Which is Oldest Indian language Sanskrit or Tamil?

Show all answers

jayaraman

Oldest living language - SANSKRIT

SANSKRIT, THE oldest surviving member of the Indo-European family of language, has been, is, and will be a source of infinite wonder for scholars and laymen alike. Acknowledged by Sir William Jones as being "more perfect than Greek, more copious than Latin and more exquisitively refined than either", Sanskrit occupies the pride of place in our cultural life.

Its prestige, sway and authority among other languages of the world are quite unique and undeniable. It is the mother of almost all the North Indian languages.

Although the Dravidian family of languages, comprising Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam, is not a derivative of Sanskrit, still any impartial observer cannot deny the profound influence of Sanskrit on these languages. Even Tamil, which maintains a more independent stand than her sister languages, admits an inflow of Sanskrit words. Senavaraiyar, the Tamil grammarian, says that Sanskrit belongs to the entire country and not to any particular region.

Eminent scholars testifying to the glory of Sanskrit language and pointing out the way in which it has permeated our national life down the centuries have written several books, monographs and essays. The Vedas, Upanishads, epics, law texts, Puranas, literary works, works on medicine, astronomy, astrology, and mathematics are all written in Sanskrit.

While one is justified in glorifying one's mother tongue as the best medium for instruction at the initial level, none can deny the need to study Sanskrit for acquiring greater grounding in the mother tongue..... -

Royal

Tamil is way way much older than Sanskrit, Sanskrit is dead by still living in the tongue of the Brahmin Priests ard, Brahminisn is part of the caste of the caste System the Aryans created.
Frankly Tamil language is the one and only indegenious Tongue to the Indian soil along with other sister languages like Malayalam,Telugu,Kannada ,Brahui and Tulu which came from the influence of Tamil,
Unlike Sanskrit came by chance, after the creation of sanskrit, most of ancient Tamil properties were destroyed by the Aryans since they wanted everything for themselve, even the vedas and manthras were copied and fabricated from the native tongue and text to suit the Aryans and to give them a sense of identity,
Sanskrit infact, is a language of the Intruders,
Aryans

Having the presence of Hindi and other North and East Indian languages being part of the family of the Indo-Aryan langauge, efforts will be made in order not to allow any truth abt Sanskrit to be out, that presently there are people even telling that the Aryan Invasion is not true,
By so call trying to cover the aryan invasion theory the truth of Sanskrit will be so call hidden, and therefore Indo-Aryan languages like Hindi,Gujearathi ,sindhi etc... can live with a native pride . COZ
If Sanskrit infact, is a language of the Intruders,
what will you call the languages that came from the influence of Sanskrit ?

vakayil k

Sanskrit is the oldest Indian Language. To have more details about Sanskrit, please check the following website:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanskrit

Russian woman

Sanskrit,that language like a 4 thousands years old.It sounds even like russian language.

Reggie R

Sanskrit and Tamil are both very old, as they are the two classical languages native to India.

These languages have large collections of literature, with the earliest Sanskrit texts dating from 3500 years ago and the earliest Tamil literature from 2500 years ago.

Judging by this, the answer as to which one is older is clear: Sanksrit.

It sounds like the previous answers have been guesses up to this point. But my answer is based on the the report submitted by Tamil Nadu State Government to Central Government of India to claim the Classic Language status. See the information here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_India

Dev

Sanskrit is the oldest !

Mantra

Classical Sanskrit language was formed and written around 500 BC.

The earliest extant text in Tamil is the TolkÄppiyam, may date back to around 200 BC.

Simple answer..!!

p v

Sanskrit is the oldest language.

Charan P

Factually it is Tamil as far as native truth is concern .
Sanskrit is a fortuitous language
created by chance when the Aryans stepped into India the Native Dravdian Soil if not for the Aryans there is no Sanskrit

Souza L

Tamil is older than Sansrit
The so call found old text which date bk 250bc Tholkaapiyam is an estabilished text by then,
which means by the time Tholkaapiyam was written, it was already a well established text,

So this very much explains that Tamil text
written earlier than that were destroyed by the intruders Aryans the founders of Sanskrit.
If a modern Tamil book like Tholkaapiyam is dating bk 200-250 bc
what abt the medevial text ?
How long will it date bk

what abt the ancient text ?
How long will it date bk
These are doubts that make real sure that Tamil is way much older than Sanskrit, but as for Sanskrit it was only formed after the aryans,

When did the Aryans came ? 1500BC

When and how long did the illiterate Aryans took develope their brains when they were in the Indus Valley the home of the Dravidian ?

These very much explains by the time the Aryans develope their knowledge, it must be later than that , that they should have came up with Sanskrit.
The Aryans must have learnt Tamil themselve before creating Sanskrit

Comparing Sanskrit with Tamil is an insult to Tamil a native Indian language being compared with a Trespasser

Tamil is Tens of Centuries older than Sanskrit no questions abt it, the truth is denied in the eyes of jealousy by the Hindian political grp which is having the Central Goverment Grib

Anita Vasanth

Tamil is a classical language older than latin, greek, egyptian or even sanskrit.
It is potentially the oldest language still in significant use.

Tamil cannot be compared to Sanskrit as sanskrit is clearly a language of nomads which came to birth after 1500bc where Ancient Tamil was already reaching it"s medevial period then.
Sanskrit is already dead in the modern world, whereby Ancient Tamil is still living rich in the modern world.

cool

tamil dhan romba palasu.

Matilda K

I have did my research on this for years and Tamil is the oldest language in India and one of the oldest language in the world.
Sanskrit has only survived all these years with made up facts,
Firstly Aryans are intruders and not the natural inhabitants of India.
Secondly it"s very clear India is originally a land of the Dravidians and Tamil is the mother of Dravidian languages, Old Tamil or Modern Tamil
it do not make much difference,
If i were to change my hair colour to black to gold dosen"t mean i am a different person right?

All languages will be influenced to mordrnisation if we look at English, looking at the old and the new English can we seperate them
Just because they sound different ?
No
bcz English is still English

So the fact remain as a fact.

Tamil is the oldest language

Ray Washington

Tamil is an older language if we do not look on the selfish HIndian political point of view

Though Tamil and Sanskriti are among the oldest language in ASIA and ard the world.

Tamil is older then Sanskrit but Sanskrit is surviving due to political back up where Hindi is taking the shelter

Rajender Rai

Entire world knows Sanskrit and Tamil are indeed the oldest but if a question is raised between Sanskrit and Tamil on which is older

It has to be Tamil bcz India is indeed the land of the Dravidian and Tamil is the mother of all Dravidian languages when Tamil was around Sanskrit was never present , sanskrit was only formed after the arrival of the Aryans therefore Sanskrit is not native of India

The age differece btw Sanskrit and Tamil

Age of Tamil -(subtract) Sanskrit = 1700++

Mustu

Prakrit.

It is older than sanskrit and Tamil.

Amit K

Indian Goverment where by the single large block is control by hindi speaking breeds, so such people will tend to bring up the name of sanskrit by all means since Hindi came by the inflence of Sanskrit, it"s a well known fact Sanskrit is much younger than Tamil and
Tamil be it old Tamil or modern Tamil ,
Tamil is Tamil
Tamil was the only present language before the Aryans camer to India .

It is clear that Tamil is the oldest Language of India and the oldest living language of India

Taurus Fan...

Most Indians would imagine that Sanskrit is older. Unfortunately, it is not. Tamil is definitely a much older language.

The presence of literature (as quoted above) cannot be assumed to be a reflection of how old a language is. Case in point, Hebrew!

Tamil is also one the oldest languages with an indigenous script. Credibility for its antiquity comes from the fact that it is recognized as a "Dravidian" languages, which existed prior to any Indo-Aryan languages, Sanskrit being one of them.

tan w

Must be Tamil because sanskrit is foreign and not purely Indian language unlike Tamil
God bless India , if an oldest Indian language like Tamil is being challenged by a a half indian language like sanskrit, i really don"t know where to laugh.
Naturally the root of Indian language is Tamil, also sanskrit has loaned alot of words from Tamil and not to deny the fact that there are sanskrit influence to Tamil too which happen after thousands of years later

Varma

No Questions abt it --- TAMIL
SANSKRIT IS OLD, BUT TAMIL IS WAY MUCH OLDER THAN SANSKRIT.

Enter Your Message or Comment

User Name:
User Email:
Post a comment: