The Sanskrit speaking village

We all know Sanskrit is one of the oldest language in the world and it is known as the mother of most of the languages spoken in the southern and south eastern part of the continent today. But such is the reality that its use has been reduced to a mere few chants during some ceremony or puja. But have you heard of a village that speaks Sanskrit in their day-to-day life? Yes, even I was interested when I heard this for the first time. So I decided to pay this village a visit.

Firstly, Mattur is not the only village that speaks Sanskrit. It is one amongst a few others like Jhiri, Baghat and Mahad (MP), Sasana (Orissa), Ganoda (Rajasthan) and
Hosahalli (Karnataka). In fact Hosahalli is just across the river to Mattur and is often referred as a twin village to Mattur.

In ancient India, Sanskrit was known as Devawani (Language of the Gods) and the script was known as Devnagari (In the city of Gods). However usage of this language has been reduced over the years and today a lot of linguists and philologists argue that it is a dying language. I felt the same when I visited the village of Mattur. This is a small hamlet about 7 km from Shimoga city in Karnataka and it uses Sanskrit in their day to day communication. Sadly there are very few folks left who do so. My visit to this village was particularly a very enriching one on the origins and history of Sanskrit. Here, I pen down some of the knowledge I gained from certain learned gurus during my visit to Mattur.

Sir William Jones had once said 'The Sanskrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure; more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either, yet bearing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs and in the forms of grammar, than couldn't​ have been produced by accident; so strong, indeed, that no philologer could examine them all three, without believing them to have sprung from some common source, which, perhaps, no longer exists.'

It is believed that Sanskrit, Latin and other Germanic languages, all emerged from one Proto-Indo-European parent language that is long lost today. While Sanskrit evolved to Hindi, Marathi, Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali and Punjabi; Latin (also a dead language now) evolved to Spanish, Italian and French. But all of them have an eerie resemblance and have come from that same Proto-Indo-European root.

In olden times, Sanskrit was considered to be a sign of social prestige and was taught only to the higher class people like Brahmins. If we take a look at history, we understand that Sanskrit speaking people were always well educated and multilingual. It was often used in rituals and scholarly communication and high class Sanskrit was maintained until the British period. Many Indo-Aryan and Dravidian languages have borrowed a lot of words directly or indirectly from Sanskrit. Directly borrowed - tatsama words, indirectly borrowed - tadbhava words. Sanskrit has a major influence on Latin, Spanish and English too. For example, 'matr' in Sanskrit becomes 'mother' in English and 'madre' in Spanish. Similarly, 'pitr' becomes 'father' in English and 'padre' in Spanish.  and 'bhrata' becomes 'brother' in English and 'frater' in Latin.

However today, excluding a few towns like Mattur, the use of this ancient language has diminished.
I had the opportunity to interact with some kids in the local school and their proficiency with Sanskrit amazed me. They learn Sanskrit as a first language, Kannada as second and English/Hindi as third. Many of their parents are Sanskrit scholars who have traveled far and wide for lectures and sessions. The principal too is a highly respected man in the village and is a very learned and humble person. After our session with the kids, he offered us to join the students for lunch. In rural India, parents are not much keen on sending their students to school. Hence, this ritual of offering mid-day meals to students evolved to encourage the parents to send their kids to school. We had a simple but delicious meal of sambar-rice and curd, thanked the staff and kids and left for our journey ahead.
These close conversations with the kids, teachers, headmaster, Sanskrit scholars and gurus gave me a deep and enriching experience and I also learnt a lot about our country and its historical importance related to the ancient languages and their evolution.

With a bunch of memories in my pensieve and the satisfaction of seeing a different place and meeting some really interesting folks, I picked up my sack and moved toward my next destination.