Vedic Sanskrit facts for kids

Vedic Sanskrit, also known as the Vedic language, is a very old language. It belongs to the Indo-Aryan group, which is part of the larger Indo-European language family. This language family includes many languages spoken today, like English, Spanish, and Hindi.

Vedic Sanskrit is found in the Vedas, which are ancient sacred texts. These texts were created between about 1500 BCE and 500 BCE. For a long time, these important stories and hymns were passed down by speaking and listening. People memorized them and taught them to others, long before writing was common.

Studying Vedic Sanskrit helps us learn about the history of even older languages. It gives clues about Proto-Indo-European and Proto-Indo-Iranian. Vedic Sanskrit is also very similar to Avestan, another ancient language. People speaking one might understand parts of the other if they listened carefully.

History of Vedic Sanskrit

How the Language Developed

Experts believe that the language group that includes Vedic Sanskrit split off around 1800 BCE. This split created the early forms of languages like those in Iran and India. The oldest parts of the Rigveda, a key Vedic text, are thought to be from around 1500 BCE.

Some researchers suggest that early speakers of Indo-Aryan languages moved into the Indus Valley region around 1900 BCE. Later, a group called "Proto-Rigvedic" people might have arrived in Punjab around 1700 BCE. This idea connects the language to ancient cultures like the Gandhara grave culture.

Early Vedic Sanskrit was not exactly the same everywhere. It changed over time. The language found in later Vedic texts, like the early Upanishads, started to look more like Classical Sanskrit. A famous grammarian named Pāṇini helped to formalize Classical Sanskrit. He wrote rules for the language in his book, Aṣṭādhyāyī.

Timeline of Vedic Language Changes

The Vedic language changed over several periods. We can see five main stages in its development:

• Ṛg-vedic
• Mantra
• Saṃhitā prose
• Brāhmaṇa prose
• Sūtras

The first three stages are often grouped together. They make up the four Vedas: Ṛg, Atharvan, Yajus, and Sāman. These are the oldest Sanskrit texts and form the basis of the Vedic religion and later Hinduism.

Early Ṛg-vedic Period

Many words in the Ṛg·veda are similar to words in the ancient Avestan language. These similar words are not found in later Indian texts. This suggests the Ṛg·veda was mostly finished by about 1200 BCE. Before this time, Vedic Sanskrit changed gradually. After 1200 BCE, these old similarities with Avestan started to disappear.

Mantra Language Period

This period includes the hymns and prose from the Atharvaveda and the Samaveda Saṃhitā. It also includes the chants of the Yajurveda. Many of these texts come from the Ṛg·veda. However, they show some changes in language. For example, an older verb system called the "injunctive" was no longer used.

Saṃhitā Prose Period

During this time, important changes happened in the language. Certain verb forms, like the injunctive and subjunctive, disappeared. New ways of forming verbs appeared. These changes happened before the time of Pāṇini. Pāṇini even mentioned people from northwestern India who still knew the older rules of Vedic Sanskrit.

Brāhmaṇa Prose Period

In this stage of Vedic literature, the very old Vedic verb system was gone. A new structure, similar to what Pāṇini later described, started to appear. Texts from this time, like the Yajñagāthās, might link Vedic Sanskrit to Classical Sanskrit. Complex poetry rules and meters, like Anuṣṭubh, were also developing. However, parts of the Brāhmaṇa texts still show language very close to older Vedic Sanskrit.

Sūtra Language Period

This is the last stage of Vedic literature. It includes most of the Śrautasūtras and Gṛhyasūtras. Some Upaniṣads, like the Kaṭha Upaniṣad, also belong to this period. These texts show the language that Pāṇini used as the basis for his rules, which created Classical Sanskrit.

Sounds of Vedic Sanskrit

Vedic Sanskrit had some differences in its sounds compared to Classical Sanskrit. Think of it like the difference between very old Greek (Homeric Greek) and later Classical Greek.

Here are some key differences:

• Vedic Sanskrit had special sounds like 'ɸ' (like 'f' but with both lips) and 'x' (like 'ch' in 'loch'). These sounds were lost in Classical Sanskrit.
• Vedic also had a 'ɭ' sound (a 'l' sound made with the tongue curled back). This sound is not found in Classical Sanskrit.
• The vowels 'e' and 'o' in Vedic were often pronounced as two sounds, like 'ai' and 'au'. In Classical Sanskrit, they became single sounds.
• The vowels 'ai' and 'au' in Vedic were longer, like 'āi' and 'āu'. In Classical Sanskrit, they became shorter.
• Some old texts say that 'dental' sounds (like 't' and 'd') were made at the tooth ridge. Later, they were made directly at the teeth.

Accent in Vedic Sanskrit

Vedic Sanskrit used a pitch accent. This means the meaning of a word could change depending on how high or low your voice was when you said it. This was still true in Pāṇini's time. Later, this pitch accent changed into a stress accent, where certain syllables were emphasized more strongly.

Some words in later Vedic pronunciation had a special "independent svarita" on a short vowel. This might suggest that late Vedic was slightly like a tonal language. However, early Vedic was definitely a pitch accent language, similar to Japanese. This pitch accent was inherited from the very old Proto-Indo-European accent.

Pitch accent was not unique to Vedic. The early Sanskrit grammarian Pāṇini also gave rules for the accent in the spoken language of his time. However, we don't have any later texts with these accents marked.

Pluti (Overlong Vowels)

Pluti refers to very long vowels in Sanskrit. These vowels are called pluta. They are usually written with a number "3" (३). This "3" means the vowel is held for three beats, or morae.

If a diphthong (two vowel sounds together) is prolated, its first vowel is made longer. Sanskrit grammarians knew that some diphthongs could be even longer than three beats. But they still called them "prolated" to keep a simple system of vowel lengths: short (1 beat), long (2 beats), and prolated (3+ beats).

The syllable Aum (ओ३म्) rendered with pluta

Pluta vowels appear a few times in the Rigveda and more often in the Atharvaveda. They are often used when asking a question or comparing two things. For example:

• adháḥ svid āsî3d upári svid āsī3t

* "Was it above? Was it below?" * Rigveda 10.129.5d

• idáṃ bhûyā3 idâ3miti

* "Is this larger? Or this?" * Atharvaveda 9.6.18

The use of pluti was most popular during the Brahmana period of late Vedic Sanskrit (around the 8th century BC). The Shatapatha Brahmana text alone has about 40 examples of them.

Literature in Vedic Sanskrit

A lot of important literature was written in Vedic Sanskrit. These texts are a major source of information about ancient Indian history and culture. The most famous are the Vedas, which include hymns, prayers, and philosophical ideas.

See also

• Classical Sanskrit
• Vedic Sanskrit grammar
• Vedic metre
• Vedic period
• A Vedic Word Concordance
• Avestan, a closely related language