Sanskrit
Sanskrit is an Indo-Aryan language that dates to about the 5th century B.C. It is also the language in which the Hindu and Buddhist Sutra and Shastra scriptures and all of the major classical texts of Ayurvedic medicine were written.
The Indic languages, Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi, Urdu, Tamil, and Gujurati are modern day descendants of Sanskrit.
Although it is no longer spoken in daily life except among Ayurvedic physicians and scholars in India, it is still used for religious purposes by Hindus and Buddhists who either recite certain scriptures and mantras in Sanskrit even if they do not know the meanings since they are taught that such recitation induces meditative states called samadhi.
It is one of the fifteen official languages of the Indian constitution.
Buddhism and Sanskrit
Despite many people thinking that Sanskrit is only associated with Hinduism, all of the Dharmic religions use Sanskrit. To this day, there are many Buddhist scholars, professors and linguists who have formally learned Sanskrit at places such as University of California, Berkeley, Stanford University and Harvard and have translated into English several hundred Buddhist Sutras and Shastras from the classic Buddhist masters such as Nagarjuna, Shantideva, Atisha and Vasubandhu. These Sutras and Shastras use a special form of Sanskrit referred to by Sanskritists as "BHS" or Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit. During the Tang dynasty in China there were vast facilities dedicated to the translation from Devanagari and Siddham-based Sanskrit to Hanzi traditional characters, the Chinese script used continuously since the Han dynasty until Chairman Mao forced China to switch to simplified characters so they could only read Communist works.
Ayurvedic Medicine and Sanskrit
Although many people wrongly think that Sanskrit is only connected with Hinduism, it is to this day a required subject at the formal Ayurvedic medicial university setting in India.
According to renowned Ayurvedic physician and author, Dr. Vasant Lad, since the 8th century A.D. until the present day in India, Ayurvedic medicine doctors have to memorize via Devanagari script thousands of verses of the Charaka Samhita, the Sushruta Samhita and the Astanga Hridayam and be able to recite them out loud in order to pass their Ayurvedic medical degree oral examinations.
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