A brief history of Sanskrit

Sanskrit (संस्कृत) is a classical language of South Asia belonging to the Indo-Aryan family of languages, having a history of about 3500 years. Sanskrit is believed to have been the general language of the greater Indian Subcontinent in ancient times. It is still used today in Hindu religious rituals, Buddhist hymns and chants, and Jain texts.

The pre-Classical form of Sanskrit is known as Vedic Sanskrit. The earliest records in Sanskrit language are found in Rg-veda (Rigveda). There are four Vedas - the Rigveda, the Yajurveda, the Samaveda and the Atharvaveda.
As per the tradition at that time, Vedas were orally transmitted by way of memorisation from one generation to the next.

The Sanskrit grammer developed during the period of the Vedas is enshrined in 'Prātiśākhyas'. This work is devoted to the precise and consistent pronunciation of words.

The formalization of the Sanskrit language is credited to Pāṇini who composed Aṣṭādhyāyī ("Eight-Chapter Grammar"). Aṣṭādhyāyī covers 3,959 rules of syntax, semantics, and morphology (the study of words and how they are formed and relate to each other). It is the most important of the surviving texts of Vyakarana, the linguistic analysis of Sanskrit, consisting of eight chapters laying out his rules and their sources. Through this standardization, Panini helped create what is now known as Classical Sanskrit. along with Patanjali's Mahābhāṣya and Katyayana's commentary that preceded Patañjali's work.

All the vedas, upanishads, and Indian epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata are written in Sanskrit along with several other works of poetry, drama, science, philosophy and religion.

Sanskrit language's historical presence has been attested in many countries. The evidence includes manuscript pages and inscriptions discovered in South Asia, Southeast Asia and Central Asia.

In the current day, it is one of the scheduled languages of the Indian constitution. While the language is not widely spoken anymore, within India and worldwide, there is an undercurrent of revival of the language in academic circles and in the general population.
Sanskrit is the language of many Hindu and Buddhist scriptures and is used to the current day for religious purposes in these religions.

Why learn Sanskrit?

There are several reasons why you should learn Sanskrit.

Learning Sanskrit helps you understand the etymology of a lot of words in Indian and non-Indian languages. If you are of a kind who derives pleasure by understanding origin of words, learning sanskrit can make you happy.

It would also help you understand ancient Sanskrit texts, shlokas and other Sanskrit words in their true context, with nothing getting lost in translation.

Sanskrit is also a very systematic and syntactic language and the grammar of the language serves as a master template for most Indian (and a few European) languages.

Most importantly, if you care about preserving this ancient and beautiful language, there is no alternative to learning this language and pass on this legacy to our future generations.