World Sanskrit Day: When Mughals Promoted Sanskrit!

By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam 12 August 2022 Sanskrit And Persian, The Language Of The Mughals, Are Siamese Twins ---- Picture courtesy: Mail Today' A scene from Akbar’s court. ---- Today ( August 12) is World Sanskrit Day. In these times and climes of linguistic poverty across the world and many languages either already dead or moribund, talking about Sanskrit sounds rather outdated and when one tries to associate its development with Mughals (the anathema to today's Hindu India), it's a veritable last straw on the camel's back. But the truth cannot be denied that Mughals did a lot to ameliorate the state and status of Sanskrit. 'Pseudo-nationalists' may hatch a plan to teach me a lesson for making this claim, but I'll request that they must read Audrey Truschke's " Culture of Encounters: Sanskrit at the Mughal Court." Though the author has made many factual errors (her own understanding of Persian and Sanskrit is questionable) and one can sense that her motives are a trifle dubious with a view to pleasing a particular political dispensation, certain facts are laudable. Before admiring Mughals for the promotion of Sanskrit, it must be mentioned that Sanskrit and Persian (the language of the Mughals) are Siamese Twins. Both are structurally, semantically and syntactically quite similar. So much so that if you know Sanskrit pretty well, you can pick up Persian within a fortnight and vice versa. Yours truly learnt Sanskrit through Persian and found both the tongues to be two sides of the same coin. If you read Krishna Das' ' Paarsiprakasa ' (also spelt as Farsi- Prakash), the syntax of both the tongues is very similar. Sanskrit word Tan ( body) becomes Tanam in Persian: Munbilam be Zakhm Na Saayad Tanam ( Nizami), Ashva (a horse) in Sanskrit becomes Aspa in Persian, Trishna ( thirst) in Sanskrit is Tishnagi in Persian, Shrigaal ( fox, Lomdi Or Siyaar in Hindi) is Shigaal/Shighaal in Persian. Here it must be noted that from the perspective of Syntax Formation ( Mafazir in Persian linguistics), both Sanskrit and Persian have ramification extensions. For example, the Sanskrit word ' Shrigaal' means a male fox and rather archaic 'Shrigeel' is a female fox. Likewise in Sanskrit, ' ShaGaal' ( with a Gaaf) is a male fox and ' ShaGHaal' ( with a Ghain) is a female fox. ' Abhra ' (cloud) in Sanskrit is ' Abra ' in Persian (Falak Abraalood Ast: The firmament is cloudy). ' Chibuk' ( 'Thodi' in Hindi and 'chin' in English) is ' Chabak' in Persian but enunciated at 'Shabak' while speaking. Sanskrit word ' Ritu ' (season) is ' Rut ' in Persian/ Urdu. The list is endless. Coming back to Mughals patronizing Sanskrit, one should read the prelude to Platt's ' Persian Dictionary for the students of Calcutta University,' 1910). The prelude describes how Akbar, Jahangir and particularly Dara Shikoh ( who learnt Sanskrit from the pundits of Banaras) promoted Sanskrit and Persian and encouraged the Brahmins and Jain scholars (who spoke Prakrit, a derivative of Sanskrit) in their court. Ramayana, Mahabharata and Upanishads were rendered into Persian and Dara along with Muslim scholars like Dafir, Shaista Khorasani, Tahmir, Farhaan, among others studied Panini's Ashtadhyayi to learn Sanskrit like native speakers. But the fact that Mughals unconditionally tried to encourage Persian is often airbrushed with a sinister motive. Alas, both the languages, Persian as well as Sanskrit, are no longer functional in the sub-continent. I'm still not sure, how many Muslims in India speak Persian as a colloquial language and think in it and how many Hindus know Sanskrit at a functional level and can speak it effortlessly. ----- A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to world's premier publications in several languages including Persian. URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-culture/sanskrit-mughals-persian-shiloh-/d/127699 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism