Sunday 19 February 2012

SANSKRIT-URDU CULTURE IN INDIA!

After discussing about the India and Indian, mainly a nation of a group of hundreds  kinds of immigrants as well as the original or aborginal Indians, believed to be pre-Dravidians tribal people, called Adivasi like Bhils, the Mundas,, the Gonds,, the Todas etc, currently about seven to eight percent of the total population of India in my previous write -up in my blog, now I want to highlight about the Sanskrit-Urdu culture of India, which had continued to adhere secular character of the country!I have tried to base  my write-up on the opoinions of the eminent historians, sociologist, reputed scholars including the speech of the former judge of the Supreme Court Markandey Katju, delivered to the non-resident Indians in California in June 2011.
Both  the Sanskrit and the Urdu languages in India have been misuderstood..While there  misconception about Urdu that it is the language of Muslims and of foreigners, people think that Sanskrit  is a language for chanting mantras in temples and religious ceremonies.About Urdu false propganda is being made after 1947.Likewise, I must make it clear  that only five percent of Sanskrit literature are mantras and used in religious ceremonies. Ninety-five percent of Sanskrit literature are no way connected with religion. Sanskrit deals with varied ranges of subjects like philosophy, science, law (including astronomy, mathematics and medicines), grammar, phonetics and literature. About Urdu, I must say that the language was not only for Muslims alone but of Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs and others.It was propganda spree after partition by certain vested interests that the Urdu is the language of Muslims and Hindi is language for Hindus. Before 1947, almost all the educated people in India used to study Urdu also. For many  government offices, documents were written in Urdu scripts! Sucha canard had been spread among Hindus and Muslims for deviding and ruling and also make Muslims and Hindus fight each other. All efforts were made to eliminate Urdu language and literature in India. But a lanuguage, which comes out from hearts cannot be crushed as long as people have hearts.
The Sanskrit lkanguage and literature is for enquisitive minds of people. An inquisitive minds means inquiring minds, who want to know about everything and Sanskrit has whole range of subjects, which have been discussed in this language and literature. "Sanskrit is a language of science", a paper in which everything in details have been discussed. For this, we would have to mention the constribution of Sanskrit Scholar Panini and also Nyaya Vaisheshik philosophy. Teaching of these days Sanskrit is Paninin Sanskrit, which is called classical Sanskrit or Laukik Sanskrit. There are many earlier Sanskrits. Earliest Sanskrit book is the Rig Veda. It was composed between 2000 and 1500 bc-later it was passed on orally.. With the passage of time language and literature changes-so there has been  few  change in Sanskrit also.
Panini., a greatest grammarian the world has seen, had  fixed  the rules of Sanskrit in his book "Ashtadhyayi" in the fifth century BC. There after  no further changes in the Sanskrit were allowed except some slight changes made by two other grammarians-Katyayana in his book"Vartika" about 100-200 years after Paninin and Patanjali. Patanjali had written his book "Mahabhashya" about 200 years after Katyayna. ecxcept these slight changes, what is taught in schools and colleges is Panini's Sanskrit. Panini had reformed crude sanskriyt prevailing in his time and meticulously systemised and liberalised it to make Sanskrit powerful vehicle of profound and abstaract  Niot only that Panini had made the sanskrit a powerful language in which scientifc ideas could be flowed with precision and clarity for making the language mainly uniform all over India. Thus the Sanskrit language had become interactive not only in the entire India but for thinkers in one part of the sub-continent to ineract easily with thinkers of another parts of the globe and region. Panini had scientifically arranged the consonants of the Sanskrit language unlike English  alphabets in a haphazard manner.Arrangements of letters in the alphabet in Sanskrit is carefully confirmed and has been done on the basis of scientific study.
Sanskrit has great contribution in such manner and second of that is the development of rational and scientific thinking. It was based on Nyaya Vaisheshik philosophy.The India philoshophy has six  classical systems-Nyaya, Vaisheshik, Sankya, Yoga, Purva Mimansa and Uttar Mimansa and three non-classical systems,-Buddhist, Jainist, and Charvaka. Among the nine systems eight are  atheistic as there is no place  for god in them. Only Uttam Mimansa, which is also called Vedanta, has a p[lace for God in it, according to Katju.
Vaisheshik was the physics of ancient times(the atomic or parmanu system). Katju has said, " Physics is part of science, hence at one time Vaisheshik was part of Nyaya philosophy.. It was the Nyaya Vaisheshik philosophy, which provided the scientific background and gave great encouragement to our scientists to propound scientific theories..Nyaya Vaisheshik philosophy, which says that nothing is aceptable unless it is in accordance with reason and experience."At one time we were leading the whole world in science and technology."
There are many advancements of our scientific knowledges like medicines,surgery, astronomy, calculations in comparision to Europe and America. Indians are far ahead iof the western countries in medicines. In astronomy, the calculations, which were made 2000 years ago are still the basis of predicting with great accuracy the day and time of solar eclipseor a lunar eclipse by reading a "patra." These prediction s were made 2000 years ago by our ancestors, who did not have telescopes and modern instruments; by sheer oibservation with the naked eye and power of intellect they predicted what is going to happen 2000 years in future, Katju said..
According to Katju ;with regards to Urdu, there is no match to Urdu language poetry. Urdu poetry is voice of the heart. It is none in other languages..Unlike Arabic and Persian, which are foreign languages, Urdu is an indigenous language and loved by people of India.. Urdu has a dual nature. It is combination of two languages, that is, Hindustani and Persian, which is why it is called Rekhta, which means hybrid. Since it is combination of two languages, the question arises: it is special kind of Persian or a  special kind of Hindustani? The answer is that it is speciasl kind of Hindustani not a special kind of Persian. why? Because the verbs in Urdu are all in Hindustani. The language is to which a sentence belongs is deterimined the verbs used in it, not the norms or adjectives. In Urdu, all the verbs are in simple Hindi (which is called Hindustani or khadiboli).
Urdu has dual nature because it is a combination of Hindustani and Persian. Hindustani is the  language of the common man, while Persian is the language of aristocrats. Now the question arises, Persiaian is the language of Persia, how it came to India? To explain this it has been noted that it often happens that the elite or upper class of a society speaks a foreign language. For instance, In India and Pakistan, the elite speaks in English. In Europe, elite  upto to the end of 19th century, the European aristocrsats often spoke each other in French though they spoke to their servants in the native languages. French was the language of the elite in large parts of Europe for many centuries.Elite want to distinguish itself from the common people. In India Persian was the language of the court and the elite for the centuries although Persian originated in Persia, it spread to much of South Asia including India. Akbar's foreign minister Todarmal, had passed an order that all court records throughout the Mughal empire shall be maintained in Persian, Katju said .
Katju has added further that Urdu is the common man's language, "awaam ki zubaan" because part of of it is Hindustani and, the common man's language. It is also the aristocrats' language because another parts of it is Persian, which as the aristocrat's language.The content of Urdu, that is, the feelings, emotions etc. in it are of common man. But the form, the style, the andaaz-e-bayaan is that of an aristocrat. That is what gives Urdu such great power.
According to Katju, Urdu places more reliance on emotion and Sanskrit more on  reason. We requere both of our country's progress. Urdu and Sanskrit  complement each other, and in fact Sanskrit is the grand mother of Urdu because 70 percent of the words in Urdu are from Sanskrit.Katju has said, " Since there is so much diversity in India the Only policy which will work is the policy of secularism and giving equal respect to all communities. Otherwise India will break up into hundred of pieces since there is so much diversity." Katju has said in his lecture.

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