Language is a system of communication through speech, a collection of sounds that a group of people understand to have the same meaning. There are two terms associated with language; language family (includes individual languages related through a common ancestor) and Dialect (a form of language spoken in a local area. Several languages are spoken in India but there are only eleven languages in India that are granted the status of classical language by the Government of India and there are different scripts used to write down these languages.
Also Read: Indian Languages and Its Classifications
Folk, Fusion and Modern Music in India
Pre-Historic Studies – Chalcolithic Age
Official Languages of India
Hindi in Devanagari script is declared as the official language of the Union as declared by the Official Language Act, 1963 and the same act declared English as the subsidiary language official language of the Union. The constitution allowed the languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian constitution to be used as an official language by the state. The constitution also allows members of the legislature to speak in their language in the assembly.
Initially, there were 14 languages in the Eight Schedule, later Sindhi was added in 1967, Konkani, Manipuri, and Nepali were added in 1993; Bodo, Maithili, Dogri, and Santhali added in 2003 making 22 languages to the Eight schedule the Indian constitution.
Classical Languages in India
There are certain criteria to determine the eligibility of languages to be considered for classification as a “Classical Language”; high antiquity of its early texts/recorded history recorded over 1500-2000 years, a body of ancient texts considered a valuable heritage, literary tradition needs to be original, there should not be any discontinuity between language.
Tamil was the first language to be declared as a classical language in 2004, Sanskrit in 2005, Telugu in 2008, Kannada in 2008, Malayalam in 2013, Odia in 2014 and Marathi, Bengali, Pali, Prakrit, Assamese are included in 2024. That makes the total number of classical languages to eleven.
Ancient Scripts of India
A script is a writing system used to write some language. There are several scripts in India which evolved from the ancient times. Indus Script or Harappan Script is produced by peoples of Indus Valley Civilization which is extremely short in size and yet to be deciphered. Brahmi script is the oldest writing system used in the Indian subcontinent and central Asia during the final centuries BCE. The best-known Brahmi script works are of rock edicts of Ashoka, which were deciphered by James Prinsep. This script is written from left to right.
Gupta Script (Brahmi Script) was emerged during the Gupta period and used to write Sanskrit. The Brahmi script also gave rise to numerous scripts like Nagari, Sharada, and Siddham scripts. These scripts further gave rise to other scripts like Devanagari scripts, Gurumukhi scripts, Assamese scripts, etc. and these descendants of Gupta scripts came to be known as Brahmic scripts.
Kharosthi script is an ancient script used in ancient Gandhara to write Gandhari Prakrit and Sanskrit. This was also deciphered by James Princep and is also known as the sister script of Brahmi. This is also written right to left but evidence of left to right was also discovered. Devanagari script is an alphabet of India and Nepal and is written from left to right. The Devanagari script is used for over 120 languages, including Hindi, Marathi, Nepali, etc. There are other scripts like Modi, Gurumukhi, Urdu, Kadamba, Grantha, Sarada, etc.
Thus, the diversification of Indian culture is enriched by numerous scripts and languages.
Pingback: Hinduism – Origin and Hindu Movements - historylover.in