Indian Heritage as Reflected in Sanskrit and Descending Words

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Language is the human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, and a language is any specific example of such a system. The scientific study of language is called linguistics. The English word "language" derives ultimately from Indo-European "tongue, speech, language" through Latin lingua, "language; tongue", and Old French language. The word is sometimes used to refer to codes, ciphers, and other kinds of artificially constructed communication systems such as those used for computer programming. A language in this sense is a system of signs for encoding and decoding information.

One definition sees language primarily as the mental faculty that allows humans to undertake linguistic behaviour: to learn languages and to produce and understand utterances. This definition stresses the universality of language to all humans and it emphasizes the biological basis for the human capacity for language as a unique development of the human brain. Proponents of the view that the drive to language acquisition is innate in humans often argue that this is supported by the fact that all cognitively normal children raised in an environment where language is accessible will acquire language without formal instruction. Languages may even spontaneously develop in environments where people live or grow up together without a common language. Another definition sees language as a formal system of signs governed by grammatical rules of combination to communicate meaning. This definition stresses that human languages can be described as closed structural systems consisting of rules that relate particular signs to particular meanings. Yet another definition sees language as a system of communication Indian Heritage as Reflected in Sanskrit and Descending Words that enables humans to cooperate. This definition stresses the social functions of language and the fact that humans use it to express themselves and to manipulate objects in their environment.

Mankind has speculated about the origins of language throughout history. The Biblical myth of the Tower of Babel is one such account; other cultures have different stories of how the many different languages arose. Theories about the origin of language differ in regards to their basic assumptions about what language is. Some theories are based on the idea that language is so complex that one cannot imagine it simply appearing from nothing in its final form, but that it must have evolved from earlier pre-linguistic systems among our pre-human ancestors. These theories can be called continuity-based theories. The opposite viewpoint is that language is such a unique human trait that it cannot be compared to anything found among non-humans and that it must therefore have appeared suddenly in the transition from pre-hominids to early man. These theories can be defined as discontinuity-based. Similarly, theories based on Chomsky’s Generative view of language see language mostly as an innate faculty that is largely genetically encoded, whereas functionalist theories see it as a system that is largely cultural, learned through social interaction.

Indian history is as varied as it is broad in time and space. Stretching back to the Vedas and flourishing all through ages, it spread no less than round a continent. So Indian history means the history of a great culture of a perfect civilization which has left a deep impress upon the human race. A vast area of the Sindhu and Gangetic valley has borne mute testimony to innumerable activities liable to raise it up and to bring it by degrees into perfection. Here has grown through the long passage of time, rise and fall of kingdoms, ups and downs of races, waxing and waning of lives.

The writing of Indian history, therefore, cannot be con- fined to only recording the lineage of kings, or the genealogies of ancestors; it is much more than this. History, in a broad sense, covers the whole perception of thought—the traditions, the concepts, the beliefs of ages, which have finally built the stature of modern man. There is infused into the popular mind the chain of a myriad ideas floating like flot- sam and jetsam that developed his whole character and personality. In fact, one cannot easily imagine how deeply the ideas lie embedded in his mind and how long or where they have been coming from.

We are fortunate to inherit the vast repository of literature at our disposal. All this, no doubt, constitutes a prolific source to give account to and to make a sketch of Indian history. The bulk is, however, not written in history in the true sense of the term. The Vedas, for example, stand out mainly to eulogize the deities, the epics to expatiate some of the great incarnations; all of them remaining under the coterie of poetics. A true researcher, therefore, should take care of what is fact and fiction. He should put all the Indian Heritage as Reflected in Sanskrit and Descending Words data to the test; inquire after them in order to thrash out and to ‘consolidate what is genuine by using all ways and means available.

At this juncture, the science of language as a powerful instrument comes to the fore to brighten the past. A student holding the torch of this science is capable of shedding light on the new corridors of history, of consolidating the popular ideas of times past.

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