Sanskrit (IAST: Sasktam; IPA: [sskrt m][a]) is the primary liturgical language of Hinduism;

a philosophical language of Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, and Jainism; and a literary

language and lingua franca of ancient and medieval India and Nepal.[6] As a result of
transmission of Hindu and Buddhist culture to Southeast Asia and parts of Central Asia, it
was also a language of high culture in some of these regions during the early-medieval
era.[7][8]
Sanskrit is a standardized dialect of Old Indo-Aryan, having originated in the second
millennium BCE as Vedic Sanskrit and tracing its linguistic ancestry back to Proto-Indo-
Iranian and Proto-Indo-European.[9] As the oldest Indo-European language for which
substantial written documentation exists, Sanskrit holds a prominent position in Indo-
European studies.[10] The body of Sanskrit literature encompasses a rich tradition
of poetry and drama as well as scientific, technical, philosophical and religious texts. The
compositions of Sanskrit were orally transmitted for much of its early history by methods of
memorization of exceptional complexity, rigor, and fidelity.[11][12] Thereafter, variants and
derivatives of the Brahmi script came to be used.
Sanskrit is normally written in the Devanagari script but other scripts continue to be used.[4] It
is today one of the 22 languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India,
which mandates the Indian government to develop the language. It continues to be widely
used as a ceremonial language in Hindu religious rituals and Buddhist practice in the form
of hymns and chants.