Sanskrit

Discover the language

For a long time, Sanskrit culture was developed and transmitted orally, with the Brahmin class holding a monopoly on its teaching. These extraordinary conditions of practice and transmission have made it an exceptionally stable language, whose structures have remained virtually unchanged for over two thousand years, and a language of extraordinary refinement, suitable for dealing with all subjects, even the most contemporary. After a period of relative decline in the Middle Ages, Sanskrit has enjoyed a revival of interest in the wake of European orientalism since the 19th^e century.

The study of Sanskrit provides one of the best keys to understanding the Indian world and Indian civilization, as it developed in South Asia, but also beyond. Knowledge of Sanskrit, indispensable for the study of ancient India, is almost equally so for those who wish to equip themselves with the means for in-depth research and perception of medieval, modern and contemporary Indian literature, and of the great world religions of Hinduism and Buddhism.

Although Sanskrit is not a living language like any other, one element of the vitality of Sanskrit studies in recent years has been the development of courses in spoken Sanskrit, which testifies at least that this language is an admirable tool adapted to multiple uses.

The teaching of Sanskrit is offered, at Inalco, as a deepening and/or opening course for the languages taught in the South Asian Himalayan department.