Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c11.s5.1

c11.s5.1

It may be presumed that the language of these debates, the medium of instruction in these times, was Sanskrit which was a spoken language then. During the *Brāhmaṇa* period and down to later times, there is no doubt that, as F. W. Thomas has pointed out [*JRAS.*, 1904], "Sanskrit was the language of public religious rites, of domestic ceremonies, of education, and of science." In the *Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa* [xiii, 4, 3] is given a vivid picture of the Brahman priest teaching the people (men, householders unlearned in the scriptures, old men, handsome youths, maidens, evil-doers, usurers, fishermen, etc.) the Pāriplava legend, the Rigveda, the Yajurveda, the Atharvaveda, the Āṅgirasa, the Sarpavidyā, the Devajanavidyā, Magic, Itihāsa, Purāṇa, the Sāmaveda. Some of the sacred works of the period distinguish two kinds of speech, divine (*daivī*) and human, which probably stand for the Sanskrit of the hymns and ritual, the language of divine service, and the Sanskrit of ordinary conversation respectively, and not, as Sayāṇa suggests, for Sanskrit and Apabhraṁśa [ib., vi, 1, 34; *Kāṭh. Saṁ.*, xiv, 5; *Maitr. Saṁ.*, i, 11, 5 (*yaś cha veda yaś cha na*); *Ait. Br.*, vii, 18, 13 (*om iti vai daivam tatheti mānusham*, etc.); *Ait. Ār.*, i, 3, 1]. Both kinds of speech are known to the Brahmin [*Kāṭh.*, ib., *Maitr.*, ib.]. Reference is also made to Āryan [*Ait. Ār.*, iii, 2, 5 (*āryā vāchaḥ*)] and to Brāhmin [ib., i, 5, 2, which Sāyaṇa vaguely comments on as *vedasambandhi vākyam*] and these distinctions represent an early piece of evidence for the existence of several dialects of the ancient Indian language. As yet the opposition meant seems to be to the non-Aryan tongues of the period [cf. *Taṇḍya Mahā. Br.*, xvii, 1, 2, 9]. In Keith’s opinion [*Ait. Ār.*, p. 196 n.], whatever be the history of Vedic and Sanskrit, it is difficult to believe at this date (800–700 B.C.) in very much development of Prākrit forms so as to render contrast with them natural, though no doubt such forms existed. Thus a twofold linguistic differentiation was known in the period, viz. (1) *Sanskrit* designated as Āryan or Brāhmin speech to distinguish it from non-Aryan tongues, (2) within the domain of Sanskrit, the *daivī* or sacerdotal forms of Sanskrit as distinguished from its popular forms. In the *Sundarakāṇḍa* of the *Rāmāyaṇa*, Hanumant in choosing the language in which he should speak to Sītā mentions as his alternatives the above two varieties of Sanskrit (*vāchaṁ mānushīṁ saṁskṛitām* or *dvijāter iva vāchaṁ saṁskṛitām*). By the time of Daṇḍin, the term *daivī vāch* had come to be used for Sanskrit [*Kāvyādarśa*, i, 33].