Principles and Practice of Hindu Religion
Chapter - IV : The Scriptures and The Sacred Works
An Analysis of the Texts Available that gives the Divine Message
for Every One to Study, Understand and Follow as a Way of Life
 
   
 
Lesson - 51 :
Evolution of Vedic Languages and Scripts!
The way they were written and spoken
 
 
 
 

 

 

As the various faiths and beliefs that existed in several parts of the 'pre-Aryan' India merged with `Aryan' culture and faiths, several schools were established to propagate the teachings in many areas with different interpretations. At this time Sanskrit and Prakrit languages were spoken in the court, religious practice and in commerce. Brahmi and Naagari scripts were used in these languages. Various 'Aryan' languages developed from it mainly in the Northern part of India and had some influence on the languages of the South. The 'Dravidian' group of languages, mostly related to Tamil, were mostly spoken in the South though some were spoken all over India in several small communities. They had a distinctive script with some similarities with other languages. Even now, there are a few thousand people who speak languages and dialects called Brauhi in Sind (Pakistan), Malto in Bihar and Gondi in Madhya Pradesh (India) that are also 'Dravidian' languages.

 

This shows that both groups of languages were spoken all over the land and both had 'Pre-Aryan' and 'Aryan' influence in the words and scripts. These were said to be the derivatives of "Indo-European" language group. It is very obvious that both groups were of India's own and not European. Modern day researchers see more similarities in the languages and script of both groups. They were used in the worship and rituals all the time, though Vedic teachings were in Sanskrit only. All Vedas were written in Brahmi Script. While all the languages of ancient India were of similar origin, there existed certain subtle differences from region to region like dialects, which gradually developed into several distinct languages. We can trace many similarities between the 'Dravidian' languages and 'Aryan' languages. Sounds "Ba" and "Va" in the East, "Ra" and "Da" in the North and "Pa" and "Ha", "LLa" and "Zha" in the South were often interchanged for the same words in different languages. This had an influence in the pronunciation of Vedic recitations also.

 
   
 
 
   
 
Lessons: - 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 , 63 , 64 .