Sanskrit is the main liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Mahayana Buddhism. Literature written in this language is vast and varied, and has expanded over many centuries. We can say that it has enjoyed publication almost uninterrupted since 1500 B.C. till the date. However, historians identify two main periods of the Sanskrit literature: the Vedic period, approximately between 1500 and 200 B.C., and the classical period, between 500 B.C. and the 1000 of our era.
The Vedas are the oldest texts in Sanskrit and the oldest scriptures of Hinduism, and are written in archaic Sanskrit, which many call, precisely, Vedic Sanskrit. The two great epic works of India, the Ramayana - the life of Rama - and the Mahabharata - the great story of the Bharatas - were also originally composed in Sanskrit, although they have been translated into many regional languages. Besides being used for religious themes, Sanskrit was also the main means of propagating knowledge on topics of logic, mathematics, astronomy and philosophy.
During its long history, Sanskrit has been written with the Devanagari alphabet as well as with the alphabet of several regional languages, such as Bengali, eastern India, Gujarati, western, and Tamil, southern. The Grantham alphabet was designed exclusively for Sanskrit texts during the 5th century A.C., under the Pallavas kingdom in southern India.
Many say that Sanskrit is the language of the gods since it has been used to praise the different deities for almost four thousand years. The mantras and chants that the Hindus, Buddhists and Jains recite mostly were composed in Sanskrit.
In 1947, India was divided into two countries: one with a Hindu majority, India, and another with a Muslim majority, Pakistan. Since then, a new interest in reviving Sanskrit has emerged in India, so it has been incorporated into Hindi, which is the most important language in northern India, and into other languages of this country. This is largely because people associate Sanskrit with Hinduism and with the ancient history of India, that is, the one that precedes the Muslim presence in India. In this way, Sanskrit has been involved - perhaps involuntarily - in modern political disputes. However, many scholars and fans of Sanskrit believe that the language of the gods should not be used to settle disputes.
