Introduction

The source of human language, as experienced and expressed by the ancient Indian Rishis, is the urge to express an inner experience. An ideal language must enable the individual to express his experience with minimum loss of meaning, with minimum expenditure of energy, and with minimum words. The quality of a language then depends on the efficiency and effectiveness with which the language enables the individual to express his experience; how perfectly it can communicate and arouse in the listener the exact experience of the speaker. It has to encompass the infinite variety and richness of life, its moods, its depths and its heights and reflect them like a perfect mirror, without any distortions. This is a difficult and challenging task. It demands the capacity to harmonise contradictory qualities. The language must be supple and flexible, capable of subtle shades and nuances, and yet efficient and efficacious, clear, precise and unambiguous. It must be compact and pithy and also rich and opulent; concise yet suggestive, strong and powerful yet sweet and charming, capable of growth and expansion to meet new challenges of the future, and at the same time an inspiring repository of all the great achievements of the past. An impossible demand, one would say. But Sanskrit has successfully met this challenge as perhaps no other language has. This is why it is known as ‘Sanskrit’ – that which is sculpted to perfection and has been well structured and refined to the utmost.

When we look at Sanskrit, we find that in the course of its long evolution it has acquired a fullness and completeness. In other words, this is a language which is complete in all the dimensions of its personality. Its power of expression is commendable. Its power to create new words is incredible. Its flexibility is remarkable. Its linguistic structure is unblemished. Its richness of vocabulary is unparalleled. Its literature marks excellence in all fields of knowledge. We can go on speaking about the remarkable features of Sanskrit and the list always remains endless. But let me explain you with example how Sanskrit fulfills all that makes it a language of integral perfection.