Sanskrit and English-Amazing Relationship

Dr. V.K.MaheshwariM.A(Socio, Phil) B.Sc. M. Ed, Ph.D

Former Principal, K.L.D.A.V.(P.G) College, Roorkee, India


On a more public level the statement that Sanskrit is a dead language is misleading, for Sanskrit is quite obviously not as dead as other dead languages and the fact that it is spoken, written and read will probably convince most people that it cannot be a dead language in the most common usage of the term.

—Hanneder

The language of the Indo-Aryans should be of special interest to us, for Sanskrit is one of the oldest in that “Indo-European” group of languages to which our own speech belongs. When a language is spoken by unqualified people the pronunciation of the word changes to some extent; and when these words travel by word of mouth to another region of the land, with the gap of some generations, it permanently changes its form and shape to some extent.  We feel for a moment a strange sense of cultural continuity across great stretches of time and space when we observe the similarity in Sanskrit, Greek, Latin and English of the numerals, the family terms, and those insinuating little words that, by some oversight of the moralists, have been called the copulative verb.  Cf. English one, two, three, four, five with Sanskrit ek, dwee, tree, chatoor, panch;Latin unus, duo, tres, quattuor, quinque; Greek heis, duo, tria, tettara, pente. (Quattuorbecomes four, as Latin quercus becomes fir.) Or cf. English am, art, is with Sanskrit asmi, asi, asti; Latin sum, es, est; C -eek eimi, ei, esti.

Some examples of the correlation:

Old Persian   Sanskrit   Greek   Latin   German   English

bar             bhri              fcrein       ferre      fuhren     bear

bratar        bhratar      phrater      frater      Brudcr   brother

eta           stha             istemi         sto         stchcn     stand

matar        matar        meter         mater     Mutter   mother

nama           nama        onoma       nomen   Nahmc    name

napat         napat        anepsios     nepos     Neffe    nephew

Pitar           pitar             pater       pater       Vater     father

Grimm’s Law, which formulated the changes effected in the consonants of a word through the different vocal habits of separated peoples, has revealed to us more fully the surprising kinship o Sanskrit with our own tongue. The law may be roughly summarized by saying that in most cases:

1. Sanskrit k (as in kratu, power) corresponds to Greek k (kartos, strength), Latin c

or qu (cornu, horn), German h, g or k (hart), and English h, g or f (hard);

2. Skt. g or j (as in jan, to beget), corresponds to Gk. g (genos, race), L. g (genus),

Ger. cb or k (kind, child), E. k (kin)-,

3. Skt. gb or h (as in by as, yesterday), corresponds to Gk. ch (chthes), L. h, f, g, or v

(heri), Ger. k or g (gestern), E. g or y (yesterday);

4. Skt. t (as in tar, to cross) corresponds to Gk. t (terma, end), L. t (ter-minus), Ger.

d (durch, through), E. tb or d (through);

5. Skt. d (as in das, ten) corresponds to Gk. d (deka), L. d (decent), Ger. z (zehn),

E. t (ten);

6. Skt. dh or h (as in dha, to place or put) corresponds to Gk. tb (ti-the-mi, I place),

L. f y dorb (fa-cere, do), Ger. t (tun, do), E. d (do, deed);

7 Skt. p (as in patana, feather) corresponds to Gk. p (pteros, wing), L. p (penna,

feather), Ger. f or v (feder), E. f or b (feather);

8. Skt. bh (as in bhri, to bear) corresponds to Gk. ph (pherein), L. f or b (fero), Ger.

p, / or ph (fahren), E. b or p (bear, birth, brother, etc.).

Few examples:

aṭṭaka -         attic , an apartment on the roof

krūra  -    cruel

ḍimbha   -   dumb an idiot, an infant

gou-  cow

hantṛ  -  hunter   a slayer, killer

kuka -  cook,a cook

lok -   look,to see,

mad-      mad  drunk

masa -  mass       measure

mith  -  meet       to unite, pair,

maṇi -   money     jewel, gem, pearl (also fig.)

pres-      preṣs  to drive on, urge, impel

prauḍha -  proud, arrogant, confident, bold, audacious, impudent

rīti-   rite, custom, practice, method, manner

sāda -   sad          , sinking down, exhaustion, weariness

santa -   saint      successful, effectual, valid

sakala  -  scale    consisting of parts, divisible

śoka  shock,sorrow,

sūri  -   Sir,a learned man, sage

samartha -   smart,very strong or powerful, competent, capable of. able to

spaś  -  spy,one who looks , a watcher,

jhampa -  jump

ūrj  -  urge,to strengthen, invigorate

van  – win,to conquer,

vaś  -  wish

tul  – toll,to lift up, raise

tas -   toss,to throw

vahana – wagon   a square chariot with a pole

Few examples with amazing etymological similarity

BANDH, “bind around” (BIND, BAND, BANDAGE)

BHUUTI, “wealth, fortune”.. BOOTY/BUTY, “anything

DANTA, “tooth” (DENTURE, INDENT)

MANU, “man”.

MUUSH, “mouse”

NAS, “nose” (NOSTRIL, NASAL)

NAU, “ship” akin to NAVYA (NAVY, NAVIGATE, NAUTICAL)

NAVA, “new”

PAD, “foot PEDESTRIAN, “foot­walker”; PEDATE, “having feet”;

PATHA, “path”

SARPA, “serpent”

SHATAM, “hundred” CENTUM (CENT, CENTURY, CENTIME)

SVADU, “sweet”

TAT, “that”

TVA, “you”THOU,

It is quite unlikely that this ancient tongue, which Sir William Jones pronounced “more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either,”  should have been the spoken language of the Aryan invaders. What that speech was we do not know;

we can only presume that it was a near relative of the early Persian dialect in which the Avesta was composed. The Sanskrit of the Vedas and the epics has already the earmarks of a classic and literary tongue, used only by scholars and priests; the very word Sanskrit means “prepared, pure, perfect, sacred.” The language of the people in the Vedic age was not one but many; each tribe had its own Aryan dialect.  India has never had one language.

The Vedas contain no hint that writing was known to their authors. It was not until the eighth or ninth century B.C. that Hindu probably Dravidian merchants brought from western Asia a Semitic script, akin to the Phoenician; and from this “Brahma script,” as it came to be called, all the later alphabets of India were derived.” For centuries writing seems to have been confined to commercial and administrative purposes, with little thought of using it for literature; “merchants, not priests, developed this basic art.” ( Perhaps poetry will recover its ancient hold upon our people when it is again recited rather than silently read.) Even the Buddhist canon does not appear to have been written down before the third century B.C. The oldest extant inscriptions in India are those of Ashoka.” We who (until the air about us was filled with words and music) were for centuries made eye-minded by writing and print, find it hard to understand how contentedly India, long after she had learned to write, clung to the old ways of transmitting history and literature by recitation and memory. The Vedas and the epics were songs that grew with the generations of those that recited them; they were intended not for sight but for sound. From this indifference to writing comes our dearth of knowledge about early India.

रात्रिर्गमिष्यति भविष्यति सुप्रभातम्
भास्वानुदेष्यति हसिष्यति पंकजश्रीः।

इति विचारयति कोषगते द्विरेफे

हा हंत हंत नलिनीं गज उज्जहार॥

Night will be over, there will be morning,
The sun will rise, lotus flower will open.
While the bee inside the lotus flower was thinking thus,
The lotus plant was uprooted by an elephant.

 

 

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