Sanskrit OCR

Sanskrit Language

The Sanskrit language is a classic example of how language can be preserved long after the culture, time and place in which it originated have been lost. Most of the languages that were spoken in India before the British invasion are now extinct, but Sanskrit remains. What is often called the "Sanskrit language," however, is actually a collection of many languages, differing from one another as much as modern English does from Chaucerian English. The root of this confusion stems from the fact that the word "Sanskrit" has two meanings: First, it refers to any ancient Indian language prior to 400 B.C.E.; second, it refers to specific classical Indian languages used during a certain period of Indian history. Although these two periods are separated by over 2,000 years, they are both referred to as "Sanskrit."