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Human thoughts are expressed in articulate so rds. which form the see h and the spoken language. These are recorded in written langage or literature by symbols known as scripts or letters of an alphabet. Human thoughts have a so been preserved in arts, especially paintings, sculp ures and architectures. The cultural condition and achievements concerning the state of civilization of a society are best shown by the quality variety, and the quantity of these taree groups of recor ls. Language-The speech cr speaches of the Mohenjcdaro period (B. C. (09)-_750) must remain obscure until the script and the language o. the sign manuals are deciphered. But the speech of the Vedic period from B. C. 2500 is clear from the larguage in which the Vedic an the post-Vedic literature are found written. There is no doubt that Sanskrit is the language in which the Vedic Aryans used to speak. But "unlike Medieval Latin Sanskrit undergoes important charges in the course of its prolonged literary existence which even to-cay is far from ended "1 Although the true home of the Sishtas (Sanskritspeaking people) is given by Patanjali as Arvavarta the Deccan was also a home of Sanskrit. Even in Southern In lia. despite the existence of a vigorous Kanarese and Tamil literature, Sanskrit Inscripti ns appear from the sixth century onwards, often mixed with Dravidian phrases, attesting the tendency of Sanskrit to become a Koine (of the Greeks), and Sanskrit lett a deep impression even on the virile Dravidian languages. Ceylon fell under its influence, and Sinhalese shows marked traces of its cperation on It. It reached the Sunda islands, Borneo, the Philippines, and in Java produced a remarkable develo, ent in the shape of the Kavi speech and literature. Adventurers of high rank founded 1 A. B. Keith, History of Sanskrit Literature (1928), p. 17.

kingdoms in Further India, where Indian names are already recorded by the geographer, Ptolemy, in the second century A. D The Sanskrit inscriptions of Champa begin perhaps in that century, those of Cambodia before 60, and they bear testimony to the energetic study of Sanskrit grammar and literature. Of greater importance still was the passage of Sanskrit texts to Central Asia and their influence on China, Tibet and Japan". This Aryan speech was the ancestor of all the speeches of India and Iran. "From the language of the Rigveda we can trace a steady development to Classical Sanskrit through the later Samhitas and the Brahmanas The development, however, is of a special kind; it is not the spontaneous growth of a popular speech unhampered by tradition and unregulated by grammatical studies The language of the tribes whose priests cherishel the hymns of Rigveda was subject doubtless to all the normal causes of speech change, accentuated in all likelihood by the gradual addition to the community of non-Aryan elements as the earlier inhabitants of the north. Munda or Dravidian tribes fell under their control. But, at least in the upper classes of the population, alteration was opposed by the constant use of the sacred language and by the study devoted to it. The process was accentuated by the remarkable achievements of her early grammarians whose analytical skill far surpassed anything achieved until much later in the western world". We must not, however, exaggerate the activity of the grammarians to the extent of suggesting with some writers that Classical Sanskrit is an artificial creation, a product of the Brahmans when they sought to counteract the Buddhist creation of an artistic literature in Fali by recasting their own Prakritic speech with the aid of the Vetic language. It is, in point of fact, perfectly obvious that there is a steady progress through the later Samhitas, the Brahinanas, and the Aranyakas and Upanishads, and that the spoken language of I anini's granin ar is closely related to though not identical with, the language of the Brahmanas and the older Upanishads. 1 Keith, Ibid, p. 15-16. 2 Keith, Ibid, pp. 4-5. 37

Nor in point of fact does classical Sanskrit present the appearance of an artificial product; simplified as it is in con.parison with the redundant luxury of the Vedic texts, it yet presents no artificial symmetry, but rather admits exceptions in bewildering profusion, showing that the grammarians were not creators, but were engaged in a serious struggle to bring into handier shape a rather intractable material." 1 "Prakrits are clearly the derivatives from their prime source (prakriti) Sanskrit."2 Prakrits were clearly dialects at their origin before they became literary language. Maga hi originated at Magadha and had two lower branches Chandali and Sakari. Sauraseni had its centre at Ujjain and its varieties are Dakshinatya, Prachya, Avanti, and Dhakki or Takki. Maharashtri had its centre at Maratta country. Paisachi originated in the NorthWestern province. Sir George Grierson classifies Prakrits in three great s'ages. Primary Prakrits are stated to be represented by the literary forms of the Vedic language and its successor Sanskrit. The Secondary Prakrits are represented in literature by Pali, by the Prakrits of the grammarians, of the drama and literature generally; and the Tertiary Prakrits by the modern vernaculars. These vernaculars, according to Pischel and Grierson, are collectively known as Apabramsa. Thus the modern vernaculars are derived from the various local Apabhramsas. From Saurasena or Nagara Apabhramsa came Western Hindi, Rajasthani, and Gujrati ; from Maharashtra Apabhramsa Maratti; from Magadha Apabhramsa Bengali, Bihari, Assamese and Oriya ; from Magadhi Eastern Hindi; from Vrachada Sindhi; an from Kaikeya Andra. 1 Keith, ibid, p. 7. 2 There is, however, a difference of opinions: Ardha Pischel (Grammar. 1900, 1, 16) reverses the position where he holds that Prakrit is what comes at once from nature and what all people without special instruction can understand. Keith is unable to decide and surmises 'speeches other than Sanskrit received the name'. Grammarians think Prakrits as artificial literary dialects. They are also thought to be the Indian vernaculars prior to the period when the modern vernaculars became fixed.

Thus from the Vedic period till the present time the spoken language are Sanskrits, Prakrits, Apabhramsas, and the modern vernaculars. There are also literature varying in extent and quality in all these languages. All these are regulated by their respective grammars. Thus as spoken languages they are much above the speech of the primitive people, which has no discernible laws. As Sanskrit is the prime source (prakriti) of the subsequent civilized speeches, a brief account of the laws regulating the Sanskrit speech should be enough to show the cultural importance and the level of Hindu civilization so far as language is concerned. The Vedic Sanskrit speech had its accent in as many as three forms, viz Udatta, Anudatta, and Svarit. Faulty utterance was terribly punished as indicated by the well-known story that a devotee who underwent great penance for a son got one to be killed by, instead of killing, Indra, for which he prayed.' The precision of pronunciation regulated by accents has, however, been given up since the Vedic Sanskrit changed into classical Sanskrit, Prakrits, Apabramsa and Vernaculars (modern languages). The classical Sanskrit and the Prakrits, Apabhramsas and vernaculars to a certain extent have retained, however, the division of sound of speech into vowels and consonants.2 Further distinction of vowels into short, long and dipthong, and the grouping of consonants according to the organs of production (the nose; tongue touching different parts of velum, palate, gum, teeth and lips) show the scientific knowledge of phonology on which there is a class of treatise known as Siksha. Morphology deals with the analysis of words as they undergo changes by prefixes and 1 Accent differentiates meanings; thus Indra-satru may be pronounced to mean the killer (satru) of Indra, or one of whom Indra is the killer (satru). 2 Vowels (and some consonants) are produced by the vibration of the vocal chords. Thus theoretically the number of possible vowels is limitless, of all languages Sanskrit possesses some fourteen vowels. The difference between a, i, u, etc.. is the difference of quality caused by the special configuration adopted by the resonance chamber of pharynx, mouth and nose. Consonants are produced mainly in the oral and the nasal passages. Sanskrit possesses fourteen vowels, and thirty-three consonants grouped most scientifically according to the organs of pronunciation.

suffixes indicating the genders and numbers of nouns. and cases; numbers and times of verbs are elaborately treated in innumerable grammars. Sen asiology or the history of the meanings of words is discussed in a large number of lexicons. The syntax or the order of word in a sentence, which is the fourth aspect of the modern science of language, is, however, missing in both Vedic and classical Sanskrit, but is retained to a certain extent by Prakrits, Apabhramsa, and Vernaculars.