What is in news : Sanskrit Week is being celebrated from August 19 to August 25, 2021

Aim : Promote and popularise this ancient language

Info : Week in which Sanskrit Day falls, is celebrated as Sanskrit week.

MAHITI FOR PRELIMS – SANSKRIT

• Ancient language in Hinduism
• Used as a dialect by the old Indo-Aryans during the era of 2000 BCE
• As per the Indian Constitution, there are 22 languages that are officially followed in India and Sanskrit is one of them
• Most secular and regional literatures were written in Sanskrit
• Sanskrit in India was first embodied in the Rig Veda (one of the four Vedas). The Rig Veda was composed between roughly 1700–1100 BCE.
• It was Panini (a great grammarian and a scholar of Hinduism) who analysed Sanskrit and its word formations. He then wrote a text called Ashtadhyayi which was full of long descriptive Sanskrit grammar.
• Sanskrit is perhaps the only language that kept evolving even beyond the barriers of regions and boundaries.