Who Cares if Sanskrit isn’t the Oldest Language?!

This is just too funny. Apparently some new research has shown that the mother of Sanskrit and all Indo-European languages was spoken in Turkey almost 10,000 years ago. Now I’m not a language expert and in the absence of knowing better, I’ll just go with what the scientific community says. Who cares after all. It’s not as if this new research actually matters right? I mean it might be interesting from a historical perspective, but has no possible impact on us today.

Right?

Wrong! Going by the reactions of over 600 (so far) comments on the TOI article, you’d get the impression that some grand travesty has been committed. I was expecting this and headed straight to the comments section for some fun reading :D. Honestly, I didn’t even bother with the article itself. And boy was it rewarding :D

Look at this juicy sample:

Its absolutely wrong.Sanskrit itself is mother of all languages and is oldest gramatically and lofically perfect language on the earth.Here is the reference from sincere phiosophers:-Max Muller also pointed out that Sanskrit provides perfect examples of the unity and foundation it offers to the Celtic, Teutonic, Slavonic, Germanic and Anglo-Saxon languages, not to mention its influence on Asian languages. The transmission of Buddhism to Asia can be attributed largely to the appeal to Sanskrit. Even in translation the works of Sanskrit evoked the supreme admiration of Western poets and philosophers like Emerson, Whitman, Thoreau, Melville, Goethe, Schlegel and Schopenhauer. The fact is that Sanskrit is more deeply interwoven into the fabric of the collective world consciousness than anyone perhaps knows. After many thousands of years, Sanskrit still lives with a vitality that can breathe life, restore unity and inspire peace on our tired and troubled planet. It is a sacred gift, an opportunity. The future could be very bright.

Seriously? I mean you’re so invested in a language that was neither invented by you and most likely not even spoken by you. Reading your comment one will think you have some personal involvement with it…but no!

I swear – what benchmark do people use when determining what to get outraged and what not to get outraged over?

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30 thoughts on “Who Cares if Sanskrit isn’t the Oldest Language?!”

    • In reply to Indian Homemaker

      IHM @ Shailji, LOL!! Coming to think of it, we dont have anything to be proud of if the Western People dont approve of it. Look at all the stuff we are proud of – Gaining Independence from the British, not gaining Independence from our stupidity or gaining independence from following irrelevant traditions. We are only proud of those Indian Scientists who either got the Nobel Prize or got Honourable mention from their western counterparts, only those authors who write in English and have gotten awards from their western counterpart…etc…etc… I am not saying that Sanskrit doesnt have its merits for being a language that produces such a sentiment, but I question the hipocrisy of being proud of it when we cant even speak our own languages without adding a Foreign word in between, leave alone speak Sankrit or even understand the language while we read the hymns. Seriously we need a revamping of our attitude.

      Reply

  1. When an apple fell on Newtons head , i am sure most of his countrymen thought …..what good is the knowledge of gravity anyway……..things always fall down……..if you know gravity or not . Had newton thought the same way we would have nothing no machines nothing that we comfortably use now. Research on any subject be it language , how we evolved or origin of languages are all important………All sciences add to the others ……..but ignorance of the countrymen………its the same since the time of newton..
    superiority or inferiority is actually nothing.

    Reply

  2. Its depend on consciousness of individuals in accepting philosophy or scientific knowledge. those ignorant people don’t cares anything until he/she face it. Everyone has their own choices in accepting or rejecting certain knowledge. However, truth can not be annihilated due to someones disagreement.

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  3. How foolish. It is like a kid’ comment in school when he says why do I have to study mathematics. I am never going to use it. And the truth is otherwise.

    Knowledge is knowledge. Till you don’t acquire it, you don’t know its utility.

    As far as the Sanskrit and source of all languages is concerned, Western scholars are vehement that the mother of all languages is Proto Indo European. And what is Proto Indo European (PIE)? It is a reconstructed language with (root) words taken from all ancient languages including Sanskrit. It never existed. It has no scriptures, no manuscripts, nothing!

    You can decode PIE is with Sanskrit or latin. And sanskrit is more scientific, therefore, a better decoding tool.

    The whole world clamours for ownership of Sanskrit except Indians.

    Laugh it off!

    Reply

  4. it is hard for the people claim all came from sanskrit and Maxmuller is the ultimate linguist… How much Tamil Maxmuller knows?? Get a life…

    Reply

  5. it is hard for the people claim all came from sanskrit and Maxmuller is the ultimate linguist… How much Tamil Maxmuller knows?? Get a life…

    Reply

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