Sacred Linguistics

Praying vocally, but to do so with mantras or hymns has been a way to go further than just communicate with the divine by propitiating (satisfying) it with special words designed only to offer piety (reverence.) The Arya dharmas practice this more than other religions. This tradition goes back thousands of years to before the Vedas were compiled, when they were orally transmitted.

Divine Language

Religions in general usually had special languages that had a higher status for oral and literary messages/prayers. Sometimes these languages themselves were viewed as divine. In Judaism, it has been Hebrew and in Islam Arabic. While officially, Sanatan Dharm is defined only by its 4 pillars (meaning no language was official), normally Sanskrit had the status of a divine language ('apaurusheya' or not made by humans.) Sanskrit being the language of the most educated politicians (i.e., royal advisers) and writers, was utilized in Bauddh, Bonpo, and Jain dharms too. Bauddhs sometimes regarded Pali (A.K.A. Shuddha Magadhi) as the 'divine language'. The words 'mulabhasha' (root language) and 'arshabhasha' (ancient language) were used by rishis of Sanatan, Bauddh, and Jain dharms to highlight the importance of the respective languages they were glorifying.

Verses exemplifying the exaltation of languages in Arya dharmas:

Sanskrit	Pali (Shuddha Magadhi)	Koshali (Ardh Magadhi)
"The language called Sanskrit is the language of the devas, taught [to men] by the great rishis of old." - Kavyadarsha "The great rishis themselves spoke the language of Place (deshbhasha), but they were able to teach Sanskrit thanks to their extraordinary attainments. As a result, while the Prakrits are multiform, Sanskrit is uniform." - 'Kavyadarsha	”There is a language which is the root [of all languages]; men and Brahmans spoke it at the commencement of the kalpa, who never before uttered a human accent, and even the superior Buddha spoke it: it is Magadhi.” - Mahawanso 1.12 By Kachchayano "Magadhi, one of the Prakrits, was the mother tongue of the Buddha according to a Pali commentary. It must therefore logically be the mulabhasa, the language which a child would naturally speak if it heard no other language spoken." - Vibhangatthan Katha 387-8 "That (Magadhi) language of all languages was conducive to the welfare of men; all of the thera teachers held it as identical with the language of the Pali." - Buddhaghosuppatti By Mahamangala "Magadhikaya sabba-sattānam mula-bhasāya." - Vissudhimagga 16.25 By Buddhagosha "It [Magadhi] spread first of all. And later the local languages such as Andhaka, Yonaka, Damila, etc., and the eighteen great languages such as Sanskrit, etc. developed." Mohavicchedani 186.11-14 By Kassapa "Magadhi is mulabhasa" - Sanddaniti 632.4 By Aggavamsa	Ardhamagadhi is called by Acharya Hemachandra as the language from which all other languages came.

In Bharatiya Natya Shastra 17.48, Ardhamagadhi is mentioned next to Magadhi, Avanti, Pracya, Shuraseni, Bahlika, and Dakshinatya, as 1 of the 7 bhasas.

Contributors to this article

Himanshu Bhatt

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