I know my distant ancestors spoke Sanskrit … Today , I can’t converse in the same language as theirs .
I can read and write Sanskrit but ever since in this country it became “dead language” , being able to speak Sanskrit fluently has become a rare curiosity if not anachronism amongst common people and a rarer preserve still of pundits .
Many of us however today are proud of claiming that we have learnt by rote to chant or quote Sanskrit literature , both religious and otherwise… Many know how to chant from memory Vishnu Sahasranamam, some can chant Vedic passages, a few can quote from Kalidasa and Bhartruhari , many pick and choose quotable quotes from Sankara or Ramanuja to lace their writings or public talks intended to impress audiences … But very very few of us can claim that we fully know the meaning of what we barely manage to speak or rather parrot in Sanskrit with the same ease and elan as our ancestors did .
That in itself, sadly, is caricaturing ourselves…. It’s perhaps like imagining an Englishman saying that while he can quote bits and pieces of a few great passages of Shakespeare or Milton, picked up through rote learning , the fact however is he really can hardly speak English at all.
Sudarshan Madabushi