Sanskrit is a very old and ancient language from South Asia belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. Sanskrit evolved as a language after its predecessor languages had diffused in the late Bronze Age. Sanskrit is also a very rich language of classical Hindu philosophy and historic texts of Jainism and Buddhism.
Sanskrit is a rich combination of several Indo-Aryan language types. The most archaic being Vedic Sanskrit found in the Rig Veda. It is a link language between ancient and medieval South Asia and became the language of rich culture and religion when the cultures of Buddhism and Hinduism were transmitted to East Asia, Southeast Asia, and Central Asia in the early medieval era.
Chapter Wise Summary
Chapter 1 – सुभाषितानि:
This chapter teaches us about the good phrases of Sanskrit which are made by intellectual writers based on their observations and experiences. These phrases tell the students the summary of life like how all people are good but the surroundings and the situations change them. The example of a river is given here. A river when originates takes away very pure and potable water but once it meets the sea, the water is no more potable.
Chapter 2 – बिलास्य वाणी नमस्कार कदापि मे श्रुता:
This chapter is taken from ‘Panchatantra’ by author Vishnu Sharma. This section is known as ‘Kakolukiya’. This was written to teach the five sons of King Amarshakti and hence it has five sections. There are several stories, mostly of animals but intended for human beings. This chapter tells students a story of a lion named ‘Kharankhar’ who was hunting and hiding in a cave. A jackal came there but stayed put seeing the marks of the lion’s paws. He smartly found the lion and rescued himself with the presence of mind.
Chapter 3 – डजीभारतम:
This chapter narrates the world of the internet. With the help of the internet, a simple search can land you in a sea of information. One can get the knowledge from the smallest creature to the highly-developed human being. It can also give you information about chemistry, business, politics, and a lot of such things. This chapter is written keeping the internet as the central idea and explored a lot of options that have made our life easier.
Chapter 4 – सदैवपुरतो निधेहि चरणम्:
This song is compiled by Shridhar Bhaskar Varnekar who encourages the people to move ahead. This song teaches the students to accept and conquer the challenges in life. One must always move ahead despite your target being on the top of the hill or a lot of thorns spread in the way. The writer alerts us to face pointed stones, wild animals, and a lot of hurdles but one must cross all and get to the goal.
Chapter 5 – कण्टकेनैव कण्टकम:
This chapter is a story in the style of ‘Panchatantra’. The story is about a huntsman who captured a tiger in his net. However, at the tiger’s request, he released him. Tiger asked for water and after drinking it, he ran to attack the hunter. Hunter complained about this to the river and tree but they had their problems. Finally, with the help of a fox, he was able to catch the tiger again. The chapter teaches students to keep a presence of mind in a critical situation to overcome the problem.
Chapter 6 – गृहं शून्यं सुतां विना:
This chapter states the contrasting situations of women it starts by mentioning when the women were strong, free, and elated. It states that women were educated and contributed to the growth of society. The women like Gargi and Maitreyi from the Vedic age are known for having knowledge of science too. going forward in some years women’s degradation started and they become very low in social and educational fields. Some wrong rituals led to their downfall of them. This chapter will teach how the initiative was taken to reform them again.
Chapter 7 – भारतजनताडहम्:
This poem is made by Dr. Ramakant Shukl who is awarded ‘Raaashtrapati’ and ‘Padmashri’. He is a proud son of Maa Sharda concerning the Sanskrit world. This modern poet’s poems are often read on Radio and Television. This poem will teach students about the interests and skills are Indian people. The poem highlights the talent of the Indian people.
Chapter 8 – संसारसागरस्य नायकाः
This chapter is written by Anupam Mishra and it is taken from his making ‘Aaj Bhi Khare Hai Talaab’. The subject is in on most neglected section ‘lakes’. It summarizes as the lakes do not come up naturally but they are built and today we have forgotten all those lake makers. Those were the people who were not only well-known but they understand the depths of lakes too. The author tells the students that we must know those makers and respect them for their work.
Chapter 9 – सप्तभगिन्यः
This chapter is about the seven states of the Northeast which are laced with natural beauty and amazing cultures. Out of 28 states, these seven states are governed by the central government and called ‘seven sisters’. The states are Assam, Arunachal, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, Tripura, and Meghalaya. These states are independent right from history and there was no ruler at any time. The cultures of these states are way ahead of that of the other states hence those are the best in India.
Chapter 10 – नीति नवनीतम्:
Sanskrit has always been a very vast and rich cultural literature. This included knowledge and science equally and each session indicate some science. The literature has things useful in routine life and the message is there in each step. When a person is stuck with hassles, it teaches how to come out of it. ‘Chanakya Niti’, ‘Vidur Niti’, and ‘Niti Shatak’ are indications of such knowledgeable information. ‘Manusmriti’ is a lesson that is built in a series of ‘Smriti’s. It states that a person who respects parents and teachers lives long. Apart from that it also mentions facing happiness and sorrow equally and keeping oneself happy.
Chapter 11 – सावित्री बाई फुले:
This chapter is about ‘Savitribai Phule’, the first female teacher in Maharashtra. The society Phule couple belonged to were neglected for a long time from education. Her motto was ‘Education is our right’ and she did a lot of social reform to educate the women in her society. She started teaching poor girls in the beginning but faced a lot of criticism as her own people were not allowing the girls to educate. However, despite all this opposition, she built a lot of education institutes in Maharashtra. Students, especially girls, can take a lot of learning from her life story.
Chapter 12 – कः रक्षति कः रक्षतः
This chapter highlights the excessive use of plastic and its impact on the environment. It speaks about developing the sensitive involvement of people to reduce environmental pollution. Earlier the raw materials used to produce items were not harmful to the environment. But now, people not only use plastic but they throw it haphazardly which contaminates the environment and is very dangerous to human health.
Chapter 13 – क्षितौ राजते भारतस्वर्णभूमिः
This chapter talks about ancient India which used to be the ‘Golden Sparrow’ and had the aura. It was a ‘World-leader’ and had ‘unity in diversity. This chapter also tells us about the natural richness of the country and it praises Golden India. The chapter is written by Dr. Krushnachandra Tripathi.
Chapter 14 – आर्यभटः
This chapter is about the renowned Indian scientist ‘Aryabhatta’, who highlighted the importance of ‘zero’. The claim got a whirlwind response as this was never thought of by any scientist before. At the age of 23, he wrote ‘Aryabhatiy’, his first creation. This resident of Patliputra, also made everyone aware that the Earth rotates around the sun that is still and not vice versa, as it was believed earlier.
Chapter 15 – प्रहेलिकाः
Puzzles are ancient options for entertainment and have great importance in literature. The puzzles are available in every language and along with joy, it teaches us a lot. This collection of puzzles in the chapter will enhance the knowledge of students.
Scope for Sanskrit: –
One would think that Sanskrit being an ancient language and less studied, the job opportunities won’t be there but it is not true. Jobs are available in whichever field you study but the implementation of the right mind is important. As we know, Sanskrit is reported as the best suitable language for a computer, and the future looks good. One can get good opportunities to explore further about Sanskrit. Let us see which great opportunities stand for Sanskrit graduates –
- Sanskrit teacher
- Content writer/Editor – Sanskrit
- Consultant (Sanskrit proofreading)
- Customer service associate
- Sales coordinator (with Sanskrit)
- Assistant professor (Sanskrit Journalism)
- Online Transcriptor
- Home tutor
- Interpreter (consecutive interpreter, general interpreter, and liaison interpreter)
- Sanskrit freelancers
- Part-time trainer
- Writer/Novelist
- Content developer
- Tele-caller (Sanskrit)
- Journalist
- Prak-Shastri
Sources of NCERT Solutions: –
- Students can avail of the solutions from a nearby book store.
- One can order online through e-commerce websites.
- Students can get the NCERT Solutions for Class 8 Sanskrit books online in PDF format from the official website of NCERT.
- There are other educational websites from which students can make notes to study class 8 in Sanskrit.
- The schools can help students to avail of NCERT solutions for Sanskrit.
Importance of Sanskrit: –
Though, till a few years back Sanskrit was not having the deserved exposure, the time has started to change. Sanskrit is now one of the languages in high demand. Since the news of Sanskrit being the most suitable language for a computer, there is a steady rise in demand for Sanskrit, and more people want to learn the language. The Sanskrit language has a very rich culture and its values of it are very high.
Vedas of Sanskrit are ancient has a lot of visionary monks has made it valuable literature. The phrases in Vedas can suit any period or era of the living beings. What was said so many years back can still be applied in day-to-day life. The morals, the summaries, and a lot of things will teach a person how to live a respectful life. Learning Sanskrit from school age and studying the NCERT Solutions for Class 8 Sanskrit will further improve the capacity of the students.
Interesting facts about Sanskrit: –
Sanskrit is an ancient language and it is found that before the invasion of Muslim emperors in India all the education used to take place in Sanskrit. The word has its meaning as it is made from two words, ‘Sanskar’ and ‘Krit’. Sanskar means ‘essence of moral values and ‘/Krit means ‘inculcating’. Thus Sanskrit means a language that can inculcate rich values in an individual. The language is also engulfed with some interesting facts which very few people might know. Let us see what those are –
- In India, there are three villages that rely only on Sanskrit to communicate with each other. These three villages are Jhiri (Madhya Pradesh), Mathur (Karnataka), and Khada (Rajasthan).
- Sri Raghava Yadhaveeyam is a book that gives you a different story if you read it backward. (That’s just amazing). If one reads the book in a forward he will be reading the story of Lord Rama and if he reads it in a backward way he will be getting the story of Lord Krishna.
- Sanskrit has the longest word among all the languages. Sanskrit allows expressing nouns and verbs in the same word. Thus the longest word is noted in Sanskrit. It is from Varadambika Perinaya Campu by Tirumalamba. It consists of 431 letters in it.
- Sanskrit provides speech therapy which is a proven fact. It accelerates all the nerves of your tongue and helps increase concentration too.
- Nalanda had many Sanskrit texts in its storage until it was destroyed and burnt by Bhaktiyar Khilji.
- In Sanskrit, you can find many synonyms generally. An elephant has 100 synonyms.
- Before the Arab invasion, Sanskrit was the national language of the Indian subcontinent.
- Languages like Thai and Lao contain many loanwords from Sanskrit. Even Khmer and Vietnamese have some signified hybrid Sanskrit.
- The ‘Vedas’ written in Sanskrit is one of the world’s oldest written texts. (RigVeda, SamVeda, AtharvaVeda, and YajurVeda)
- Many words in English can be traced back to originating from Sanskrit words. For example, Mosquito from Mashaka, Sugar from Sarkara, Cash from Karsha, Camphor from Karpura, Cassiterite (tin)from Kenya, and many more.
- According to Forbes, Sanskrit is the most computer-friendly language. (July 1987 statement)
- Sanskrit is the most accurate language phonetically and otherwise. It uses 49 types of sounds that make pronunciations of different kinds of words very distinct.
- 102 Arab 78 crores 50 lakh words have been used in Sanskrit till now. If it is used for computers, then in the next 100 years it will be using more words than that.
- Sanskrit is a scholarly language of not one but three religions of the world: Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism.
- As of now, 24828 people in India have registered Sanskrit as their mother tongue.
- Even now a newspaper is published in Sanskrit, ‘Sudharma’ and it is also available online.
Conclusion: –
Since Sanskrit is an ancient language and a grand combination of literature, philosophy, and science, the students can not only improve their knowledge but also can build their careers around it. The language not only speaks about simple living and high thinking but also elaborates on where you can find peace of mind and what is needed to get it. Sanskrit interpretations are not only to recite and scribble on paper but to follow them in life.
The NCERT Solutions for Class 8 Sanskrit, or generally for all levels enhance the student’s knowledge and they can also learn the principles of being a good human.