Sanskrit (IAST: Saṃskṛtam; IPA: [sə̃skr̩t̪əm][a]) is the primary liturgical language of Hinduism ; a philosophical language of Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, and Jainism; and a literary language and lingua franca of ancient and medieval India and Nepal.[6] As a result of transmission of Hindu and Buddhist culture to Southeast Asia and parts of Central Asia, it was also a language of high culture in some of these regions during the early-medieval era.[7][8]
It is a standardised dialect of Old Indo-Aryan, having originated in the 2nd millennium BCE as Vedic Sanskrit and tracing its linguistic ancestry back to Proto-Indo-Iranian and Proto-Indo-European.[9] As one of the oldest Indo-European languages for which substantial written documentation exists, Sanskrit holds a prominent position in Indo-European studies.[10] The body of Sanskrit literature encompasses a rich tradition of poetry and drama as well as scientific, technical, philosophical and religious texts. The compositions of Sanskrit were orally transmitted for much of its early history by methods of memorization of exceptional complexity, rigor, and fidelity.[11][12] Thereafter, variants and derivatives of the Brahmi script came to be used.
Sanskrit,even though written in the Devanagari script but also other scripts are continued to be used [13].It is today one of the 22 languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India, which mandates the Indian government to develop the language. It continues to be widely used as a ceremonial language in Hindu religious rituals and Buddhist practice in the form of hymns and chants.
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