Sanskrit, the oldest and most perfect among the world’s great languages, holds an incomparable and invaluable repository of knowledge. It embodies India’s tradition of universal truth and free inquiry, serving as the lingua-franca of sciences such as mathematics, astronomy, and medicine in pre-modern India.Sanskrit was the primary language of religious and philosophical texts, including the Vedas and the Upanishads, and was also used for poetry, drama, and scientific writing. The foundational stories of Indian civilization, such as Rāma and Sīta in the Rāmāyana, the Mahābhārata, and the Bhāgavatapurāṇa, all have roots in Sanskrit literature. Sanskrit’s grammatical perfection is demonstrated by its ten verbal classes, eight cases, three numbers, and three genders, making it one of the most structured and concise languages in the world. It is revered in India as devabhasha or the language of the gods and recognized as the mother of Indian languages. Sanskrit literature contains a wealth of knowledge and is a repository of India’s ancient cultural heritage.

Indian linguistics is the study of the languages and linguistic traditions of the Indian subcontinent. This field encompasses a wide range of languages, including Sanskrit, Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, and many others, as well as the diverse linguistic traditions and practices that have developed in the region.

Indian linguistics is characterized by a rich tradition of linguistic analysis and classification, with a particular emphasis on phonetics, grammar, and semantics. This tradition dates back to ancient times, with early works such as the Sanskrit grammarians Pāṇini and Katyayana laying the foundations for modern linguistic analysis. To understand the Indian knowledge system it becomes imperative to study sanskrit.