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Sanskrit (???????? ???? sa?sk?ta vak, for short ????????? sa?sk?tam) is a historical Indo-Aryan language, a liturgical language of Hinduism and other Indian religions,[1] and one of the 22 official languages of India.[2] The pre-Classical form of Sanskrit is known as Vedic Sanskrit, with the language of the Rigveda being the oldest and most archaic stage preserved, its oldest core dating back to as early as 1500 BCE,[4] qualifying Rigvedic Sanskrit as one of the oldest attestation of any Indo-Iranian language, and one of the earliest attested members of the Indo-European language family.[5] The corpus of Sanskrit literature encompasses a rich tradition of poetry and drama as well as scientific, technical, philosophical and Hindu religious texts. Today, Sanskrit continues to be widely used as a ceremonial language in Hindu religious rituals in the forms of hymns and mantras. Spoken Sanskrit is still in use in a few traditional institutions in India, and there are many attempts at revival. The Sanskrit verbal adjective sa?sk?ta- may be translated as "put together, well or completely formed, refined, highly elaborated". It is derived from the root sa?(s)kar- "to put together, compose, arrange, prepare",[6] where sa?- "together" (as English same) and (s)kar- "do, make". The language referred to as sa?sk?ta vak "the cultured language" has by definition always been a "sacred" and "sophisticated" [7] language, used for religious and learned discourse and contrasted with the languages spoken by the people, prak?ta- "natural, artless, normal, ordinary". It is also called deva-bha?a meaning the "divine language" or the "language of devas or demigods".
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