Is Punjabi more ancient than Sanskrit?
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| Which is more ancient? Sanskrit or Punjabi? |
This title may surprise many as the common perception is that Sanskrit is one the most ancient language of the world while Punjabi is a native language that was invented by the Sikh Gurus in 15th century while composing the hymns of Sri Guru Granth Sahib.
What if I can prove that is is a misconception and in fact, Punjabi language predates Sanskrit?
Before I put forward my hypothesis, I would like to clarify that I am not a linguist expert but merely a student of languages originating form the land of my forefathers - commonly known as Punjab. I have also studied Sanskrit as a major subject during my schooling in India where it was a compulsory subject from Grade VI to Grade X.
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (Saṃskṛtam or saṃskṛta) is the primary sacred language of ancient India. In order to understand what Sanskrit is, we first need to understand the meaning of the word Sanskrit. The term means Saṃskṛtā Vāk, "refined speech". The Sanskrit verbal adjective sáṃskṛta- may be translated as "Cultured, constructed, well composed or completely formed; refined, adorned, highly elaborated". It is derived from the root word saṃ-skar- "Cultured".
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| Sacred Hindu Scriptures in Sanskrit - Devnagari script |
Sanskrit is in fact the first language in the world that was refined with a Grammar. This refined and adorned script became the sacred script for Hinduism treasured and protected by the priestly group of Brahmans. The earliest attested Sanskrit texts are religious texts of the Rigveda, from the mid-to-late second millennium BCE. No written records from such an early period survive, if they ever existed. However, scholars are confident that the oral transmission of the texts was maintained for centuries before that by the priestly class.
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| Oldest Sanskrit text - Rigveda |
From the Rigveda until the time of Pāṇini (4th century BCE) the development of the early Vedic language can be observed in other Vedic texts: the Samaveda, Yajurveda, Atharvaveda, Brahmanas, and Upanishads. During this time, the prestige of the language, its use for sacred purposes, and the importance attached to its correct enunciation all served as powerful conservative forces resisting the normal processes of linguistic change.
Sanskrit is a member of the Indo-Iranian subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages. Its closest ancient relatives are the Iranian languages Avestan and Old Persian script. This gives significant credence to the Aryan migration theory from Europe to India via Persia.
The oldest surviving Sanskrit grammar is Pāṇini's Aṣṭādhyāyī ("Eight-Chapter Grammar"). It is essentially a prescriptive grammar, i.e., an authority that defines Sanskrit, although it contains descriptive parts, mostly to account for some Vedic forms that had become rare in Pāṇini's time. Panini was a famed Sanskrit scholar from the Punjab region. Classical Sanskrit became fixed with the grammar of Pāṇini (roughly 500 BCE), and remains in use as a learned language through the present day.
Before Sanskrit
So if Sanskrit is a refined script that was constructed with a highly advanced grammar, then what existed before Sanskrit? Which language was used as baseline to construct and refine Sanskrit? Which ancient language existed in the land of Aryan India (Punjab) that was put together as Sanskrit, the sacred language of Hindus, the ancient Indians?
The language that existed as oral among the Indo-aryans was called Prakrit. The term "Prakrit" means "derived from an original," which means evolved in a natural way - Prakriti, the nature. Prakrit is foremost a native term, designating "vernaculars" as opposed to Sanskrit. The word Prakrit can also be defined sometimes as "original, natural, artless, normal, ordinary, usual", or "vernacular", in contrast to the grammatical and religious orthodoxy of Sanskrit.
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| Ancient Pali Script |
Prakrit - the Script of Kshatriyas - the Warriors
The Sanskrit name for Prakrit, prākṛta, is derived from the Sanskrit prakṛti ‘original source'.
Archeologically origin of the Prakrit languages can be traced back to the Bogazkoy Treaty and Horse Training Manual of Kikkuly belonging to 1400 BC. In which we find the Prakrit forms of the numeric and proper names such as Indar (For Indra), Varena (for Varuna) and Eka (for Ekam), Panza (For Panch) Satta (for Sapt) etc. This will prove that the Prakrit has more antiquity than the Vedic Sanskrit and closely related to Punjabi than Hindi or Sankrit.
Kadesh Peace Treaty, the earliest peace treaty whose text is known to have survived. It was signed in 1269 B.C. between the King of the Hittites, Hattusilis III, and the pharaoh of Egypt, Rameses II. The clay tablet, which records the text in cuneiform script, was found in 1906 in central Anatolia on the site of the old Hittite capital, Hattusat (now Bogazkoy).
The Prakrit also became literary languages, generally patronized by ancient Indian kings identified with the Kshatriya class of Indian civilization, but were regarded as "illegitimate" by the orthodox Brahmins. The priestly class cling on to the Sanskrit as sacred language, refusing to share it with the other classes. This conservative action of the Brahmins encouraged the originator of Shramanic religions - Jainism, Buddhism, and Sikhism to go to the ancient Prakrit and modify it for their religious and literary work.
prakṛtiḥ saṃskṛtam | tatrabhavaṃ tata āgataṃ vā prākṛtam ||["Saṃskṛtam is the language that originates from, prakṛti, is therefore called prākṛtam."
Archeologically origin of the Prakrit languages can be traced back to the Bogazkoy Treaty and Horse Training Manual of Kikkuly belonging to 1400 BC. In which we find the Prakrit forms of the numeric and proper names such as Indar (For Indra), Varena (for Varuna) and Eka (for Ekam), Panza (For Panch) Satta (for Sapt) etc. This will prove that the Prakrit has more antiquity than the Vedic Sanskrit and closely related to Punjabi than Hindi or Sankrit.
Kadesh Peace Treaty, the earliest peace treaty whose text is known to have survived. It was signed in 1269 B.C. between the King of the Hittites, Hattusilis III, and the pharaoh of Egypt, Rameses II. The clay tablet, which records the text in cuneiform script, was found in 1906 in central Anatolia on the site of the old Hittite capital, Hattusat (now Bogazkoy).
The Prakrit also became literary languages, generally patronized by ancient Indian kings identified with the Kshatriya class of Indian civilization, but were regarded as "illegitimate" by the orthodox Brahmins. The priestly class cling on to the Sanskrit as sacred language, refusing to share it with the other classes. This conservative action of the Brahmins encouraged the originator of Shramanic religions - Jainism, Buddhism, and Sikhism to go to the ancient Prakrit and modify it for their religious and literary work.
Old Prakrit is called Pali, middle Prakrit comprises the three dialects Sauraseni, Magadhi and Maharashtri and later Prakrit is 'Apabhramsa,' of which a division is Sharda.
Its interesting to note that the three other religions originating in India - Jainism, Buddhism, and Sikhism; were all originated by Kshtriyas and not Brahmins. Mahavira, Buddha, and Nanak all belonged to the Kshatriya class. This scholarly tension between the two classes gave patronage to Pali, Apbhramsa, and other dialects, resulting in decline and erosion of Sanskrit.
The sacred scriptures of Jainism as well as the literary work during that period was canonized in Pali script. It has both canonical and non-canonical works of which the former is Jaina which consist of narrative, lyrical and dialectic poetry, short stories, dramas, lexicons, geography, cosmogony, astronomy, philosophy, ethics and inscriptions. Satasai is a celebrated Prakrit anthology of 700 stanzas, culled from different works. It draws scenes from rural life, the seasons and realistic sketches. The chief sentiment is erotic, together with descriptions of ceremonies and linked conventions. The existence of this anthology presupposes the existence of a mass of secular literature. The compendium has been imitated in Sanskrit and Hindi, but stands unrivaled in its original form.
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| Jaina - The sacred scriptures of Jainism in Pali |
Just like Jain Tirthankars, Buddha also denounced Sanskrit and all ancient Buddhist scriptures were composed in Pali and not in Sanskrit.
Origin of Punjabi
The modern languages of North India developed from the Prakrit after the intermediary stage of the Apabhraṃśas. Punjabi is the closest derivative of the ancient Prakrit and pre-dates Sanskrit that was refined much later by Sanskrit scholars like Panini. In fact, Punjabi is the modern version od ancient Prakrit. The other North Indian languages also originate from Prakrit and not Sanskrit as commonly perceived. It must be stated that Hindi is a relatively younger language that originated from Urdu much later and later formalized in Davnagari script of Sanskrit.
Even in Sanskrit Dramas, the characters each spoke a different Prakrit based on their role and background. A good example of use of multi-language format is witnessed in the Sanskrit drama - "Abhijñānaśākuntalam". Here Kalidasa masterly captures the conversation between palace guards in Prakrit. The language of these guards is very similar to ancient Punjabi.
Here are some of the Prakrit words that show similarity with Punjabi:
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| Abhijñāna Sākuntalam - Sanskrit drama by Kalidasa |
Here are some of the Prakrit words that show similarity with Punjabi:
- father: piu
- mother: māi
- brother: bhāā, bhāi, bhāia , bhāu, bhāua
- sister: sasā, susā
- son: putta
- daughter: duhiā, dhī
- head: sira
- eye: akki, acchi
- foot: pāda, pāya
Punjabi connection with Spanish
Astonishing similarities between Punjabi and Spanish could shock those who try to link Sanskrit or Tamil with Europpean languages:
- What (English) - Qué (Spanish) - Ki (Punjabi) - Kya (Hindi) - Enna (Tamil)
- Who (English) - Quien (Spanish) - Kaun (Punjabi) - Kaun (Hindi) - Yar (Tamil)
- Whom (English) - Quién (Spanish) - Kinnu (Punjabi) - Kisko (Hindi) - Yarai
(Tamil) - When (English) - Cuando (Spanish) - Kadaun (Punjabi) - Kabh (Hindi) - Eppolutu (Tamil)
- Why (English) - Por qué (Spanish) - Kyun (Punjabi) - Kyon (Hindi) - En (Tamil)
- How (English) - Cómo (Spanish) - Kiddan (Punjabi) - Kaisa (Hindi) - Epatti (Tamil)
- Howmany (English) - Cuántos (Spanish) - Kinne (Punjabi) - Kitne (Hindi) - Ettanai (Tamil)
- Which (English) - Cuyo (Spanish) - Ki (Punjabi) - Kis (Hindi) - Enta (Tamil)
- How Much (English) - Cuánto Cuesta (Spanish) - Kinne (Punjabi) - Kitna (Hindi) - Evvalavu (Tamil)
The above list categorically demonstrates the commonality between Punjabi and Latin family of languages. Hindi which was a late invention is closer to Urdu than it is to Latin languages. Tamil has no connection whatsoever with the Latin languages.
Gurmukhi Script
The script of the Sikh scripture, Gurmukhi is derived from natural progression of Prakrit to Pali, Sauraseni, Apbrahmsa, Sharda, and the Laṇḍā scripts. It was standardized during the 16th century by Guru Angad Dev ji, the second guru of Sikhism. The Old Punjabi word Gurmukhī means "from the mouth of the Guru". The whole of the Guru Granth Sahib is written in this script, and it is the script most commonly used by Sikhs and Hindus for writing the Punjabi language.
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| Original cannon "Pothi" of Sri Guru Nanak Dev ji |
The mercantile community of Punjab used a script known as the Laṇḍā for accounting purposes. Landa means alphabet "without tail", implying that the script did not have vowel symbols. In Punjab, there were at least ten different scripts classified as Laṇḍā, Mahajani being the most popular. Modifying the Laṇḍā alphabets, the Sikh Gurus developed Proto-Gurmukhi that included words without vowel signs.
The modern Gurmukhi was developed because of the difficulties involved in pronouncing words without vowel signs.
Interesting how these languages developed when various new religions originating in India were prohibited from using Sanskrit. The literary and spiritual world is richer today with this diversity.
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whether saurasreni speaking people originated from saura-rashtra that is saurashtram.
ReplyDeleteYou exactly wrote that the oldest evidence of punjabi cam from the hittite region
DeleteAnd
Hittite is in turkey then how is it a south asian language and when you gave oldest reference of this language in south asian region he gave the reference of kalidas who was born in 6th century and sanskrit is more than 5000 years old means dating to 3000BC as in ved its written about sarasvati river which dried 5000 years ago its evident
Whether saurasreni speaking people lived in saura-rashtra or saurashtram .and they originally identified as saurashtrian.
ReplyDeleteMy understanding of the Shuarasena script is that it was developed from Prakrit, Shauraseni was the chief language used in drama in the northern medieval India. Most of the material in this language originates from the 3rd to 10th centuries, though it was probably a spoken vernacular around the 5th century BCE. Its descendants include the languages of the Hindi Belt, the Central Zone of modern Indic or Hindi languages, the standard registers of the Hindustani language based on the Khariboli dialect and the Punjabi language.The Saurashtra sounds close to the name of the language. The reign of Yadavas from Mathura to Gujarat during that period could be the link here. The Saini caste of Punjab call themselves Shaurasaini and descendants of Yadavas.
Deleterespected sir ,
ReplyDeletein present either Palkar or saurashtri Language
Yadduv means also sun.
here we have separate ghotras.
one among ghotras yadduv is a family name not surname.may be a clan.
Here we in saurashtras even prays the sun as Sol. Pal. Or surith-.here surith is literature word. The invaded Arabs parasiks and mongols
pronounced that as sorath .
Here the east Iran parasiks not at all and never identify as
Sauraseni- or maga- bramins.
Because the present saurashtras are the only authoritarian ethnic of maga- bramins.
How and why ,please see
Maga- means weaving.
We still perform all braminical rituals and surviving with weaving.
not only phonetic but also evolved words also derived from saurashtri to Sanskrit with also association of ghandari maithili and Hindus spoken languages.
By umanath Avunna
Giridharan Avunna.
Great article! There's one more thing, Punjabi is also the only TONAL language of South-Asian origin. Have you investigated tonality in Pali/Prakrit? That may give additional clues to the origin of Punjabi.
ReplyDeleteI totally Agree with your stance. Prakrits are directly derivative form of the languages/dialects spoken by ancient Sindhu-Saraswati Civilization People and admixture of Aryans with them. That adding up of different origin of people gave rise to two different classes of languages. One that include more aryan words and influence was to become later vedic language from which they refined the samskratam. The other class of dialects which were used by more commoners and retained much Indus valley old local characteristics gradually became prakrits. Though at a later stage prakrits did got heavily influenced/ borrowed many words from sanskrat due to laters status of being language of elite. Punjabi is much more older than Hindi-Urdu. Hindi-Urdu is a artificially created language not older than 800 years.
ReplyDeleteAmazing read.
ReplyDeleteIt is wrong to say that Sikh gurus invented Punjabi language to write Sikh scriptures , what do mean by invention ? Punjabi language and even gurumukhi script is older then Sikhism .The truth is the sikhs loved their mother tongue and keep attcatta with Gurumukh script (Gurmukhi does not mean invented by gurus rather than used or modified by Gurus ) and other communities left this script or similar script for example in Himachal and Jammu area .Sikhs always loved the language and the script of the land of five areas though these are older then Sikhism not evolede or been invented .
ReplyDeleteI have a reference which mentions that in the book, "Marco polo from Venice to Xandu" by Laurence Bergreen, says that Gurmukhi was devised by a Tibetan Buddhist monk Matidhvyaja Sree Bhadra, in Kublai Khan Court in 1269.
DeleteIf an earlier form of Gurmukhi was not there, which script Guru Nanak Devji used for writing Patti?
This is good information and should be documented. My research shows that Praktrit was the mother language of Sanskrit which was designed for superior writing with a well organized grammar. Prakrit existed for thousands of years as oral language. It was revived as Pali by the Buddhists as Brahmins refused to share Sanskrit with them. Several other versions exists such as Sharda script from kashnir, and Lenda script that was used by the north indian businessses.
DeleteNote that Guru Nanak was the originator of Gurmukhi script and he used it for his collections as Patti. He resurrected the ancient script for reasons similar to the Buddhists. The Gurmukhi script as we know today was finalized by Guru Angad Dev, the second guru of the Sikhs. He used Lenda and Sharda versions to construct the grammar of the script.
I believe the version you are mentioning was a variant devised by the Buddhist scholars. It demonstrates the longelivity of the ancient Prakrit language despite the presence of Sanskrit which dominated the Hindu scriptures. It lives today as regional languages of North India, with Punjabi being its closest relative.
He exactly wrote that the oldest evidence of punjabi cam from the hittite region
DeleteAnd
Hittite is in turkey then how is it a south asian language and when he gave oldest reference of this language in south asian region he gave the reference of kalidas who was born in 6th century and sanskrit is more than 5000 years old means dating to 3000BC as in ved its written about sarasvati river which dried 5000 years ago its evident
Excellent article with original thoughts and rare photographs. I will like to include these in my forthcoming children's book.
ReplyDeleteThere is a big confusion between language and script. Language is what is spoken and may have many dialects. The script is when a language is written. Vedas and the other major scripts were all oral. To keep them a secret within them, they never wanted it in a written form.
ReplyDeleteSanskrit as an example, it was a language and still is a language. It probably originated in Bulgaria. It is very near to Lativian, Salvic, Baltic languages. and brought to India by Aryans. From Indo-European Language it became Indo-Aryan language. Vedic Sanskrit and classical Sanskrit are two different languages. In India it adopted the local scriptures of the area. In South it was written in Tamil, Granth so in Indo Gangetic plane, it first adopted Nagari and then Devanagari script. As the population size was large Devanagari became a dominant script of Sanskrit followed by Hindi.
Aryans were nomadic people with no place to say. How a community like this improve upon an existing script?
From the book, "Om (AUM) Omkar and Ek Aonkar" by Dr H S Puri
Who were the aryans
DeleteWhere is it documented.
Why does ramayana have ayodhya and lanka and not rome and london.
Stop spreading fake theories.
Europe was in dark ages till 14-15th century and believed that earth is flat.
The similarities in language is because of outward migration of indian people to Europe
AJIT, the fake propoganda of "Out of India" theory has been proven wrong and this issue is now dead based on the joint research by nine top ranked universities across the globe.
DeleteSo please don't use my blog to spread your 'fake news' and educate yourself on this scientific research: https://scroll.in/article/936872/two-new-genetic-studies-upheld-aryan-migration-theory-so-why-did-indian-media-report-the-opposite
Your version of ramayana is also a fake stoy as the Aryans only lived in Punjab and NW India. The real Ayodhya was "Ajodhan" in West Punjab and it was located next to the "Sar" darya that you called Saryu or Saraswati river. In fact, the Swat region close to Punjab/kashmir is the real Saraswat. The rest of the Indians are hybrids of Aryans marrying native aborginal women. In other words, the Punjabis and Sindhis are the ancestors of all Indians.
The linguistic similarity of Indo-germanic languages are proven scientifically and academically. Our language was Prakrit that exists today as Punjabi and it was our ancestors who developed a grammar rich Sanskrit based on Prakrit. Panini the founder of Sanskrit grammar was from Punjab region.
Now lets talk about another fake story by you about cavemen in Europe. Göbekli Tepe us a 10,000 year old site in Turkey which is associated with the ancient Aryans. Compared to that, the IVC sites are about 4,500 year old.
Let's not ry to spread lies and stay truthful .. plase.
All the monuments in the north India were Buddhist. No aryan or Sanskrit till the first centuryAD the language was Siddham.
ReplyDelete