The debate on which language is older,Tamil or Sanskrit has been raging on for quite sometime.On one side of the debate is the poor ,disinterested Tamilians who do not bother to take pains to establish the supremacy of Tamil .On the other side is the people who support Sanskrit openly but never speak it even within their families.They are all hell bent on proving that Sanskrit is the oldest language in the world, at all costs come what may.Their commitment is admirable and their arsenal is powerful.They have command all over the world media,all centres of higher learning,historians,men who shape public opinion ,linguists and all that can be imagined of . In addition they have the unstinted support of the governments as well. The Government of India spends around 600 mn INR p.a.for promotion of the Sanskrit language that is not spoken by even 100000 people. With this powerful background,the Sanskrit supporters are in a position to manipulate any data or history anywhere in the world to their favor.
One example of their influence I can cite here.I visited the Singapore tourism centre where they screen a short welcome film on Singapore. When they talk about how the city got its name,I was surprised to hear them declare that Singapore is a Sanskrit name !The the Government of Singapore has been influenced by the Sanskrit supporters to believe so,I guess.Singapore is a clear Tamil name Singapuram meaning ‘the village of lion’.How can it be Sanskrit when Sanskrit cannot cross the shores of India as per the vedic rules? The brahmins only could speak Sanskrit and the brahmins who cross the shores loses his caste. Then how can it reach Singapore?Declaring the name as Sanskrit by a government only goes to prove the extent of power the Sanskrit supporters wield every where in the world.
In such a situation how can a debate on this issue go neutral and find the truth when both sides are not equally placed?
Despite all these,thanks to a group of Indo- European linguists who have settled the issue once for all in 2016 with some dramatically new findings on Sanskrit and its nature.They are of the view that the arguments that are based on sources liable to be manipulated are not to be trusted as the author could be biased .On the other hand, linguists basing their arguments on logic that cannot be manipulated cannot be accused of any language bias on their part .
Accordingly,here is the irrefutable proof based on clear logic, submitted by them.
- Existence of a separate people of native speakers is a condition precedent for any language to originate.E.g. Tamilians for Tamil, Chinese for Mandarin, British for English etc.Sanskrit does /did not have any such community of native speakers at any point of time in history.
- As per extant scripture rules, women and shudras are prohibited from speaking Sanskrit. If women are not permitted to speak, then naturally Sanskrit cannot qualify as a mother tongue.
- If a language does not qualify to be a mother tongue, it cannot become a spoken language, as the mothers only transmit the language to the infants.
- If a language is not a spoken language, then it follows that it cannot produce native speakers.
- If native speakers are not there, who will coin Sanskrit words? That can be done only by speakers whose mother tongue is a different language, like, say Tamil.
- Moreover, Sanskrit, as such has an inherent limitation in becoming a mass spoken language as Shudras are the masses in the Hindu social setup. If they are prohibited from speaking Sanskrit,Sanskrit can never become a mass spoken language.
- The very name Sanskrit itself means ‘ refined script ‘ and not' refined language ‘. That means obviously it is not a language but only an un spoken code.
Based on the fore-going irrefutable arguments, the group of linguists referred to have concluded that Sanskrit is not a language but only an unspoken code.Consequently,Sanskrit loses its claim as a language and is eliminated in the first round itself when it comes to a competition between languges,here Tamil and Sanskrit.
Tamil now stands unchallenged as the oldest language of the planet and the only language fulfilling all the 11 criteria required for a full classical language status.
Note:So far, the arguments advanced have not been effectively rebutted by any Sanskrit scholar and so it remains unchallenged. As an ardent Sanskrit lover myself, I am eagerly awaiting for an effective rebuttal from some one soon .
