Vedic Sanskrit

Not to be confused with the Vedda language.
Vedic Sanskrit
Native toPresent-day India, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Nepal and Pakistan
RegionNorthwestern Indian subcontinent
Erac. 1500 – 600 BCE
Language codes
ISO 639-3vsn
vsn
 qnk Rigvedic
Glottologvedi1234
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Vedic Sanskrit, also simply referred as the Vedic language, is an ancient language of the Indo-Aryan subgroup of the Indo-European language family. It is attested in the Vedas and related literature[1] compiled over the period of the mid-2nd to mid-1st millennium BCE.[2] It is orally preserved, predating the advent of writing by several centuries.[3][4]

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.[5][6]

  1. ^ Burrow 2001, p. 43.
  2. ^ Witzel, Michael (2006). "Early Loanwords in Western Central Asia: Indicators of Substrate Populations, Migrations, and Trade Relations". In Mair, Victor H. (ed.). Contact And Exchange in the Ancient World. University of Hawaii Press. p. 160. ISBN 978-0-8248-2884-4.
  3. ^ Macdonell 1916, p. 2.
  4. ^ Reich 2019, p. 122.
  5. ^ Baldi, Philip (1983). An Introduction to the Indo-European Languages. Southern Illinois University Press. pp. 51–52. ISBN 978-0-8093-1091-3.
  6. ^ Beckwith, Christopher I. (2009). Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present. Princeton University Press. pp. 363–368. ISBN 978-0-691-13589-2.