the Institute of Asian and African Studies at Moscow State University, at the Faculty of History and Philosophy.
Students studying Sanskrit, and especially philology students, have long been in need of a textbook compiled especially for them, a textbook that would contain the basics of the language and lead to the further use of Sanskrit in accordance with the scientific interests of the students. The writing of the textbook was stimulated by the repeatedly expressed wishes of our comparative linguists to have a Sanskrit textbook created on the basis of modern scientific and methodological approaches and intended for intensive language learning.
The need for such a textbook is also confirmed by numerous appeals to me from people who are forced to independently familiarize themselves with the graphics and grammatical structure of Sanskrit.
The proposed textbook seeks to take these needs into account and, if possible, satisfy them.
When learning Sanskrit, a language that exists for us only in written form, the goal is passive acquisition of the language, that is, the ability to read and translate text with more or less use of a dictionary.
The task of preparing to work on original specialized texts with passive language acquisition determines the structure and content of the textbook. It consists of forty activities, three applications and a dictionary. “Textbook of Sanskrit” introduces the sound composition, graphics, morphology, morphology, vocabulary with elements of word formation and some peculiar phenomena of the syntax of epic and classical Sanskrit.
Giving an idea of ​​a language like Sanskrit in the genre of a textbook is a complex scientific and methodological task.
Acquaintance with the sound composition of Sanskrit is carried out in its description, which was proposed by ancient Indian linguists and which is based on the anatomical and physiological principle of classification of sounds. The study of sound composition is inextricably linked with mastering the ancient Indian syllabary devanaagari. The Textbook offers a rational method of teaching devanaagari writing, allowing you to master it in 4-5 lessons. For those who study the devanaagari script on their own, the Sanskrit Textbook includes for the first time the technique of writing graphemes. The phonetic nature of the letter makes it permissible in the theoretical parts of the Textbook, in the exercises and in the Dictionary to limit ourselves (for technical reasons) to the Latin transliteration devanaagari, generally accepted in Sanskritology. In the texts of the Textbook, the devanaagari letter is conveyed by clichés from the sources used.
Acquaintance with phonology and the phenomena of morphonology that permeate the entire system of Sanskrit begins with Lesson V and accompanies all subsequent work on grammar and word formation.
The systematic study of grammar (morphology) begins with Lesson VIII. When arranging grammatical material in a textbook, the guiding principle was the desire to give a complete idea of ​​the language system, not to split up topics and, if possible, to start with simpler and more commonly used phenomena.
Mastering the morphology of Sanskrit as an inflectional, synthetic language presents certain difficulties due to the abundance of inflection forms in it. The method of gradual mastery of morphology proposed in the Textbook - working with tables - helps to overcome these difficulties. This technique is based on the principle of distinguishing in inflectional languages ​​three functions of affixes, otherwise three processes of morphological derivation: inflection, stem formation and word formation. The first two are included in the doctrine of word form and constitute the subject of morphology; word formation gravitates towards vocabulary.
Students of Sanskrit morphology become familiar with nominal stems and with the methods of stemming verbs from original roots. Verb stems are formed into systems - groups of forms formed from a common stem. Inflectional forms within systems are formed with the same types of inflectional affixes (endings). For example, the type of primary personal endings - in the present and future tense, the type of secondary personal endings - in the imperfect and in the aorist with its five varieties of stems... Therefore, it is convenient to put the types of personal, as well as case endings in tables. The tables given in the textbook should be written out, with each table on a separate sheet of paper on one side. Further work is carried out using these tables, and gradually the most frequently occurring endings are remembered.
The study of declension and conjugation systems thus comes down to mastering the rules for the formation of verbal stems and the rules for the functioning of nominal and verbal stems during inflection - the connection with a certain type of ending and possible morphological phenomena (alternation of vowels in the stem, internal sandhi).
Questions of word formation are included in the Textbook throughout the course of studying Sanskrit. By distinguishing affix word formation from two other processes of morphological derivation, it is advisable to distinguish between monofunctional and polyfunctional methods among affix and other word-formation means of the language. The Textbook includes monofunctional word-formation methods, i.e. methods used only for word formation. In Sanskrit these are prefixation and stem. Suffixation, a method used in Sanskrit both for word formation and for stem formation and inflection, i.e. a multifunctional method, given the polysemy and non-standard nature of most suffixes of Sanskrit as an inflectional language, is not considered in the Textbook. Only individual, most obvious and commonly used cases are given. The study of word formation and grammar is based on familiarity with the vocabulary of the language.
The vocabulary of epic and classical Sanskrit included in the Textbook contains about 3 thousand original nominal stems and verbal roots; familiarity with a number of word-formation models increases this number significantly.
The Textbook includes the most commonly used vocabulary, which gives an idea of ​​the richness of the vocabulary of Sanskrit and introduces us to the circle of ancient Indian cultural terminology.
The high degree of repetition of words, the connection between the study of vocabulary and morphology classes facilitate and accelerate the acquisition of the main lexical fund of Sanskrit.
The textbook is based on original texts (excerpts and individual sentences) taken from epic poems (Mahaabhaarata II, III and RaamaayaNa I), from shastras and smritis (maanava - dharmashaastra VI, Yaaj~navalkya - SmR^iti II, KauTiliiya - arthashaastra I) , from prose (pa~ncatantra I, hitopadesha) and poetic works (kaalidaasa, bhartR^ihari) in classical Sanskrit. [The publications used are listed in the book: V.A. Kochergina Sanskrit-Russian dictionary. Publishing house "Russian language", 1978; 2nd edition - 1987; - With. 10 - “Sources”; also - “kumaarasaMbhava of kaalidaasa”. Ed. by M.R. Kale and “The niiti and vairaagyam shatakas of bhartR^ihari.” Ed. by M.R. Kale. Delhi-Patna-Varasi, 1974.] In addition, sentences were used and a number of texts from educational literature by Indian authors and Sanskrit textbooks in Russian were used.
Each lesson of the Textbook consists of theoretical material, exercises and texts; it includes five types of work. Exercises on the graphics of the first lessons are replaced by exercises on sandhi, word formation or new grammatical material.
Starting with Lesson VIII, Exercise III introduces vocabulary work; it specifies words for the new text, which are distributed according to parts of speech and are given in transliteration; they should be written in devanaagari script and translated with a dictionary.
IV - individual sentences or coherent text on a new grammatical topic for reading, analysis and translation. This is the main text of each lesson.
V - text for reading and translation. It is given to develop skills of independent orientation in a text in Sanskrit and to consolidate new grammatical material. The words in this text are presented sequentially and with translation, so that all attention is directed to the division of continuous spellings, analysis of sandhi and determination of grammatical forms. With the goal of quickly becoming acquainted with the Sanskrit system, texts V can be skipped, and with a sufficient number of study hours, work on texts V can be deepened and expanded.
Texts IV and V sometimes contain couplets, usually called subhaasitaani - “well said” maxims. They have a number of advantages when used for educational purposes: they are semantically complete and aphoristic; their construction in most cases is based on the parallelism of lines I and II, which facilitates understanding; in each couplet, one grammatical phenomenon predominates, which allows them to be used to consolidate certain material on grammar. Finally, the rhythmic form of couplets (usually shloka meter) makes it possible to learn them by heart, which diversifies the types of exercises during passive language learning.
Four lessons of the Textbook are entirely devoted to working on coherent, interesting texts containing newly developed material on grammar and word formation. The thematic continuation of the last of them are texts V of the last five lessons.
The textbook contains three appendices.
Appendix I - transliteration of texts IV. Appendix I should be used when working independently with the Textbook. It serves as a means of checking the correct reading of IV texts given in devanaagari writing classes. In case of acquaintance with the Sanskrit system without mastering the devanaagari letter, and such an opportunity is provided for linguists in the proposed Textbook, the texts of Appendix I are replaced by the texts of IV of the corresponding lessons.
Appendix II contains a summary table of sound combinations given in the textbook by K. Bühler. It serves as a reference for practical mastery of the rules of sandhi (without distinguishing them into external and internal).
Appendix III systematizes verb morphology. It contains an alphabetical list of roots included in the Textbook, indicating their voice, class, stems, infinitives and gerunds. The basics are demonstrated, as is customary in Sanskritology, in the form of 3 l. singular. The meanings of the roots should be looked up in the Dictionary given at the end.
The Sanskrit-Russian dictionary contains the vocabulary of the Textbook and is built according to the same rules as the previously published more complete dictionary.
The texts of the first half of the Textbook were reviewed by Professor C. K. Sharma (Madras), for which I express my deep gratitude to him.
I thank the leading employee of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences T.Ya. Elizarenkov, Associate Professor of Moscow State University A.A. Vigasin and professor of ISAA at Moscow State University B. A. Zakharyin for careful acquaintance with parts of the textbook, for valuable advice and specific comments.
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the leading researcher at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Leningrad Region of the Russian Academy of Sciences S.L. Neveleva and MSU professor O.S. Shirokov, who took on the difficult task of reviewing the textbook and provided invaluable assistance in preparing it for publication.

Implemented

• Trainer from Devanagari to Cyrillic

  And vice versa. Allows you to practice typing, reading and memorizing letters.

• Setting the difficulty level

  The student can choose which letters to practice with.

• Statistics and graphical chart

  After each training session, Saraswati shows the student statistics of his success and a graphical chart.

• Training progress

  In each simulator, the student is accompanied by an indicator of his progress.

• Sanskrit virtual keyboard

  Text can be entered via the virtual Sanskrit keyboard.

• Dialogues

  The process of learning Sanskrit is accompanied by characters who communicate with the student and give recommendations.

• Courses

  Lots of courses with assignments, tests, illustrations and dialogues.

• Community chat

  Under each lesson and article there is a chat in which students and teachers can ask questions and communicate.

• Transliterator tool

  With reverse transliteration function. Now you don't need to know Devanagari to read Sanskrit text in Latin or Cyrillic.

• Sanskrit phonetics trainers

  Various trainers for correct pronunciation of Sanskrit. Now singing poetry will be correct and pleasant. And the mantras will work more powerfully!

In the plans

• Sanskrit translator

  Translations of Sanskrit - Russian-Sanskrit and Sanskrit-Russian translator. With the possibility of translation settings.

• Sanskrit-Russian dictionary

• Multiplatform version for all OS

  The program currently runs under Windows OS. We will make a Web version, as well as an application for iOS and Android.

• Personal guru

• New courses and trainers in Sanskrit

  We are currently actively working on new courses and simulators.

• Sanskrit Grammar Tools

  We are developing new tools for your work as a Sanskrit scholar. And much more. Write to us!

The course of epic and classical Sanskrit was developed on the basis of the academic course of Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov, however, it is available to everyone.
The minimum duration of training is two years. Classes are held once a week.

The purpose of the course is to teach reading, writing and basic Sanskrit grammar.
Much attention is paid to familiarization with texts of different genres (excerpts from the Mahabharata and Ramayana, hymns, poetry, fables).
After successfully completing the course, students can independently read original texts with more or less use of a dictionary.

In addition to the main course, there is a short course in Vedic Sanskrit, which includes features of Vedic grammar and analysis of a number of hymns from the Rigveda and Atharvaveda.

Another training course is the features of Buddhist hybrid Sanskrit. We study the phonetic and grammatical differences of Buddhist texts, read fragments of Buddhist sutras.

Groups are recruited annually in September, classes begin in mid-October. Group classes are face-to-face.

Individual lessons (face-to-face or Skype) can be started at any time of the year if there are free hours for them.

There is also a series of video tutorials. Video lessons are accompanied by mandatory feedback from the teacher via Skype.

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Recently, even in serious publications one can find discussions about Vedic Rus', about the origin of Sanskrit and other Indo-European languages ​​from the Russian language. Where do these ideas come from? Why is it now, in the 21st century, when scientific Indo-European studies has already had a history of more than 200 years and has accumulated a huge amount of factual material and proven a huge number of theories, that these ideas have become so popular? Why do even some textbooks for universities seriously consider the “Book of Veles” as a reliable source for the study of the history and mythology of the Slavs, although linguists have convincingly proven the fact of forgery and the later origin of this text?

All this, as well as the discussion that unfolded in the comments to my post, prompted me to write a series of short articles talking about Indo-European languages, methods of modern Indo-European studies, about the Aryans and their connection with the Indo-Europeans. I do not pretend to provide a complete statement of the truth—enormous research and monographs by a large number of scientists have been devoted to these issues. It would be naive to think that within the framework of a blog you can dot all the i’s. However, in my defense, I will say that due to the nature of my professional activities and scientific interests, I have to come into contact with issues of interaction of languages ​​and cultures on the Eurasian continent, as well as with Indian philosophy and Sanskrit. Therefore, I will try to present the results of modern research in this area in an accessible form.

Today I would like to briefly talk about Sanskrit and its study by European scientists.

Text of the Shakta text “Devi-Mahatmya” on palm leaves, Bhujimol script, Nepal, 11th century.

Sanskrit: languages ​​and writing

Sanskrit refers Indo-Aryan group of the Indo-Iranian branchIndo-European family of languages and is an ancient Indian literary language. The word "Sanskrit" means "processed", "perfect". Like many other languages, it was considered to be of divine origin and was the language of ritual and sacred rites. Sanskrit is a synthetic language (grammatical meanings are expressed by the forms of the words themselves, hence the complexity and wide variety of grammatical forms). In its development it went through a number of stages.

In the 2nd – beginning of the 1st millennium BC. began to penetrate into the territory of Hindustan from the north-west Indo-European Aryan tribes. They spoke several closely related dialects. Western dialects formed the basis Vedic language. Most likely, its formation occurred in the 15th-10th centuries. BC. Four (literally “knowledge”) – samhitas (collections) were written on it: Rig Veda("Veda of Hymns") Samaveda(“Veda of Sacrificial Spells”), Yajurveda(“Veda of Songs”) and Atharva Veda(“Veda of the Atharvans”, spells and incantations). The Vedas are accompanied by a corpus of texts: brahmins(priestly books), Aranyaki(books of forest hermits) and Upanishads(religious and philosophical works). They all belong to the class "shruti"- “heard.” The Vedas are believed to be of divine origin and were written down by a sage ( rishi) Vyasa. In Ancient India, only “twice-born” - representatives of the three highest varnas ( brahmins- priests, kshatriyas- warriors and vaishyas- farmers and artisans); Shudras(servants), on pain of death, were not allowed to access the Vedas (you can read more about the varna system in the post).

Eastern dialects formed the basis of Sanskrit proper. From the middle of the 1st millennium BC. to III-IV centuries. AD formation was underway epic Sanskrit, on which a huge corpus of literature was recorded, primarily epics Mahabharata(“The Great Battle of the Descendants of Bharata”) and Ramayana("The Wanderings of Rama") - itihasa. Also written in epic Sanskrit puranas(from the word “ancient”, “old”) - a collection of myths and legends, tantra(“rule”, “code”) - texts of religious and magical content, etc. All of them belong to the class "smriti"- “remembered”, complementary shruti. Unlike the latter, representatives of the lower varnas were also allowed to study “smriti”.

In the IV-VII centuries. is being formed classical Sanskrit, on which fiction and scientific literature was created, the works of six darshan- orthodox schools of Indian philosophy.

Since the 3rd century. BC. addition in progress Prakrits(“ordinary language”), based on the spoken language and which gave rise to many of the modern languages ​​of India: Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali, etc. They are also of Indo-Aryan origin. The interaction of Sanskrit with the Prakrits and other Indian languages ​​led to the Sanskritization of the Central Indian languages ​​and the formation hybrid Sanskrit, on which, in particular, Buddhist and Jain texts are recorded.

For a long time now, Sanskrit has practically not developed as a living language. However, it is still part of the Indian classical education system, services are performed in Hindu temples, books are published, and treatises are written. As the Indian orientalist and public figure rightly said Suniti KumarChatterjee(1890-1977), modern languages ​​of India grew “figuratively speaking, in the atmosphere of Sanskrit”.

There is still no consensus among scientists and researchers as to whether the Vedic language belongs to Sanskrit. Thus, the famous ancient Indian thinker and linguist Panini(approx. 5th century BC), who created a complete systematic description of Sanskrit, considered the Vedic language and classical Sanskrit to be different languages, although he recognized their kinship, the origin of the second from the first.

Sanskrit script: from Brahmi to Devanagari

Despite its long history, a unified writing system in Sanskrit never emerged. This is due to the fact that in India there was a strong tradition of oral transmission of text, memorization, and recitation. When necessary, recordings were made using the local alphabet. V.G. Erman noted that the written tradition in India probably begins around the 8th century. BC, about 500 years before the appearance of the oldest written monuments - the rock edicts of King Ashoka, and wrote further:

“... the history of Indian literature begins several centuries earlier, and here it is necessary to note an important feature of it: it represents a rare example in the history of world culture of literature that reached such a high development at an early stage, virtually outside of writing.”

For comparison: the oldest monuments of Chinese writing (Yin fortune-telling inscriptions) date back to the 14th-11th centuries. BC.

The oldest writing system is syllabary brahmi. In particular, the famous Edicts of King Ashoka(III century BC). There are several hypotheses regarding the time of appearance of this letter. According to one of them, in the monuments of the 3rd-2nd millennium BC, discovered during excavations Harappans And Mohenjo-daro(in what is now Pakistan), a number of signs can be interpreted as predecessors of Brahmi. According to another, Brahmi is of Middle Eastern origin, as indicated by the similarity of a large number of characters with the Aramaic alphabet. For a long time, this writing system was forgotten and deciphered at the end of the 18th century.

Sixth Edict of King Ashoka, 238 BC, Brahmi letter, British Museum

In Northern India, as well as in the southern part of Central Asia from the 3rd century. BC. to the 4th century AD semi-alphabetic, semi-syllabic writing was used kharosthi, which also has some similarities with the Aramaic alphabet. It was written from right to left. In the Middle Ages, it, like Brahmi, was forgotten and deciphered only in the 19th century.

From Brahmi came writing gupta, common in the IV-VIII centuries. It got its name from the powerful Gupta Empire(320-550), the time of economic and cultural prosperity of India. Since the 8th century, the Western version has emerged from the Gupta - writing charade. The Tibetan alphabet is based on Gupta.

By the 12th century, Gupta and Brahmi were transformed into writing Devanagari(“divine city [letter]”), still in use today. At the same time, other types of writing existed.

Text of the Bhagavata Purana (c. 1630-1650), Devanagari script, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco

Sanskrit: the oldest language or one of the Indo-European languages?

The Englishman Sir is considered the founder of scientific Indology William Jones(1746-1794). In 1783 he arrived in Calcutta as a judge. In 1784 he became chairman of the foundation founded on his initiative. Bengal Asiatic Society(Asiatic Society of Bengal), whose tasks included studying Indian culture and introducing Europeans to it. On February 2, 1786, in the third anniversary lecture, he wrote:

“No matter how ancient Sanskrit is, it has an amazing structure. It is more perfect than Greek, richer than Latin, and more refined than either of them, and at the same time it bears such close resemblance to these two languages, both in the roots of verbs and in grammatical forms, that it can hardly be an accident; this similarity is so great that not a single philologist who would study these languages ​​could fail to believe that they originated from a common source that no longer exists.”

However, Jones was not the first to point out the closeness of Sanskrit and European languages. Back in the 16th century, a Florentine merchant Filippo Sasetti wrote about the similarities between Sanskrit and Italian.

From the beginning of the 19th century, the systematic study of Sanskrit began. This served as an impetus for the establishment of scientific Indo-European studies and the establishment of the foundations of comparative studies - the comparative study of languages ​​and cultures. A scientific concept of the genealogical unity of the Indo-European languages ​​is emerging. At that time, Sanskrit was recognized as the standard, the language closest to the Proto-Indo-European language. German writer, poet, philosopher, linguist Friedrich Schlegel(1772-1829) said about him:

“Indian is older than its related languages ​​and was their common ancestor.”

By the end of the 19th century, a large amount of factual material had been accumulated, which shook the opinion that Sanskrit was archaic. At the beginning of the twentieth century, written monuments were discovered on Hittite language, dating from the 18th century. BC. It was also possible to discover other previously unknown ancient languages ​​related to Indo-European, for example, Tocharian. It has been proven that the Hittite language is closer to Proto-Indo-European than Sanskrit.

In the last century, enormous advances have been made in comparative linguistics. A large number of texts written in Sanskrit were studied and translated into European languages, the proto-languages ​​were reconstructed and dated, and a hypothesis was put forward about Nostratic macrofamily, uniting Indo-European, Uralic, Altai and other languages. Thanks to interdisciplinary research, discoveries in archeology, history, philosophy, and genetics, it was possible to establish the places of the supposed ancestral home of the Indo-Europeans and the most likely routes of migration of the Aryans.

However, the words of the philologist and Indologist still remain relevant Friedrich Maximilian Müller (1823-1900):

“If I were asked what I consider to be the greatest discovery of the 19th century in the study of the ancient history of mankind, I would give a simple etymological correspondence - Sanskrit Dyaus Pitar = Greek Zeus Pater = Latin Jupiter.”

References:
Bongard-Levin G.M., Grantovsky E.A. From Scythia to India. M., 1983.
Bongard-Levin G.M., Ilyin G.F. India in ancient times. M., 1985.
Basham A.L. The miracle that was India. M., 2000.
Kochergina V.A. Sanskrit textbook. M., 1994.
Rudoy V.I., Ostrovskaya E.P. Sanskrit in Indian culture // Sanskrit. St. Petersburg, 1999.
Shokhin V.K. Vedas // Indian philosophy. Encyclopedia. M., 2009.
Erman V.G. Essay on the history of Vedic literature. M., 1980.

Photos are from Wikipedia.

PS. In India, it is the oral language (sound) that serves as a kind of core, since there was no single writing system, while in China and in the Far Eastern region in general there is hieroglyphic writing (image), for which the specific sound of words does not matter. Perhaps this influenced the idea of ​​space and time in these regions and predetermined the features of philosophy.

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