List of English Words derived from Sanskrit via Latin Greek Persian

Look at the rich technical vocabulary of English. Isn’t it amazing that today we have so many new words created in English on almost a daily basis? Especially in evolving technical fields – Computer, Processor, Monitor, Internet, Hardware, Software, Branes, Quantum, etc. It is almost impossible to create words with similar meaning in other languages and so instead we simply loan these English words into our languages to keep pace with the rapidly evolving new terminology.

Any language during the times of its peak usage as a spoken language across large geographies will have its words imported into other languages that exist during that period. When Sanskrit was at its peak as a medium of education in India, and in the ancient Indian universities, words got imported into Greek, Latin, Persian, and of course into all languages of the Indian subcontinent from Sanskrit. These Sanskrit words have today silently form a vast majority of the original English Language. Because, English itself loaned words heavily from these ancient languages like Greek, Latin, Persian.

Many Indians ourselves fail to recognize the obvious phonetic and synonymous connection that exist between words in Indian languages (which have heavily loaned words from Sanskrit) and in English!

So I thought I better pen down a list of all such English words derived indirectly from the ancient Sanskrit.

“The Sanskrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of  wonderful structure; more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the  Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either, yet bearing to both of  them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs and in the forms of  grammar, than could not possibly have been produced by accident; so  strong indeed, that no philologer could examine them all three, without  believing them to have sprung from some common source which, perhaps, no  longer exists; there is a similar reason, though not quite so forcible,  for supposing that both the Gothick and the Celtick, though blended  with a very different idiom, had the same origin with the Sanskrit; and  the old Persian might be added to the same family” - Sir William Jones, at the 3rd annual discourse before the Asiatic Society on the history and culture of the Hindus (on 2 February 1786)

Sir William Jones was an the English Philologist who for the first time in 1786 suggested that Greek and Latin were related to Sanskrit and perhaps even Gothic, Celtic and Persian languages were related to Sanskrit.

It was this work which later led to the Proto-Indo-European theory which suggests that all Indo-European languages must have a common origin.

“I am convinced that everything has come down to us from the banks of the Ganges.” said Voltaire. He believed that the “Dynasty of Brahmins taught the rest of the world”.

Read about the Varna system to understand that Brahmin in ancient India was the title given to any knowledgeable person who had completed formal education, and was not a title earned due to birth in a family, as is the practice today. Brahmin in ancient India, was like the graduate of today.

 “Mankind together with all science must have originated on the roof of the world i.e. the Himalayas” declared Immanuel Kant.

And here goes the list of English words derived from Sanskrit.

NOTE: Just to make it clear the below list does not contain Sanskrit words that have been directly borrowed into English in recent times like Karma, Avatar, Mantra, Guru, Cheetah, Pundit, Juggernaut, Nirvana, Lakh etc but lists only those English words which were derived from Sanskrit as English evolved by borrowing words from Greek/Latin etc.

Root Sanskrit WordMedian Word in Latin(L) / Greek(G) / Arabic(A)Derived English Word
Gau (meaning Cow)Bous (G)Cow
Matr (meaning Mother)Mater (L)Mother
Jan (meaning Generation)Genea (G)Gene
Aksha (meaning Axis)Axon (G)Axis
Navagatha (meaning Navigation)Navigationem (L)Navigation
Sarpa (meaning Snake)Serpentem (L)Serpent
Naas (means Nose)Nasus (L)Nose
Anamika (means Anonymous)Anonymos (G)Anonymous
Naama (means Name)Nomen (L)Name
Manu (means First Human)??Man/Men/Human
Ashta (meaning Eight)Octo (L)Eight
Barbara (meaning Foreign)Barbaria (L)Barbarian
Dhama (meaning House)Domus (L)Domicile
Danta (meaning Teeth)Dentis (L)Dental
Dwar (meaning Door)DoruDoor
Dasha (meaning Ten)Deca (G)Deca
Madhyam (meaning Medium)Medium (L)Medium
Kaal (meaning Time)Kalendae (L)Calendar
Kri (meaning To Do)Creatus (L)Create
Mishra (meaning Mix)Mixtus (L)Mix
Ma (meaning Me/My)Me (L)Me
Pithr (meaning Father)Pater (L)Father
Bhrathr (meaning Brother)Phrater (G)Brother
Loka (meaning Place)Locus (L)Locale
Maha (meaning Great)Magnus (L)Mega
Mala (meaning Dirt/Bad)Malus (L)Mal as in Malicious, Malnutrition, Malformed etc
Makshikaa (meaning Bee)Musca (L) (Meaning Fly)Mosquito
Mrta (meaning Dead)Mortis (L)Murder
Na (meaning No)NeNo
Nakta (meaning Night)Nocturnalis (L)Nocturnal
Paad (meaning Foot)Pedis (L)Ped as in Pedestrial, Pedal etc
Pancha (meaning Five)Pente (G)Penta, Five
Parah (meaning Remote)Pera (G)Far
Patha (meaning Path)Pathes (G)Path
Raja / Raya (meaning King)Regalis (L)Royal
Sama (meaning Similar)Similis (L)Similar
Sapta (meaning Seven)Septum (L)Seven
Sharkara (meaning Sugar)SuccarumSugar / Sucrose
Shoorpa (meaning Sharp)Sharp (German)Sharp
Smi (meaning Smile)Smilen (L)Smile
SthaH (meaning Situated)Stare (L) (meaning To Stand)Stay
Svaad (meaning Tasty)Suavis (L)Sweet
Tha (meaning That)Talis (L)That
Tva (meaning Thee)DihThee
Vachas (meaning Speech)Vocem (L)Voice
Vahaami (meaning Carry)Vehere (meaning to Carry) (L)Vehicle
Vama / Vamati (meaning Vomit)Vomere (L)Vomit
Vastr (meaning Cloth)Vestire (L)Vest
Yauvana (meaning Youth)Juvenilis (L)Juvenile
Narangi (meaning Orange)NaranjOrange
Pippali (meaning Pepper)Piperi (G)Pepper
Chandana (meaning Sandalwood)Santalon (G)Sandalwood
Chandra (meaning Moon)Candela (L) (meaning light / torch)Candle
Chatur (meaning Four)Quartus (L)Quarter
Shunya (meaning Zero)Cipher (A)Zero
a (prefix meaning “not” ex: gochara – agochara)a (L)(G) (prefix meaning “not”)a (prefix meaning “not” ex: theiest-atheist
an (prefix meaning “not” ex: avashya – anavashya)un (L)(G) (prefix meaning “not”)un (prefix meaning “not” ex: do-undo
Arjuna (meaning Charm of Silver)Argentinum (L)Argentinum – Scientific Name of Silver
Nava (meaning New)Novus (L)Nova – New
Kafa (meaning Mucus)CoughenCough
Mithya (meaning Lie)Mythos (G)Myth
Thri (meaning Three)Treis (G)Three
Mush (meaning Mouse)Mus (L)Mouse
Maragadum (meaning Emerald)Smaragdus (L)Emerald
Ghritam (meaning Ghee)??Ghee
Srgalah (meaning Jackal)Shagal (Persian)Jackal
Nila (meaning Dark Blue)Nilak (Persian)Lilac
SrgalahShagal (Persian)Jackal
Man (Ma as in Malaysia) (meaning Mind)Mens (L)Mind
Upalah (meaning Precious Stone)Opalus (L)Opal
Vrihis (meaning Rice)Oriza (L)Rice
Upalah (meaning Precious Stone)Opalus (L)Opal
Barbar (meaning stammering)Barbaros (G)Barbarian
Jaanu (meaning knee)Genu (L)Knee
Sunu (meaning Son or Offspring)Sunu (German)Son
Ghas (meaning eat)Grasa (German)Grass
Samiti (meaning Committee)committere (L)Committee
Sama (meaning Same)Samaz (Proto Germanic)Same
Lubh (meaning Desire)Lubo (Latin and Proto Germanic)Love
Agni (meaning Fire)Ignis (L)Ignite
Hrt (meaning Heart)Herto (Proto Germanic)Heart
Yaana (meaning journey, wagon)Wagen (German)Van, Wagon
Nara (meaning Nerve)Nervus (L)Nerve, Nervous
They (th pronounced as in thunder, meaning they)Dei (Germanic)They
Pratiper (L)per
Prati Shat (meaning for every hundred, i.e percent)per centum (L)percent

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307 COMMENTS

  1. Sanskrit was oldest language, it is oldest language, and it will remain oldest language. You westerners don’t understand the fact and you try to be superior to all, even though you aren’t. I would tell you 1 thing. You didn’t even have your own money by which you have build your economy. That money and wealth is stolen by you British and europeans from india. Once you all used to be beggars of street, you came to India as beggars and in future you will remain beggar. You will get the result of your this loot from india and other parts of world one day. Be careful, that day will come soon. Haven’t you heard this shlok?

    अचोद्यमानानि यथा, पुष्पाणि फलानि च।
    स्वं कालं नातिवर्तन्ते, तथा कर्म पुरा कृतम्।

    English Translation:
    As flowers and fruits are seen at due time and they never violate their time, like same way karma will show their good or bad results. It means everyone must reaps the fruits of his deeds.

  2. “cow” from Middle English, from Old English, from Proto-Germanic, from Proto-Indo-European. Cognate with Sanskrit गो (go) – not from Sanskrit (A cognate is a word from the same source that has evolved via a different path. A cousin if you like instead of a child/descendant.)
    “mother” from Middle English, from Old English, from Proto-Germanic, from Proto-Indo-European – not from Sanskrit
    “gene” from German, from Ancient Greek, from Proto-Indo-European – not from Sanskrit
    “axis” from Latin, from Proto-Italic, from Proto-Indo-European – not from Sanskrit
    “eight” from Old English, from Proto-Germanic, from Proto-Indo-European – not from Sanskrit

    Need I go on? I suspect most if not all of these Sanskrit words are cognates, not the sources (or “ancestors”) of the English words. Since English, Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit are all PIE languages, it is to be expected that there are a large number of cognates between them.

    Arabic is a Semitic language. It is either not related to PIE at all, or the hypothetical common ancestor is too far back to be able to tell. This means words can be borrowed from or into it, but not directly descended from it.

    “zero” from French, from Italian, from Medieval Latin, from Arabic صِفْر‎ (ṣifr). Calqued from Sanskrit शून्य (śūnya) (Calqued basically means translated, so not from a Sanskrit word, but from a Sanskrit idea/meaning.)

    Another example of a calque is the French word “bienvenu” and variants in other Romance languages. They are calqued from words meaning “welcome” in Germanic languages. “bien+venu” = “well+come”.

    • The myth of the proto-Indo-European language as the common ancestor as well as the myth of Aryan invasion is simply a farce created by the west to justify colonialism and intellectual racism as well superiority. There is no documentation of any such language, it’s largely constructed with no proof whatsoever.

        • yes, in the distant past Sanskrit was the medium of education and India had world class educational institutions then, students from world over came to India to study.

          Also, the geographical expansion of the then cultural India was much bigger than today’s political India.

          • Namaste, Very well said. Thanks to your great work and depth of knowledge. Person like you, are very rear and i salute to you.

            Daru… wood and dar rat a rat which live in wood.

    • Proto Indo European language is a complete farce created by colonists to justify their ‘mission to civilize the savages’. When the historical artifacts and science challenged their mangled world view, they created this myth of Aryan invasion.

  3. Pregnant is from sanskrut word prajanan (g=j),paramount/param unnat(परम् उन्नत),buy /व्यय vyay, busy/व्यस्त byast ,municipality/मनुषयपालती,fairy/परी pari, foreign/परगना,advocate/adhivkta ,congress/sanghrsh संघर्ष ,donate/dan दान,

  4. These are words derived from proto Indo European language into Sanskrit as well as into Latin/ Greek/ English.
    They are not words derived from Sanskrit.

    • As others comment here, Proto Indo European is a mythical fabrication, and many people reading this don’t agree with the main thrust of what you and the man Daniel Klein are saying. Proto Indo European is quite clearly an imagination. It was invented to side-step the fact that Shastra, the Vedas and Sanskrit are original sources of wisdom and language. P.I.E. has zero artefacts, zero culture, zero history and zero everything apart from coming from the imagination of scholars compromised by being paid by foreign businessmen or colonial aggressors. The book “Searching for Vedic India” by Devamrita Swami explains this history. The author of this is African Amercian, and I’m ethnically Irish myself, just in case you thought I was an Indian nationalist! Hoping you have a nice day, Tim ….p.s. I have no further comments on this. Just thought I’d say a few words :-)

  5. It is not surprising Sanskrit is mother of all languages.. it is a historical fact that human civilization started in Indus valley in India and Nile valley in Egypt thousands of years before Jesus Christ was born.

    • No, it is not a fact. It is Indian propaganda. Sanskrit is not the mother of all languages. Sanskrit is only one of the thousands of languages derived from Proto-Indo-European. There are many other language families completely unrelated to Proto-Indo-European, including language isolates such as Basque which have so far not been found to fit into any linguistic family tree. Sanskrit is just one of the more than 200 languages of Indo-Aryan. Romance, Germanic, Slavic, Greek, Celtic, etc. are all sibling families to Indo-Aryan.

  6. Sanskrit word kevat(Boat man) become english word caption.
    Sanskrit Kevat > letin caput > english captain

  7. know=gnosis=jna….This is from PIE root *gno- “to know” (source also of Old Persian xšnasatiy “he shall know;” Old Church Slavonic znati, Russian znat “to know;” Latin gnoscere; Greek *gno-, as in gignoskein; Sanskrit jna- “know”). I would also make the case for a connection between the sanskrit words agni and jna,,,as light, which fire is the source of, is always connected with the ability to know or perceive,,,light is often metaphorically used for consciousness. We can easily see the similarity between the words ignite and gnosis and knowledge,,,,

  8. Well, when a real & scientific research which has to do with greeks comes out, I will always spot some jealous & graphic greek commenters who always live by ”fantasies” and ”fairytales”, without the ”real” truth!!

    I’m sorry, but you ‘ve just lost the meaning of the article, saying only paranoiac bunkums!!

    I’ll do a copy-paste as well…:P

    If the root is similiar in two languages doesn’t mean that both of them are ”original”!! The new one derived from the old one… And this goes for every word…

    The problem for greeks is one:

    Not only most english words comes from sanskrit, but also sanskrit is older than ancient greek and has given many words in ancient greek language…

    Wanna live only by ”imaginary” truths as all greeks do for decades?? Does it hurt you?? Makes you feel awful?? Please, try to accept the well-known proved & real facts and DON’T imagine your fake facts!!

    I know that truth always hurts beacuse is much more by your own ”fake” truth…

    And this goes for some romantic foreigners who obviously don’t know, so they make mistakes & give the right to you staying untutored & carefree!! :P

    You haven’t realised yet you will just be the same living like that?? ;-)

    And please, don’t ”return” this to me as you always do!! ;-)

    You ‘ll never make your country better like that, so you will keep on living by europeans & foreigners, having no native products t? export and living by illusions…

    And no, the european civilazation doesn’t totally come from ancient greeks… Just so superficial…

    Read books written by honest & impartial people and be real educated…

    Your delusional thinking prevents any reasonable approach.

    This is exactly the classic original greek crumby way & style of entertainment & writting!!

    At your everyday life, they are always argumentative, quarrelsomes & ratbags!!

    Beacuse of their sad disablement, they consider this kind of behavior as ”normal”!!! So, if they try to translate their bunkums in English, they will be also heard as silly!!

    Just work a bit more and don’t be rapturous…

    Please, if you want it too, just have a look on their comments and their ”rest” things which have to do with greece… Almost all of greek people swear you using crude jokes, sexually suggestive comments and vulgar, cowardly assaults… They just write about all foreign girls they come to greece, becoming offensive, insulting and speaking about ”how much foreign women had bedded & foreign girls are… suckers which always sleep around or something”…

    They just continuously make fun of you and your country, kidding & humiliating with some tolerant people writing you have stung by their mockery…

    BUT, BE CAREFUL, THIS IS NOT A ISOLATED INCIDENT…

    IT IS JUST THEIR USUAL & GENERAL WAY OF THINKING…

    I’m sure they are gonna tell you I’m a liar in order to persuade you with blarneys or convince you that they are just innocently effusive & welcoming and all those well-known words…Please, don’t believe them at all… This is what they really want…

    I dare to say that you just don’t know them clearly… Many tourists see them kinda superficially…

    By the way, you must have been known already that all those flung themselves at every tourist girl they met…

    They keep on saying that foreign girls are what we say ”free-and-easy”…

    You shoudn’t let those consider you as that, because they take liberties with you!!

    Even more tragedy than their tragic economy!!!!

    At least, I just see many foreign women who realised somehow that they are such stupid & disgracefull…

    And generally, all of them, men & women, regardless of age, position, sexual orientation or another category are what we say ”disabled”!!

    It’s a fact that all these words describe and represent all those mental ill people of this country!! The only things that ”modern” greeks know to say constantly is about their long lost ancient history (with which they have nothing common for many centuries and just know nothing about itl!!) & their sun (which is one of those few things that has remained to them!!)

    You know, stupidity saves them from madness somehow, because they can realised this tragic way of thinking only in part…

    And of course both of them have just been ready for them for many decades!!

    When they look how modern man has advanced beyond the ancient greeks (thinking of experimental science, the development of mathematics, the art of the renaissance, the great depth and understanding of the relative shallowness of greek philosophy, etc., etc.), they say, “What do you mean—what was wrong with the ancient greeks?”

    They continually put their age down and the old age up, until to point out the wonders of the present seems to them to be an unjustified lack of appreciation for the past.

    What they are learning in school is to be intimidated into thinking they have fallen so far below their ancestors.

    You see, generally greeks had been helpless, hopeless & impractical so, they always learn to leave by other European or not countries!! ;-)

    They constantly cling to them!!

    Because happened to them being born in a country with climate & ancient history, they have been acting like being the masters of the world, so it’s impossible to live without it!!

    You only have to check some mock-tragic profiles of those, so you will understand what I’m talking about!!

    But, on the other hand, you don’t need to do that… Only by their profile name and their paranoiac insulting comments, you may have already realised much more things for the real side of them…;-)

    I know they kinda wanna justify their existence, so they always try to find a way living by delusions and telling catchy quotes for public consumption and for misery escape!!

    They haven’t realised yet that all the rest developed countries have moved more forward!! It’s just an illusion saying that Greece is a developed country!! If you ask many greeks (especially those silly old geezers and wrinklies who don’t know any English word) they will answer you ”What Europe?? I don’t know, blah blah, I want Greece!!”!! But they still stay alive by Europe!! :P

    All those accuse the rest Europeans for THEIR INTERTEMPORAL mess, for which THEY are blameful!! Not even their politicians which THEY had been voting all these years insistently!!

    They are always against memorandum(!!) but, at the same time, THEY HAD BEEN TRADITIONALLY UNABLE TO PRODUSE THINGS!! THEY JUST PRODUSE NOTHING!!!

    This mess’ has been a mixture of a semi-developed and (mostly) developing country!! IN MODERN YEARS, NOT ONLY BEFORE TURKEY SUBJUCATION BUT ALSO NOT LONG AGO ROMANS SUBJUCATION, THERE WAS NOT ANY SENCE & ANY MEANING OF CIVILIZA?ION!!

    FOR MANY YEARS, THE PROBLEM OF THIS COUNTRY HAD NOT BEEN ONLY FINANCIAL!!

    IT HAD BEEN A SET OF DEEPEST PROBLEMS SUCH AS EDUCATION, CULTURE, MANNERS, BEHAVIOR, WAY OF LIFE AND PERCEPTION OF THINGS!! SO ALL THESE PROBLEMS SOONER & LATER FORMED THE FINANCIAL CRISIS!!

    PLEASE, DON’T GET SERIOUSLY THE NEWS ABOUT THE RECENT REFUGEES RESCUE!! THIS IS JUST A ILLUSION FOR GREEKS IN ORDER TO PROOVE THAT THER ARE JUST ”’SO GOOD & CIVILIZED PEOPLE”!! (ARSONS HAVE BEEN AT REFUGEE CAMPS!!)

    CIVILIZATION ISN’T ”FRAGMENTARY”!!! AND MANY OTHER COUNTRIES ARE MUCH MORE CIVILIZED & DEMOCRATIC THAN THIS QUARRELSOME…

    You must have realised that many greeks living in abroad also maintain this rotten mentality!!

    BECAUSE OF THEIR STUPIDITY, MANY GREEKS ARE ADDITIONAL HYPOCRITS, DUPLICITOUS, SOPHOMORIC, LIARS & CHEATS!!

    Of course, it’s self-explanatory that every country has got its own sobinists, roosters, losers, dumbasses etc etc!! No offence!! But some countries have all those in higher rates!!

    it’s just a pity to observe some foreigners who keep on saying kinda good words for this bankrupt, spoiled & failed country!!

    I could justify you, because you are so far away obviously!! You often connect them with sun, holidays and history wrongly!! And this is the trap…

    If you had ever learnt the real life & the real behavior in this country, you would have disapointed & you would have changed your mind immediatelly as many many other people all over the world which did the ”crime” and moved to this country!!

    All romantic foreigners must stop licking their dirty boots (if they still have got boots to wear!!) and let them rotting away and living like common jungle animals!!

    They never realised that they had been living for many many decades in a very huge ”bubble” without substance or seriousness!! Unfortunatelly, the game is over, they bubble has popped and they gonna pay it…

    Foreigners are not suckers to pay them for ducking around and being slacking!!!

    Because of their hyper-paranoiac belief, they think they are what we say ”upper & best race”!! But this doesn’t change the fact & the truth that they still remain some grungies!! ;-)

    P.S. Instead of writing various usual gibberish about their damaged nation or youtube videos, go and find the true meaning of life!!! Don’t blame the other nations or your politicians for YOUR intertemporal mess!! You have always been a mess, still remain the same and they ‘ve got to blame themselves only!!

    Of course, they’ve also got too many habitual offenders & molesters in their mess!!

    So, they shoudn’t be wussy hypocrites and calm down finally

    I very well know that there are many greeks who live abroad and keep on having this kind of miserable & seedy behavior!!

    P.S.2 Some people say that ”lazy Greeks” is just a sterotype & a myth!! Hmmm… Well, I think that the truth is in the middle!! I firmly believe that ”hardworking Greeks” is somehow a myth!!

    You know what the irony is?? The phrase ”hard working” has been formed by those kinda for a cover!!

    All those hypocritic ”working” people in Greece have realised(!!) that they are ”hardworking”, just by 2009(!!) & by the beginning of the crisis, reading a research of OASA… You know, despite their own problems, the most European peoples with fewer hours of work, managed to have a real helpful society, civilized, friendly people, organized with methodicalness etc…

    And those hard-working greeks, with the most working hours, are just failed & incapable of anything !! And neither the state (which they have been born), nor the many working hours… Only their low IQ sings!!!

    You know, it has been proved that the average IQ level is absolutely connected with productivity!!

    While all the rest Europeans outside pay their living, they stay there and do nothing… And when they work, they do produce nothing!!

    Even some jobs helping by European subsidies have been failed…

    All those years, those hard-workings had been stolen European money, they have just degenerated into corrupt scammers, into rogues & fakes who claime to be workers etc. Their low iq & their education makes them piddly, useless and unable to make just one decent thing!!

    Even those who have been measured with high IQ, have ridden the stake!! Not even don’t know how to talk!! Their stupidities far outweigh their sensible acts. Most of them who go abroad, still remain incompetent!! And I realise that every day…

    You know, myths & fictions are nices… But, for greeks, it’s well-known all over the world that words never become deeds!! ;-)

    They have the most working days but they don’t produce anything and swear the rest europeans who work!! By my side, I realise even at their jobs, they keep on trying not to lose their welfare & well-being!! This ”well-being” purpose had been one of all those many many ”genetic defects” that led them to destruction!!

    Moreover, tt’s well-known that greeks always seek until today fortune & money, with an easy & comfortable life only, without problems & at the expense of other people (greek or foreigners)!!

    With all these foible, do you believe that takes a long time to tell them sluggards?? I guess this doesn’t need an answer!!

    Well, I believe that people of northern countries have an excuse to wait for the summer!! But, do you know what the irony is?? Although greeks have usually sunny days, they always wait for their summer much more than the northern people!!!

    I’m sure that they have always loved watching the rest Europeans working, while they make fun of them, living by their money!!

  9. sanskrit is not the oldest but one of the oldest languages. Greek is about as old as sanskrit and they both have similar roots. english borrowing from only sanskrit is a theory not a fact. words could be from greek or sanskrit or PIE, which you mentioned as a follower to sanskrit. It is actually the apparent parent language to both greek and sanskrit.

        • And who wrote Wikipedia? When Wiki’s ancestors were playing with stones, my ancestors have already invented astrology, astronomy, biology, chemistry, decimals, geometry, math, medical science, metallurgy, numbers, physics, trigonometry, yoga and already answered a billion-dollar question of life and death. Put all that knowledge in world’s oldest Wikipedia (Vedas, Upanishads, Geeta etc.) for future generations to consume free of cost. They never patented it, restrict it, or made money out of it. It was a pure knowledge of their Sadhna.

    • You are wrong sanskrit is the oldest language btw there are arguements regarding tamil( a south dravidian language) is older than sanskrit

      • This theory doesn’t fly because the JEWS were the first to write down their history in the TORAH. JEHOVAH GOD gave them this ability. Surely their language would have been way more powerful and important or GOD would not have given them this privilege.

  10. sanskrit is not the oldest but one of the oldest languages. Greek is about as old as sanskrit and they both have similar roots. english borrowing from only sanskrit is a theory not a fact. words could be from greek or sanskrit or PIE, which you mentioned as a follower to sanskrit. It is actually the apparent parent language to both greek and sanskrit.

    • How obsessed are you with the pathetic westernism and eurocentric theories? PIE is a linguistic construction. It is NOT something that actually existed. It might help understanding some concepts in lexical points, we call it ‘comparative linguistics’. On the other hand, we have solid evidences, both archeological, genetic and linguistic, that there is no older language than Sanskrit and there hasn’t been any recorded evidence for Vedas originating elsewhere than the Indian subcontinent, and we all know they’re the oldest and most refined documents. Even today, no programming language has a very well defined and concise documentation like Panini’s Ashthadhyayi, and that one was for a human language! You guys are undermining your own cultural heritage. Seems like someday you’ll be hyped to hear Vedas are from America. Namaste!

  11. Sir, where could we find the full list of dhatis? i’ve found a dhatukosha and dhatupatha (not sure what the difference is) where the meanings are explained in english, but the dhatus themselves are in devangari script (which i can’t read). I can see how the the dhatupatha would come handy if one wanted to understand a written sanskrit text, but it doesn’t help when one is trying to decipher the meaning of sanskrit names when they are written in latin script. is there a list where both the dhatus and their meanings are written in latin script for us western dummies? (basically, the way you posted the root sanskrit words, but all 2012 of them) Thank you for the interesting and educational articles!

  12. This is a great resource and fascinating display of cultural cross-fertilization. Does anyone know if the word “Krishna” from the Sanskrit “krshnah” can be connected to the word “Christ” via the Latin “christus” and earlier Greek “khristos”?
    They sound similar but have such different literal meanings (aside from religious connotations).
    Thanks to all

    • It certainly is. In the ancient world Krishna was also worshipped by Greeks as Christos. Further, Krishna subdues the dangerous serpent Kaliya while Heracles subdues the snake headed Hydra and the snake-headed Medusa-Heracles is Krishna as in Greek Mythology. Studies show that the original story emanates from Vedic India (which was far in extent as compared to present day) as in the Sansktitic texts which is the oldest of humankind.

      • Thanks, but do you have a source for that you can link to? I’d like to look that up because what you said is not at all concordant with the etymology I see. I really don’t think it means cross, but am willing to looks at any references you have.

        From what I see, Christ comes from the Greek> Χριστός, (Christos), meaning “anointed”, in turn borrowed from the Hebrew for “Messiah”. But the Greeks were certainly in touch with the Indus valley civilizations and I am curious if instead they borrowed the Sanskrit Kshna.

    • Sanskrit is only the mother of North Indian Languages (Indo-Aryan family of languages). It heavily influences South Indian languages (Dravidian Family) like Malayam, Tamil, etc. Please don’t spread lies, Samskruta Vak is a great languages, and is very impressive, and doesn’t need any lies to bring it down.

      • arya-dravid racial distinction is a theory of western historians to show own superiority as they cud not bear to see cultural, linguisitic, artistic, mathematical superiority of our nation. this aryan invasion theory is their own propaganda and it is sad to see how we fall into this trap hook line and sinker. am happy to discuss with any seeker of truth. om shanti.

  13. Hi i am from greece. I don’t know Sanskrit but i do know ancient greek. You tell us about latin language. Latin alphabet derives from ancient (greek) Halcideon Alphabet. Every word of latin language derives from ancient greek (doric dialect). Also many of the words of sanskrit derives from ancient doric dialect. For example Mycenaean Greek (ma-te-re), doric greek dialect μάτηρ (mátēr), ionic greek dialect μήτηρ (mitir), Greek: μητέρα (mitéra), , Latin mater, Phrygian matar, Sanskrit mā́tṛ. As you see latin word its the same with ancient doric word and Sanskrit almost the same! So what happened?! Before 7-10 thousands of years a civilization who spokes ancient doric language made colonies to italy, egypt, india,china, japan, polinisia(greek word means many islands), Easter Island, chile and many other places. The spread their ancient doric dialect and their civilization and everything that we know begins. So why they have been forgotten? Ofcourse many thousands of years have passed, but the main problem was that the spartians who spoken the doric language, had lost the war with the athenians. The athenians eradicated every information, book,etc about them. So i believe that before 2500 years this civilization fall forever. The greek language derives from ancient ionic dialect, and thats the reason that we have some differences in pronunciation with the latin language.

    • Hi Diogenis ! Nice to know that you are from Greece and you know ancient Greek. I am an anthropologist and love to read about the ancient world culture. I have few ancient greek words and I would like to know the meanings of them from you if you can. Here are the words: μέλαν, κάλαμος, πύξινον, χαλινός, κενδρον and σαμβύκη

      • To Diogenis and Mr Leakey; Yet again, the conventional western history insists and tells us about greek language as the cradle of the civilised world. Sorry to spoil your enthusiasm, but the alternative forbidden history says otherwise. The term greek was spread in 1800 (watch 1821- the real history of Greece). The arcaic greek (doric, mycean ecetera) has no relation to modern greek as was spoken by the so called barbarians (Pelageans, Illyrians, Sparti, Epirotes, Thraceans,Troyans, Etruscans, Messapi and more) inhabiting the balkan areas, Italian pennisula, Egean islands and Western Turkey). The so called today’s greeks were adressed as ‘Danaos’ in the famous latin saying ‘Beware of the greeks bering gifts’ as “Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes”. Modern greeks claim to have brought the alphabet to Etruscans, at a time when etruscan had own writings and greeks only colonised later (after Etruscans were overtaken by a military state like Rome thus Latin) History recognises greek colonies as starting around 700 BC around Athens, thus the puzzling question is “Who fought against Trojans?” I will leave that to own research from those interested in this discussion. I could go on an on….but you get my gist. I am glad that you mentioned Athenians eradicated the books about Spartans, but why? Because it contained the truth? Dark age of Greece exists because there was no Greek history to tell; simply stories of non Greek people who lived in those shores and alongside. (Read Strabo) The first Homeric writings mention no greek. I am not of Indian background, but I find it offensive to hear that sanscrit derives from ancient doric greek. Neither derived, they both existed thousands of years before the greeks started claiming everything greek. Again this is not intended as offensive, merely the untold truth.

        • Hi, I am confused about your literacy on history! I am more confused what was your purpose of this long post! I do not want to be arrogant, but I must suggest you consult any psychiatrist! Masturbating all the information on comment is not symbol of healthy brain!

        • Fact. Even in high schools today in the US it is taught Greek culture and language originates around 800 BC and prior to that it was the “Dark Ages”

    • i will show how the word mater, mitera and ma-te-re from the sanskrit word matr.

      In sanskrit u see most of the words will be having ‘A’ as the vovel for example
      ekAm, dwA, thrAyA, chAtr, pAnchA, AshtA, sApthA, nAvA, dAshA- the numericals.
      And many more words like
      Avatara,
      rama
      krshna
      bharatha
      ganga
      narmada
      patha
      pada
      jalaja
      nama
      amrtha
      prabala
      gatha
      grantha
      mrtha
      mama
      twama
      kala
      lakshmana
      aksha
      prathama

      ‘A’ is the mos natural and perfect letter in the entire alphabet. thats why the nomenclature of sanskrit words so made with highest ‘A’ Sound.
      animals too produce sound which so connected with ‘A’

      Where as in european tounge is having a dialect of pronouncing ‘A’ in the other fasion like
      chatr- Four
      Pancha-pEnta
      ga- gO
      ma-mY
      nama-name, nome
      mana-mind
      dwa-two
      vahana,yana-vagen
      manu-manes
      ganga-ganges
      sindhu-indus
      kannada-kenara

      now

      MATR -MA TE RE (DUE TO THE DIALECT THEY EXPANENDED THE WORD MATR) -MATER (AGAIN DUE TO THE DIALECT IT BECAME MATER)

      IS THIS ENOUGH?

      • A long a short is be using by the language’s with high level of the gramatica. Short or long A can mins different time and place. Also they singing a lot.

    • Just put in the minds that all the continents were once single part. You can google it or can join the continents in your map. But with the passage of time, they got apart from each other due to movement of earth and its calamities. And now you can imagine what would happen to the language which would exist in single Continent b4 aparting.
      May be I am wrong, but seriously it looks like that.

    • pythagoras was in india – did u know dat? he took back wid him to greece d instrument Lute, mathematics which he learned from d brahmins, he took back d 7 musical notes also

  14. The Language of the Harappans: From Akkadian to Sanskrit
    This is a book how Sanskrit develloped from Akkadian. Assyrian was a dialect of Akkadian. Of course other words mixed in, but many european words have semitic roots from ancient times.

    • Are you serious??? Harappans were like the washed out civilization or city. For example Harappans were like Monrovia to New york, for civilizations before that.

  15. Dear author, I hope you are still watching the comments on this article. I’m so happy to see you point out the similarities between Sanskrit and European tongues. This, for some reason, gets only scant attention from western readers. I’m willing to wager, however, that you have not a shred of evidence that other Indo-Aryan/Indo-European languages are derived directly or even indirectly from Sanskrit (you’re correct that there’s limited evidence of PIE as well – that is, sadly, the nature of evidence of the ancient and pre-ancient world). Even if there were some body of knowledge to which you could point, it wouldn’t really prove that much, would it? Languages change, often for the worse, sometimes for the better, which is why many people in the north the Subcontinent use Hindi-Urdu as lingua franca. It has been enriched by Sanskrit and Prakrit variants, Dravidian words, Persian and Arabic-via-Persian, English and a host of other influences. I would focus more time embracing Hindi (which gets scoffed at as something impure, as if there ever were a pure language) than clinging to a fabled past.

  16. NEMSIS2 seems like you are greatly butt hurt by this article. This observation is made by noticing your replies to almost each comment in this comment sections, seems to me the truth hurts…

    • What hurts? The truth here is that IF Greek, Persian were derived from Sanskrit, because of the similarities pointed out, it can only mean that in the prehistoric times these peoples were one , using one language (as the Bible suggests). But as the populace dispersed,evolving through millennia into different nations, so their languages also drew farther apart. The credit for the ancient Greeks achievements goes to them, not the Indian peoples.

      • You should watch Scientific Verification of Vedic Knowledge in Hinduism

        an American made documentary which provides ample evidence that plenty of Greek knowledge was BORROWED from INDIA. The proof exists today.

        All these scholars and historians must have been ****high on opium**** as well when they wrote these things about Ancient India.

        Read 30 famous quotes about India.

        Put that in a search.

      • Read carefully

        >See the dates under

        >Classification

        >Indo Aryan

        Wiki Indo European languages

        Aryan Invasion theory has been proven false by EDU sites on many basis.

        The writers of the Vedas discuss no other homeland.

        It was a racist colonial English construct

        Though I’m also plenty fine with ****some random white people*** from some **random location in Central Asia or Russia**

        creating Sanskrit and Vedic literature if it was true.

        In any case genetic studiess today show North Indians are 97% – 100% Caucasian genes and there were cow migrations from India to Africa in the 3rd mill BC as well as HUMAN genes.

        You can see my Anushka Shetty pic for all this

        proof “Raani Prema Satya” FB.

        • The Aryan invasion is not theory any more, it is fact and it is particularly european branch of the Aryans that invaded. Choke on the obvious reality.

  17. Yeah…well…you do whatever you like, but stop messing in our turf! You guys wanna boost Indian morale, and by doing so, you’re aiming (or so it seems) to push aside other (AS EQUALY IF NOT MORE ANCIENT TO YOURS) languages in order to achieve that! Well….as actor Bill Murray said back in the 1988 movie “Scrooged”…….”Back off big guy…this might work with the chicks but not with me”!

  18. Nemesis – Anamika is also composed of three words – 1) a prefix An , meaning not ( as in un in English), 2) Naam as in Name ( same as in Greek Onoma), and 3) a suffix “Ika” meaning with, similar to Greek suffix “ous” meaning having that property. So Sanskrit and ancient Greek are directly and closely related. I would not give too much credence to Western Anthropologists and linguists as they do not get the evidence staring in front of them due to prior wrong focus and training in absence of clear facts. Dhiru

  19. Without doubting the above text in it’s whole, never the less I found it difficult as a Greek, that certain VERY TYPICAL GREEK WORDS such as ANONYMOUS to be of Indian origin! In my country this is a combined word deriving FROM TWO DIFFERENT WORDS…..ANEF (Without) and ONOMA (Name). Automatically we can see that there are two different words and NOT ONE as this text here shows us! Additionally….linguists and anthropologists already proved that words such as these, come DIRECTLY from ancient GREEK language AND NOT derive from foreign influences! That we do have lot’s of hindi words in our vocabulary (such as KIMA = minced meat, or SAHLE = Fool) that is indeed without a doubt, a fact! After all…..they were our territory too (under Alexander the Great of course) once upon a time, and of course influences would be plenty, but there are a ton of words and phrases that are scientifically OURS and NOT THEIRS. Finally let’s not forget that in many occasions WE GREEKS TOO, INFLUENCED THEM WITH OUR LANGUAGE AS WELL, AND NOT ONLY THEM TO US! Such things occasionally do happen, between brothers in a family! And the Indians are our brothers and we are theirs too! Alexander see to it so that we would become as one! God bless him!

    • brother sanskrit word ANAAM i.e ANONYMOUS also have derivied from two words A(without) and NAAM(name), these are certein kind of grammar rules called “sandhi vichedh”,

      • ?????! Allow me to still insist that ONYMOUS derives from ancient Greek word ONOMA (name) and also that my ancestors ruled in India for centuries and therefore Hindi grammar rules could be very well influenced by the Greeks as well! Sorry for “raining” at your parade, but your arguments can not prove to me 100% that you are right and I am wrong! With the grand mixtures that took place between our two countries, EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE!

        • OKAY I WILL ASK YOU TO PRONOUNCE SOME OF THE SANSKRIT WORD, IF YOU CAN..
          .
          .
          .
          .
          .
          .
          .
          .
          .
          .
          .
          .
          .
          PRATHYARTHA, PRADYUMNA, UJWALA, NAMAMRITHA, AGASTHYA, PRATYARTHA, SPARSHA, PRACHHEENA, SAMAYOTHPATHHI, ASHTODYAYA
          .
          LOL STILL TRYING TO PRONOUNCE,
          tHESE ARE JUST SIMPLE WORDS IN SANSKRIT.
          NOT ONLY YOU YOUR ANCESTORS COULN’T PRONOUNCE THE SANSKRIT WORDS, AND THAT IS HOW THE GREEK LANGUAGE HAS DERIVED FROM INDIA, AS INDIANS TAUGHT THEM THE CULTURE AND LANGUAGE.

          • most european languages lack glyphs for sounds which exist in not only samskrita but also in most asian languages. examples are d-hard-soft-medium, t-hard-soft-medium, to mention only a couple but we can go in detail for any one who desires to learn. om shanti

        • one convinced against own will is of same opinion still. hence arguments are inconclusive, unproductive and moreover may be even detrimental to personal growth unless accompanied with deep desire to know and ability to see all sides of any discussion, and capacity to comprehend available data. after comprehension comes realization that external coordinates can not identify absolute reality which lies beyond grasp of those who see duality. om shaanti.

    • Every language has tonnes of its own words. And almost every language contains Sanskrit words. I talk Kannada. My language has its own words n sanskrit words. I don’t have hatred against sanskrit

      • YES IN KANNADA WE USE SANSKRIT WORDS VERY OFTENLY AND TREAT LIKE MOTHER OF KANNADA LANGUAGE, WE PRONOUNCE EVERY SANSKRIT WORDS AS IT IS WITH NO DIALECT
        BUT OTHER LANGUAGES HAVE HIGEST DIALECT AND CHANGE THE SANSKRIT WORDS ACCORDINGLY

      • even sanskrit took words from language spoken by people during vedic time and purified it and gave more good sounding. It took words from prakrit, pali, proto-dravidian and many more. so give and take is there form to sanskrit. if you see tribal they can speak without using sanskrit. sanskrit is almost created/refined lang. so it is called sanskrit(refined).

        • Thats why no need of quarrelling regarding languages. Instead its better to learn more or just use the language for good reasons. :)

          • It is none of your business. If some want to study sanskrit i dont object. I have different interest than learning sanskrit. Please force your views on me.

            • Arre…I did not mean that you learn a language. I gave two options to any person who is reading this discussion. Either learn a language or just use the known language. While replying there shouldn’t be a hatred bro. I personally don’t hate any language. Instead I try learning. I have lots of work. Still interest matters.

    • Do they teach you that Alexander ruled India? He barely entered the borders of India after the war with Paurava and returned from there. “Alexander ruled India” is like a saying that a mayor of a small city in a tiny European country is ruling entire Europe.

      Alexander’s army had great difficulty in defeating the army of Pourava which had around 2000 elephants, the first time Greek army ever came across an army with elephants. And after this, they heard that they will have to fight the mighty Nanda empire,who was waiting for Alexander’s men on other side of the river with his huge army of around 30000 elephants. Alexander’s men hearing this revolted, refused to enter further inside India, and Alexander had to return from those North-Western borders of India.

      • EXCUSE ME?! HE DID WHAT?! ONLY A SMALL PART OF THE BORDER?! Hey..pal…have you being drinking again yesterday night?!
        Even if he didn’t rule all of India (which he didn’t and I admit it) he however ruled AT LEAST it’s north western part, and that’s not something I say so, but history book world wide! Therefore go sell these stories to someone else…Ok pal?!

        • Alexander defeated Porus?!! Really!? Prove it…but er… Not the stories of the Greek or western historians!!
          India!? Did he even see the border!?

          What history is told by the west is truth, gospel, and the facts told by Asians are nonsense!?

          Google up and see that written records as old as 2,000BC have decimal system, Pythagoras theorems prove, the speed at which your eye lid blinks etc., etc.. Imagine how old would the actual culture be if only the document is 2000BC!? If the humans were still at Neanderthal stage in Europe, it certainly says a lot about the age and advancement of the culture.

          Like it or hate it, Vedic culture precedes all, too bad it was missed/ abused by the Brahmins and now we are living ina White man’s world, but the wheels will turn……

        • You might want to read-up on ancient history(the non-bigotted version). The Indus Sarasvati civilisations (with cities such as Mohenjo-daro’ Harrapa’Lothal.Megrah etc predates Greek civilisation by thousands of years, As a matter of fact when the ancient Vedic Indians were living in cities (with piped drainage,indoor baths-Harrapa- and studying in universities such as Taxilia;Nalanda etc the Europeans wre still sleeping;eatind and defecating in caves. Just saying…read up on Stephen Knapp, David Frawley, Cremo and Thompson et al

    • ANEF comes from sanskrit “An” which is used to negate anything in Sanskrit. Like “Anta” (which has end) => “Ananta” (which has no end), Apekshita (desirable) => Anapekshita (not desirable),

      Even english “Un” comes from this. Like in English it is, natural => unnatural, known=>unknown etc.

      ONOMA comes from sanskrit “NAMA” which means, of course “Name”.

      And the Sanskrit influence on Greek or west is not from the times of Alexander, but long before that when people from the west came to India to study mathematics, philosophy and science. Have you read Voltaire, who has said that “Pythagoras went to the banks of Ganges to learn Mathematics from the Brahmins”. Pythagoras never gave the proof to the famous theorem that is named after him, where as ancient Indian texts which are centuries before Pythagoras have the same theorem WITH proof.

      • Whatever pal…whatever! You have your own point of view on this issue…allow us to have ours. Ok?!!!……The only thing we agree in here is that we….disagree!

        • Just a comment back, you were convinced that ANEF & ONAMA are your original words. Now that you have been enlightened with their respective Sanskrit roots- AN & NAMA, you want to escape the argument with an “Agree to disagree”, huh? That’s a neat tactic!

          • Indeed and not just a tactic. It is a cabalist homogenizing tradition that westerners have always followed and genocided others or enslaved them who didn’t agree ! That is what their tradition is. The problem is India is not that weak so they cannot ourightly call us heathen and since their traditions always had ways of appropriating Everything from all cultures they don’t have a proper defence either. So all they are left with is closed coterie back patting and more thieving !

        • It is funny how you guys are so condescending when giving others their due but fight tooth and nail on intellectual property like dogs eg Samsung and Microsoft patents etc. You go even further and quickly try to , even to date, usurp our cultural herigate eg yoga (multi billion dollar industry in the US) but at the same time try to show that the culture that produced it doesn’t have anything to give other than caste cow and curry ! In case you didn’t know caste is a portugese word Castas and not even Sanskrit. To top it all you appoint ford foundation, 1040 Joshua and proselytization as your means to denigrate us.

          Keep up the duplicity. There is a saying, you can fool some of the people all of the times and all of the people some of the times but not all of the people all of the times.

          Indian people are requested
          to read Breaking India by Rajiv malhotra to get to the bottom of such nefarious intents of the west !

      • You should watch Scientific Verification of Vedic Knowledge in Hinduism

        an American made documentary which provides ample evidence that plenty of Greek knowledge was BORROWED from INDIA. The proof exists today.

        All these scholars and historians must have been ****high on opium**** as well when they wrote these things about Ancient India.

        Read 30 famous quotes about India.

        Put that in a search.

    • And who said that we hate it?! Hey…pal…are you sure that you are Ok?! And also…are you sure that while you’re asking us to learn your language, that you’re doing your very best in your turn to learn ours as well?!!!

        • But I already have lot’s of them in my language! But contrary to all of you inside here…I admit it! YOU on the other hand however you’re trying now to convince us (or so it seems) that EVERYTHING….BUT EVERYTHING…came ONLY FROM INDIA and from nowhere else! Sorry guys but that goes too far!

          • ok. then you please provide a long list of Greek words that are matching with the words of English. Instead of argument, its better to make a list.

            • When you say “match”…what exactly do you mean?! Do you honestly expect that they sound the same, and thanks to that one can prove that they are related to each other?! Do you think that in the languages this the fundamental basis, for the relation between them?! You must be joking of course!

              • Match means a resemblance as above. Sapta=sept, Asta=oct , nava=nine, dasha=deca are sanskrit words match with english words. The months september to december were 7th to 10 th months. Please verify in internet or any other source. Still if you are arguing i can’t help. U be in dark. Bye

          • No not everything comes from india. What I understand is that there are words in English derived from Sanskrit and Greek plus many other ancient ino European languages…I really don’t what’s all the fuss about

      • Why that hatred in reply? Y should v hate someone or something? Its better v love this world n learn a lot more everyday. Hatred is darkness n love is light. It is the beginning of knowledge. If v abuse someone, v r abusing ourselves.

        • Yes…but we learn by not distorting history to the expense of others and in to our benefit! What you guys are doing here (or so it seems) is that you’re trying now to change scientifically proven facts, for entire centuries already! Heah……you can’t exactly expect us to accept them over night just because you like it so…do ‘ya?! Sorry///but love or not love…hate or not hate….such acts we will fight them back, because just like you love your own countries and cultures, so do we with ours, and we can’t allow any foreigner to “spot” it as he or she pleases!

          • MR. Nemesis
            please dont try to learn SANSKRIT
            because even your ancestors coulnt learn sanskrit before 4000 years, then how come you could able to learn sanskrit
            no way possible for you.

      • Nemesis, I am sorry but you are communicating from a very ethnocentric view and without any knowledge of India’s history and how so much of this history influenced Greece — whose civilization came many centuries after Vedanta.

        • And you think that you are not?! HA! Think again! First of all…from your own words…it’s obvious that you know squad about Greece! First go and visit the caves at Petralona / Chalkidiki / N. Greece and see there for your self how old is the Proto – human (even older to that of Neaterdal) and then come over here and tell me who’s culture is more ancient!

          • That’s my point…the Greeks were eating,sleeping and defecating in caves when cities (Harrapa,Mo-Henjodar, Lothal,Megrah etc) and universities (Taxillia,Nalanda) were in existence in India. Dr Brown(You tube:,,Sanskrit…) affirms that indeed Greek was a sub-Vedic culture. You may not like it, but that’s what the scholars say.

      • Hold tight1 You might want to read the British author, E Pocoke’s “India in Greece”. I should add it isn’t for those amongst us who have bigotted or racist views.

  20. This is not new, but what is diplorable is the way the Indians have discarded the sacred language of humanity, that is Sanskrit. It is the language that enjoins in itself the very essence and science of life.

    • Oh really?! And then how come and ancient Greeks ruled our lives ALL OVER THE WORLD and not them?! Guys….behave! Somewhere on your way here, you’veeeeee…..”lost it”!

      • If you are really interested in learning about who ruled whom and when.. which culture has its roots in which other culture… read the book “India in Greece” by E. Pococke.

        • No thanks pal….I prefer my own…bibliography! You hear me?….BIBLIOGRAPHY! ANOTHER GREEK WORD! (….unless of course if you are that crazy to tell us that even that is Indian, in which case of course I will suggest you have your self checked in to a doctor at Delhi!)

      • Nemesis, did you know Plotemy wrote a book called “Ancient India” — the greeks took much from India. Please do tell when the Greeks RULED ALL OF INDIA. You are sounding like a real bigot who really does not know much about history at all.

      • YES YOU ARE RIGHT. GREECE WERE THE HUNTERS, SOLDIERS MAYBE INVADED MANY OTHER PARTS OF WORLD
        BECAUSE THEY WERE CRUEL, JUST LIKE ANIMALS.
        ANCIENT GREECE WAS JUST LIKE GRAVE YARD. THEY WERE THE MOST CRUEL PEOPLE UNLIKE INDIANS, WHO BELIEVED IN NONVOILENCE AND PEACE

        • Please don’t write in caps. it is basic internet etiquette. Even if you are helping India it would still be called out coz opponents will say you don’t even know basic etiquette so they will not consider your words as important ! That is the ploy they often use ie form over substance !

  21. it’s really amazing! thank you everyone to posting similarities in English and Samskrit as well to whom criticizing the same that motivates to dig into more and to find out facts.let us talk about the fact as we know Samskrit is alone non-ambiguous language in the world best suitable for our intelligence,space software with robustness(high accuracy and no failure)2.Samskrit is alone language that has more child languages 3.non comparable best grammar ever.

    it’s not matter of whether English is derived from Samskrit or vice verse. going forward what we do we decommission old thing adopt new feasible thing as per to met requirements(easiness,enhancements,etc).

    for me it seems English is more modern language designed to met requirement like less vocal effort (so we can speak in less effort more),less alphabet set (so we can represent all the words in less alphabets) and more you guys can add.

    we can’t say like “This is whole article is garbage:” what we can do keep post our findings to educate about the facts for this we need to do a lot of research to prove them if it really holds or not then only people will believe, also please post some useful links as well.

    i appreciate this post.

  22. common -saman

    communist-samuhnisth

    commerce-sahmarsh

    sweat-swed

    cruel-krur

    prayer -prarthna ,prar -thna

    case -kosh

    survey-servexan

    shampoo -champoo – champi

    folk-lok

    ear – k-ear-n,

    ape – k-ape

    apple -phal (pine-apple,custord-apple -sitafal ,jamfal ….)

    automobile -atm-bal

    corner -cona

    shame-sharm

    better-behtar

    pedal -paidal

    mature – KA-mature

    limit-simit

    brilliant-birla

    enemy -anam

    asylum- ashrayam

    fertility -faltiti

    spectecals -spasht-karas

    bubble -bulbule

    adore – aadar

    dictionary -dixantary

    becholar -brahamchari

    king -cing -singh

    divinity -devniti

    abbey -abhay

    centre -kendra

    intermidiate -antar madhyasth

    curriculam -gurukulam

    hashband-hastbandh

    bondage -bandhan

    derm -cherm

    surrender -saran-dhar

    quote -kahavat

    atom -atma

    permanent -param anant

    paramount -param-unnt

    mount -mahaunnt

    sir -sri

    years -versh

    song -sangit

    succint -sunkshipt

    advocate -adhivakta

    dismay -vismay

    urgent -urja

    unity -uti

    duty-dayiti dayitv
    settle-santul
    news-navaj-navajuni
    romance -romanch
    municipality -manush-palti,
    accept -akshipt
    succint-sankshipt
    expected-apexit
    tree -taru
    adore-aadar
    preacher-pracharak
    commodore-samunder
    boat -poat(yudhh poat)
    cottage-utaj
    magic-maayik,maayavi
    music -mousique -mahasukh,mahasukhi
    rope-rajju ,rassi
    courage -sourge -shaurya
    creat/creator/creation -kriya,karya,karta
    urgent -urja
    night-naktam
    court-cot
    lady -laad,laadka,ladki,ladi
    canto-kaand
    gentel-santul ,gentelmen-santulman
    profet -prapat (aakash se gira)
    news-nyuj
    nemesis -naamsesh
    ass- ashva
    damn-daman
    please -prasid
    cide-chhid
    commune,communist,community -samuh,samuhnisth,samuhnit
    path-path
    character-charitra,
    kennel-swanal
    myth -mithya
    super -shu.param
    long-lamb
    decimal-dasamlav
    thirst-trushna
    foot-paad ,podium,tripod,pedestrian
    letter-patra
    eat-ati
    be-bhav
    town,station-sthan
    pleasant-prashant
    BEHAVIOUR-VYAVHAR
    BUY-VYAY
    BUSY-VYAST (BUYST)
    thirst-trushna
    anger -angar
    divide- dvi-vidh
    ceramic -karabh h,kichad
    bathe- baad,baadh
    name -naam
    understand-antarsthayin
    janyuari -gan-rai-ish ,
    tragedy -trasdi
    stress -trast

  23. This is awesome! Thank you for this list. I have read the dictionary for fun my whole life, (yes, I’m a total word geek) and I’ve always remarked that the Sanskrit words are actually closer to the English words in many cases than what I was always told was the Latin or Greek root. The word rhythm is directly from Sanskrit, for instance. The Germanic word nacht (night) came directly from Sanskrit. Raja and raya are fascinating words. The words for exulted that we would use like “your eminence” for a royal person are related to the words for “light”, which has always made sense to me, as in Holiness, greatness, eminence, like emanating light. The sun God Re or Ra in Egypt is related to the English word “ray” as in ray of light , which is also related to raya and royal. Makes perfect sense to me. These words are ancient — Really ancient. I was told as a little girl that we spoke an Indo-European language but, then I was taught all the Greek and Latin roots, or the French roots of the words when in a surprising number of cases, the Sanskrit words were closer than those. I love this page!

    • What about:
      Sanskrit para>>>>parallel, paragraph, etc.
      Sanskrit navgathi>>>>>navy, navigate, nautical, etc.
      Sanskrit oopar>>>>>upper, uber
      Sanskrit khatva>>>>cot, cottage
      Sanskrit vidva>>>>>widow
      Sanskrit vikshan>>>>vision
      Sanskrit janam>>>>>gene, genome, genesis, etc.
      Sanskrit sitara>>>>>star
      Sanskrit anth>>>>>>end
      Sanskrit pura>>>>>>pure, whole
      Sanskrit Shabdh>>>>Sabbath, the Word (of God)
      Sanskrit nastik>>>>>gnostic
      Sanskrit sahara>>>>>sahara
      Sanskrit naya>>>>>>new, renew, etc.

  24. I am anthropologist and have studies this extensively. The author is correct there is absolutely no evidence of a PIE language or people. There is also NO evidence of an “Aryan” invasion in India. There is much archeological evidence in fact that Greeks themselves were descendants of some indian sects.

    • You come at the cave of Petralona in N. Greece first, to see for yourself evidence of life (much more ancient to that of India – if not Homo Sapiens himself!) and then you open your big fat mouth regarding Aryans or origins of Greeks! Also…do not forget that since you are Anthropologist you should learn to respect Greece even more, for “Anthropology” is a Greek word it self! Unless of course if you (like all the rest of these fools in here) will start to believe any moment now, that even this word is Hindi and not Greek, in which case of course, I will automatically suggest you, to go and have your self checked by another doctor….doctor!

      • Please read the latest discoveries about human migration based on genetics. All humans originated in Africa, and the first human migration out of Africa was via Middle East into India, and from here humans spread to the rest of the world. In other words, all non-African humans have their ancestry traced back to ancient India – which includes ancient Europeans, Americans and Australians.

        • That’s strange! I don’t see any resemblance on my facial characteristics with those of Indians whatsoever! Surely even you can agree, that one one, comes from some other, bears chromosomes of that other person on him / her! All I see here is fair skin, blue eyes and blond hair! Pal…..lay off…Ok?! Enough with your stories! Really!
          I mean…Ok….I admire your efforts to honor your country and I do admit that it has an ancient and wonderful civilisation but please heah?….Don’t try to impose it on others! That’s not the proper way to do it…trust me!

          • I THINK GREEKS DONT RESSEMBLE WITH INDIA,
            BECAUSE GREECE IS NOT A NOBLE COUNTRY, DUE TO THE BAD WATHER AND CLIMATIC CONDITIONS THEY ARE CHANGES. BUT THE TRUE ARYANS(INDIANS) REMAIN UNCHANGES

          • I think otherway. When africa and india was together and primitive human spread on this two continent. Then Indian part got separated and it was iceland for many years. Then man from afric move to northern hemisphere. There they became white skinned due to low intense of sun light. Same time indian part came and joined asian continent. Later white people migrated to india, iran, irak. But they got mixed with original inhabitants with little friction in India. In that process of mixing society got devided to cast/varna.If you see lower cast people look more black than upper cast. Look vise upper cast looks more beautiful and handsome. If you take region wise northern(punjab,jammu,haryan, pakistan) people has good hieght look and white skin. If you go south people look more shorter and black. If you see food wise culture more vegeterian can be seen in gujarat, rajstan, that also gateway between india and europe side. Migration to india took also in other form. Parsian migrated, Muslim invader also brought some population

  25. The indonesian archipelagos also absorbed “millions” of sanskrit vocabs. The sanskrit vocabs i already know help me a lot in memorizing english and french vocabs.

    • You only forgot one thing….Indonesia is partially a Greek word! (And do not play smart guy with me, for I am….married to an Indonesian lady my self!)

  26. I am astounded by the ignorance in the latest comments. They have no knowledge of the root of Indianism, the very inception of Asiatic Society. It was the Germans who first took interest in the Aryan languages and admitted that Europeans derive their language and culture from a higher source. The English, being the new world rulers, the nuvo riche, couldn’t find the humility in them to admit this. Consequently, they distorted history to suit their own pride. But truth remains that modern day languages like English, French, Spanish, Hindi are impure languages, with a lot of discrepancy in written and spoken forms and absolutely irrational orthographic aberration.
    It is not without a reason that we use Greek and Latin in scientific and other works of significance.
    While we do not know for sure, which is more ancient Avestan/Hitite or Sanskrit, one should note these languages were very conflicting. The word for deity in Sumer was Asura (Ahura), which is the exact Sanskrit for Anti-God.
    So it’ll take a very well read linguist to conclude which among the two languages has more contribution towards European and Indian languages of today.
    But there is absolutely no doubt that Greek and Latin came later. The literature of ancient Europe and middle east had little imagination, science and complex terms compared to Sanskrit and Avestan.

    But the trend of synthesis, that is forming new words from a common root, that is something the whole world has borrowed from Sanskrit. Without Sanskrit, “Believe” and “Believer” would have been two entirely unrelated words.

    It’s hard to put this concept into a western mind, I’ll try this: Suppose you are called Thomas and you have a newborn son whom you want to name Son-of-Thomas, but you cannot, it sounds uncool, even the french de- ones would be kind of uncool. Had you been a Sanskritagna(a person who has a good knowledge of Sanskrit) person you’d have the power to give the child a meaningful one word custom name. And there’d be no need to update a dictionary for that new word. Sanskrit is a code, it’s an ever evolving program.

  27. This is whole article is garbage: the supposed English derivations are related, but not descending from, those supposed Sanskrit ancestors. Just as evolution holds that man diverged from a common ancestor as monkey, but that man did not directly originate from monkeys, all credible linguistic experts who are not motivated by irrational patriotism and nationalism hold that Proto-Indo-European is the ancestor of all Indo-European languages. Therefore, those English and Sanskrit words diverged from a common Proto-Indo-European ancestor, and there is nothing else to be said!

  28. “Calendar” has absolutely nothing to do with “kālayantra.” “Calendar” is related to the Latin “calare” while the Sanskrit “kālayantra” literally means “time machine.

    • I see the same word root here, kala and cala. Some may be confused by the “c” and “k”, and not be able to make the connection on account of the different letters used to start the word.

  29. What a load of crap. “The vedas were written in sanskrit” – the vedas were not witten down, they were memorized and then transmitted orally. Just as no one KNOWS how old the vedas are, in the same way no one knows for sure about the existence of PIE. But thanks to certain methods we are able to guess how old the vedas are and suppose the existence of PIE. There were suggestions of how some missing links in the chains of IE languages should sound and upon the actual discovieries the hypotheses were confirmed. It all fits.

    • dumbo, written doesnt mean literally “written using pen”, it means vedas were composed in samskrit. no one knows how old vedas are, but they do exist, so they themselves are the proof of their existence as well as the antiquities of samskrit.

      But who knows about PIE? who spoke it? what were its words? what was its literature? which civilizations mention about its existence? The answer to all this is a big NO. I might as well say there was bla bla language in the past from which all later languages evolved, and I will call it some BIE. Does that make any sense?

    • PIE is a hypothetical imagination, no evidence of it ever found in any language or written script…. it is not a theory yet its only hypothesis.. so instead of crying here, so find out some evidence of it first.

  30. Absolute utter nonsense – the most dangerous form of ignorance is on display here. Avestan, Sanskrit, the European languages, and ancient Hittite et al all derived from Proto-Indo-European. Sanskrit is a relatively new Indo-European language compared to Avestan, HIttite, Sumerian (possibly), Ancient Greek, and Old Iranian, and not to mention the countless Indo-European languages lost to antiquity. Not to mention that the oldest form of Sanskrit is Vedic Sanskrit, which is as far removed from Panini’s Sanskrit as Ancient Greek is from Modern Greek.

    • All the other languages you mentioned did indeed exist, except for PIE. There is no literature anywhere in the world in ANY of the world’s ancient languages which talks anything about the existence of any language like PIE, and it is foolish to assume we who live so far away in time from these ancient languages know better than those avestan or rigvedic people who lived during the times of those languages. PIE is an utter lie made up to hide the root influence of Sanskrit on all Indo-European languages. PIE itself is a name cooked up in recent times, every real language has its own name.

    • What an absolute nonsense, you people read half, understand quarter and discourse double…

      classic sanskrit is a new indo european language but vedic sanskrit is of unknown antiquity, some people argue that may be the vedic sanskrit of rigveda may have the oldest word of mankind recorded… even in rigveda there is a clear development of vedic sanskrit. how can you claim that the oldest form of sanskrit i.e. vedic sanskrit is relatively new… link me your resource from where you read all this shit that the vedic sanskrit is relatively new(if you didnt imagine them.)…

      learn something before discoursing

  31. Learning samskritam is like the best thing you could do to your life…the science & logic in samskritam is beyond human imagination….Only our rishis could do that…

  32. The FOUR VEDAS, the origin of all TRUE knowledge, in other words I would say the USER MANUAL of HUMAN RACE. No one can challenge it, if we analyse our sufferrings today I am 100% sure that we have departed from the VEDAS, it’s an open challenge to prove me wrong. As we all say it’s never too late so MANAVE (hey another sanskrit word) back to the VEDAS. Om Shaanti Shaanti Shaanti OM

    • I can’t prove you wrong because the Vedas (like all religious texts) are unfalsifiable, i.e they can’t be proved either way. But this doesn’t mean they’re true.

  33. Even English calender has indian origian. Saptember, October, November and December are representing 7th, 8th, 9th and 10 th month (mass). Westerner used to come India to learn vedic knowledge and tried to copy some methodology. They mistakely create calender of 10 mass ( starting from Unember… december) December is X mass (10th mass) represent for Kirshna mass ( Marshish). In fourteen century, westerner realise the mistake but added 2 months later in name of their great leaders. They added 1 day for few months ( instead of 30 days). Our calender is real natural driven calender.

  34. Its a good artcle.. These days everyday we are talking about relation between sanskrit/indian languages and english/german…

    few more from my side ..

    Yuyam(sanskrit) – You (E)

    Vayam (S) – We (E)

    ID/Ithi (S) – It (E)

    Thath (S) – That

    Nayanam (S) – Eye (E)

    Vahaka (S) – Vehicle

    Vahana (S) – Wagon

    Kaala ( S) – Kill ( E)

    (its synonym to Yama, who ends lives. Maha Kaala means Shiva – Master to Yama )

    Pitha ( S) – Pittutory

    Bandha (S) – Bond

    Viewha(S) – View

    Also found some interesting Telugu – English

    Telupu (Telugu) – Tell (E)

    Grasam ( Telugu) – Grass (English)

    Nasa ( Telugu) – Noise (E)

      • Telugu is related to English in no linguistic way whatsoever; these are mere coincidences.

        In addition, the English words that supposedly derive from Sanskrit words do not! These similarities are because both English and Sanskrit descended from Proto-Indo-European. Obviously an ancient extinct language will not have any records but it is absolutely the only plausible explanation. Take nationality/ethnicity/patriotism out of the question and anyone will find it to be so!

        • So much hatred about an ancient language will stop the learning process. It may be true that some words were derived from Sanskrit. Then what is the loss? We must agree that the word “Ghee” was directly taken from Hindi. Because “Ghee” is Indian product. “Cheese” is not. Observe the word “Cheese” slightly related to word “Ghee”. Be proud about English because its nature of welcoming words from other languages. Such a hospitality will improve the language and make it rich.

          Regards

  35. There are many more actually, e.g.

    Miti (San) – Metry (Eng), as in Trigonometry, Sanskrit would be Trikonaamiti

    Trikon (San) – Trigon (Eng), more popularly known as Triangle. Which is consistent with geometrical fact that any closed figure would have as many sides as it has angles

    Par (San) means beyond, as in parbramh – Para (Eng) as in paranormal – that what is beyond the established physical laws

    Antar (San) means across or between – Inter (Eng) as in International – Between or across nations

    Vid (San) means to know, or to see as in Vidvaan (Kwoledgeable, intelligent), Veda (knowledge), in both these cases it is used in the sense of knowing – Video, Visual, Vision (Eng) all derived by transfer through Latin Videre in all these cases it is used in the sense of seeing

    Aham (San) means I am – I am (Eng) means the same

    Jaggannaath (San) means lord of the world – Juggernaut (Eng)

    Manti or Mantrin, a declension of Mantri (San) – Mandarin (Eng, Chi) means administrators, as well as the name of their language

    Kroor (San) means cruel – Cruel (Eng)

    Samarth (San) means able, capable – Smart (Eng)

    Varn (San) means many things like letters, complexion, colour etc. – Varnish (Eng) to colour

    There are many, but can’t recollect more.

  36. Old Languages Are The Foundation Of All Modern Languages Therefor Not Giving Them Importance We Show A Weakness In Our Own Educational Background !!

      • we the change you want to be….

        lets start the change

        in our daily conversation(specially in telecommunication via cellphone) lets start using some sanskrit words:

        1). Kim Bhav ; – what happened
        2), twa kim gachchyanti ; – where are you?

        improve this list please..

  37. Just saw the comment below about the Russian word “Medved” and its link to honey. That struck a chord about the old Celtic name “Medb” (and its modern equivalent Maeve).. Here’s the link to Wikipedia:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maeve_(Irish_name)

    It’s quite interesting that there seems to be a relationship between Russian, Irish and Sanskrit :)

    • That’s really interesting. In Konkani, a native Indian language descending from Sanskrit, Mouvu is the name for honey.
      I was also pretty surprised when I first came to know that Lithunanian, which most Indians wont even have heard about, contains just too many Sanskrit words with similar meaning as in most Indian languages!
      Guess the ancient world was more flat than it is today :)

    • Yes, the relationship is that THEY ARE ALL DESCENDED FROM PROTO-INDO-EUROPEAN, a reconstructed language accepted by nearly all credible linguistic experts who are objectively examining language and with no nationalistic or patriotic bias.

      • How do you know they were not biased? Obviously this language called PIE is entirely imaginary – ins’t it. It is evident that PIE is a made up thing. It doesn’t exist. Why make up something entirely non-existent either as a spoken language or a written language and then make all kinds of claims about what just got made up?

        This attribution of bias to one group of people, and lack of bias to another is itself absurd and short sighted and biased.

  38.  This is an amazing research and a fabulous list of english words with sanskrit origin.  I was surprised to see so many common english words having roots in the ancient sanskrit language of India. We really take so many things in life for so granted. Keep up the good work.

  39. We have inquiries from various continents regarding the name of continents and Ghandas and rashtras in Sanskrit .If any body know it Please  send a message 

  40. Sanskrit had few more letters than Pali as Greek has than Latin. You should go further, even more interests will come. I have wondered about this since I was young. You get rid the Ghost PIE out from my mind. Thanks.

    • Just read another interesting thing. In Russian Medved means honey eater and is the name used for bear. Bear is famous in ancient Sanskrit literatures for being a honey lover, and the term for honey in Sanskrit is Madhu. Again in modern lingustic theory the Russian word is attributed to PIE :)

  41. ..pranaam! Sir! Your list is excellent. I’m also working on a list showing the phonetic slide from Sanskrit into English. Anyone doing the slightest amount of research in this field will quickly discover his/her own mother tongue, his/her own ‘lap’ Bharat varsha) , his/her own soul, divine atma, and his/her own place of rest, Goloka Vrindavana! Jai Sri Radhe!

  42. I being a Indian but now staying out of country, will be showing pride to foreigners to demostrate a project on such information.. Jai Hind

    • True Priyank, and there are loads of such little known information about the greatness of our culture and civilization, unfortunately negativism and colonial mindset plays a larger role in the media today, and very little of this information is passed on the next generation in their school textbooks. That is the biggest tragedy of our times. Thanks to the Internet, we atleast can try and make people unlearn what they had been taught (fed?) in their schools.

      • But sir i am get this information at the age of 27. And here i feel we need to see ourselves no to western side. Really feel bad about us. Sanskrit must be non-optional language from school to higher studies

  43. Very nice, amazing. I would like to say something about a comment by ‘ursri’ that the Vedas were not written/created by God but by humans. I have read in a book by Osho that there is a description of a man praying to God in the Vedas. According to Osho, how can God himself write about his devotees praying to him? The Vedas describe human activities, thus they are written by people (human beings). To know about Osho, go to http://www.osho.com . An interesting website: http://www.archaeology.net . The word Upalah/Opal is repeated in the list.(total twice).

    • Yes Vedic hymns were written by different seers, each set of hymns have the name of the seer who wrote them, so it is out of question that God wrote it. What it means when somebody says that vedic texts are of divine origin is that they contain the divine principles in them. Unlike some normal story or fiction or book written by some person out of his imagination, vedic texts contain the secrets of how the universe works and the principles of the universe and in that sense it is said to be God’s creation because God created the universe. It is like saying a book on General Relativity even though written by Einstein is God’s creation because the Einstein discovered these principles, but God created them or to be more specific the ultimate supreme consciousness created it.

      • Here, the question is not of whether Vedas were written by God. It is about the oldest language called Sanskrit and how many words have been taken from it. Vedas may have been written by various seers, but who was the orator? Do you think all of those seers had similar mentality to write in a particular pattern, at the same time, about the same coming together as one super mind? Impossible! And of all, Sanskrit is a Scientific language that vibrates in a particular fashion that even the dieseases from the body of the speaker vanishes. So, tell me if a mere human/ man can create a language like this? If you think so, you are hallucinating. On the other hand, existence of God is true as much as the Sanskrit language itself and the universe and you and me……….

    • The Vedas are Sruti(which are heard) not smriti(which are remembered). Sruti is the truth revealing itself. Smriti is the conclusions, theories, philosophies created by humans. The vedas are said to be written by God in the sense that they are truths, not formulated but revealed by Nature. They are also said to have NO Bginning, No End(Sanatan). This means they are THE TRUTH. The truth is eternal. Gravity existed before Newton discovered it and will exist even if humanity forgets abouts it. The Vedas are called eternal in that sense.

      • I am afraid that is not the correct interpretation of the words shRiti(श्रुति) and smRiti(स्मृति). How did the Vedas reach us if they were not remembered and passed down the generations? The correct meaning is derived thus. The root shRi(श्रु) means “to hear”. That which is heard is the shRiti(श्रुति). The sages purified their hearts and beings by a life of piety and discipline and to such high-callibre men God revealed the truths of existence. The God’s voice was heard by them. That is the shRiti (श्रुति). In this tradition, the truths heard by the pious men – the messengers as they say – anywhere and everywhere in this world are also shRitis. Thus the truths revealed in the testaments and the Qurran are also shRitis. It is thus that the shRitis are apaureSheya or not created by human beings. It is another matter that the revealed or heard truths are trapped in language and composed by the sages to be passed on to the people down the generations. It is thus that the Richaas(ऋचा) of the vedas are attributed to the various sages. The root smRi (स्मृ) means, apart from “to remember”, also “to protect” and the word smRit(स्मृति) thus means that by which a human population – community – city – state or a nation – is protected. In other words it means a set or a code of laws – the Constitution. Obviously the Constitution is craeted and written down by the human beings. It is thus that we have the manusmRiti(मनुस्मृति), the yaajn~avalkya smRiti(याज्ञवल्क्यस्मृति) etc. Thus by definition the shRitis are Eternal and Universal while the smRitis are Temporal and Regional. But the interpretation that “The vedas are said to be written by God in the sense that they are truths, not formulated but revealed by Nature. They are also said to have NO Bginning, No End(Sanatan). This means they are THE TRUTH. The truth is eternal. Gravity existed before Newton discovered it and will exist even if humanity forgets abouts it. The Vedas are called eternal in that sense.” is true and brings out the meaning beautifully.

  44. Namo Namaha
    Great Post.
    Would
    Dwaaram – Door
    Tri – Three, C
    Chathur – Four
    Sapta -Seven
    Ashta – Eight
    Nava – Nine
    Sagara – Sea
    Prithvi – Earth

    also come under the same?

  45. Dear Guruji,
    Amazing… is all what I can say. I am writing this only for conveying a point. We as Indians find it easy to understand this truth. Most others would find it difficult to accept that anything came from a country that is beneath them (beneath them in their financial eyes). No matter how many times a lie is repeated by the most powerful communities today, a lie is still a lie.
    On the other hand, if we as Indians learn,appreciate and practise our language more and more and make it more and more powerful,no force can diminish the light that emancipates from us,cos we are just repeating the truth!.It is sad that when some westerners write books on our sanskrit,we appreciate it. I wish we Indians would state these things on our own.
    Who wants their acceptance!.Didnt we tide out time without them? As Indians we should chant these things boldly!Dont feel scared of their ridicule.The bottom line is,if we develop our roots and our financial position, then most of the world will yield(even if we dont want them to yield).
    Its all finance based eyes in this world.If india was the richest country,everyone including Indians would have no problem in accepting the truth of Sanskrit.Its a shame,but nevertheless we should always strive and make ourselves more powerful financially and keep learning and practising our culture including the mother of all language Sanskrit until the world either yields or goes for a senseless war…in which case…the universal rule would then apply. Dharma samsthapanarthaya…sambavami yuge yuge!.
    Adharma will lose. But for that the Arjuns and Bheems of india need to stand boldly and develop financially and state what they believe in boldly!.We are not lying! y shud we be scared!.Find out more about sanskrit ourselves,practise it more,clean our country and lets together revive our true position in the world!.The world SHALL KNEEL IN RESPECT…NOT FEAR.. AND YIELD.

    • Dear bhilash Prasad,Hindu culture is just..BRILLIANT!I want to come in India to feel the energy of the place!I like that you support and you are staying at your roots.We have to stay in our roots,specialy at these days that “new world orders” want us without ethnical/national identity.(“staying” to your roots its against globalization and globalization=enslavement)but.. its a mistake if you believe that EVERYTHING came from India.Sanskrits belongs to a family of languages named “indo-european”.There is not a tribe called indo-european,thats means: a lot civilizations contributed for the building of this family of languages,europeans too!(Otherwise we could named this language family as”Indian family”but its not Indian family!Its indoeuropean!)specially ancient Greeks because ancient Greek language is one of the most important and old languages of Europe.There are a lot ancient Greek scripts dated to 6th millennium b.c.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dispilio_Tablet)dispilio tablet and a lot of other scripts dated at the same age. we can not cancel these things.Ancient Greeks were good sailors,for sure they kneew where is India and make trade etc,so..there is a big interchange of everything..not only about language,maybe in music too ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWjfZ8uIEDg&feature=related )If you want to answer me do it to my email adress.Greetings from Greece :) (sorry for my English)

      • EVERY THING WHATEVER YOU ARE SAYING ARE WRITEN BY WESTERNS.
        THATS WHY THEY CALLED INDO-EUROPEAN.
        BUT THE COUNTRIES IN EUROPE ARE NOT GOOD FOR HUMAN EVOLUTION THEN HOW COME THEY CAME FIRST.
        U SEE INDIA IS PROSPOROUS AND MIND BLOWING ENVIRONMENT WELL SUITED FOR EVOLUTION OF HUMAN. THAT IS HOW INDIANS ARE THE MASTER GENES AND REST ARE JUST DESCENDENTS OF INDIANS

    • Actually India was always the richest country in the world from western year zero up to 1700s followed by China-despite the barbarous Islamic invasions. It was the British who intentionally destroyed India’s economy from the 1700s. This can all be learnt from the world renound economic historian Angus Maddison’s book:” World economy , A Milennium Perspective”-a book commissioned by the OECD countries.
      Off-course India was the richest (in all spheres of human endeavour) before the start of the Common Era as well

  46. Dear Gurudev,
    You inspire me just the way my Yoga guru at yogashree inspires me. Keep up the good work and step up the gas for an enlightened Maha”Bharata”. I wish learn to spread lost glory about our great country and Hindutva. That way everyone will learn the Hindu way of life of living and learning in harmony with nature fellow human beings. Congratulations on taking the initiative.!
    As they say at Yogashree….
    Ayshman Bhavatu
    Keertiman Bhavatu
    Mangalam Bhavatu
    Shubham Bhavatu

  47. Dear Dr.Ashwin Sawant,

    Points are useful and informative.  But just a correction Reg point 2) Veda’s creation and origin
    Vedas are “Apaurusheya”.. not human creation..but God creation.
    They are not in writtern form .. they are in “Nada/Shruti” form.
    The existing oldest Veda scripts are in Sanskrit language.
     
    God shows the benifit of following Vedas to mankind by setting himself as example by Vedas usage.  And the origin is not India but universal…  but been followed and not destroyed only in India.  For eg: There were 108 Sri Ganapathy temples across the world .. like Japan, China, South America etc.  but were destroyed except in India .  India is the place where Hindu dharma and Vedas are “Avicchinna” – can not be destroyed…
    Correct any mistakes above.
    – ursri

  48. Dear Gurudev,I’m Dr.AshwinSawant,from Mulund,Mumbai. I wish to present some points in ur support:
    1.Vindhyas r d latest Azoic rocks of India of pre-Cambrian age which proves India to be a land in the latest Azoic times,somewhere in 70,000,000 and 60,000,000 yrs.
    2.Vedas are accepted as most ancient literature in the world
    created by mankind,which are doubtlessly Indian in origin.Vedas  do not  mention any place outside India as origin of Creaters Writers of  Vedas.
    3.In Vedic Literature Himalaya Mountain is mentioned as “Uttaram Girim(i.e.Northern Mountains)In case creators of Vedas ( & of Sanskrit language) had been foreigners ,they should have called these mountains as Eastern or Southern Mountain.

    • Sainath, the text in the link is the longest joke I have ever read, no comments on its contents :)

      Just to comment about the title, if Sanskrit was never spoken then how come there are literary works in that language thousands of years apart in time? Without being spoken how did the language cross generations? Why would somebody write grammar books on a language nobody ever spoke and if nobody ever spoke it then who created it and why? No language can be ALWAYS DEAD, it might become extinct, but at some point of time earlier it HAS TO BE SPOKEN else it can never be there in the first place, and this common sense is missing from the author. And look at the english, my God :)
      Just one example, if Ram Mohan Roy opposed Sanskrit then why did he translated Upanishads to Bengali? Great jokes…

      There is another such longest joke by some such so called author, the name of that book is “Why I am not a Hindu”, read it and I bet you will enjoy the ignorance in it. Please dont take it seriously, we will definitely have to forgive that author for he doesnt know what he is talking about :)

  49. Gurudev,
    From what I understand, the origins of Sanskrit letter is also very interesting. The work was carried out by Bharatwaj rishi. A bamboo stick was taken and a piece of cloth/bag tied at one end and dust introduced into the bamboo. Each letter was chanted for nearly six hours and this caused the dust particles to align itself as per the letter chanted. Can you please verify this, would it be in in vedic scrpitures under Kalpa shaastra?   

    • Thats really interesting info Prakashji, and thank you very much for that. Things look so scientifically accurate and well planned and designed. Infact using the root elements of Sanskrit new words can be created for any new inventions or findings of the future.

  50. I was seeing discovery channel and suddenly i was shocked when host there told that in Freanch pineapple is called   “Ananas”. Infact “Ananas” is what we/ I call it(pineapple) in marathi.
    So from marathi or sanskrit.
    sanskrit/Marathi   French
    Ananas  <—> Ananas
    :):)

  51. sanskrit                   latin/greek                                 english

    Ashwa                     Equus                                            Equestrian 
    Kramelak               Camelus/kemalos                   Camel
    Manthan                Manthanein/Mathema          Mathematics
    Yugam                    Jugum                                          Yoke
    Ugra                        via german                                  Anger
    Chitrkaya                                                                       Cheeta
    Janu                        Genu                                              Genuflect
    Dhara                      Terra                                             Terra-
    Ghas                         via geman                                   Grass

    There are many more but I am too tired to type right now

  52. few more to above list
    hruday – heart
    mana/manas – mind
    anga – organ
    gam (verb dhatu- ) – go
    garv-arrogance.
    .
    .
    list is endless

  53. Cool compilation…

    Thought to add MaxMuller intrepretation of history, geography, language etc etc… motive behind it…
    Its difficult to tell and listen truth – blunders in our History(not just India’s)

    So this is a wise step towards telling the truth- zara hatke…

     

  54. Regarding the word ghrtam for ‘ghee’ i would like to add that in the PIE, the root is “ghrein” meaning “to apply, smear or anoint” since anointing or applying ghee was a major use.the greek word “christos” is a descendant of the word “ghrein” meaning “the anointed one”.

  55. Agree with you on this, works by many western scholars are very much appreciable, especially by Stephen Knap. he is fully knowledgeable than we many Indians.
    I think Thava’s was a generic statement considering few western criticizing souls. In-fact a considerable fraction of us are troubled/troubling the growth of Sanskrit.

    • Not all! Westerners like Stephen Knapp, David Frawley etc are working dedicatedly to preserve and spread the vedic culture and Sanskrit. Infact they know more about the ancient vedic culture and Sanskrit than most of the people in this country!

  56. संस्क्रुतम् एवम् मात्तूर्(षिमोग)ग्रामस्य संबन्ध भवान् जानति किला?

  57. i know what pradeeps say and I am happy that whatever i learnt in sixth standard is still retained in my memory is somewhat vaguely … foolish people have five symptoms pride, fowl mouthed,haught tempered,bull headed and arrogant(disrespecting others words).

  58. डेन् महोदयस्य वादानुवाद् पठित्वा ‘कन्चिन् देशे एकः राजः आसित्” एतत् कथा स्म्रिति मध्ये आगतवन्तः!!!

    “मूर्खस्य पंच चिन्हानि ‘गर्वा, दुर्वचनं, क्रोधश्च, द्रिढवादश्च परवाक्येष्वनादरः”

  59. It’s true that  Sanskrit is a very ancient language, but I’m going to side with the PIE theorists here.
    PIE is the theoretical ancestral mother tongue of humans inhabiting the Euro-Asian continent. It was constructed by linguists with the intention of perhaps displaying the apparent relationship and relatedness of the many languages spoken today in the European continent and the Indian subcontinent. It was not created to be definitive, but as an aid to understanding the evolution of language.
    It is proven that the languages of Europe, apart from Basque,  are related. They all are descendants from a common ancestral language. It is also proven that the languages of India are related to those spoken in Europe. They all share a common ancestor and  Sanskrit is amongst them.
    Nobody knows what the TRUE ancestral language sounded like –  it’s no longer spoken –  but with PIE we can get a (hopefully) close approximation.
    Sanskrit is old, but it’s not as old as the Proto-Indo-European language needs to be to claim to be the true mother tongue.

    • Well Dane. What I dont understand is why to invent an unknown unheard of language. What are the issues in considering Sanskrit itself to be the PIE?
      When we dont even know who spoke PIE, where and when – how can we say that PIE is older than Sanskrit? We have no literature in PIE, no civilization which spoke PIE, no evidence of the existence of PIE in any other ancient language literature and so on. So I see no point in holding on to PIE.

      Initially the same linguists strongly resisted the very suggestion that English, Latin, Greek were related to Sanskrit. Then when it became an unavoidable truth, suddenly PIE was born out of nowhere as the root of all Indo-European languages, else the title would go to Sanskrit. While the ancient Sanskrit dates back to atleast 3100 BCE, latin was still in its infancy even at around 500 BCE – so not sure how even chronologically PIE makes any sense.

      • Hi, I just stumbled upon this page from a Wiki page. It cool and informative. I agree with you on this that PIE was simply created to fulfill political and religious agendas, infact a book has mentioned a letter from one of the British Army officer involved in archaeological excavations during the British Raj to his wife, which involves a mention of 3500 years, whereas he later officially dated it at around 1500 BC(It speaks may more this I wont get into out here, not the right place). In recent times the origin of the Vedas has been pushed back to 7000-9500 BCE as the “latest(not earliest) possible date of origin as there are references of Dwarka in many of these texts which now has been found and a pot was dated around 7000 BC which which had inscriptions similar to Harappan inscription and many believe it is the same script. Now Harappan is a very primitive looking script, but the fact the city has been spoken of in present tense meant that the Harappan Script and Sanskrit co-existed, maybe Harappan was a Prakrit (common) language. Also the mention of certain Equinoxes which existed in constellations(this is an archaeological method of dating texts of Antiqity).

        So considering theese facts and the date 7000-9500 BC simply makes PIE wither away, making Sanskrit(Chandasa, as in the Vedas) the oldest known language.

        On a side note, Egyptian Hieroglyphs call Sun “Ra” and Sanskrit calls it “Ravi”

        • Yes Jai, till todate no self proclaimed scholars who call Rigveda as earliest veda and date it to 1500 BCE have given a proof for that. Where as proofs against this date are large in number. For instance, Mahabharatha war based on astronomical dating was fought in 3102 BCE and it was Veda Vyasa who compiled the vedas who also wrote Mahabharatha and live during the period of Mahabharata, so how could a person in 3102 BCE write a book in 1500 BCE? When this question was posed, the self proclaimed scholars again giving without any reason said Mahabharata was fought in 500 BCE? But the question remains same, how could a person who wrote a book in 1500 BCE then write another book more than a millennium later? Moreover, all the four vedas were compiled by the same Veda Vyasa and each veda contains references to other vedas, so how can one veda be older than the other? Here is an article I wrote on <a href="Add Friends to Group“>Origin and Dating of the Vedas

          • Thanks to each one for their contribution towards Sankrit.

            There was a continental drift that still pushing Bharat to the Asia further and further due the geographical tectonic plates feature. Hinduism= nonviolence is everywhere on the planet earth. To support the fact there are ancient Idols uncovered everywhere(the seven continents and under water)…idols equivalent to current Indian idols.
            My opinion is …great messengers of god were there periodically to pass on the same peace spiritual message to the world so… The ultimate power who is accepted in every religion The GOD is same. Advaita, the holy spirit, Allah, Fire, The various natural forms and then… The master of the universes is same to everyone in his or her perception.

            In every holy book there is period where ppl used to speak a same language… Therefore the oldest base language found so far is Sanskrit and proved through various archeological studies. If there is an another with script …. yet to prove!

    • I agree with this. PIE is a hypothetical language that aids in understanding the relationships among the various ancient languages. It is futile to say that such a language did not exist because there is no mention of such a name anywhere. But then the linguists are clear that the name PIE has been coined to identify such an ancestral language. I would like to mention a theory of Maharshi Arvind Ghosh about this. He said that the ancient man might have used the various combination of sounds and ascribed meaning to them to form root words. Based on various systems they would have built up a whole vocabulary from these root-words. for example अप् (pronounced as up) was coined to mean “to give birth to”. Its form अप्पा (pronounced as up-paa) means the birth-giver or father. That word is found in the chief south Indian languages. Another form अपत्य means the born or the progeny and this form is found in Samskrit. Hence in order to understand the similarity found in the ancient languages we need to first understand the root words. Shri Arvind Ghosh theorized that as human populations drew in different directions in search of pastures etc they carried with them these root-words. Some root-words continued, some disappeared, some changed the meanings and the context, some new roots were coined. That is how different languages came into existence. For the Indians this theory is easier to understand. For example the word हस्त means the hand. हस्त – हह्त – हत्थ – हाथ or हात. This would be better understood when we use Roman script : hasta – hahta – hattha – haath or haat. The intervening forms are found in the intervening languages like the praakrit and the apabhramshas. हत्त or हत्थ are the forms found even in the modern day Sindhi-Punjabi-Kachchhi languages.हाथ is found in the Hind-Gujarati languages whereas हात is found in the Marathi language. Such events must have occurred in the ages past as a result of which we find similarities as well as differences in the languages of today. In absence of any strong evidence it is futile to say which language is older and which is new. Suppose in future it turns out that the Greek is older than the Samskrit does it reduce the importance of Samskrit? On the other hand suppose it is proved that it is otherwise, does it in any way downgrade the Greek? We Indians belong to a land that has had a long and illustrious tradition of the sages who proclaimed from the mountains and the river-banks, from the cities and the villages, among the crowds and in solitude , transgressing the limitations of Time and Space, that we are all one. Are we all not created by the same God? For those who don’t believe in God do we not all belong to the same human species? Are we all – whichever nation we may belong to – not heir to the ancient civilizations – be that Greek or Indian or Egyptian? Every civilization has contributed to the modern world and here we are – fighting to be superior to the “other”! The sages of yore were wiser : they said आ नो भद्राः क्रतवो यन्तु विश्वतः. They said यत्र विश्वं भवत्येकनीडम् and here we are – the netizens – indulging in unnecessary hateful expressions.

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