How easy is it to learn Sanskrit for Indians?

Sanskrit is the primary sacred language of Hinduism and has been used as a philosophical language in the religions of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. Sanskrit is a standardized dialect of Old Indo-Aryan, originating as Vedic Sanskrit as early as 1700-1200 BCE. A classical language of South Asia belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages, Sanskrit rose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late Bronze Age. It was a link language in ancient and medieval South Asia, and upon transmission of Hindu and Buddhist culture to Southeast Asia, East Asia and Central Asia in the early medieval era, it became a language of religion and high culture, and of the political elites in some of these regions. As a result, Sanskrit had a lasting impact on the languages of South Asia, Southeast Asia and East Asia, especially in their formal and learned vocabularies.

In India, while Hindi is taught as a compulsory subject(sometimes as second after English), in most of the north Indian Hindi speaking belt, Sanskrit is introduced in the primary school as a third language. Most children opt for Sanskrit as Hindi and Sanskrit both use the common Devanagari Script, as a result, it makes learning Sanskrit easier for them by 50%. By virtue of learning Hindi, they are accustomed and acclimatized to identify and pronounce the Devanagari alphabet used in Sanskrit, write it appropriately, along with its grammatical usage, rules for spoken conjoined words and N number of similar grammatical rules. While both Hindi and Sanskrit use a few different words, learners are blessed to have two languages that are almost 80% similar. They both are spelt the same way they are written the same way which gets half the work already done! In addition to the alphabets used in Hindi, there are a few additional letters used in Sanskrit. There are eleven vowels and thirty-three consonants in Hindi, whereas there are thirteen vowels and thirty-three consonants in Sanskrit.

Also, Hindi is known to be a language derived completely out of Sanskrit in other words Hindi is a total subset of the language Sanskrit. It is considered as the Apabhramsh of Prakrit which is the Apabhramsha of Sanskrit. Apabhramsha meaning ‘corrupted’. The early form of Hindi is called Sauraseni Prakrit. A major portion of Hindi vocabulary is either Tatsama or Tadbhava. Tatsama means words that are spoken the same as in Sanskrit and Tadbhava means words that are derived from Sanskrit but spoken with a tinge of the nativity. Though Sanskrit and Hindi have the same root, there are only a few easy to learn differences in grammatical nuances of these two. In Hindi, the verb changes according to person, number and gender however, in Sanskrit, the verb changes according to person and number only. This makes the job even easier.

Unlike Hindi, in which the word order matters, Sanskrit is an inflecting language, which means it is independent of the word order! Again it makes learning Sanskrit so much easier! In Hindi, the last syllable of the word is pronounced half, and in Sanskrit, it is pronounced half only when marked by a ‘Halant’ symbol. While Hindi uses only two genders feminine and masculine Sanskrit uses an additional gender which is a neutral gender the neutral gender is used for all things such as emotions, non-living. Again this transition for students is not difficult at all! While Hindi is restricted to singular and plural Sanskrit uses three numbers, singular, dual and plural! Again the scaling up is not a difficult task at all especially when you’re already standing on the ramp! 

While Hindi uses only two types of vowels short and long [Hrasva and Deergha svaras], Sanskrit, uses three namely; Hrasva, Deergha and Pluta, with pluta being defined as an elongated vowel sound such as in Raaaamaaa, Krishnaaaa, Aagachchaaaa, and many more. Now, this is more of a play, if you’re learning it in schools, because shouting, extending words in this manner, is just part of a day to day kids play! 

This being said for the kids I also wish to direct your attention on all the adults Who may have previously learnt Hindi or Sanskrit in their schools. When we talk about them, we talk out of awareness, knowing well that, the adults are definitely aware of one of the two languages, if not both! This background in both or either Hindi and Sanskrit is like a great blessing as it forms a foundation that can be refreshed with few revisions to be able to learn the language easier than someone who just does not have any knowledge of any of the two languages, especially the Devanagari Script! Now for the adults who have learnt any other language except Hindi anytime. Studies prove that all Indian languages, except Tamil, are closest to Sanskrit. This is because they all have a common ancestor, Ashokan Brahmi, from which they have evolved! An exception to this is Tamil, which has evolved from Tamil Brahmi, and has an entirely different set of characters.

With this, I hope I am able to explain and express my viewpoint, on the fact that it is quite a bit easy, if not very easy for all Indians to learn Sanskrit even though they may be speaking different Indian languages! The rest of course depends on an individual’s will and their need to learn the Sanskrit language. Without a strong intent to learn Sanskrit irrespective of whether you know Sanskrit or not, or you speak a language similar to Sanskrit you will never be able to pick up a language. So give yourself a nice pat on the back, and identify that compelling need that drives you to learn Sanskrit. Armed with a strong intent to learn you will be able to successfully learn Sanskrit, irrespective of whether you know or do not know any language closer to Sanskrit or you have studied or not studied Sanskrit in the past! 

So what are you waiting for the go ahead and start learning from today!