A History of Sanskrit Literature: Classical Period, Vol. I c3.3

c3.3

Such is the case with regard to the Iranic, Hellenic, Italic, Celtic, Teutonic and Letto-Slavic languages. The oldest of the Indian speeches is to be found in the *Ṛgveda*. In the language of the *Ṛgveda*, one can trace a gradual and steady development of the language of the classical Sanskrit through the later Saṃhitās, the Brāhmaṇas and the Upaniṣads, The development, however, is not as spontaneous as the modifications that are effected by popular speech. It has been controlled by tradition and grammatical studies. Changes in the speech of the upper classes are largely prevented by the sacred devotion to it and this was further supplemented by the work of the early grammarians, whose analytical skill far surpassed anything achieved in the West up till recent times. The Sanskrit grammarians tried as far as possible to remove irregularities and they hardly allowed any scope to new formations and this preserved to a very great extent the purity of the language and its well-ordered nature which would otherwise have been impossible. The conservative tendency of Indian literary culture, which we have tried to demonstrate in the field of the development of Sanskrit literature in the Introduction, is remarkably manifested also in the permanent form that has been given to the Sanskrit language. The word *saṃskṛta* means *purified* and *well-ordered*. By 150 B.C., by the joint works of the 3 grammarians, Pāṇini, Kātyāyana and Patañjali, the language attained a stereotyped form which remained the same throughout the centuries, though it remained the literary language of the people. It can hardly be doubted that though Pāṇini recognised fully the Vedic accents and forms, yet in his time it was Sanskrit and not the older Vedic languages that were spoken. Yet Sanskrit cannot be regarded as an artificial cereation of the grammarians, for its development from the Vedas through the Brāhmaṇas and the Upaniṣads can be clearly traced. The Sanskrit language, which Pāṇini calls *bhāṣā*, or speech, is closely akin to the language of the Upaniṣads and the Brāhmaṇas. Though this *bhāṣā* Sanskrit is not so luxurious in form as the Vedic Sanskrit, yet there is no artificial symmetry and there is a profusion of *nipātas* or irregular forms which makes the study of Sanskrit so bewilderingly difficult to students.