Contributed
by Neil 'Kalia' Robinson
(Abstract of a Paper Presented at the World Assocaition for Vedic
Studies (WAVES) Conference held at U of Mass. in Dartmouth, Mass.)
In western curriculum there is a tendency to exclude Sanskrit as a root
to the English language. Numbers and alphabet are categorized as Roman or
Arabic. There is however recognition of the Indo-Aryan or Indo European
language group which Sanskrit is admittedly an elder member.
How important is the role of Sanskrit in regards to world languages and
in this case English, possibly the most dominant language in the modern world? It
is imperative to note that the English language, except for the current written
alphabet, is as close to ancient Sanskrit as Hindi, Bengali or any other
dialect from India. And yes, English numerals are Sanskrit not Arabic or Roman.
It is helpful to understand that many English words have no intrinsic
denominator without application or aid of Sanskrit. The compound word
San-Skrit, San; meaning whole, equal, complete, total or amount and Skrit;
meaning script, scribe etc. Thus reveals the common basis and subtle collusion
of English words to be non different than Sanskrit i.e. San; Sum, some, syn,
same, sane, saint etc. all these English words meaning either whole, total,
equal or even.
To opine that in time Sanskrit developed its refined status from a
earlier more crude form of the Indo-European or other language family is herein
questionable due to the vivid, concise depth of Sanskrit Syllabary and
antiquated references.
An example is given that the Name for the human race "Man"
has come from "Manu" (Manoah, Noah, Nuh), the "Manvantara"
descendant from the Vivasvan, the solar deity. The word "Man" has no
sufficient origins given in English. According to Vedic chronology the story of
Manu stretches so far into antiquity that it no longer finds cohesive analogy
in English literature, except perhaps in form of the Biblical story of Noah.
In United States of America we have no monarchy so the title
"King" can only refer to periods and places where where it actually
did or currently exist, such as The "Queen" of England. Yet we still
use the word "King and Queen" in North America, because in the past
it was used frequently in reference to actual monarchy.
Even though there are no lions in England the Kings where still known
as lion hearted. Coats of arms often portrayed lions attributing the qualities
of the lions to the kings such as courage, strength, chivalry, generosity and
resourcefulness.
The old English spelling of King is "Cing" As in ancient
Sanskrit appellation King, Cing, Singh, Simha or Simba (Swahili) for lion
meaning powerful chief or leader.
The English language, full of such descendants perceived directly in
relation to its sister dialects, Hindi and Bengali is no further remote from
Sanskrit. Apparently Sanskrit similarly supplies integral structure and
identifying roots of English. Could the very word "Sanskrit" claim
what it may well be a "Samskrit" or "complete alphabet" of
a universal language originating from the subtlemost realm of consciousness?
Even Professor Max Mueller had to acknowledge the greatness of the
Devanagari script admitting its very perfection and realizing its antecedent
superiority. Vedic Sanskrit of Ancient India very possibly may contain the
"perfect" contributing factor providing spiritual and metaphysical
roots and reason to many branches of global languages.
No comments:
Post a Comment