19. The possession of Sanskrit by India thus makes India's posi- tion unique, as a sort of a link and synthesis of the various ramifications of the human race and society. It is thus easy to see that Sanskrit preserves the entire culture of India in the past-a culture which went on developing for at least 4,000 years-with all its pre-historic and historic associations and connections as with the worlds of Europe and Asia. The Sanskrit tradition is still a living one, and the line of development has come down unbroken to our day.

(b) The Humanities in Sanskrit, and the Intellectual Value of Sanskrit Studies

20. Sanskrit as a language is an instrument of the greatest value in the delineation of all thought-processes and the most profound ratiocination, of all ideas which are deep and subtle, of all forms of aesthetic and emotional perception, and, above all, of the most profound and intimate forms of spiritual intuition and understanding. All the subjects which form the proper scope of the Humanities have their fullest play in Sanskrit.

21. To begin with, the study of the Sanskrit language itself is an intellectual discipline of a very high type. The composition of the Sanskrit language, with its roots and terminations, and laws of sound change and employment of forms for subtle distinctions of meaning, is comparable to that of its sister speech, Greek, and of Arabic. The treatment of the Sanskrit language by the ancient grammarians of India is a wonderful feast for the intellect, and the very effort in mastering Sanskrit grammatical rules, in order to be able to use the language intelligently and to purpose, becomes a pleasure by itself, which is bracing for

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both the mind and the spirit. Barend Faddegon, a Dutch Indologist, has said in a spirit of: lyric ecstacy: "I adore Panini, because he reveals to us the spirit of India; I adore India because it reveals to us the Spirit, the Spirit".

22. Science at the present day concerns itself with both the Physical World round us, as well as with the World of Man in all aspects of life. Sanskrit literature deals with both, but more particularly with the "Higher Science", with the knowledge about Man and his Inner Being his Mind, his Feelings, his Spirit. As the language of an ancient people, which had its greatest literary development during the ages when the physical sciences were not very much advanced, it cannot be said that the strength of Sanskrit primarily lies in its works on the physical sciences. Nevertheless, some of the basic principles of the most important sciences have been enshrined in Sanskrit. The amount of material in Sanskrit for the study of the physical sciences, particularly in connection with their early history, is not negligible. But it is in the Humanities that we note the pre-eminence of Sanskrit'. And specially in modern times when a sort of dangerous over-weightage is being given to Sciences and Technology, the Humanities in Sanskrit will prove greatly helpful in restoring the proper balance. It is, indeed, highly significant that, as Prime Minister Shri Nehru told this Commission, Professor Oppen- heimer, the great American atomic scientist, spends considerable time in reading Sanskrit and Pali.

23. If we were to study the contents of Sanskrit literature, we would realise the wonderful variety in which the ramifications of the human spirit have been treated in that literature. We have, after the preliminary discipline of acquiring the Sanskrit language, the various branches of Sanskrit learning with which a serious student can occupy himself for years, even for life, and bring the benefits of his studies and enquiry for the betterment of Mankind. A conspectus of the various branches of Sanskrit studies would indicate this extent and variety.

24. We have; in the first instance, the Vedic literature, which forms one of the oldest literatures of the world, still studied in an unbroken tradition. In the Vedas are embodied not only religion, philosophy and mysticism, but also poetry of high literary quality, and the cultural history of the earliest phase of Indian civilization. There is found there even political history which has to be extracted from scattered references. The study of the Vedas, linguistically, forms the basis of the study of the sciences of Comparative Philology, Comparative Religion, and Comparative Literature.

25. Intimately connected with Vedic literature is the study of the Sanskrit Language itself. The linguistic literature, which began with the Vedic Siksa or Phonetics, Vyakarana or formal Grammar, and Nirukta or Etymology , has a unique place in the intellectual history of India and

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of the world. Yaska in enunciating the rules of etymology has formulated for the first time some aspects of the growth of language through phonetic and semantic changes. The Sanskrit Grammar of Panini is one of the greatest achievements of the human intellect. and it had been admitted to be so by all who ever had any occassion to study it. Subsequent developments of Sanskrit Grammar indicate a line of investigation and exposition which is unique in the study of the structural and formal aspect of language. At the present day, the views of the ancient Indian Grammarians (not only with regard to the functions of the various composite elements of speech but also with regard to the semantic and philosophical aspects of language, the study of which has taken a new turn in Europe) are giving new points to the modern Science of Language.

26. With regard to the philosophical literature of India, it is not necessary to say much. India has been described as the home of Philosophy. Beginning with the Vedas right down to our times-with personalities like Sri Aurobindo and Radhakrishnan-the intellect of India in this great branch of humanistic studies has been most fruitful. Not only have all the possible lines of approach to understand the Ultimate Reality and the Nature of Things been explored in Indian philosophy, but it has also led to some great practical results in life. The study of philosophy has given to Indians a certain amount of urbanity of approach-a civilised mentality, which, while holding to the views arrived at by it through reasoning and through intuition, admits the, validity for other persons with regard to their own conclusions. The Indian mind has been made "hospitable" towards all types of ideas and notions in philosophy: and that has given to India her pre-eminent characteristic of being a people at once human and humane in their approach to things. Ideological exclusiveness and persecution of men, just because of the particular ideas held by them, are totally foreign to the spirit of India as it has been moulded by her philosophy. And this philosophy of India is enshrined in Sanskrit.

27. The ancient Indian attitude to life and to the Ultimate Reality has found an expression in its Epics and Puranas. The Mahabharata and the Ramayana are in a way the greatest Books of India, and they are among the foremost literary compositions in the entire world of literature., They form the veritable literature 'for the masses of India; and just as they give expression to the mind and spirit as well as the life of India in the past, they are even now potent forces in preserving and moulding for the present age the mind and the life of modern Indians. Shri Jawaharlal Nehru says: "I do not think any person can understand India or her people fully without possessing a knowledge of the two magnificent epics which are India's pride and treasure".

28. In the domain of pure literature also, Sanskrit presents a unique variety. There are long poems, epic and narrative; there is a huge mass of lyric poetry, didactic, descriptive, reflective and erotic; there are verses and distichs which touch upon the entire gamut of human experience, and by their elaboration in some places and terseness in

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others, present a world of literary beauty which is unique; there are dramas, some of which have become already a possession for humanity everywhere. Then there are prose romances in a most elaborate and learned style; there are short stories and fables which are written in simple and picturesque style, easy even for children to understand; and the various other branches of pure literature are adequately represented in Sanskrit. If literature is for the humanising of the spirit of man, Sanskrit literature has done immense service in this direction, both in India and outside.

29. Sanskrit has also made noteworthy contributions to the study of literature, leading to the Philosophy of Aesthetics and of Expression. In Poetics and in Dramaturgy, Sanskrit has a distinct tradition of study and, exposition, beginning with Bharata's Natya- sastra and culminating in the theories of Rasa and Dhvani as propounded by Anandavardhana and Abhinavagupta.

30. In the field of Ethics and Law, the Dharmasastras in Sanskrit present another great achievement of India, as has been shown by the exhaustive studies of Mm. Dr. P. V. Kane. In later commentaries and digests, we find the Indian views about the different aspects of law and justice fully formulated. The legal discussions in the Mitaksara, the Viramitrodaya and similar other works are quite unmatched so far as their terseness, precision, dignity and facility of expression are concerned. In Politics and Economics, the contribution brought by Sanskrit for the service of man is certainly of a very high order. Beginning with the Arthasastra of Kautilya, we have a literature on Arthasastra or Economics and Politics, and on Niti or Political, Social and Moral Conduct. A work like the Arthasastra stands comparison with the most objective studies of Politics and State-craft which have been made anywhere in the world; and this was an achievement of Sanskrit literature of over 2,000 years ago.

31. There are other branches of Sanskrit literature which deal with the Exact Sciences. Thus we have a very valuable literature on Medical Science and Medicine, beginning with the systematic treatises of Kasyapa, Susruta and Charaka. In this line, the achievements of the Indian Doctors were received warmly by the Chinese and the Arabic worlds, and A is not unlikely that Greek and Chinese medicine in pre- Christian times was also influenced by Indian medicine. In Mathematics and Astronomy, certain advances were made which we find enshrined in Sanskrit literature of pre-Christian times.

32. To make the acquisition of Sanskrit easy, side by side with Grammar, there developed a literature on Lexicography which included arrangements of words according to their categories. Efforts in this direction were initiated in' the synonymic and other lists of words as found in the Vedic Nighantus. The Amarakosa of Amara Sinha has been mentioned by Roget in his Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases as being an important land-mark in, the arrangement of words according to categories .

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33. So much for literature which may be said to have been written mainly under the orthodox Indian inspiration. But there are other branches of Sanskrit literature outside the pale of orthodoxy, namely, the Buddhist and the Jaina literatures in Sanskrit. Buddhist Sanskrit literature is almost as vast as Pali literature, and it embodies Philosophy, Religion, Poetry and Storytelling. The speculations of Jaina Philosophy are elaborated in a rich mass of Sanskrit literature. Besides this, a very extensive literature of narrative poems and epics, dramas and prose tales, as well as hymns and works on technical subjects like grammar, lexicography, astronomy, etc., is found in the Jaina contribution to Sanskrit. This, of course, is in addition to the Pali literature of the Hinayana Buddhists and the Prakrit and Apabhramsa literature of the Jainas, which cannot be dissociated from Sanskrit for their proper or complete understanding. Thus, we can see that, for intellectual and cultural purposes, the quantity as well as quality of Sanskrit literature is quite enormous and exhaustive.

(c) Sanskrit Literature and the Full Development of the Mind

34. It has been wrongly averred that the study of Sanskrit is only sacerdotal, and is mainly confined to the various ideologies, institutions, cults and practices of orthodox Hindu religion. According to this view, Sanskrit can only help to make people reactionary in their attitude to life-make them shut their eyes to the actual conditions of life and merely hark back to an ideal past age. It must, however, be pointed out in this connection that all literature in Sanskrit can by no means be said to be purely religious or sectarian in character. As indicated elsewhere in this Chapter, there is in Sanskrit a considerable amout of technical, scientific and secular literature. Works on polity like the Arthasastra of Kautilya or on architecture like the Manasara, the Samarangana- sutradhara and the Aparajitaprccha, as also many other treatises relating to the Kalas, can certainly not be characterised as religious. We must also not forget, in this context, the pure literature embodied in the various types of Sanskrit drama and poetry. It must be further pointed out that the large mass of literature in Sanskrit was not produced by any particular community. Several instances can be quoted of nonBrahman and non-Hindu authors who have made significant contributions to Sanskrit literature. It is definitely wrong to assume that Sanskrit represents only the religious literature of the Hindus.

35. This aspect of Sanskrit, that it was not exclusively religious, was appreciated even by some of the Muslim rulers of India, who patronised Sanskrit literature, and, in some cases (as in Bengal and Gujarat), had their epigraphic records inscribed in Sanskrit. It was the scientific and secular aspect of Sanskrit literature that made the Arabs welcome Indian scholars to Baghdad to discourse on sciences like Medicine and Astronomy, and to translate books in these subjects into Arabic. The Ayurveda system of medicine, until recently, was the truly National Indian System, which was practised everywhere, and access to this was through Sanskrit books, which even Muslim practitioners of the Ayurveda in Bengal studied. The study of Sanskrit is not

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productive of a reactionary spirit, any more than the study or continuance of English in India is a part of a plan to bring back the Englishmen as our rulers. What better instances can we have of a refreshingly liberal and rational outlook in our greatest Sanskrit writers from early times than the sentiments expressed by Kalidasa, Varahamihira and Sankara: puranam ity eva na sadhu sarvam ("All that is old is not gold" Kalidasa); mleccha hi yavanas tesu samyak sastram idam sthitam rsivat te' pi pujyah syuh ("The Yavanas are Mlecchas, but this science is well-established among them; and they too deserve our respect even as our own sages"-Varahamihira); na hi purvajo mudha asidity avarajena' pi mudhena bhavitavyam ("Because one's forbears were ignorant, it does not follow that we also should remain ignorant"-Sankara)? One of the basic things in the Indian mind is its approach to all matters through the intellect. The highest Vedic prayer, the Gayatri, is a prayer to God for stimulating man's thoughts (dhiyo yo nah pra codayat). Even an atheistic and materialistic philosophical system like that of Carvaka or Lokayata found its expression. in Sanskrit. In the Nirukta, Argument or Discussion (Tarka) has been described as a Rishi or Sage, to be followed by men in their intellectual pursuits'. Even in the present age, among Sanskrit Pandits, we have instances of a conspicuous clarity of mind and urbanity of behaviour which cannot be the result of a reactionary or a blindly orthodox mentality, which Sanskrit is alleged to engender.

36. In this connection, one would do well to understand clearly the two main characteristics of Sanskrit culture. In the first instance, the Sanskrit world presents, so to say, a remarkable Unity in the midst of a bewildering Diversity. As F. W. Thomas, in his Presidential Address before the Ninth All-India Oriental Conference held at Trivandrum in 1937, put it: "Every State, City or Shrine manifested some individuality in rite, usage or mentality. Nevertheless, they were all, linked by a common origin and tradition, and thus the Aryan world was, as it were, a firmament studded with innumerable luminaries of the same order, but each insisting upon shining to some extent with an individually tinted light". Pointing out the second characteristic, Thomas continued: "The Indian Man, partly by reason of the antiquity, and partly in consonance with the complexity of his social conditions, as well as through deliberate cultivation of reflexion, has been more of a thinker than are other men. Even for the head of a department of State in the old days, we have such terms as dharma-cintaka, etc."

(d) Sanskrit and National Solidarity

37. We have indicated previously the position of Sanskrit as the expression as well as the embodiment of Indian culture and civilisation. The sense of the Indian people, which is instinctively realised though not intellectually appraised, looks upon Sanskrit as the binding force for the different peoples of this great country of India in

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its various areas, each with its own language and with its own local way of life. This was the greatest discovery of India that the Commission made as it travelled from Kerala to Kashmir and from Kamarupa to Saurastra: that while the way of life and the social habits and customs which we found among the peoples differed in a number of ways, they all felt as one people and were proud to regard themselves as participants in a common heritage and a common nationality. That heritage emphatically is the heritage of Sanskrit. In the olden days, Sanskrit was the most natural common language for the educated people of the whole of India. It is a matter of common knowledge that even at the present day, Sanskrit scholars from different parts of India discourse 'and argue among themselves in Sanskrit. Just like English or Hindi, Sanskrit still has its own important place in present-day India as one of the common languages of the country. This aspect of the Sanskrit language, namely, that it is. possible for an Indian or a foreigner knowing no other language than Sanskrit to be able to find throughout the whole of India some persons everywhere who can communicate with him in Sanskrit, has given strong support to the contention of a distinguished group of India's thought-leaders that Sanskrit can very well be rehabilitated as a pan- Indian speech, to strengthen the solidarity of Modern India. Indeed, to emphasise this point, a witness, appearing before the Commission, suggested that if the Sanskrit Commission had come before the States, Reorganisation Commission, many of the recent bickerings in our national life could have been avoided. Dr. Katju told this Commission of a distinguished French Indologist who had said that he was sur- prised at the controversy which had been going on in India about the National Language, for, according to him, Indians already had a National Language in Sanskrit. There is no doubt that Sanskrit is in our blood, that we have grown in Sanskrit and cannot get out of it. And, while this Commission does not want to insist. at this stage, on Sanskrit being made the National Language of India (though some eminent witnesses like Dr. C. V. Raman suggested that Sanskrit should be declared as the National Language, and some other equally eminent witnesses said that the Constitution might even be amended on this that the idea of Sanskrit resuming its place as a common literary medium for India is a hopelessly lost cause, since the alternatives are either that there should be no such medium (other than English, which, it should be remembered, is, in regard to many necessary Indian notions, itself without resource), or the dominance, despite unavoidable reluctances, of some particular vernacular".

38. There is, however, another great aspect of Sanskrit, and this aspect should be specially considered. We can never insist too strongly on this signal fact that Sanskrit has been the Great Unifying Force of India, and that India with its nearly 400 millions of people is One Country, and not half a dozen or more countries, only because of Sanskrit. It is because some leaders among the Muslims of India, not attuned to the spirit of Sanskrit, or deliberately ignoring it, tried (partly

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through the inspiration of the British imperialism) to channel the masses of Indian citizens professing Islam along a different line, seeking to throw off the inheritance of Sanskrit, that India had to suffer the pangs of a living amputation, bringing untold misery on millions of people; and herein comes the paramount importance of Sanskrit at the present day.

39. Reference may be made to parallel situations in three foreign countries. The place of Sanskrit in maintaining both the cultural and political unity of India is like that of the Chinese system of writing in preserving the cultural and political unity of China. In China, virtually there is not one language but a number of languages, all coming from a single ancient Chinese speech, but they are generally described as "dialects". The fact of their really being languages and not mere dialects (in Han or Chinese-speaking China) is obscured by the great factor of the Chinese system of writing. The modern Chinese languages may differ from one another profoundly in pronunciation as well as recent grammatical developments, but the fact that the written language consisting of characters (giving pictorial representations of objects and symbolical representation of ideas, as well as, combined characters standing for sounds-cum-ideas;pictograms, ideograms and phonograms), is studied and understood everywhere, is a great link which binds up most remote corners of China into a single cultural unit. Any attempt to replace the Chinese system of writing by a strictly phonetic system, whether of Chinese or of foreign origin, is likely to lead to a cultural and political disintegration of China. Therefore, in China they have accepted the position that a few years of hard labour must be put forth by Chinese boys and girls in acquiring some thousands of characters of their language which constitute the most obvious, most potent and virtually indispensable expression or symbol of Chinese unity. In Israel, the Jews have accepted as their National Language Hebrew, which was the language of their ancestors and is the source of their religion and culture, with a view to strengthening the religious, cultural and political bases of their very existence as a nation. The attempt at reviving the Irish language in Eire is another remarkable instance of seeking the help of the speech that has been linked up with the past independent history of the people to strengthen the national culture and national solidarity at the present day. There is no reason why similarly Sanskrit should not come into its own in India, especially when it is conceded that the position of Sanskrit is still far stronger in India as a language with a living tradition and culture.

40. In India today, we are feeling the growth of fissiparous tendencies, and the need for strengthening Indian Unity is now greater than ever. This great inheritance of Sanskrit is the golden link joining up all the various provincial languages and literatures and cultures, and it should not be allowed to be neglected and to go waste, if we did not want to imperil the concept of a United Indian Nation. Herein Sanskrit has its own place in. Indian education.

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(e) Sanskrit and the Formation of Character

41. Any intellectual discipline has two aspects informative, which gives access to an amount of exact knowledge; and formative, which helps to build up character and the faculties of the mind and spirit in general, to make them more receptive and more donative. We have this in a general way in our ordinary literature, where we note a difference between Literature of Information and Literature of Power. Sanskrit literature helps us to a very great extent in both the informative and the formative sides, As we are thinking of the place of Sanskrit in Indian education as a part of Indian life, we have got to pay proper attention. to the formative or character-building aspect of Sanskrit literature.

42. Every nation has some contribution to make to the sum-total of human civilisation. It specialises in certain domains of man's selfexpression. The experience of that nation, along a particular line of thinking and behaving, sums up its View of Life. The Indian View of Life-or the National Genius of India-has been sought to be defined in various ways. Generally, it is admitted that it stands for an acceptance of a Basic Unseen Reality which is realised by man by means of Intuition reinforced by Reason, and of Sadhana. It further believes in the Oneness of Life and Being, in one Single Principle permeating through the entire Universe. This Principle manifests itself in various ways, and the summum bonum in the life of man is the realisation of this Principle in his inner being as well as in his outer practice. The Indian View of Life (or what may be called Indianism) also takes note of this tragic fact that there is Sorrow and Suffering in this world, and it is the duty of man to free himself from this Sorrow and Suffering by the path of Knowledge and Self- culture, or Good Action, or Faith. There is in this view also a Sense of the Sacredness, of All Life, and its attitude to life in general is marked by a great Compassion and Sympathy and Active Service and Good- doing. The Indian Way of Life further teaches the necessity to make Dharma (which really means "that which holds together the Universe") the guiding principle in all the activities of man.

43. Abeunt studia in mores-our studies come into our lives. One, who studies Greek literature cannot but feel his mind elevated by the ideals of Hellenism which are found to permeate this literature. Similarly through the reading of ancient Hebrew literature as in the Old Testament, a certain moral earnestness is 'produced. Similarly, an ear-nest desire for Social Order and Justice, sometimes combined with a Mystic Feeling of the Unity of the Universe, is the direct result of Chinese studies, especially Confucianism and Taoism. Similarly, again, from the study of the Sanskrit Humanities, a particular set of ideas and a particular mode of life are seen to result. An ideal Sanskrit scholar may not be quite an alert or an acute person in the world's affairs. But he has a very lively sense of the Ultimate Reality; and, above all. he is actuated by the Principles of Dharma, and his actions towards all men, towards all living beings as a matter of fact, take a colouring from the principles of Ahimsa or Non-injury, of Karuna or Compassion, and of Maitri or Friendly Service. A certain amount of Gentleness of Spirit,

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of Humility, particularly in the matter of the Unseen Forces of Life, of a desire to give to the others their proper due, and an attitude of Tolerance with regard to other peoples' faith and belief, and, above all, a certain moral approach and earnestness, are always noticeable in an ideal Sanskrit scholar. The importance of Sanskrit as a great stabilising force in life-as a moral anchor-cannot be emphasised too strongly. As Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant, the Union Home Minister, put it so graphically before the Commission, Sanskrit gives a kind of symphony to our life.

44. There is an infinite number of Sanskrit verses and tags which breathe a high moral tone and display a precious note of what might be called High and Serious Enlightenment. Persons who are attuned to this spirit through an acquaintance from early childhood with verses of this type, these Subhasitas (which it has been the' custom to teach to children), and who have been nurtured in the atmosphere of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, including the Gita, and also of the Upanisads, have a balance and a cultured outlook upon life both of their own country and of other countries which would be rare to find in those who have been denied all this. Of course, the great ideals of Indianism. can be brought to the minds of tender youth through compositions and narrations in their own mother-tongues. But in the enunciations and exhortations in original Sanskrit, there is always the tone of authority, and in the sounds of the language an aesthetic appeal, which go a long way in making them stamped on their minds forever and ingrained in their habits of thinking and their behaviour. Sanskrit is a language which through its sonority and mellifluousness, has the power to lift us up above ourselves-the message of Sanskrit read or chanted is that of sursum corda "lift up your hearts"-and this forms one of its most subtle aesthetic and dynamic values. It is, therefore,' necessary, as thousands of people would say from their own experience, that for a potent aid to the formation of character and sense of exaltation, in addition to ensuring a sense of pan-Indian cultural as well as political unity, a knowledge of the Sanskrit language should be made an essential thing in the education of Indian youth.

(f) Sanskrit and the, Intellectual Renaissance of Free India

45. In addition to the, preservation of Indian cultural as well as political unity and the maintenance of the intellectual pre- eminence of India, by making this great cultural heritage a discipline of the greatest value in the study of the Humanities and a means of characterbuilding, by bringing the atmosphere of Indianism. directly to the minds of the students, Sanskrit has at the present moment, in Free India. a perennial academic value. Sanskrit will be of use for us in various ways at the present day.

46. Sanskrit will be necessary for us as the one main source for our words and ideas, ideas relating primarily to the permanent things of Indianism. In the development of our modem languages, Sanskrit will be a sine qua non to enable us to achieve the completeness of

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our knowledge in the study of the various sciences. And finally, San- skrit will be necessary for the retention of those traditions in our life which are still living and which can bear fruit by virtue of their excellence and usefulness.

47. Our Modern Indian languages, both Aryan and Dravidian, are in the same boat. They have been, all of them, under the aegis of Sanskrit. The Modern Aryan languages were all born in the lap of Sanskrit; and as for the Dravidian languages, ever since their ear- liest literary use, they have been nurtured by Sanskrit. Even in the case of Tamil, although early Tamil literature, as in the Sangam texts, 'shows certain special Tamil characteristics which are perhaps unique for Tamil, it is fully within the orbit of Sanskrit. As Siva- jnana-munivar has said in his commentary to the Tol-kappiyam, the oldest grammar of Tamil : "the nature of Tamil will not be clear to those who have not learnt Sanskrit" (vadanul unarndarkkanrit-Tamil iyalpu vilangadu : I Eluttalikaram, sutra 1). Tamil of the oldest Sangam texts shows a very good number of Sanskrit words, and the num- ber goes on increasing with the centuries. The ideas in early Tamil literature as well as in that of later Tamil, and in all literatures in the other Dravidian languages, are the reflexes of what we have in the Sanskrit world. Words of Sanskrit also have been taken over along with these ideas. The best intellects, among the peoples speaking South Indian languages have by and large adopted Sanskrit for the expression of their ideas in the domains of serious thinking, as, for example, in Philosophy. As a matter of fact, neither the languages of the South nor of the North were used for the expression of higher thought by eminent authors of the land. It was to Sanskrit that they first turned, and, only after that, to the mother-tongue.

48. After the Indian Renaissance brought about by our contact with European thought and literature, serious attention began to be paid to our modern Indian languages. Indian writers, who were intellectually keen and eager, now wanted to express themselves through the mother-tongue, because they began to feel that the best medium of expression was the mother-tongue rather than a classical language. The National Movement, which had to reach the masses, also promoted the growth of literature in modern Indian languages. Side by side with the pan-Indian sense of nationhood, there began to develop gradually a kind of provincial or linguistic patriotism. After Independence, it came to be accepted as a general proposition, that the recognised Modem Languages of the Indian Union should have a full development without let or hindrance. But it is now being realised that our modern languages are not developed enough for adequate presentation of serious philosophical and complicated scientific ideas. The absence of suitable words, it has now been realised, can only be fully met, and met on a pan-Indian basis for all the Indian languages, either by borrowing them directly from Sanskrit or by building up new words on the basis of Sanskrit roots and terminations. It is accepted as a principle that, since we are a polyglot people, there cannot be at all stages of education and administration-much less for

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intimate literary expression--one single language for the entire Indian Union. We must have a close approach to a pan-Indian unity by having a uniform system of technical terms, and it is admitted that such a uniform system of technical terms can come only from Sanskrit. As Shri C. D. Deshmukh said in his evidence, the potency of Sanskrit for coining new words is, indeed, marvellous.

49. Herein there is a very prominent necessity for the retention, cultivation and development of Sanskrit, for the sake of all Modern Indian Languages. Already a beginning has been made from the time of the introduction of English education in our schools, to have Sanskrit technical terms as far as possible wherever a Modern Indian Language is used for a newly introduced modern subject. The inescapable result is to have Sanskrit, and still more Sanskrit, in our Modern Indian Languages, as their vocabulary goes on increasing. All these Sanskrit words become a part and parcel of the Modern Indian Languages, and any Sanskrit word in a book or in the dictionary was looked upon as a prospective Bengali or Marathi, Oriya or Telugu word. With our increasing acquaintance with European thought and science and European ways of life, including politics, Sanskritisation of our languages is gaining in tempo. In order to be able to eschew solecisms in the use of Sanskrit words, to employ Modem Indian Lan- guages with their Sanskrit vocabulary effectively and to good purpose, to avoid falling into the trap of grammatical and semantic inaccuracies from the point of view of the pan-Indian use of Sanskrit, to steer clear of the obscurantism caused by the bringing in of new meanings and new coinings which do violence to the accepted genius of Sanskrit, and, finally, to exploit fully the word-building capacity of Sanskrit, a knowledge of Sanskrit will be helpful' and even necessary, for those who would write in a Modern Indian Language. It has, therefore, been suggested by a large number of educationists as well as writers in the different Modern Indian languages that a knowledge of Sanskrit at some stage or other in' the teaching of Modern Indian Languages will be exceedingly desirable, in the interest of these languages themselves.

50. In the study of the histories of the various modem sciences, as well as of philosophy, we find that the contribution of India in those fields is generally neglected. Not only are the peoples of the West not familiar with what India contributed in-the development of philosophical thought and physical sciences, but also scholars and students in India are not cognisant of the achievements of their own country. It is highly necessary that there should be a full and free study of Sanskrit in Independent India, to enable us to understand the net contribution of India in these directions of general philosophical thought and science. The history of Chemistry or of Mathematics can be fully appreciated only by making a thorough study of the Indian contribution to these subjects as embodied in the relevant texts in Sanskrit. And so too as regards other fields like Logic, Literary Criticism and Polity. The results of the researches in the Indian

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contributions to all such subjects should be made a part of the general history of the different sciences and systems of thought as studied in our modern curriculum, This need has attracted the attention of no less a body than the National Institute of Science, which, for example, has started to make an enquiry into the history of Medicine on the basis of the study and interpretation of the original Sanskrit texts. In this way, our knowledge of the genesis and early history of modern science can be fully extended by a fresh attention being given to Sanskrit studies in these directions. The UNESCO also has interested itself in this line of work of making known to the students of the different subjects in the Western Universities the contributions to the respective disciplines from the Oriental civilisation. 1*

51. Finally, the study of Sanskrit will be very helpful in reviving some of our national traditions and ways of life which have in the recent past, owing to the exigencies of circumstances, been tending to be lost. Formerly Sanskrit was very much alive because it was in the atmosphere, of our life, in our celebrations, festivals, ceremonies and avocations, all of which lent a colour and flavour-the proper Rasa, so to say-to Indian life. In our daily ritual of worship, whether in private chapels in the home, or in temples big and small, or in great centres of pilgrimage where hundreds of thousands of people accumulate, the atmosphere is ringing with Sanskrit. So Sanskrit is in a way the breath of our nostrils and the light of our eyes, so far as our corporate as well as personal socio-religious existence is concerned.

52. If these conditions had continued, there would not have been any fear for Sanskrit. But times are changing and the 'way of life is also altering. The younger people are being brought up in a new tradition, where economic considerations are becoming more and more prominent; and that is squeezing out the idealistic and the emotional and the aesthetic sides of life. Sanskrit at one time sufficed for all the needs of life for the people of India. But now it is not so. Life is becoming not only secularised but also bereft of imagination and seriousness, and is becoming Philistinical in outlook. Gradual loss of contact with Sanskrit is both a cause and an effect of this state of things. The school must, therefore, supply what the home is now finding it rather difficult to supply. The school would, indeed, be the best place for bringing in Sanskrit once again to the life of the people, for today it is the school, much more than the home, which fills the life of our boys and girls and moulds their attitudes and character.

3. Sanskrit-More than a Mere Classical Language in India

53. It is customary to compare Sanskrit with Greek and Latin merely as a classical language, for which there might be some place- even some honoured place-in education, and people would be inclined to leave it at that. But we must remember that the place of Greek and Latin is not the same everywhere all over Europe. For an