Which Koopamandooka believes Sanskrit is a dead Language ?

V.I.G.Menon Sanskrit today is used in small quantities by a huge majority of people ,which cannot be identified together as a spaking group. But they are a strong reading group of this ancient language.Few facts below will highlight how it influences Todays life world wide. See what the Sanskrita Bharathi which propagates Sanskrit Worldwide Samskrita Bharati, a non-profit organization, is primarily dedicated to the mission of popularizing Sanskrit as a spoken language. Moving beyond veneration of Sanskrit as a classical or exotic language, Samskrita Bharati seeks to make this a contemporary language whose everyday usage becomes customary and widespread. This goal is being gradually realized with steady progress in the escalating numbers of Sanskrit speakers globally, increase in Sanskrit speaking families worldwide, and even a rise in Sanskrit spoken villages in India. Such preliminary success has served as a powerful catalyst to effect further change, and initiate a potent cultural renaissance movement.

Sanskrit is a member of the Indo-Iranian sub-family of the Indo-European family of languages. Its closest ancient relatives are the Iranian languages Old Persian and Avestan To start ,with let us understand that Sanskrit is the Mother or a Major Contributor of all the European Languages commonly called Indo-European Languages as shown below from Wikipedia.

As per Wikipedia,Sanskrit and related languages have also influenced their Sino-Tibetanspeaking neighbors to the north through the spread of Buddhist texts in translation.[47] Buddhism was spread to China by Mahayanist missionaries sent by Emperor Ashoka mostly through translations of Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit and Classical Sanskrit texts, and many terms were transliterated directly and added to the Chinese vocabulary. (Although Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit is not Sanskrit, properly speaking, its grammar and vocabulary are substantially the same, both because of genetic relationship, and because of conscious implementation of Pinian standardizations on the part of composers. Buddhist texts composed in Sanskrit proper were primarily found in philosophical schools like the Madhyamaka.) The situation in Tibet is similar; many Sanskrit texts survive only in Tibetan translation (in the Tanjur). The Thai language contains many loan words from Sanskrit. For example, in Thai, the Rvanathe emperor of Sri Lanka is called 'Thosakanth' which is a derivation of his Sanskrit name 'Dashakanth' ("of ten necks"). Many Sanskrit loanwords are also found in traditional Malay, Modern Indonesian, and numerous Philippine languages,[48] Old Javanese language (nearly half)[49] and to a lesser extent, Cambodian, Vietnamese, through Sinified hybrid Sanskrit. Modern day Sanskrit As per Wikipedia Many of India's and Nepal's scientific and administrative terms are named in Sanskrit, as a counterpart of the western practice of naming scientific developments in Latin or Greek.[citation needed] The Indian guided missile program that was commenced in 1983 by DRDO has named the five missiles (ballistic and others) that it has developed as Prithvi, Agni, Akash, Nag and Trishul. India's first modern fighter aircraft is named HAL Tejas.

Recital of Sanskrit shlokas as background chorus in films, television advertisements and as slogans for corporate organizations has become a trend. The opera Satyagraha by Philip Glass uses texts from the Bhagavad Gita, sung in the original Sanskrit. Recently, Sanskrit also made an appearance in Western pop music in two recordings by Madonna. One, "Shanti/Ashtangi", from the 1998 album Ray of Light, is the traditional Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga chant referenced above set to music. The second, "Cyber-raga", released in 2000 as a B-side to Madonna's album Music, is a Sanskrit-language ode of devotion to a higher power and a wish for peace on earth. The climactic battle theme of The Matrix Revolutions features a choir singing a Sanskrit prayer from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad in the closing titles of the movie. Composer John Williams featured choirs singing in Sanskrit for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom[50] and in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.[citation needed] The Sky1 version of the title sequence in season one of Battlestar Galactica 2004 features the Gayatri Mantra, taken from the Rig Veda (3.62.10). The composition was written by miniseries composer Richard Gibbs. Sanskrit has also seen a significant revival in China. Musicians such as Sa Dingding have written pop songs in Sanskrit.[51] Physical/Hatha Yoga,the principle and prescriptions of of which exists only in sanskrit is a mainstream life style of USA today taking care of the mental well being of about 30% of its people.And roughly influences the lives of similar number ,of people all over the world. Then today's billion dollar global industry of ayurvedic products is based only on Sanskrit prescriptions. Then Literally 20% of the hindus in India regularly read Sanskrit for their religious rites and prayers ! There are more than 300 printing houses across the world including India which print Sanskrit literature,vedic texts,Prayer Books and so on ! Then Samskrita Bharati is a volunteer-driven non-profit organization working to bring Samskritam back to the mainstream. Started in 1981 in Bengaluru, India, now Samskrita Bharati has presence in many countries including INDIA, USA, UK, UAE. See http://www.samskritabharatiusa.org/index.php/en/about-us/about-us I was surprised to learn that the President of Sanskrit Bharati is a Christian,Named Alex,from Kottayam.By the way we have spoken on several occasions on Sanskrit topics

Also there are more than onelakh Hindu Worship Centres across the world including India,Which uses Strictly Sanskrit in their incantations and rituals There are atleast twenty TV channels which Often broadcasts Sanskrit based programmes And,there are many Sanskrit based web pages in internet,dealing with Sastras,Srutis,Smritis,Entire Vedas, the increased subscriptions to astrology sites in internet again is based on Sanskrit Prescriptions,viewed by millions across the world Yet again, Bhagvad Gita alone is taught.discoursed atleast in 100,000 presentations worldwide in management/spiritual training/discourses across the world for its practical ,yet,elevated approach to life. Do you know that this great American David Frawley is also the one who established saskrit based institute in the USA.Also he is advisor to BJP on vedic matters ! See the Link http://www.vedanet.com/ http://www.americansanskrit.com/ is a full fledged learning centre in the USA See a similar news in rediff http://www.rediff.com/news/2007/jun/01arthur.htm news on Calfornia university programme Then look at the online sanskrit dictionary effort from abroad http://spokensanskrit.de/ http://sanskritdocuments.org/dict/ Here is a short list of sanskrit centres across the world ,excluding India,which has more than thousand learning centres of various kinds! Australian National University (in conjunction with Sydney University) Canberra La Trobe University Asian Studies University of Sydney Indian Studies Sanskrit Studies in Europe Austria

Vienna University Institut fr Sdasien-, Tibet- und Buddhismuskunde Universitt Wien (ISTB) Institut fr Kultur- und Geistesgeschichte Asiens Belgium Gent University Leuven University Denmark University of Copenhagen Asian Studies Finland Helsinki Institute for Asian and African Studies Germany Berlin (Freie Universitt) Indian Studies Bonn University Indian Studies Freiburg University Oriental Studies Gttingen University Indian and Buddhist Studies Halle University Indological Studies Hamburg University Indian and Tibetan Studies Heidelberg University Classical Indian Studies Kiel University Kln University Indology and Tamil Studies Leipzig University Indology

Mainz University Indology Marburg University Indology Mnchen University Indology Mnster University Indology Tbingen University Indian Studies/ Comparative Religion Wrzburg University Indology Great Britain Cambridge University Oriental Studies Edinburgh University Asian Studies London University Oriental & African Studies Oxford University Oriental Studies Italy University of Bologna Oriental Studies University of Rome Oriental Studies The Netherlands Groningen University Indian Studies and Culture Leiden University Indian Studies and Culture International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS)

Norway Oslo University Oriental Studies Russia Moscow State University The Institute of Asian and African Studies at Moscow State University. This site also provides relevant links. Sweden Stockholm University Indology Switzerland Lausanne University Indian Studies Zrich University Indian Studies Harvard University Sanskrit and Indian Studies &