Sanskrit

Sanskrit
saṃskṛtam
Pronunciation
Spoken in Greater India
Total speakers 14,135 native speakers in India (2001) 1
Language family — Sanskrit
Writing system Devanāgarī (de facto), various Brāhmī - based scripts, and Latin alphabet
Official status
Official language in One of the 22 scheduled languages of India
Regulated by No official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1 sa
ISO 639-2 san
ISO 639-3 san
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Sanskrit ( saṃskṛtā vāk , for short saṃskṛtam), is an historical Indo-Aryan language , one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism , 2 and one of the 22 official languages of India . 3 It is a classical language of India , others being Tamil , Telugu and Kannada . Classical Sanskrit is the standard register as laid out in the grammar of Pāṇini , around the 4th century BCE . Its position in the cultures of South and Southeast Asia is akin to that of Latin and Greek in Europe and it has significantly influenced most modern languages of the Indian subcontinent , particularly India and Nepal . 4 The pre-Classical form of Sanskrit is known as Vedic Sanskrit , with the language of the Rigveda being the oldest and most archaic stage preserved, its oldest core dating back to as early as 1500 BCE. 5 This qualifies Rigvedic Sanskrit as one of the oldest attestations of any Indo-Iranian language , and one of the earliest attested members of the Indo-European language family , the family which includes English and most European languages. 6 The corpus of Sanskrit literature encompasses a rich tradition of poetry and drama as well as scientific , technical, philosophical and Hindu religious texts. Sanskrit continues to be widely used as a ceremonial language in Hindu religious rituals in the forms of hymns and mantras . Spoken Sanskrit is still in use in a few traditional institutions in India, and there are many attempts at revival . Contents History Vedic Sanskrit Classical Sanskrit Decline European scholarship Phonology Vowels Consonants Phonology and Sandhi Writing system Romanization Grammar Grammatical tradition Verbs Nouns Personal Pronouns and Determiners Compounds Syntax Numerals Influence Modern-day India Influence on vernaculars Revival attempts Symbolic usage Interaction with other languages Usage in modern times Computational linguistics See also Notes Bibliography Further reading External links Sanskrit documents Primers
The Sanskrit verbal adjective saṃskṛta- may be translated as "put together, well or completely formed, refined, highly elaborated". 7 It is derived from the root saṃ(s)kar- "to put together, compose, arrange, prepare", 8 where saṃ- "together" (as English same) and (s)kar- "do, make". The language referred to as saṃskṛtā vāk "the cultured language" has by definition always been a "sacred" and "sophisticated" language, used for religious and learned discourse in ancient India, and contrasted with the languages spoken by the people, prākṛta- "natural, artless, normal, ordinary". It is also called dēva-bhāṣā meaning the "divine language" or the "language of devas or demigods". History Devimahatmya manuscript on palm-leaf, in an early Bhujimol script, Bihar or Nepal , 11th century. Sanskrit is a member of the Indo-Iranian sub-family of the Indo-European family of languages. Its closest ancient relatives are the Iranian languages Old Persian and Avestan . 9 Within the wider Indo-European language family, Sanskrit shares characteristic sound changes with the Satem languages (particularly the Slavic and Baltic languages ), and also with Greek . 10 In order to explain the common features shared by Sanskrit and other Indo-European languages, many scholars have proposed migration hypotheses asserting that the original speakers of what became Sanskrit arrived in what is now India and Pakistan from the north-west some time during the early second millennium BCE. 11 Evidence for such a theory includes the close relationship of the Indo-Iranian tongues with the Baltic and Slavic languages, vocabulary exchange with the non-Indo-European Finno-Ugric languages, and the nature of the attested Indo-European words for flora and fauna. 12 The earliest attested Sanskrit texts are Hindu texts of the Rigveda , which may be located in the Greater Punjab region and adjacent Afghanistan, and dated to the mid-to-late second millennium BCE. No written records from such an early period survive. However, scholars are confident that the oral transmission of the texts is reliable: they were ceremonial literature whose correct pronunciation was considered crucial to its religious efficacy. 13 From the Rigveda until the time of Pāṇini (fl. 4th century BCE) the development of the Sanskrit language may be observed in other Hindu texts: the Samaveda , Yajurveda , Atharvaveda , Brahmanas , and Upanishads . During this time, the prestige of the language, its use for sacred purposes, and the importance attached to its correct enunciation all served as powerful conservative forces resisting the normal processes of linguistic change. 14 The oldest surviving Sanskrit grammar is Pāṇini 's ("Eight-Chapter Grammar"). It is essentially a prescriptive grammar, i.e., an authority that defines (rather than describes) correct Sanskrit, although it contains descriptive parts, mostly to account for some Vedic forms the use of which had become rare in Pāṇini's time. The term "Sanskrit" was not thought of as a specific language set apart from other languages, but rather as a particularly refined or perfected manner of speaking. Knowledge of Sanskrit was a marker of social class and educational attainment in ancient India and the language was taught mainly to members of the higher castes, through close analysis of Sanskrit grammarians such as Pāṇini. Sanskrit, as the learned language of Ancient India, thus existed alongside the Prakrits (vernaculars), which evolved into the Middle Indic dialects, and eventually into the contemporary modern Indo-Aryan languages . Vedic Sanskrit Main article: Vedic Sanskrit Sanskrit, as defined by Pāṇini , had evolved out of the earlier "Vedic" form. Beginning of Vedic Sanskrit can be traced as early as around 1500 BCE (accepted date of Rig-Veda). Scholars often distinguish Vedic Sanskrit and Classical or "Paninian" Sanskrit as separate 'dialects'. Though they are quite similar, they differ in a number of essential points of phonology , vocabulary , and grammar and syntax . Vedic Sanskrit is the language of the Vedas , a large collection of hymns, incantations ( Samhitas ), theological discussions, and religio-philosophical discussions ( Brahmanas , Upanishads ) which are the earliest religious texts of the Hindu religion. Modern linguists consider the metrical hymns of the Rigveda Samhita to be the earliest, composed by many authors over centuries of oral tradition. The end of the Vedic period is marked by the composition of the Upanishads , which form the concluding part of the Vedic corpus in the traditional compilations. Around the mid 1st millennium BCE, Sanskrit began the transition from a first language to a second language of religion and learning, marking the beginning of the Classical period. Classical Sanskrit For nearly 2,000 years, a cultural order existed that exerted influence across South Asia , Inner Asia , Southeast Asia , and to a certain extent, East Asia . 15 A significant form of post-Vedic Sanskrit is found in the Sanskrit of the Hindu Epics —the Ramayana and Mahabharata . The deviations from Pāṇini in the epics are generally considered to be on account of interference from Prakrits, or "innovations" and not because they are pre-Paninean. 16 Traditional Sanskrit scholars call such deviations aarsha (आर्ष), or "of the rishis ", the traditional title for the ancient authors. In some contexts, there are also more "prakritisms" (borrowings from common speech) than in Classical Sanskrit proper. Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit is a Middle Indic literary language based on early Buddhist prakrit texts which subsequently assimilated to the Classical Sanskrit standard in varying degree. 17 According to Tiwari (1955 ), there were four principal dialects of classical Sanskrit: paścimottarī (Northwestern, also called Northern or Western), madhyadeśī (lit., middle country), pūrvi (Eastern) and dakṣiṇī (Southern, arose in the Classical period). The predecessors of the first three dialects are even attested in Vedic Brāhmaṇas , of which the first one was regarded as the purest (Kauṣītaki Brāhmaṇa, 7.6). Decline See also: Termination of spoken Sanskrit There a number of sociolinguistic studies of spoken Sanskrit which strongly suggests that in this oral use it is limited and is not developing. 18 Based on this, some suggest that Sanskrit had become 'dead', but the distinction is not clearly understood, as Pollock (2001 ) describes it in comparison with the "dead" language of Latin: 19 Both died slowly, and earliest as a vehicle of literary expression, while much longer retaining significance for learned discourse with its universalist claims. Both were subject to periodic renewals or forced rebirths, sometimes in connection with a politics of translocal aspiration… At the same time… both came to be ever more exclusively associated with narrow forms of religion and priestcraft , despite centuries of a secular aesthetic. The decline of Sanskrit use in literary and political circles was likely due to a weakening of the political institutions that supported it, and to heightened competition with vernacular languages seeking literary-cultural dignity. 20 There was regional variation in the forcefulness of these vernacular movements and Sanskrit declined in different ways across the subcontinent. For example, in some areas Kashmiri was used along side of Sanskrit as the language of literature after the 13th century, and Sanskrit works from the Vijayanagara Empire failed to circulate outside their place and time of composition; by contrast, works in Telugu and Kannada flourished. 21 But despite this presumed "death" of Sanskrit and the literary use of vernacular languages, Sanskrit continued to be used in literary cultures in India, and those who could read vernacular languages could also read Sanskrit. 20 But the "death" meant that Sanskrit was not used to express changing forms of subjectivity and sociality embodied and conceptualized in the modern age. 20 Instead, it was reduced to "reinscription and restatements" of ideas already explored, and any creativity in Sanskrit was restricted to religious hymns and verses. 22 23 European scholarship See also: Sanskrit in the West  and Sanskrit revival European scholarship in Sanskrit, begun by Heinrich Roth (1620–1668) and Johann Ernst Hanxleden (1681–1731), is regarded as responsible for the discovery of the Indo-European language family by Sir William Jones . This scholarship played an important role in the development of Western linguistics . Sir William Jones , speaking to the Asiatic Society in Calcutta (now Kolkata ) on February 2, 1786, said: The Sanskrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure; more perfect than the Greek , more copious than the Latin , and more exquisitely refined than either, yet bearing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs and in the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident; so strong, indeed, that no philologer could examine them all three, without believing them to have sprung from some common source , which, perhaps, no longer exists. Phonology Further information: Śikṣā Classical Sanskrit distinguishes about 36 phonemes . There is, however, some allophony and the writing systems used for Sanskrit generally indicate this, thus distinguishing 48 sounds . The sounds are traditionally listed in the order vowels (Ach), diphthongs (Hal), anusvara and visarga , plosives (Sparśa) and nasals (starting in the back of the mouth and moving forward), and finally the liquids and fricatives , written in IAST as follows (see the tables below for details): a ā i ī u ū ṛ ṝ ḷ ḹ ; e ai o au k kh g gh ṅ; c ch j jh ñ; ṭ ṭh ḍ ḍh ṇ; t th d dh n; p ph b bh m ; ś ṣ s h An alternate traditional ordering is that of the Shiva Sutra of Pāṇini . Vowels See also: R-colored vowel#Vocalic R in Sanskrit The vowels of Classical Sanskrit with their word-initial Devanagari symbol, diacritical mark with the consonant (/p/), pronunciation (of the vowel alone and of /p/+vowel) in IPA , equivalent in IAST and ITRANS and (approximate) equivalents in English are listed below: Letter Pronunciation Pronunciation with /p/ IAST equiv. ITRANS equiv. English equivalent ( GA unless stated otherwise)
/ɐ/ or /ə/ /pɐ/ or /pə/ a a short near-open central vowel or schwa : u in bunny or a in about
/ɑː/ /pɑː/ ā A long open back unrounded vowel : a in father ( RP )
/i/ /pi/ i i short close front unrounded vowel : e in england
/iː/ /piː/ ī I long close front unrounded vowel : ee in feet
/u/ /pu/ u u short close back rounded vowel : oo in foot
/uː/ /puː/ ū U long close back rounded vowel : oo in cool
/ɻ/ /pɻ/ R short retroflex approximant : r in burl
/ɻː/ /pɻː/ RR long retroflex approximant r in burl
/ɭ/ /pɭ/ LR short retroflex lateral approximant (no English equivalent)
/ɭː/ /pɭː/ LRR long retroflex lateral approximant
/eː/ /peː/ e e long close-mid front unrounded vowel : a in bane (some speakers)
/əi/ /pəi/ ai ai a long diphthong : i in ice, i in kite ( Canadian English )
/oː/ /poː/ o o long close-mid back rounded vowel : o in bone (some speakers)
/əu/ /pəu/ au au a long diphthong : Similar to the ou in house (Canadian English)
The long vowels are pronounced twice as long as their short counterparts. Also, there exists a third, extra-long length for most vowels, called pluti , which is used in various cases, but particularly in the vocative . The pluti is not accepted by all grammarians. The vowels /e/ and /o/ continue as allophonic variants of Proto-Indo-Iranian /ai/, /au/ and are categorized as diphthongs by Sanskrit grammarians even though they are realized phonetically as simple long vowels. (See above). Additional points: There are some additional signs traditionally listed in tables of the Devanagari script: The diacritic called anusvāra, ( IAST : ). It is used both to indicate the nasalization of the vowel in the syllable ( and to represent the sound of a syllabic /n/ or /m/; e.g. /pəŋ/. The diacritic called visarga, represents /əh/ ( IAST : ); e.g. /pəh/. The diacritic called chandrabindu, not traditionally included in Devanagari charts for Sanskrit, is used interchangeably with the anusvāra to indicate nasalization of the vowel, primarily in Vedic notation; e.g. /pə̃/. If a lone consonant needs to be written without any following vowel, it is given a halanta/virāma diacritic below ( ). The vowel /aː/ in Sanskrit is realized as being more central and less back than the closest English approximation, which is /ɑː/. But the grammarians have classified it as a back vowel. 24 The ancient Sanskrit grammarians classified the vowel system as velars , retroflexes , palatals and plosives rather than as back, central and front vowels. Hence and are classified respectively as palato-velar (a+i) and labio-velar (a+u) vowels respectively. But the grammarians have classified them as diphthongs and in prosody, each is given two mātrās. This does not necessarily mean that they are proper diphthongs, but neither excludes the possibility that they could have been proper diphthongs at a very ancient stage (see above). These vowels are pronounced as long /eː/ and /oː/ respectively by learned Sanskrit Brahmans and priests of today. Other than the "four" diphthongs, Sanskrit usually disallows any other diphthong—vowels in succession, where they occur, are converted to semivowels according to sandhi rules. Consonants IAST and Devanagari notations are given, with approximate IPA values in square brackets. Labial
Ōshtya Labiodental
Dantōshtya Dental
Dantya Retroflex
Mūrdhanya Palatal
Tālavya Velar
Kanthya Glottal
Stop
Sparśa Unaspirated
Alpaprāna p
Aspirated
Mahāprāna ph
Nasal
Anunāsika m n
Semivowel
Antastha v y
Liquid
Drava l r
Fricative
Ūshman s
The table below shows the traditional listing of the Sanskrit consonants with the (nearest) equivalents in English (as pronounced in General American and Received Pronunciation ) and Spanish. Each consonant shown below is deemed to be followed by the neutral vowel schwa (/ə/), and is named in the table as such. Plosives – Sprshta Unaspirated
Voiceless
Alpaprāna Śvāsa Aspirated
Voiceless
Mahāprāna Śvāsa Unaspirated
Voiced
Alpaprāna Nāda Aspirated
Voiced
Mahāprāna Nāda Nasal
Anunāsika Nāda
Velar
Kantya
/kə/; English: skip
/kʰə/; English: cat
/gə/; English: game
/gʱə/; somewhat similar to English: doghouse
/ŋə/; English: ring
Palatal
Tālavya
/cə/; English: exchange
/cʰə/; English: church
/ɟə/; ≈English: jam
/ɟʱə/; somewhat similar to English: hedgehog
/ɲə/; English: bench
Retroflex
Mūrdhanya
/ʈə/; No English equivalent
/ʈʰə/; No English equivalent
/ɖə/; No English equivalent
/ɖʱə/; No English equivalent
/ɳə/; No English equivalent
Apico- Dental
Dantya
/t̪ə/; Spanish: tomate
/t̪ʰə/; Aspirated /t̪/
/d̪ə/; Spanish: donde
/d̪ʱə/; Aspirated /d̪/
/n̪ə/; English: name
Labial
Ōshtya
/pə/; English: spin
/pʰə/; English: pit
/bə/; English: bone
/bʱə/; somewhat similar to English: clubhouse
/mə/; English: mine
Non-Plosives/Sonorants Palatal
Tālavya Retroflex
Mūrdhanya Dental
Dantya Labial /
Glottal
Ōshtya
Approximant
Antastha
/jə/; English: you
/rə/; English: trip ( Scottish English )
/l̪ə/; English: love (labio-dental)
/ʋə/; English: vase
Sibilant /
Fricative
Ūshman
/ɕə/; English: ship
/ʂə/; Retroflex form of /ʃ/
/s̪ə/; English: same (glottal)
/ɦə/; English behind
Phonology and Sandhi The Sanskrit vowels are as discussed in the section above. The long syllabic l ( ) is not attested, and is only discussed by grammarians for systematic reasons. Its short counterpart occurs in a single root only, kḷp "to order, array". Long syllabic r ( ) is also quite marginal, occurring in the genitive plural of r-stems (e.g. "mother" and pitṛ "father" have gen.pl. and pitṝṇām). are vocalic allophones of consonantal . There are thus only 5 invariably vocalic phonemes , a, ā, ī, ū, ṝ. Visarga is an allophone of and s, and anusvara , Devanagari of any nasal, both in pausa (i.e., the nasalized vowel ). The exact pronunciation of the three sibilants may vary, but they are distinct phonemes. An aspirated voiced sibilant /zʱ/ was inherited by Indo-Aryan from Proto-Indo-Iranian but lost shortly before the time of the Rigveda (aspirated fricatives are exceedingly rare in any language). The retroflex consonants are somewhat marginal phonemes, often being conditioned by their phonetic environment; they do not continue a PIE series and are often ascribed by some linguists to the substratal influence of Dravidian 25 or other substrate languages. The nasal is a conditioned allophone of /n/ (/n/ and /ɳ/ are distinct phonemes—aṇu 'minute', 'atomic' is distinctive from anu 'after', 'along'; phonologically independent /ŋ/ occurs only marginally, e.g. in prāṅ 'directed forwards/towards' ). There are thus 31 consonantal or semi-vocalic phonemes, consisting of four/five kinds of stops realized both with or without aspiration and both voiced and voiceless, three nasals, four semi-vowels or liquids, and four fricatives, written in IAST transliteration as follows: k, kh, g, gh; c, ch, j, jh; ṭ, ṭh, ḍ, ḍh; t, th, d, dh; p, ph, b, bh; m, n, ṇ; y, r, l, v; ś, ṣ, s, h or a total of 36 unique Sanskrit phonemes altogether. The phonological rules to be applied when combining morphemes to a word, and when combining words to a sentence are collectively called sandhi "composition". Texts are written phonetically, with sandhi applied (except for the so-called padapā ha). Writing system Kashmiri Shaivaite manuscript in the Sharada script (c. 17th century) Sanskrit was spoken in an oral society, and the oral tradition was maintained through the development of early classical Sanskrit literature . 26 Writing was not introduced to India until after Sanskrit had evolved into the Prakrits; when it was written, the choice of writing system was influenced by the regional scripts of the scribes. As such, virtually all of the major writing systems of South Asia have been used for the production of Sanskrit manuscripts. Since the late 19th century, Devanagari has been considered as the de facto writing system for Sanskrit, 27 quite possibly because of the European practice of printing Sanskrit texts in this script. Devanagari is written from left to right, lacks distinct letter cases, and is recognizable by a distinctive horizontal line running along the tops of the letters that links them together. The earliest known inscriptions in Sanskrit date to the 1st century BCE. 28 They are in the Brahmi script, which was originally used for Prakrit , not Sanskrit. 29 It has been described as a "paradox" that the first evidence of written Sanskrit occurs centuries later than that of the Prakrit languages which are its linguistic descendants. 28 30 When Sanskrit was written down, it was first used for texts of an administrative, literary or scientific nature. The sacred texts were preserved orally, and were set down in writing, "reluctantly" (according to one commentator), and at a comparatively late date. 29 Brahmi evolved into a multiplicity of scripts of the Brahmic family , many of which were used to write Sanskrit. Roughly contemporary with the Brahmi, the Kharosthi script was used in the northwest of the subcontinent. Later (around the 4th to 8th centuries CE) the Gupta script , derived from Brahmi, became prevalent. From ca. the 8th century, the Sharada script evolved out of the Gupta script. The latter was displaced in its turn by Devanagari from ca. the 11/12th century, with intermediary stages such as the Siddham script. In Eastern India, the Bengali script and, later, the Oriya script , were used. In the south where Dravidian languages predominate, scripts used for Sanskrit include Kannada , Telugu , Tamil , Malayalam and Grantha . Sanskrit in modern Indian and other Brahmi scripts. May Śiva bless those who take delight in the language of the gods. ( Kalidasa ) Romanization Main article: Devanagari transliteration Since the late 18th century, Sanskrit has been transliterated using the Latin alphabet . The system most commonly used today is the IAST (International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration), which has been the academic standard since 1888/1912. ASCII -based transliteration schemes have evolved due to difficulties representing Sanskrit characters in computer systems. These include Harvard-Kyoto and ITRANS , a transliteration scheme that is used widely on the Internet, especially in Usenet and in email, for considerations of speed of entry as well as rendering issues. With the wide availability of Unicode aware web browsers, IAST has become common online. It's also possible to type using an alphanumeric keyboard and transliterate to devanagari using software like Mac OS X's international support. European scholars in the 19th century generally preferred Devanagari for the transcription and reproduction of whole texts and lengthy excerpts. However, references to individual words and names in texts composed in European languages were usually represented with Roman transliteration. From the 20th century onwards, due to production costs, textual editions edited by Western scholars have mostly been in Romanized transliteration. Grammar Main article: Sanskrit grammar Grammatical tradition Main article: Sanskrit grammarians Sanskrit grammatical tradition (vyākaraṇa, one of the six Vedanga disciplines) began in late Vedic India and culminated in the Aṣṭādhyāyī of Pāṇini , which consists of 3990 sutras ( ca. 5th century BCE). After a century Pāṇini (around 400 BCE) Kātyāyana composed Vārtikas on Pāninian sũtras. Patañjali , who lived three centuries after Pānini, wrote the Mahābhāṣya , the "Great Commentary" on the and Vārtikas. Because of these three ancient Sanskrit grammarians this grammar is called Trimuni Vyākarana. To understand the meaning of sutras Jayaditya and Vāmana wrote the commentary named Kāsikā 600 CE. Paninian grammar is based on 14 Shiva sutras (aphorisms). Here whole Mātrika ( alphabet ) is abbreviated. This abbreviation is called Pratyāhara. 31 Verbs Main article: Sanskrit verbs Sanskrit has ten classes of verbs divided into in two broad groups: athematic and thematic . The thematic verbs are so called because an a, called the theme vowel , is inserted between the stem and the ending. This serves to make the thematic verbs generally more regular. Exponents used in verb conjugation include prefixes , suffixes , infixes , and reduplication . Every root has (not necessarily all distinct) zero, gu a , and v ddhi grades. If V is the vowel of the zero grade, the gu a-grade vowel is traditionally thought of as a + V, and the v ddhi-grade vowel as ā + V. The verb tenses (a very inexact application of the word, since more distinctions than simply tense are expressed) are organized into four 'systems' (as well as gerunds and infinitives , and such creatures as intensives / frequentatives , desideratives , causatives , and benedictives derived from more basic forms) based on the different stem forms (derived from verbal roots) used in conjugation. There are four tense systems: Present ( Present , Imperfect , Imperative , Optative ) Perfect Aorist Future ( Future , Conditional ) Nouns Main article: Sanskrit nouns Sanskrit is a highly inflected language with three grammatical genders (masculine, feminine, neuter) and three numbers (singular, plural, dual ). It has eight cases : nominative , vocative , accusative , instrumental , dative , ablative , genitive , and locative . The number of actual declensions is debatable. Panini identifies six karakas corresponding to the nominative, accusative, dative, instrumental, locative, and ablative cases. 32 Panini defines them as follows (Ashtadhyayi, I.4.24–54): Apadana (lit. 'take off'): "(that which is) firm when departure (takes place)." This is the equivalent of the ablative case, which signifies a stationary object from which movement proceeds. Sampradana ('bestowal'): "he whom one aims at with the object". This is equivalent to the dative case, which signifies a recipient in an act of giving or similar acts. Karana ("instrument") "that which effects most." This is equivalent to the instrumental case. Adhikarana ('location'): or "substratum." This is equivalent to the locative case. Karman ('deed'/'object'): "what the agent seeks most to attain". This is equivalent to the accusative case. Karta ('agent'): "he/that which is independent in action". This is equivalent to the nominative case. (On the basis of Scharfe, 1977: 94) Personal Pronouns and Determiners Main article: Sanskrit pronouns and determiners Sanskrit pronouns are declined for case , number , and gender. The pronominal declension applies to a few adjectives as well. Many pronouns have alternative enclitic forms. The first and second person pronouns are declined for the most part alike, having by analogy assimilated themselves with one another. Where two forms are given, the second is enclitic and an alternative form. Ablatives in singular and plural may be extended by the syllable -tas; thus mat or mattas, asmat or asmattas. Sanskrit does not have true third person pronouns, but its demonstratives fulfill this function instead by standing independently without a modified substantive . There are four different demonstratives in Sanskrit: tat, etat, idam, and adas. etat indicates greater proximity than tat. While idam is similar to etat, adas refers to objects that are more remote than tat. eta, is declined almost identically to ta. Its paradigm is obtained by prefixing e- to all the forms of ta. As a result of sandhi , the masculine and feminine singular forms transform into eṣas and . The enclitic pronoun ena is found only in a few oblique cases and numbers. Interrogative pronouns all begin with k-, and decline just as tat does, with the initial t- being replaced by k-. The only exception to this are the singular neuter nominative and accusative forms, which are both kim and not the expected *kat. For example, the singular feminine genitive interrogative pronoun, "of whom?", is kasyãḥ. Indefinite pronouns are formed by adding the participles api, cid, or cana after the appropriate interrogative pronouns. All relative pronouns begin with y-, and decline just as tat does. The correlative pronouns are identical to the tat series. In addition to the pronouns described above, some adjectives follow the pronominal declension. Unless otherwise noted, their declension is identical to tat. eka: "one", "a certain". (singular neuter nominative and accusative forms are both ekam) anya: "another". sarva: "all", "every". (singular neuter nominative and accusative forms are both sarvam) para: "the other". (singular neuter nominative and accusative forms are both param) sva: "self" (a reflexive adjective). (singular neuter nominative and accusative forms are both svam) Compounds Main article: Sanskrit compounds One other notable feature of the nominal system is the very common use of nominal compounds, which may be huge (10+ words) as in some modern languages such as German and Finnish . Nominal compounds occur with various structures, however morphologically speaking they are essentially the same. Each noun (or adjective) is in its (weak) stem form, with only the final element receiving case inflection. The four principle categories of nominal compounds are: 33 Dvandva (co-ordinative) These consist of two or more noun stems, connected in sense with 'and'. Examples are rāma-lakşmaņau – Rama and Lakshmana, rāma-lakşmaņa-bharata-śatrughnāh – Rama, Lakshmana, Bharata and Satrughna, and pāņipādam – limbs, literally hands and feet, from pāņi = hand and pāda = foot. Tatpuruṣa (determinative) There are many tatpuru as; in a tatpuru a the first component is in a case relationship with another. For example, a doghouse is a dative compound, a house for a dog; other examples include instrumental relationships ("thunderstruck") and locative relationships ("towndwelling"). Karmadhāraya (descriptive) A compound where the relation of the first member to the last is appositional , attributive or adverbial ; e.g., uluka-yatu (owl+demon) is a demon in the shape of an owl. Karmadhārayas are considered by some to be tatpuruṣas. 33 Bahuvrīhi (possessive/exocentric) Bahuvrīhi compounds refer to a compound noun that refers to a thing which is itself not part of the compound. For example the word bahuvrīhi itself, from bahu = much and vrīhi = rice, denotes a rich person — one who has much rice. Syntax This section requires expansion .
Because of Sanskrit's complex declension system the word order is free. 34 In usage, there is a strong tendency toward Subject Object Verb (SOV) , which was the original system in place in Vedic prose. However, there are exceptions when word pairs cannot be transposed. 35 Numerals The numbers from one to ten: éka- dva- catúr- páñcan- saptán- aṣṭá- návan- dáśan- The numbers one through four are declined. Éka is declined like a pronominal adjective, though the dual form does not occur. Dvá appears only in the dual. Trí and catúr are declined irregularly: Three Four
Masculine Neuter Feminine Masculine Neuter Feminine
Nominative tráyas tisrás catvā́ras catvā́ri cátasras
Accusative trīn tisrás catúras catvā́ri cátasras
Instrumental tribhís tisṛ́bhis catúrbhis catasṛ́bhis
Dative tribhyás tisṛ́bhyas catúrbhyas catasṛ́bhyas
Ablative tribhyás tisṛ́bhyas catúrbhyas catasṛ́bhyas
Genitive tisṛṇā́m caturṇā́m catasṛṇā́m
Locative tisṛ́ṣu catúrṣu catasṛ́ṣu
Influence Modern-day India Influence on vernaculars Sanskrit's greatest influence, presumably, is that which it exerted on languages of India that grew from its vocabulary and grammatical base; for instance Hindi , which is a "Sanskritized register" of the Khariboli dialect . However, all modern Indo-Aryan languages as well as Munda and Dravidian languages , have borrowed many words either directly from Sanskrit ( tatsama words), or indirectly via middle Indo-Aryan languages ( tadbhava words). 4 Words originating in Sanskrit are estimated to constitute roughly fifty percent of the vocabulary of modern Indo-Aryan languages, 36 and the literary forms of (Dravidian) Telugu , Malayalam and Kannada . 4 Sanskrit is prized as a storehouse of scripture and the language of prayers in Hinduism . Like Latin 's influence on European languages and Classical Chinese's influence on East Asian languages, Sanskrit has influenced most Indian languages. While vernacular prayer is common, Sanskrit mantras are recited by millions of Hindus and most temple functions are conducted entirely in Sanskrit, often Vedic in form. Of modern day Indian languages, while Hindi and Urdu tend to be more heavily weighted with Arabic and Persian influence, Nepali , Bengali , Assamese , Konkani and Marathi still retain a largely Sanskrit and Prakrit vocabulary base. The Indian national anthem, Jana Gana Mana , is written in a literary form of Bengali (known as sadhu bhasha), Sanskritized so as to be recognizable, but still archaic to the modern ear. The national song of India Vande Mataram was originally a poem composed by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay and taken from his book called ' Anandamath ', is in a similarly highly Sanskritized Bengali. Malayalam , Telugu and Kannada also combine a great deal of Sanskrit vocabulary. Sanskrit also has influence on Chinese through Buddhist Sutras. Chinese words like 剎那 chànà (Skt. क्षन kṣana 'instantaneous period of time') were borrowed from Sanskrit. Revival attempts Main article: Sanskrit revival The 1991 and 2001, census of India recorded 49,736 and 14,135 persons, respectively, with Sanskrit as their mother tongue . 1 Since the 1990s, efforts to revive spoken Sanskrit have been increasing. Many organizations like the Samskrta Bharati are conducting Speak Sanskrit workshops to popularize the language. The CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) in India has made Sanskrit a third language (though it is an option for the school to adopt it or not, the other choice being the state's own official language) in the schools it governs. In such schools, learning Sanskrit is an option for grades 5 to 8 (Classes V to VIII). This is true of most schools affiliated to the ICSE board too, especially in those states where the official language is Hindi . Sudharma , the only daily newspaper in Sanskrit has been published out of Mysore in India since the year 1970. Since 1974, there has been a short daily news broadcast on All India Radio. In some Indian villages, inhabitants of all castes speak Sanskrit natively since childhood: these include Mattur in Karnataka , 37 Jhiri, District: Rajgadh, Madhya Pradesh , 38 Ganoda, District: Banswada, Rajasthan , 39 Bawali, District: Bagapat, Uttar Pradesh Mohad, District: Narasinhpur, Madhya Pradesh Symbolic usage In the Republic of India, in Nepal and Indonesia, Sanskrit phrases are widely used as mottoes for various educational and social organizations (much as Latin is used by some institutions in the West). The motto of the Republic is also in Sanskrit. Republic of India   सत्यमेव जयते Satyameva Jayate "Truth alone triumphs" Nepal   जननी जन्मभूमिश्च स्वर्गादपि गरीयसी Janani Janmabhūmisca Svargādapi garīyasi "Mother and motherland are greater than heaven" Goa   षर्वॆ भद्रनि पस्यन्तु म कस्चिद् डुखभग् भवॆत् Sarve Bhadrāni Paśyantu Mā Kaścid Duhkhabhāg bhavet "May all perceive good, may not anyone attain unhappiness" Life Insurance Corporation of India   यॊगक्शॆमम् वहनम्यहम् Yogakshemam Vahāmyaham "I shall take care of welfare" (taken from the Bhagavad Gita ) Indian Navy   शं नो वरुण Shanno Varuna "May Varuna be peaceful to us" Indian Air Force   नभः स्पर्शं दीप्तम Nābha Sparsham Dīptam "Touch the Sky with Glory" Mumbai Police   सद्रक्षणाय खालनीघ्रहणाय sadrakshanaaya cahlaaha nighranayah "For protection of the good and control of the wicked" Indian Coast Guard   वयम् रक्षाम Vayam Rakshāmaha "We protect" All India Radio   बहुजन‍हितय बहुजन‍सुखय‌ Bahujana-hitāya bahujana-sukhāya "For the benefit of all, for the comfort of all" Indonesian Navy   जलॆस्वॆव जयमहॆ Jalesveva Jayamahe "On the Sea We Are Glorious" Aceh Province   पञ्चचित Pancacita "Five Goals" Many of the post–Independence educational institutions of national importance in India and Sri Lanka have Sanskrit mottoes. For a fuller list of such educational institutions, see List of educational institutions which have Sanskrit phrases as their mottoes . Interaction with other languages Further information: Silk Road transmission of Buddhism ,  Hinduism in Southeast Asia ,  Indianized kingdom , and  Sanskritisation Sanskrit and related languages have also influenced their Sino-Tibetan -speaking neighbors to the north through the spread of Buddhist texts in translation. 40 Buddhism was spread to China by Mahayanist missionaries mostly through translations of Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit and Classical Sanskrit texts, and many terms were transliterated directly and added to the Chinese vocabulary. (Although Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit is not Sanskrit, properly speaking, its grammar and vocabulary are substantially the same, both because of genetic relationship, and because of conscious implementation of Paninian standardizations on the part of composers. Buddhist texts composed in Sanskrit proper were primarily found in philosophical schools like the Madhyamaka .) The situation in Tibet is similar; many Sanskrit texts survive only in Tibetan translation (in the Tanjur ). The Thai language contains many loan words from Sanskrit. For example, in Thai, the Rāvana – the emperor of Sri Lanka is called 'Thosakanth' which is a derivation of his Sanskrit name 'Dashakanth' ("of ten necks"). Many Sanskrit loanwords are also found in traditional Malay , Modern Indonesian , and numerous Philippine languages , 41 Old Javanese language (nearly half) 42 and to a lesser extent, Cambodian , Vietnamese , through Sinified hybrid Sanskrit. Usage in modern times See also: Sanskrit in the West Many of India's and Nepal's scientific and administrative terms are named in Sanskrit, as a counterpart of the western practice of naming scientific developments in Latin or Greek. The Indian guided missile program that was commenced in 1983 by DRDO has named the five missiles (ballistic and others) that it has developed as Prithvi , Agni , Akash , Nag and Trishul . India's first modern fighter aircraft is named HAL Tejas . Recital of Sanskrit shlokas as background chorus in films , television advertisements and as slogans for corporate organizations has become a trend. Recently, Sanskrit also made an appearance in Western pop music in two recordings by Madonna . One, "Shanti/Ashtangi," from the 1998 album "Ray of Light," is the traditional Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga chant referenced above set to music. The second, "Cyber-raga," released in 2000 as a B-side to Madonna's single "Music," is a Sanskrit-language ode of devotion to a higher power and a wish for peace on earth. The climactic battle theme of The Matrix Revolutions features a choir singing a Sanskrit prayer from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad in the closing titles of the movie. Composer John Williams also featured a choir singing in Sanskrit for Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace . The Sky1 version of the title sequence in season one of Battlestar Galactica 2004 features the Gayatri Mantra , taken from the Rig Veda (3.62.10). The composition was written by miniseries composer Richard Gibbs . Computational linguistics There have been suggestions to use Sanskrit as a metalanguage for knowledge representation in e.g. machine translation , and other areas of natural language processing because of its relatively high regular structure. 43 This is due to Classical Sanskrit being a regularized, prescriptivist form abstracted from the much more complex and richer Vedic Sanskrit . This leveling of the grammar of Classical Sanskrit began during the Brahmana phase, and had not yet completed by the time of Panini, when the language had fallen out of popular use. See also Avestan Devanagari Grantha Script Indo-European languages International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration Languages of India Sanskrit literature Sanskrit numerals Notes ^ a b "Comparative speaker's strength of scheduled languages -1971, 1981, 1991 and 2001" . Census of India, 2001. Office of the Registrar and Census Commissioner, India. http://censusindia.gov.in/Census_Data_2001/Census_Data_Online/Language/Statement5.htm . ^ Buddhism : besides Pali , see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit ^ Indian Constitution Art.344(1) & Art.345 ^ a b c Stall 1963 , p. 272 ^ Macdonell (2004 :?) ^ Burrow (2001 :?) ^ spokensanskrit.de dictionary, using or samskRta as input, see nouns ^ Monier-Williams (1898 :1120) ^ Masica, p. 32 ^ Masica, p. 33 ^ Masica, pp. 36–37 ^ Masica, p. 38 ^ * Meier-Brügger, Michael; Matthias Fritz, Manfred Mayrhofer, Charles Gertmenian (trans.) (2003). Indo-European Linguistics . Berlin; New York: Walter de Gruyter. pp. 20. 3110174332 . http://books.google.com/books?id=49xq3UlKWckC . ^ Keith, Arthur Berriedale (1993). A history of Sanskrit literature . Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 4. 8120809793 . http://books.google.com/books?id=GNALtBMVbd0C . ^ Pollock (2001 :393) ^ Oberlies (2003 :xxvii-xxix) ^ Edgerton (1953 :?) ^ Language death phenomena in Sanskrit grammatical in Studies in the Linguistic Sciences v.13 no.2 1983 Dept. of Linguistics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Dept. of Linguistics ^ Pollock (2001 :415) ^ a b c Pollock (2001 :416) ^ Pollock (2001 :414) ^ Pollock (2001 :398) ^ A notable exception are the military references of Nīlakaṇṭha Caturdhara's 17th-century commentary on the Mahābhārata , according to Minkowski (2004 ). ^ Tiwari (1955 :?) ^ Hamp, Eric P. (Oct-December 1996). "On the Indo-European origins of the retroflexes in Sanskrit" . Journal of the American Oriental Society, The. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_go2081/is_/ai_n28679333 . Retrieved 8 January 2009. ^ Salomon (1998), p. 7 ^ Whitney (1889 :?) ^ a b Salomon (1998), p. 86 ^ a b Masica (1991 :135) ^ In northern India, there are Brahmi inscriptions dating from the 3rd century BCE onwards, the oldest appearing on the famous Prakrit pillar inscriptions of king Ashoka . The earliest South Indian inscriptions in Tamil Brahmi, written in early Tamil, belong to the same period. Mahadevan (2003 :?) ^ Abhyankar (1986 :?) ^ Utoronto.ca ^ a b Lennart Warnemyr. An Analytical Cross Referenced Sanskrit Grammar. Compounds ^ Staal, J.F. , Word Order in Sanskrit and Universal Grammar , http://books.google.com/books?id=VqihQhNkqu4C&pg=PA28&lpg=PA28&dq=free+order ^ Gillon, B.S (March 25, 1996), "Word order in Classical Sanskrit" , Indian linguistics 57 (1–4): 1, 0378-0759 , http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=2875140 ^ Chatterji 1942 , cited in Stall 1963 , p. 272 ^ This village speaks gods language India The Times of India ^ Sanskrit boulevard: Hindustan Times ^ Chitrapurmath.net Thehindu.com ^ van Gulik (1956 :?) ^ See this page from the Indonesian Wikipedia for a list ^ Zoetmulder (1982 :ix) ^ First suggested by Briggs (1985 ) Bibliography Abhyankar, Kashinath V. (1986), A dictionary of Sanskrit Grammar,, Gaekwad's Oriental Series, 134, Baroda: Oriental Institute Briggs, Rick (1985), " Knowledge Representation in Sanskrit and Artificial Intelligence ", AI Magazine 6 (1) Burrow, T. (2001), Sanskrit language, Motilal Banarsidass, 8120817672 Chatterji, Suniti Kumar (1960), Indo-Aryan and Hindi, Firma K. L. Mukhopadhyay Edgerton, F. (1953), Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit grammar and dictionary, New Haven: Yale University Press van Gulik, Robert (1956), Siddham; an essay on the history of Sanskrit studies in China and Japan, Nagpur: International Academy of Indian Culture, 8177420380 1417906197 Mahadevan, I (2003), Early Tamil epigraphy from the earliest times to the sixth century Common Era, Chennai/Cambridge Masica, Colin (1991), The Indo-Aryan Languages , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 9780521299442 , http://books.google.com/books?id=J3RSHWePhXwC Minkowski, Christopher (2004), "Nīlakaṇṭha's instruments of war: Modern, vernacular, barbarous", The Indian Economic and Social History Review 41 (4): 365–385 Monier-Williams, Monier (1898), A Sanskrit-English Dictionary Oberlies, Thomas (2003), A Grammar of Epic Sanskrit, Walter de Gruyter, 3110144484 Pollock, Sheldon (2001), "The Death of Sanskrit" , Comparative Studies in Society and History 43 (2): 392–426, http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pollock/sks/papers/death_of_sanskrit.pdf Pollock, Sheldon I. (2006), The language of the gods in the world of men: Sanskrit, culture, and power in premodern India, 9780520245006 Staal, J.F. (1963), "Sanskrit and Sanskritization", The Journal of Asian Studies 22 (3): 261–275, doi : 10.2307/2050186 Tiwari, Bholanath (1955), भाषा विज्ञान (Bhasha Vigyan), 0-7007-1382-4 Warder, A.K. (1972), Indian kāvya Literature, Literary Criticism, 1, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Whitney, William Dwight (1889), Sanskrit Grammar: Including both the Classical Language and the Older Dialects , http://books.google.com/books?id=VHYKAAAAIAAJ Zoetmulder, Petrus Josephus (1982), Old Javanese-English dictionary, The Hague : Nijhoff Salomon, Richard (1998). Indian epigraphy: a guide to the study of inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the other Indo-Aryan languages . New York: Oxford University Press. 0195099842 . http://books.google.com/books?id=XYrG07qQDxkC . Further reading Introductions Cameron, Bruce (1992). Sanskrit Pronunciation. S.l.: Theosophical Univ Press. 1-55700-021-2 . Coulson, M. (2003). Teach Yourself Sanskrit. London: Teach Yourself. 0-340-85990-3 . Goldman, Robert P. (1999). Devavāṇīpraveśikā: An Introduction to the Sanskrit Language. Berkeley: Center for South Asia Studies, University of California. 0-944613-40-3 . Kale, M. R. (1988). A Higher Sanskrit Grammar. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. 8120801784 . Macdonell, Arthur Anthony (1997). A Sanskrit Grammar for Students. New Delhi: D.K. Printworld. 81-246-0094-5 . Maurer, Walter Harding (2000). The Sanskrit Language: An Introductory Grammar and Reader. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press. 0-7007-1382-4 . Shastri, Vagish (2000). Conversational Sanskrit. Varanasi: Vāgyoga Chetanāpitham. 81-85570-12-4 . Monier-Williams, Monier (1846). Google Books Search A Practical Grammar Of The Sanskrit Language Arranged With Reference To The Classical Languages Of Europe For The Use Of English Students . W. H. Allen & co.. http://books.google.com/books?id=REQhAAAAMAAJ& Google Books Search. Grammars Whitney, William Dwight The Roots, Verb-Forms and Primary Derivatives of the Sanskrit Language: (A Supplement to His Sanskrit Grammar) Wackernagel, Debrunner, Altindische Grammatik , Göttingen. vol. I. phonology Google Books Search Jacob Wackernagel (1896) vol. II.1. introduction to morphology, nominal composition, Wackernagel (1905) Google Books Search vol. II.2. nominal suffixes, J. Wackernagel and Albert Debrunner (1954) vol. III. nominal inflection, numerals, pronouns, Wackernagel and Debrunner (1930) Delbrück, B. Altindische Tempuslehre (1876) Google Books Search Dictionaries ISBN 3-8253-1477-4 External links Sanskrit edition of Wikipedia , the free encyclopedia Wikibooks has a book on the topic of Sanskrit
Romanized Nepali Unicode Keyboard developed by OOPSLite Technologies Samskrita Bharati , organization promoting Sanskrit Sanskrit transliteration software with font conversion to Latin and other Indian Languages Sanskrit Alphabet in Devanagari, Gujarati, Bengali, and Thai scripts with an extensive list of Devanagari, Gujarati, and Bengali conjuncts Academic Courses on Sanskrit Around The World Sanskrit documents Sanskrit Documents : Documents in ITX format of Upanishads, Stotras etc. and a metasite with links to translations, dictionaries, tutorials, tools and other Sanskrit resources. Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon Gretil: Göttingen Register of Electronic Texts in Indian Languages , a cumulative register of the numerous download sites for electronic texts in Indian languages. Gaudiya Grantha Mandira – A Sanskrit Text Repository. This site also provides encoding converter. Sanskrit texts at Sacred Text Archive Clay Sanskrit Library publishes Sanskrit literature with facing-page text and translation. Ernet.in and Ernet.in , Digital Library of India, scanned/OCRed copies of public-domain books Primers A Practical Sanskrit Introductory by Charles Wikner Sanskrit Self Study by Chitrapur Math An Analytical Cross Referenced Sanskrit Grammar By Lennart Warnemyr          ( Official ) Languages of India

Union-level Official languages Standard Hindi English

State-level Official languages Assamese Bengali Bodo Dogri Garo Gujarati Standard Hindi Kannada Kashmiri Khasi Kokborok Konkani Maithili Malayalam Manipuri Marathi Mizo Nepali Oriya Punjabi Sanskrit Santali Sindhi Telugu Tamil Urdu

        Languages of South Asia

Main articles Languages of India ( list by number of speakers scheduled ) Languages of Pakistan Languages of Bangladesh Languages of Nepal Languages of Sri Lanka

Contemporary languages Austronesian : Sri Lanka Malay  • Dravidian : Brahui Kannada Malayalam Tamil Telugu Tulu  • Indo-Aryan : Angika Assamese Bhojpuri Bengali Dhivehi Dogri Gujarati Hindi Hindko Kashmiri Konkani Magahi Mahal Maithili Marathi Nepali Oriya Punjabi Saraiki Sindhi Sinhala Urdu  • Iranian : Balochi Pashto Persian Wakhi  • Isolates : Great Andamanese Burushaski Nihali Kusunda  • Mon-Khmer : Khasi Nicobarese  • Munda : Ho Korku Mundari Santali Sora  • Ongan : Önge Jarawa  • Tibeto-Burman : Ao Bodo Garo Kokborok Meitei Mizo Nepal Bhasa Sikkimese Tenyidie Tibetan  • European influence: English French Portuguese

Scripts Indus Brahmi  • Brahmic family : Devanagari Sinhala Telugu Tamil Tulu Gurmukhi Bengali Ranjana Oriya Malayalam Kannada Gujarati  • Arabic : Arwi Nasta'liq Shahmukhi

Language activism Hela Havula Bengali Language Movement Sanskrit revival Pure Tamil movement Nepal Bhasa movement Madras anti-Hindi agitation of 1965 Urdu movement

        Indo-Iranian languages

  Indic (Indo-Aryan)

  Old Middle

Old Sanskrit ( Vedic  · Classical) · Mitanni superstrate

Middle Abahatta  · Apabhraṃśa  · Dramatic Prakrits ( Magadhi  · Maharashtri  · Shauraseni ) · Elu  · Gāndhārī  · Jain  · Paisaci  · Pāli  · Prakrit



  Modern

Central Hindi Awadhi  · Bagheli  · Bambaiya Hindi  · Brij Bhasha  · Bundeli  · Chhattisgarhi  · Fiji Hindi  · Haryanvi  · Kannauji  · Sansiboli  · Sadhukaddi (early form)

Urdu Dakhni  · Rekhta (early form)

Others Dhanwar


Eastern Bengali Chittagonian Sylheti

Others Angika  · Assamese  · Bhojpuri  · Bishnupriya Manipuri  · Chakma  · Halbi  · Hajong  · Kayort  · Kharia Thar Magahi  · Maithili  · Majhi  · Mal Paharia  · Nahari  · Oriya  · Rajbanshi  · Rohingya  · Sadri


Northern Garhwali  · Kumaoni  · Nepali ( Palpa ) · Potwari

North
western Punjabi Saraiki Majhi

Others Aer  · Derawali  · Dogri  · Hindko  · Kangri  · Kutchi  · Sindhi


Southern Dhivehi  · Konkani  · Mahal  · Marathi  · Sinhala

Western Bhil Bhili  · Gamit

Rajasthani Bagri  · Goaria  · Gojri  · Jaipuri  · Malvi  · Marwari  · Mewari  · Dhatki (sociolect)

Others Domari  · Gujarati  · Kalto  · Khandeshi  · Parkari Koli  · Romani  · Saurashtra






  Iranian

  Old Middle

Old Western Median Old Persian

Eastern Avestan Old Scythian


Middle Western Parthian Middle Persian

Eastern Bactrian  · Khwarezmian  · Ossetic ( Jassic ) · Sakan (Sacian)  · Scythian  · Sogdian




  Modern

Western Kurdish Kermanshahi  · Kurmanji  · Soranî

Persian Aimaq  · Bukhori  · Dari  · Dehwari  · Dzhidi  · Hazaragi  · Iranian Persian  · Judeo-Shirazi  · Khuzestani  · Larestani  · Tajik

Others Old Azari  · Balochi  · Bashkardi  · Caspian  · Central Iran  · Dari (Zoroastrian)  · Fars  · Gilaki  · Gorani  · Harzandi  · Juhuri  · Kumzari  · Laki  · Luri  · Bakhtiari Lori  · Mazandarani ( Gorgani ) · Ormuri  · Sangsari  · Parachi  · Semnani  · Taleshi  · Tajik  · Tat  · Tati  · Zazaki


Eastern Pamir Ishkashimi  · Munji  · Roshani (Roshni)  · Shughni  · Sarikoli  · Wakhi  · Yazgulami  · Yidgha

Others Bartangi  · Hindukush group  · Ishkashmi  · Karakoram group  · Khufi  · Munji  · Oroshori  · Ossetic  · Pashto  · Sanglechi  · Vanji  · Waziri  · Yaghnobi  · Zebaki


Unclassified Tangshewi





  Other Indo-Iranian languages

Dardic Dameli  · Domaaki  · Gawar-Bati  · Kalami  · Kalash  · Kashmiri  · Khowar  · Kohistani  · Nangalami  · Palula  · Pashayi  · Shina  · Shumashti  · Torwali  · Ushoji

Nuristani Kamkata-viri Kamviri  · Kata-vari  · Mumviri

Others Askunu  · Kalasha-ala  · Kamkata-viri  · Tregami language  · Vasi-vari





Italics indicate extinct languages .

        Buddhism topics

Foundations Three Jewels ( Buddha  · Dharma  · Sangha ) · Four Noble Truths  · Noble Eightfold Path  · Nirvana  · Middle Way

The Buddha Tathāgata  · Birthday  · Four sights  · Physical characteristics  · Footprint  · Iconography  · Films  · Miracles  · Family : ( Suddhodana (father)  · Maya (mother)  · Yasodhara (wife)  · Rahula (son) ) · Places where the Buddha stayed  · Buddha in world religions

Key concepts Three Marks of Existence : ( Impermanence  · Suffering  · Not-self ) · Dependent Origination  · Five Aggregates  · Karma  · Rebirth  · Saṃsāra  · Saṅkhāra  · Defilements  · Ignorance  · Craving  · Five Hindrances  · Ten Fetters  · Faculties  · Enlightenment (Awakening)  · Parinirvana  · Thusness  · Two truths doctrine  · Emptiness  · Bodhicitta  · Bodhisattva  · Buddha-nature  · Mindstream  · Dzogchen

Cosmology Ten spiritual realms  · Six Realms ( Hell  · Animal realm  · Hungry Ghost realm  · Asura realm  · Human realm  · Heaven ) · Three planes of existence

Practices Refuge  · Buddhist devotion  · Puja : ( Offerings  · Prostration  · Chanting ) · Merit  · Paritta  · Generosity  · Renunciation  · Morality : ( Precepts  · Bodhisattva vows  · Patimokkha ) · Threefold Training : ( Morality  · Concentration  · Wisdom ) · Four Divine Abidings : ( Loving-kindness  · Compassion  · Sympathetic joy  · Equanimity ) · Perfections  · Enlightenment Qualities  · Seven Factors of Enlightenment  · Bases of Power  · Five Strengths  · Faith  · Effort ( Four Right Exertions ) · Mindfulness ( Satipatthana ) · Jhāna ( Dhyāna ) · Bhavana  · Meditation : ( Kammaṭṭhāna  · Recollection  · Smarana  · Mindfulness of Breathing  · Serenity meditation  · Insight meditation  · Shikantaza  · Zazen  · Kōan  · Mandala  · Tonglen  · Tantra  · Tertön  · Terma )

Attainment Types of Buddha  · Private Buddha  · Bodhisattva  · Four stages of enlightenment : ( Stream-enterer  · Once-returner  · Non-returner  · Arahant )

Monasticism Monk  · Nun  · Novice monk  · Novice nun  · Anagarika  · Ajahn  · Sayadaw  · Zen master  · Roshi  · Lama  · Rinpoche  · Geshe  · Tulku  · Householder  · Lay follower  · Disciple

Major figures Gautama Buddha  · Sāriputta  · Mahamoggallāna  · Ananda  · Maha Kassapa  · Anuruddha  · Mahakaccana  · Nanda  · Subhuti  · Punna  · Upali  · Mahapajapati Gotami  · Khema  · Uppalavanna  · Buddhaghosa  · Nagasena  · Bodhidharma  · Nagarjuna  · Asanga  · Vasubandhu  · Atisha  · Padmasambhava  · Dalai Lama

Texts Tipitaka : ( Vinaya Pitaka  · Sutta Pitaka  · Abhidhamma Pitaka ) · Commentaries : ( Visuddhimagga ) · Mahayana sutras  · Chinese Buddhist canon ( Tripitaka Koreana ) · Tibetan Buddhist canon

Branches Theravada  · Mahayana : ( Zen  · Pure Land  · Tiantai  · Nichiren  · Madhyamaka  · Yogacara ) · Vajrayana : ( Tibetan Buddhism  · Shingon ) · Early Buddhist schools  · Pre-sectarian Buddhism  · Basic points unifying Theravada and Mahayana

Countries Bangladesh  · Bhutan  · Burma  · Cambodia  · China  · India  · Indonesia  · Japan  · Korea  · Laos  · Malaysia  · Mongolia  · Nepal  · Pakistan  · Russia  · Singapore  · Sri Lanka  · Taiwan  · Thailand  · Tibet  · Vietnam  · Middle East : ( Iran ) · Western countries : ( Australia  · United Kingdom  · United States )

History Timeline  · Buddhist councils  · History of Buddhism in India  · Decline of Buddhism in India  · Ashoka the Great  · Greco-Buddhism  · Buddhism and the Roman world  · Silk Road transmission of Buddhism  · Persecution of Buddhists

Philosophy Abhidharma  · Logic  · Buddhology  · Eschatology  · Reality  · God  · Humanism  · Engaged Buddhism  · Socialism  · Anarchism  · Economics  · Atomism  · Evolution  · Sexuality  · Homosexuality  · Ethics  · Fourteen unanswerable questions

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