Sanskrit

[acharya]

Sanskrit soul of nationhood: N. Vittal

Staff Reporter

PALAKKAD: N. Vittal, former Chief Vigilance Commissioner, has said that Sanskrit represents the soul of Indian nationhood. The fact that Sanskrit is the root of most of the Indian languages shows "how like a golden thread it connects all of us not only today in the day-to-day languages we use but also through history." A collective national effort is necessary to take Sanskrit as a repository of Indian culture and heritage to the masses.

He was delivering the Justice P.R. Sundaram Iyer Memorial Lecture on `Sanskrit and Nationality' at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan's Pudukode kendra here on Sunday.

"If we focus on Sanskrit and promote it, we can also get as a spin-off benefit, the healthy linking of values in education and, perhaps, ensure that the social evils of today such as corruption are tackled more effectively,'' he said.

Sanskrit is a great heritage of Indians. The great language must have evolved practically in the whole of India by the process of assimilation and the natural growth of the indigenous communities coming into contact with each other.

Sanskrit is a very ancient language. Perhaps, it is older than many languages in the world. It has the tradition of at least 5,000 years. The longer a language exists, the greater its history and acceptance, and Sanskrit is no exception to this.

Practically all languages in India have the influence of Sanskrit, in the sense that Sanskrit words are found in most of them. The extensive presence of Sanskrit words in Indian languages today underlines its history and its capacity for national integration, Mr. Vittal said.

``Sanskrit is the treasure house of our historic past. It has been a binding force of the nation's unity and integrity through the centuries, enabling us to absorb many shocks and vicissitudes.

"Thus, the challenge before us is whether we can revive Sanskrit and make it a spoken language once again. We have seen in our times how Israel revived Hebrew, considered once as a dead language. For every lover of Sanskrit and India, making Sanskrit into a spoken language should be a life-long mission," Mr. Vittal said.