Vedic Sanskrit, also simply referred as the Vedic language, is the earliest attested form of the Sanskrit and Prakrit languages: members of the Indo-Aryan subgroup of the Indo-European language family. It is attested in the Vedas and related literature compiled over the period of the mid-2nd to mid-1st millennium BCE. It is orally preserved, predating the local advent of writing by several centuries.
Extensive ancient literature in the Vedic Sanskrit language has survived into the modern era, and this has been a major source of information for reconstructing Proto-Indo-European and Proto-Indo-Iranian history.
The separation of Proto-Indo-Iranian language into Proto-Iranian and Proto-Indo-Aryan is estimated, on linguistic grounds, to have occurred around or before 1800 BCE. The date of composition of the oldest hymns of the Rigveda is vague at best, generally estimated to roughly 1500 BCE. Both Asko Parpola (1988) and J. P. Mallory (1998) place the locus of the division of Indo-Aryan from Iranian in the Bronze Age culture of the BactriaâÂÂMargiana Archaeological Complex (BMAC). Parpola (1999) elaborates the model and has "Proto-Rigvedic" Indo-Aryans intrude the BMAC around 1700 BCE. He assumes early Indo-Aryan presence in the Late Harappan horizon from about 1900 BCE, and "Proto-Rigvedic" (Proto-Dardic) intrusion to Punjab as corresponding to the Gandhara grave culture from about 1700 BCE. According to this model, Rigvedic within the larger Indo-Aryan group is the direct ancestor of the Dardic languages.
The early Vedic Sanskrit language was far less homogeneous compared to the language described by PÃÂá¹Âini, that is, Classical Sanskrit. The language in the early Upanishads of Hinduism and the late Vedic literature approaches Classical Sanskrit. The formalization of the late form of Vedic Sanskrit language into the Classical Sanskrit form is credited to PÃÂá¹Âini's Aá¹£á¹ÂÃÂdhyÃÂyë, along with Patanjali's Mahabhasya and Katyayana's commentary that preceded Patanjali's work. The earliest epigraphic records of the indigenous rulers of India are written in the Prakrit language. Originally the epigraphic language of the whole of India was mainly Prakrit and Sanskrit is first noticed in the inscriptions of North India from about the second half of the 1st century BCE. Sanskrit gradually ousted Prakrit from the field of Indian epigraphy in all parts of the country.
Five chronologically distinct strata can be identified within the Vedic language:
The first three are commonly grouped together, as the Saá¹ÂhitÃÂs comprising the four Vedas: á¹Âg, atharvan, yajus, sÃÂman, which together constitute the oldest texts in Sanskrit and the canonical foundation both of the Vedic religion, and the later religion known as Hinduism.
Many words in the Vedic Sanskrit of the á¹Âg÷veda have cognates or direct correspondences with the ancient Avestan language, but these do not appear in post-Rigvedic Indian texts. The text of the á¹Âg÷veda must have been essentially complete by around the 12th century BCE. The pre-1200 BCE layers mark a gradual change in Vedic Sanskrit, but there is disappearance of these archaic correspondences and linguistics in the post-Rigvedic period.
This period includes both the mantra and prose language of the Atharvaveda (Paippalada and Shaunakiya), the á¹Âg÷veda Khilani, the Samaveda Saá¹ÂhitÃÂ, and the mantras of the Yajurveda. These texts are largely derived from the á¹Âg÷veda, but have undergone certain changes, both by linguistic change and by reinterpretation. For example, the more ancient injunctive verb system is no longer in use.
An important linguistic change is the disappearance of the injunctive, subjunctive, optative, imperative (the aorist). New innovations in Vedic Sanskrit appear such as the development of periphrastic aorist forms. This must have occurred before the time of PÃÂá¹Âini because Panini makes a list of those from the northwestern region of India who knew these older rules of Vedic Sanskrit.
In this layer of Vedic literature, the archaic Vedic Sanskrit verb system has been abandoned, and a prototype of pre-Panini Vedic Sanskrit structure emerges. The YajñagÃÂthÃÂs texts provide a probable link between Vedic Sanskrit, Classical Sanskrit and languages of the Epics. Complex meters such as Anuá¹£á¹Âubh and rules of Sanskrit prosody had been or were being innovated by this time, but parts of the BrÃÂhmaá¹Âa layers show the language is still close to Vedic Sanskrit.
This is the last stratum of Vedic literature, comprising the bulk of the à Ârautasà «tras and Gá¹Âhyasà «tras and some Upaniá¹£ads such as the Kaá¹Âha Upaniá¹£ad and MaitrÃÂyaá¹Âiya Upaniá¹£ad. These texts elucidate the state of the language which formed the basis of PÃÂá¹Âini's codification into Classical Sanskrit.
Vedic differs from Classical Sanskrit to an extent comparable to the difference between Homeric Greek and Classical Greek.
The following differences between Vedic and Classical Sanskrit may be observed in the phonology:
Early Vedic had a tonal system inherited from the Proto-Indo-European accent, which only distinguishes tone height. However, the contraction of two syllables, the first of which carries an udÃÂtta (high pitch) and the second a so-called "dependent svarita" (high falling pitch), gave rise to a small number of words with the "independent svarita" on a short vowel in a late pronunciation of Vedic. The origin of the independent svarita can be inferred from metrically restored versions of the Rig Veda.
This tonal system persisted for some time after the Vedic period. Early Sanskrit grammarian PÃÂá¹Âini marked the position of the accent, giving accent rules for both the spoken language of his time as well as the differences of Vedic accent. However, no extant post-Vedic text with accents are found.
Pluti, or prolation, is the term for the phenomenon of protracted or overlong vowels in Sanskrit; the overlong or prolated vowels are themselves called pluta. Pluta vowels are usually noted with a numeral "3" () indicating a length of three morae ().
A diphthong is prolated by prolongation of its first vowel. PÃÂá¹Âinian grammarians recognise the phonetic occurrence of diphthongs measuring more than three morae in duration, but classify them all as prolated (i.e. trimoraic) to preserve a strict tripartite division of vocalic length between (short, 1 mora), (long, 2 morae) and (prolated, 3+ morae).
Pluta vowels are recorded a total of 3 times in the Rigveda and 15 times in the Atharvaveda, typically in cases of questioning and particularly where two options are being compared. For example:
The attained the peak of their popularity in the Brahmana period of late Vedic Sanskrit (roughly 8th century BC), with some 40 instances in the Shatapatha Brahmana alone.