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Revision as of 16:14, 8 December 2001
Sanskrit is a classical language that was spoken by the Aryan invaders who settled in the Indus Valley region and displaced the Indus Valley or Harrapan civilization in perhaps 1500 B.C.
It is generally written in the Devnagri script. Several Latin-alphabet transliterations of varying utility are also available.
Sanskrit belongs to the Indo-European family of languages and its common origin with modern European and the more familiar classical languages of Greek and Latin can be seen, for instance, in the Sanskrit words for mother, matr, and father, pitr (perhaps some more examples?).
For India, Sanskrit occupies a role similar to that of Latin in Western Europe. It was a language of religious ritual and scholars, it is now dead, and it had locally varied spoken forms Prakrits such as Pali.
Sanskrit had some influences in the Chinese culture because Buddhism was transmitted to China in Sanskrit originally. Many Chinese buddhist scriptures were written in Chinese transliteration of Sanskrit words. Some Chinese proverbs use Buddhist terms that originate from Sanskrit.
Sanskrit words are found in many present day languages. For instance the Thai language contains many loan words from Sanskrit.
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