The Sanskrit language: Panini's grammar, its literature and Sanskrit today
What the name means, Panini's Ashtadhyayi, literature from the Vedas to Kalidasa, its links with European languages, where it lives today and a few myths.
Rohit Tandon · 24 October 2026 · 4 min read
The Vedas, the Upanishads, the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the texts of Ayurveda, Aryabhata's mathematics — a huge part of ancient India's knowledge was written in the Sanskrit language. The word "Sanskrit" itself means "refined" or "well put together". Here are interesting facts about its grammar, its literature and its place in life today.
Vedic Sanskrit and Classical Sanskrit
Sanskrit is seen in two main forms. The oldest is Vedic Sanskrit, in which texts such as the Rigveda were composed; the Rigveda is counted among the oldest surviving texts in the world, and it was preserved unchanged for centuries by oral tradition. The later form is Classical Sanskrit, which was given a fixed shape by Panini's grammar and in which works of poetry, drama, science and philosophy were written. Read about the debate over which language is older in The oldest language in the world.
Panini's Ashtadhyayi
Around the 4th century BCE the great grammarian Panini composed the "Ashtadhyayi". It has eight chapters and about 4,000 sutras, which pack the rules of the whole language into very short formulas. It opens with the 14 "Maheshvara Sutras", which arrange the sounds in a special order. Many scholars of modern linguistics regard Panini's grammar as one of the most systematic grammars in the world. Tradition links Panini with the ancient centre of learning at Takshashila — read The universities of ancient India.
The treasures of Sanskrit literature
| Work / author | What it is |
|---|---|
| The Vedas and Upanishads | India's oldest religious and philosophical texts |
| Ramayana (Valmiki) | The "Adikavya" — regarded as the first epic poem in Sanskrit |
| Mahabharata (Vedavyasa) | About a hundred thousand verses, among the longest epics in the world; the Bhagavad Gita is part of it |
| Kalidasa | Author of "Abhijnanashakuntalam", "Meghadutam" and "Raghuvamsham" |
| Works of science | The Aryabhatiya, the Charaka Samhita, the Sushruta Samhita |
Read about Aryabhata's mathematics in Aryabhata.
Did you know? In Calcutta in 1786, Sir William Jones pointed out that Sanskrit, Greek and Latin are so alike that they must have sprung from a common older language. For example, Sanskrit "matr", Latin "mater" and English "mother"; Sanskrit "pitr", Latin "pater" and "father"; Sanskrit "tri", Latin "tres" and "three". This helped give rise to the idea of the "Indo-European language family".
Sanskrit today
- Sanskrit is one of the 22 languages of the Constitution's Eighth Schedule, and it became a classical language in 2005.
- Uttarakhand (2010) and Himachal Pradesh (2019) made Sanskrit their second official language.
- Mattur village in Karnataka is known as a "Sanskrit village", where many people speak Sanskrit in daily conversation.
- A Sanskrit daily newspaper, "Sudharma", has been published from Mysuru since 1970, and Doordarshan and All India Radio carry news in Sanskrit.
- In the 2011 Census about 24,800 people gave Sanskrit as their mother tongue.
Sanskrit mottoes
Many Indian institutions have mottoes in Sanskrit: "Satyameva Jayate" below the national emblem (from the Mundaka Upanishad), the Air Force's "Nabhah sprisham diptam", the Navy's "Sham no Varunah", and "Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam" (the whole world is one family), linked with India's foreign policy.
A myth
Social media often claims that "NASA considers Sanskrit the best language for computers". In fact, a 1985 research article described the structure of Sanskrit grammar as useful for representing knowledge in an orderly way, but neither NASA nor any computer runs programs in Sanskrit. Sanskrit's greatness does not need such exaggerated claims.
Key points
- "Sanskrit" means a refined or well-formed language.
- Panini's Ashtadhyayi has eight chapters and about 4,000 sutras.
- The Mahabharata has about a hundred thousand verses.
- Sanskrit, Latin and Greek belong to the same language family.
- Sanskrit is the second official language of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.
Frequently asked questions
Who wrote the grammar of Sanskrit?
The sage Panini, in a work called the "Ashtadhyayi".
Which states have Sanskrit as an official language?
Sanskrit is the second official language of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.
More articles: History · History questions.
Sources
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