Debbie Williamson, age 14, of Glendale, Ariz., for her question:
WHERE AND WHEN DID SANSKRIT ORIGINATE?
Sanskrit language and literature originated in ancient India. We don't know definitely when it developed, but the experts believe it was about 1500 B.C.
The Sanskrit language is divided into two periods. Old Sanskrit is the language in which the holy Vedas were written. Vedas were sacred Hindu books. Old Sanskrit is also called Vedic Sanskrit, or sometimes simply Vedic.
The second period is called the classical. Most writings of this period deal with nonreligious subjects.
For a period of time in ancient India, Sanskrit was both the common speech and the literary language. But by the 500s B.C., local dialects had sprung up. Buddha preached his doctrine in one of these.
The first and greatest Indian grammarian was a man named Panini who lived about 300 B.C. He fixed the characteristics of Sanskrit as "purified and cultivated" in contrast with the common spoken language of Prakrit which he called "natural and unpurified."
The Sanskrit language became widely known to Europeans in the late 1700s. Franz Bopp and other linguists used it to develop the comparative study of languages.
Many words in the Greek, Latin, English, German, Persian and other languages are also found in Sanskrit.
The Sanskrit word mata became mater in Latin, mutter in German and mother in English. The English words brother, sister, daughter and son are related to the Sanskrit bhrata, svasr, duhita and sunu.
Sanskrit literature started with the Vedas. They constitute the oldest work in any Indo European language. The works of the Vedic period are religious and were long transmitted orally. They consist of the Rig Veda (about 1000 B.C.) the Sama Veda, the Yajur Veda and the Atharva Veda.
In its second or classical period of literature the outstanding epics are "Mahabharata," written about 200 B.C., and the "Ramayana," which was written a bit later.
Dramas were produced in Sanskrit in India as early as in the Western world. They first appeared in the 400s B.C. There were also lyric and instructive poems, the Hindu legal code and philosophical works of various schools.
India's chief contribution to Western literature are in the fields of fiction and fable. Indian fairy tale motifs appear in the "Arabian Nights" and in medieval legends and stories.
The chief collection of Sanskrit fables is the "Panchatantra."
"Om" is a sacred syllable in the Sanskrit language, similar in meaning to the Engish "amen." It might well be translated, "So it shall be." It was to be uttered at the start and close of every Vedic recitation to ensure that the understanding of what was spoken should not be lost.