‘Generally,questions on Sanskrit are asked exactly the opposite way of how it should have been asked !’ says an eminent Sanskrit lover Krishnamoorty .V.S ! According to him,this question should have been something like,’Is not Sanskrit no one’s language?’.
Now,why is he saying so ?What are his reasons?
- MYTH About origin of Sanskrit !
For any language to ORIGINATE,there must be a NATIVE SPEAKER COMMUNITY.The Indo-European family of languages have 449 member languages.Among these,Sanskrit is the ONLY language which has NO NATIVE SPEAKER community.Linguists raise the question,’How did Sanskrit originate without a native speaker community?’ As no satisfactory answer for this question is available,they conclude that Sanskrit is a made-up or constructed code and not a natural language.Sanskrrit has been made up by people whose mother-tongue is a non-Sanskrit language,like,say Tamil.
2.MYTH Sanskrit as a mother-tongue!
Hindu scriptures and traditions prohibited women from chanting Sanskrit( words or verses.
(vide 'Women are not allowed to study or chant the Vedas.' - the lowdown Women are not allowed to study or chant the Vedas. Orthodoxy still does not permit girls to receive Vedic initiation )
So,mothers being naturally women, were prohibited from chanting Sanskrit.Hence ,Sanskrit could not become a mother-tongue for the children.
Linguists point out that this is the main reason for the lack of a native speaker community for Sanskrit.
(Alvaro Hans's answer to What are the biggest linguistic myths in India? )
However,we cannot set aside the fact that according to Census 2001 figures,Sanskrit has been declared as mother-tongue by 14,000+ people in Mathur,Karnataka.
