Hinduism: What Really Happenned in India (PDF) - Oration

Hinduism: What Really Happened in India – M. M. Ninan
CHAPTER FOUR
SANSKRIT :
THE KEY TO INDIAN RELIGIOUS HISTORY
The four vedas – Rig, Yajur, Sama, Atharva – and the
Brahmanas are mostly in Vedic Language. Vedic language
was current since c.1500 BC. and is identical with the Avestan
of Zoroastrians. It is part of the Indo-European language
family. However, they were written down only by BC 200.
The rest of the Hindu Scriptures such as Upanishads, Sastras,
etc are all written in Sanskrit. Sanskrit means ‘refined’ or
‘made civilized’. It was developed out of the then existing
languages in India mainly Dravidian, probably as a liturgical
intellectual language by the elect few. In this chapter, we
look into the development of Sanskrit, which came into
existence only by 150 AD. It is logical to assume that this
refinement could not have come before the Prakrit languages
were themselves in writing. There is absolutely no
documentary evidence to the existence of Sanskrit prior to this
time.
It is therefore evident that the Post-Vedic – Vedanta -
scriptures came into existence only after 150 AD. We also
see an asymptotic discontinuity between Vedic and Vedanta
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