Sanskrit Day: A Journey Through Time and Traditions

Every year World Sanskrit Day or World Sanskrit Diwas is observed on Purnima tithi of Shravan month . The world sanskrit day also coincides with the festival of Raksha Bandhan. This year the World Sanskrit Day is being observed on 31st August 2023. Sanskrit is considered to be one of the oldest known languages in the world and is also known as Dev Vani. 

Sanskrit has been declared as one of the eight classical languages by the government of India .The first language to be declared as classical language was Tamil in 2004 , Sanskrit in 2005 ,Kannada and Telugu in 2008,Malayalam in 2013 and Odia in 2014. 

Background to the Sanskrit Day 

The celebration of Sanskrit Day and Sanskrit Diwas was declared by the  Indian government in 1969. The day is a tribute to the work of the renowned Sanskrit scholar Paṇini and his legacy.

Panini was a Sanskrit grammarian who gave a comprehensive and scientific theory of phonetics, phonology, and morphology. Sanskrit was the classical literary language of the Indian Hindus and Panini is considered the founder of the language and literature. The word "Sanskrit" means "complete" or "perfect" and it was thought of as the divine language, or language of the gods.Astadhyayi (or Astaka ) is Panini's major work.

Sanskrit as a language 

Over the years the use of Sanskrit has declined but in some regions of India it continues to be a primary language. Some of the places where sanskrit is a primary language are as follows:

Mattur, Karnataka 

Mattur village in Shivamogga district of Karnataka situated along the banks of river Tunga has a population of 5000 and also every person speaks Sanskrit as a primary language.

Jhiri, Madhya Pradesh 

The village of Jhiri is located in the Rajgarh district of Madhya Pradesh. Around 1000 inhabitants of the village speak Sanskrit as their primary language.  

Sansana, Odisha 

 It is a village mainly inhabited by Brahmins.The village is home to 50 households and approximately 300 residents. They all speak Sanskrit.

Ganoda, Rajasthan 

All the inhabitants of the village Ganoda in Banswara district of Rajasthan,speaks Sanskrit.