India’s heritage in languages and literature is one of the richest in the world. Some of the languages that were spoken in India in ancient times and had a rich literature have become extinct, others remained important.
As Sanskrit is no longer a spoken language, it is still a language of many religious rituals and of literature. The old languages have left their mark on the other languages which we speak today.
There are two main groups of languages — the Indo European (Indo-Aryan) and the Dravidian. These two groups have not developed in isolation from each other. Sanskrit was the language of Indo Aryans who came to India.
Sanskrit was gradually standardized and given a highly scientific grammar by Panini. Sanskrit was the language of religion, philosophy and learning. It was used by the upper castes, the brahmans and the Kshatriyas. The common people spoke a number of dialects which are called Prakrits.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Buddhist literature was written in Pali, one of the Prakrits. Ashoka had his rock and pillar edicts inscribed in the popular languages. Among the Dravidian languages Tamil is the most ancient. In the period of Gupta’s Sanskrit again became the predominant language of learning.
The various spoken languages that developed are called Apabhrams which developed in the various regions of India in the medieval period. During the periods of Turks and the Mughals Arabic and Persian entered India. Persian became the court language. The growth of a new language-Urdu-based on the dialects of Hindi and Persian became the common language of towns alt over northern India and the Deccan. Its literature in poetry and prose developed very rich.
There are eighteen languages which have been mentioned in the constitution of India. Hundreds of other languages are spoken by the people of other areas of the country. The variety of languages has made India a multilingual country.