5

What is the language in which the Vedas are written? Currently, they are written in the Sanskrit language but what was their first language. Devnagri is developed by humans and Vedas are the language of gods so what is their initial writing language? Were they in any other language? Specifically, what was their lipi or script i.e. written form called?

codeczar
  • 756
  • 2
  • 10
  • 34
  • 1
    "Vedas are the language of gods" - what do you mean by this? Gods don't speak anything that's not part of Vedas?! – Say No To Censorship Apr 24 '19 at 18:45
  • It means that Vedas was first spoken by Gods and it was passed as such to humans. Also, it is seen that Lord Brahma has Vedas in his hands so it must be in some physical form(written). – codeczar Apr 24 '19 at 20:26
  • @sv I want to know that is Sanskrit the eternal language which has not been extinct and used to pass the knowledge of vedas? or any other language is used and it has transformed with time to sanskrit – codeczar Apr 24 '19 at 21:38
  • @sv also by language of gods i mean that it was offered to humans via gods so what was the language spoken by them – codeczar Apr 24 '19 at 21:40
  • 1
    "by language of gods i mean that it was offered to humans via gods so what was the language spoken by them" - why do gods need a language/script? They can communicate by thoughts (telepathy)! "language of the gods" is not meant to be taken literally. You are trying to mix history and mythology. Sanskrit is a normal language like any other. It was refined over and over by grammarians like Pāṇini. Because of its popularity it was given 'divine' status. – Say No To Censorship Apr 24 '19 at 22:28
  • 1
    sanskrit is not a normal language. it is the language of devas because they understand vedic mantras and are bound to act according to it. it was not refined over time. it was perfect and will remain so forever. skeptics like to denigrate it because of its popularity. – ram May 01 '19 at 03:08
  • @sv. Sanskrit is believed to be divine. Visit Is Sanskrit considered divine language to those of the Hindu faith? and Is Sanskrit regarded as sacred? – Pandya May 02 '19 at 07:28
  • 'Sanskrit is believed to be divine' - I don't disagree. Every language is special/divine to its speakers and followers. @Pandya – Say No To Censorship May 02 '19 at 15:20
  • 1
    @sv. No, Among numerous Indian language, as far as I know only Sanskrit and probably Tamil are divine. – Pandya May 02 '19 at 16:03
  • @Pandya If I consider Telugu and English as divine and give a status higher than Sanskrit, do you have a problem? – Say No To Censorship May 02 '19 at 16:22
  • @sv. Hinduism has nothing to do with English language and it's not divine language as per Hinduism. – Pandya May 02 '19 at 16:23
  • 1
    @Pandya I don't know where this discussion is leading. But we were discussing divinity of immaterial things like languages. This site is based on English. We are discussing about Sanskrit using the English language. If people love Sanskrit so much and consider it "divine", they should not speak in a "normal" language like English or Hindi. – Say No To Censorship May 02 '19 at 16:25
  • It was written in Tamil. Sanskrit itself originated from Tamil. Detailed Ref: https://www.quora.com/Did-Sanskrit-originate-from-Tamil – Tamilism Jun 06 '21 at 06:47

3 Answers3

7

संस्कृतम् (Sanskritam)

Any language can have 2 components - sound and sight - the words we hear and the script we write.

The sounds of Vedas are eternal (literally exist infinite time before and infinite time after). They are not made by man, rather they just exist in nature as the breath of Brahmam, and are perceived by rishis during deep state of tapas. The language that the sounds of Vedas exist in is called Sanskrit and were formalized in grammar sutras by Panini, and then by Patanjali.

Until ~5000 years ago, when Kali Yuga started in 3102 B.C, Vedas and other Sanskrit literature were mostly recited and memorized by generation-to-generation. Rishis foresaw that human intellect would decrease as Kali progressed, hence they wrote down the sounds of Vedas in a representative script. This script, of course, is man-made, hence why it keeps changing over time.

The history of script changes is detailed/complex. Most Indian languages fall under Brahmic script. Devanagari is currently the script used to represent Sanskrit (and Hindi) sounds.

ram
  • 8,076
  • 2
  • 30
  • 57
  • 1
    You maybe happy to note about other scripts like Bengali, Kannada, Telugu and Grantha (TN - almost same letters as Tamil) to write Vedas locally almost till 1880s-1900s, before mleccha influence prioritising Devanagari. For Grantha you can see this from page 5 onwards. – Adiyarkku Oct 04 '21 at 06:56
3

All Vedas are written in Sanskrit. Sanskrit is believed to be the language of the Devas. Hence it's script is called Devanagari(of the city of gods).

Initially they were remembered in the mind only, but with the passage of time, human memory became weakened so they had to be put in writing. Even this was considered sacrilege

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedas

LearningAdventures
  • 147
  • 6
  • 1
    No, not written in what we know as Sanskrit.These are written in the Vedic Language.Panini made 'samskara' of the language and so it was named 'Samskrita' which is translated as Sanskrit. The scripts varied from brahmi to devanagari.Also, memory weakening was not the matter.Writing instruments became gradually available. –  Apr 22 '19 at 03:37
  • @commonman add a detailed answer based on your comment with little references your comment seems more legitimate than the answers posted – codeczar Apr 22 '19 at 07:22
  • @commonman, 'writing instruments' - leaves & chisels were not available before Kali Yuga ? of course they were, they just did not want to write it down because the guru-shishya relationship would be lost by people simply reading and misinterpreting from books rather than learn directly from guru. but in kali, they realized the benefits outweighed the risks. – ram Apr 22 '19 at 14:15
  • @ram lord brahma is seen to hold vedas in his hands how can he hold a thing which is not in any physical form – codeczar Apr 24 '19 at 20:30
  • @codeczar, are you serious ? it is a depiction by artists. i can depict jesus holding a guitar. people now depict him with vedas as a book, because now people use books. do we know how he was depicted 10000 years ago ? – ram Apr 24 '19 at 21:10
  • @ram ok fine but at any point of time they must have been written in any form what was that form and also what was the language which was understood by everyone and passed in different generations – codeczar Apr 24 '19 at 21:34
  • @ram another form of my question can be that is sanskrit an eternal language which is used to transfer the knowledge of vedas – codeczar Apr 24 '19 at 21:35
  • 1
    @codeczar, i just answered that above in my answer. yes, the sounds of vedas are eternal. the 'language' they're in is called sanskrit. – ram Apr 24 '19 at 21:42
1

Short answer

Vedas started with just भाषा(language). लिपि(script) came long after that. The trend of writing in देवनागरी(devanaagari) script is very recent.

Long answer

First - about the Veda: Vedas are known as Shrutis(something that was heard). It was preserved for generations as an oral tradition (कण्ठस्थ).

Second - the language: The language of the Vedas was known by many names such as ब्राह्मी(braahmi) भारती(bhaarati) भाषा(bhasha) सरस्वती(saraswati) etc. Given the antiquity the Vedas संस्कृत(Sanskrit) is a very modern nomenclature. The great Panini in his अष्टाध्यायी, considered to be the seminal treatise on Sanskrit grammar, has not used the word Sanskrit.

Third - the script: Vedas were preserved as an oral tradition hence there was no script associated with it. Since the time they learned how to write, it has been written in many scripts. ब्राह्मी(braahmi), नागरी(naagari), नन्दिनागरी(nandinaagari), देवनागरी(devanaagari). More recently (last couple century or so)every region wrote it in its own script. So you will find Vedas and other Sanskrit literature written in Odia, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Assamese and many more. In fact this diversity of scripts is the prime reason of popularity of देवनागरी in recent times. देवनागरी has become the primary script now.

asween
  • 375
  • 1
  • 2
  • 10