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Sanskrit
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Sanskrit (sàn´skrît´) noun
Abbr. Skr., Skt.
An ancient Indic language that is the language of Hinduism and the Vedas and is the classical literary language of India.

[Sanskrit samskRtam, from neuter of samskRta-, perfected, refined : sam, together + karoti, he makes.]
- San´skrit´ist noun

Sanskrit Language

Sanskrit Language, classical sacred and literary language of the Hindus of India, belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-Iranian languages, a subfamily of the Indo-European languages. For about 2000 years Sanskrit has been the literary language of the priestly, learned, and cultivated castes of India. The work of Indian grammarian Panini, who lived about 400 BC, forms the basis for classical Sanskrit grammars. The discovery by Western scholars of Sanskrit led both to the identification of the Indo-European language family and to the establishment of the science of comparative linguistics. Sanskrit is written in the Devanagari alphabet.

Sanskrit is distinguishable from the oldest preserved forms of Indian speech, found in the Vedic religious scriptures. Both are dialects of the Old Indo-Aryan vernacular, but in grammatical forms Vedic was richer and less settled than Sanskrit. By the Middle Ages (5th century to 15th century), Sanskrit had also lost the Vedic system of pitch or tonal accent. Nonetheless, Sanskrit remains a complex language, not only highly inflected but also subject to certain alternations of vowels and context-influenced modifications of sounds.

Sanskrit Literature

Sanskrit Literature, classical literature of India written in the Sanskrit language. It may be divided into the Vedic period (1500?-200 BC), when the Vedic form of Sanskrit was in use, and the Sanskrit period (200 BC-AD 1100?), when classical Sanskrit had developed. The spirit of the two periods differs greatly. Vedic literature, consisting of the Vedas (Veda), Brahmanas, and Upanishads, is essentially religious, whereas classical Sanskrit literature is, with rare exceptions, secular. In Sanskrit literature, moreover, with the exception of the Mahabharata and the Puranas, the authors are generally definite persons, more or less well known, whereas the writings of the Vedic period go back either to families of poets or to religious schools.

Vedic prose was highly developed. In classical Sanskrit, however, aside from the strained scientific language of philosophical and grammatical treatises, prose writing is to be found only in fables, fairy tales, romances, and partly in drama. Sanskrit poetry also differs from Vedic poetry. The bulk of classical Sanskrit poetry is composed in the sloka meter, consisting of stanzas of four octosyllabic lines of essentially iambic cadence. This style was developed from the simpler Vedic anushtubh stanza.

Classical Sanskrit literature may be divided into epic, lyric, didactic, dramatic, and narrative verses, and didactic, dramatic, and narrative prose. The great epics include the Mahabharata (composed between 300 BC and AD 300) and the Ramayana (begun 3rd century BC). The bulk of lyric poetry is written in a simple form consisting of single miniature stanzas. The most famous collection of such stanzas, that of the poet Bhartrihari, consists of lyric, didactic, and erotic poems. The most elaborate of the longer lyric compositions were written by Kalidasa, India's most illustrious poet, who wrote about the 5th century AD and was also the chief dramatic writer of India. The themes of Indian drama are for the most part those of the heroic legends in the epics or in historical Indian courts.

No department of Indian literature is more fascinating to the student of comparative literature than that comprising the fables and fairy tales. Scarcely a single motif of European fable collections is not to be found in some Indian collection, and there is good reason to believe that the bulk of this kind of literature originated in India. A noteworthy feature of the Sanskrit collections of fables and fairy tales is the insertion of a number of different stories within the frame of a single narrative, a style of narration that was borrowed by other cultures. India also abounds in all forms of scientific literature, written in tolerably good Sanskrit even to the present day.

Life is like Sanskrit read to a pony.
Lou Reed (b. 1944), U.S. rock musician. "What's Good," from the album _Magic and Loss_ (1992).

the Sanskrit root matr-, to measure, is the source of he word for matter itself, as well as material, matrix, metre and maya - the Indian concept of the illusion of measuring and dividing that we live by, and from which we must eventually free ourselves.

film _Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace_

"Padme" is Sanskrit for Lotus, as in the mantra   Om Mani Padme Hum.  "Yoda" is also derived from the Sanskrit word for "warrior."
 

in reference to the Duel Of The Fates sequence, the lyrics, a Sanskrit translation of the Celtic poem "the battle of the trees" are -

Korah Matah Korah Rahtahmah
Korah Rahtamah Yoodhah Korah
Korah Syahdho Rahtahmah Daanyah
Korah Keelah Daanyah
Nyohah Keelah Korah Rahtahmah
Syadho Keelah Korah Rahtahmah
Korah Daanyah Korah Rahtahmah
Korah Daanyah Korah Rahtahmah
Nyohah Keelah Korah Rahtahmah
Syadho Keelah Korah Rahtahmah
Korah Matah Korah Rahtahmah
Korah Daanyah Korah Rahtahmah
Nyohah Keelah Korah Rahtahmah
Syadho Keelah Korah Rahtahmah

• "moksha" - sanskrit for liberation
• "nataraja" - lord of the dance
• ethnic breakbeat track _Sanskrit_ MP3 (192k) by Muslimgauze off of _Deceiver_ CDx2 on Staalplaat #008 (1996)

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