| From The River Of Heaven |
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| Books By David Frawley |
| SANSKRIT : THE POWER OF MANTRA | |
| First it is the oldest form and
probable root of the greatest number of languages and the languages spoken by the greatest
numbers of people in the world, the Indo-european. These include the
main languages of Europe and north India, also many of those of Iran and
the Middle East (like Persian, Kurdish or Armenian). Though its grammatical forms are
different, it has many common roots with such other important ancient languages as Egyptian or
Sumerian. To the east we can find many Sanskrit roots as far away as
in the Hawaiian language. Many languages of ancient times, like the Scythian of
Central Asia, were also Indo-Iranian in nature. Second, Sanskrit is the oldest most continually used language in the world. By the most conservative accounts it has been used continuously since 1500 B.C., by more liberal accounts it was in use before 6000 B.C. and may represent the oldest and most original form of human language. Classical Sanskrit follows the same basic patterns since the time of Panini, who probably lived around the time of the Buddha. Third, it has the largest literature of any language. Along with the sacred literature of two of the world's great religions, Hinduism and Buddhism, it possesses the largest group of works on spirituality, metaphysics and mythology than any other language. It has an extensive literature of poetry, drama and philosophy, though much has been lost in time.
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