________________
4. SANSKRIT
"The earliest epigraphic evidence on languages employed in India comes from the inscriptions of Asoka inscribed in third century B.C. Asoka took care that his messages were intelligible to all and he used a particular kind of Prakrit. Even more remarkable is the fact, which has been recently discovered, that for those people who at the time lived in Afghanistan, his message was given in Greek as well as Aramaic. One of the Greek inscriptions is a translation of the Kalinga Edict, and the Greek of the inscriptions is not inferior in style to the classical Greek of Greek literature. In such circumstances neglect of Sanskrit by Asoka, if the language was in use, would be contrary to all his practice. So, the absence of Sanskrit in his inscriptions indicates that it did not exist at that time, as otherwise he would have certainly used it."
Dr. Alexander Harris: Significance of Sanskrit.
Thus apart from portions of the Veda which were not written in Sanskrit, all other Vedas, Upanishads, Brahmanas and Puranas etc were written down later than 100 AD at liberal estimate. They must have been written down much later in actual fact. A more realistic estimate will be around 6th Centaury AD.
"The pious view is that the Vedas are eternal and uncreated and exist essentially as sound. More conventional, but still pious, scholarship may still exaggerate the antiquity of the Vedas, sometimes claiming they go back to 10,000 BC or earlier. Now, however, it looks like even the oldest parts of the Rig Veda do not antedate the arrival of the Arya in India, although the gods and elements of the stories are older, since they are attested with Iranian peoples and the Mitanni, with parallels in Greek and Latin mythology." (Kelly Ross)
Panini
Panini's Astadhyayi is the main Sanskrit grammar book. The name Panini came to stand for the unknown author who started the grammar writing process. In a later period, Astadhyayi became even more authoritative through the contributions of Vartikakara Vararuchi (or Katyayana) and Bhasyakara (the commentator) Patanjali. Therefore, the complete Astadhyayi is called Trimunivyakarana (contribution of three grammarians). The rules, which have been compiled in Astadhyai, are considered essential for Sanskrit language and literature. Besides Astadhyai there are many other famous grammars in Sanskrit.
119
