Sanskrit Quick reference
World Encyclopedia
... Classical language of India, the literary and sacred language of Hinduism , and a forerunner of the modern Indo‐Iranian languages spoken in n India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Bangladesh. Sanskrit was brought to India ( c. 1500 bc ) by immigrants from the nw . It was the language in which the Vedas were written. This old form of the language (Vedic Sanskrit) gradually became simplified, achieving its classical form c. 500 bc . Sanskrit is one of the Indo‐European languages . Although only c .3,000 Indians are able to speak Sanskrit today, it has...
Sanskrit Quick reference
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (2 ed.)
... [Ge] An early Indo‐European language, still used in India as the literary language of Hindu religious texts. In 1786 Sir William Jones recognized the similarities between Sanskrit and Greek and Latin, thereby allowing the possibility of extremely widespread early language...
Sanskrit Quick reference
A Dictionary of Hinduism
...classical Sanskrit acted as a yardstick, not just of religious authority but also of a level of cultural unity across much of the subcontinent. In the late 18th and 19th centuries, the advent of the printing press and the translation (e.g. by Rāmmohun Roy ) of Sanskrit texts, which had previously been the preserve of families of brahmin paṇḍits , as well as the ‘discovery’ of Sanskritic culture by Western Orientalists (such as Sir William Jones ), opened up the subcontinent's past to both Indian and Western scholars. In this way, Sanskrit sources,...
Sanskrit Quick reference
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics (3 ed.)
... Indo-Aryan language of ancient India, first attested, in the form called Vedic , by religious chants transmitted orally but thought to date from the 2nd millennium bc . Classical Sanskrit is the form which became standard after the middle of the first millennium bc , by which time the spoken language was progressively evolving into vernacular forms (called Prakrits). Thereafter a learned language with a rich literature, written and spoken widely in India until the present. Written in various scripts, now mainly in Devanagari . The earliest...
Sanskrit Quick reference
A Dictionary of Buddhism
... . The primary language of classical Indian literature, philosophy, and scripture. Its origins are uncertain since the earliest extant inscriptions are rather late. Though it has some links to the language of the vedas , some scholars believe Sanskrit is an artificial language as the name suggests (‘perfected’, ‘completed’) compiled from various dialects and languages current in India during the 4th to 3rd centuries bce . Commanding an enormous prestige and authority, it possesses a complex grammatical structure and a vast vocabulary suited to...
Sanskrit Quick reference
A Dictionary of Asian Mythology
... Sanskrit (or Sanscrit ) is a word derived from saṃskṛta , meaning “perfectly formed.” It is the ancient language of India, the oldest of Indo-European languages, and the one used in sacred Hindu writings from the Vedas ( See Vedas ) on. According to Hindu myth, language and speech were discovered by Sarasvatī, the wife of the creator god Brahma. As the creator's śakti ( See śakti ) it was appropriate that she should articulate creation ( See Sarasvatī...
Sanskrit Reference library
The Oxford Companion to World Mythology
... Sanskrit (Sanscrit), a word derived from samskrta , meaning “perfectly formed,” is the name of the ancient language of India . It is the oldest of the Indo-European languages and is used in sacred Hindu writings from the Vedas on. According to myth, the language (and speech, in general) was discovered by Sarasvati , the wife of the creator god Brahma . As the creator's Shakti , Sarasvati was the appropriate being to create the vehicle for the articulation of...
Sanskrit Reference library
International Encyclopedia of Linguistics (2 ed.)
...Sanskrit went on changing. Eventually, Sanskrit became a fossilized classical language: a second language of high social prestige, restricted generally to ritual and elite learning. The earliest readable inscriptions in India, those of King Aśoka in the 3rd century BCE, are in Prakrits, not Sanskrit. The earliest known Sanskrit inscription of any importance comes from the Śaka (Scythian) ruler Rudradāman (2nd c. CE). It is important to note that, in ancient times, the political patronage of Sanskrit emanated from the foreign rulers of western India; Sanskrit...
Sanskrit Quick reference
The Oxford Companion to the English Language (2 ed.)
...juggernaut, jungle , and jute . All major modern Indian languages (both Indo-Aryan and Dravidian) have a Sanskritized register, used in religious and secular contexts. Indian English, especially when concerned with Hindu religion and philosophy, also freely uses Sanskrit terms, and Indian literature in English makes use of such conventions from Sanskrit as repetition of main themes in paragraphs and an abundance of compounds and embedded clauses. Sanskrit words appear in English texts in two forms: fully Anglicized, as with the variants pundit and pandit ...
Sanskrit Reference library
The Oxford Companion to the Book
...5. Printed Sanskrit In modern times, the Devanāgarī script has become standard in international use for printing Sanskrit , but the older system of using local scripts is still often employed, both in India for works of local interest and beyond, as in the most ambitious recent project for the publication of Sanskrit texts, the Clay Sanskrit Library (published in Oxford and New York), which presents translations on facing pages with the Sanskrit text printed in *roman type . The single most important venue for the modern printing of Sanskrit texts has...
Sanskrit Reference library
The Oxford Guide to Literature in English Translation
...of Sanskrit was used for the two great Sanskrit epics, which grew to their present form between about the 5th c. bce and the 4th c. ce. The older language was described with great precision around the 4th c. bce by Pāṇini in his grammar; with the growth of classical Sanskrit literature (mainly in the 4th-10th c. ce) this description was regarded as prescriptive, and it is closely adhered to in the various forms of literature then produced: drama, narrative poetry, anthologies, fable, and story literature. One work of Sanskrit literature has been circulating in...
Sanskrit literature Quick reference
World Encyclopedia
... literature Classical Indian literature . The two main periods in Sanskrit literature are the Vedic ( c .1500– c .200 bc ) and the overlapping Classical ( c .500 bc – c . ad 1000 ). The Vedic period produced the Vedas , the earliest works in Sanskrit literature and among the most important. Later Vedic literature included the Upanishads , which discuss the essence of the universe. The Early Classical period contributed the Mahabharata and the Ramayana . They are significant both as literature and as Hindu sacred...
Sanskrit theatre Reference library
The Oxford Companion to Indian Theatre
..., Modern Sanskrit Dramas of Bengal (Calcutta: Sanskrit Pustak Bhandar, 1992); Siddheswar Chattopadhyay , Theatre in Ancient India (New Delhi: Manohar, 1993); Michael Coulson (ed.), Three Sanskrit Plays (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1981); Minakshi Dalal , Conflict in Sanskrit Drama (Bombay: Somaiya, 1973); S. A. Dange and S. S. Dange , Critiques on Sanskrit Dramas (New Delhi: Aryan Books, 1994); Ratnamayidevi Dikshit , Women in Sanskrit Dramas (Delhi: Meharchand Lachhmandas, 1964); S. N. Ghosal , The Inception of the Sanskrit Drama ...
Sanskrit Aesthetics Reference library
Yigal Bronner
Encyclopedia of Aesthetics (2 ed.)
...aesthetics of Sanskrit must partly explain its global and enduring success, for unlike languages spread by imperial armies, state administrations, waves of mass immigration, or conversion by force, Sanskrit was adopted voluntarily and despite no longer being anybody’s mother tongue by the time its literary career peaked. Put bluntly, people chose to use Sanskrit precisely because they found it attractive. A major attraction was Sanskrit’s unparalleled linguacentric culture of cultivation. A language whose very name means “the refined,” Sanskrit was long...
Sanskrit literature Quick reference
Katy Hooper
Dictionary Plus Literature
... literature The early Indo-European language Sanskrit was used in ancient Indian literature and Hindu sacred texts. The Vedas (from which the Vedic period is named) are the earliest works in Sanskrit. The Upanishads date from the later Vedic period. A simplified Classical Sanskrit succeeded Vedic from c. 500 bc , and is the language of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana . Katy...
Sanskrit Poetry Reference library
D. M. Patel
The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics (4 ed.)
... Poetry I. The Origins of Kāvya II. Elements of Sanskrit Poetry III. The Production and Appreciation of Sanskrit Poetry IV. A Summary History of Sanskrit Poems and Poets I. The Origins of Kāvya. Lit. in India—and in particular poetry in an early form of the Sanskrit ( Saṃskṛtam ) lang.—has a hist. of least 3,500 years, from roughly the second millennium bce to the present. An IE (Indo-Aryan) lang. spoken and used primarily by social and cultural elites in early and med. India, Sanskrit continues to serve as a medium of creative...
Sanskrit Poetics Reference library
Y. Bronner
The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics (4 ed.)
... Poetics I. Early History II. Middle Period: Sanskrit Poetics in Kashmir and Beyond III. New Poetics in Early Modernity Sanskrit poetics is an intellectual discipline that accompanied literary production in the highly prestigious medium of Sanskrit for nearly two millennia. The discipline had its roots in the early centuries of the first millennium ce and continued uninterrupted into the early mod. era. It formed an important component of the education of Sanskrit literati and of writers, scholars, and artists in other langs. and media....
Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Quick reference
A Dictionary of Buddhism
...Hybrid Sanskrit . Name given by scholars to a variant of classical Sanskrit retaining traces of earlier Prakrit forms and found in many Mahāyāna sūtras...
Anūp Sanskrit Library
The Oxford Encyclopaedia of the Music of India
...Sanskrit Library Well-known manuscripts library of Rajasthan. Based in Bikaner, it was established in 1880 as part of an endeavour of the Bikaner kings. The library's collection includes over 6600 manuscripts in Sanskrit, over 350 in Rajasthani, and nearly 560 in Hindi. Of these, over 200 manuscripts are on music. All the manuscripts belong to the 11th–18th cent. period. The library has published catalogues of manuscripts in all three languages. The library, named after scholar-poet-ruler Anūpa Simhā Maharaja (known to music scholars through the Anūp...
Sanskrit Drama Music
The Oxford Encyclopaedia of the Music of India
...entry of royal personages is indicated by the blowing of a conch. ( See Kooṭiyāṭṭam Music .) Sanskrit plays are kept alive especially in the metropolises by non-professional groups. The Elphinstone College of Mumbai staged Kālidāsa's Śākuntalam in which verses were sung in various rāgas. In Kerala, Sanskrit plays use regional vocal music and some local instruments as found in the Kooṭiyāṭṭam theatre which continues to be active in that part of the country. Sanskrit plays with classical music are sometimes performed on the occasion of Oriental conferences. In...
