Sanskrit palm-leaf manuscript, 828 CE.
This is one of the oldest surviving and dated palm-leaf manuscripts in Sanskrit (828 CE). Discovered in Nepal, the bottom leaf shows all the vowels and consonants of Sanskrit (the first five consonants are highlighted in blue and yellow).
The Vedas are scriptures of Hinduism
The Vedas are scriptures of Hinduism. They consist of four layers of texts: samhita, brahmana, aranyaka and upanishads . The samhitas are dated to between 1500 and 1000 BCE. The Brahmanas and Aranyaka texts are probably from about 1100 to 700 BCE, while the Upanishads from about 900 to 200 BCE.
Each Vedic layer consists of books. These oldest texts are in the archaic Sanskrit language. The Vedic texts between 900 to 500 BCE are close to the classical Sanskrit, which was formalized by Panini. The Brahmana hymns that cover a mix of topics: benedictions, yajna ritual methods and verses, mythologies, cosmologies, questions and riddles relating to many fields of human activities, drama and poems, philosophy and mystical speculations.
The corpus of Vedic texts, as well all post-Vedic texts, are generally accepted to have been orally transmitted from generation to generation for over a millennium, till about the start of the common era.
The scripture was written on palm leaf manuscripts, copied for preservation in Hindu temples and monasteries. Later paper and cloth versions were made where the page size was similar to the heritage palm leaf long pages.
Left: Bhagavad Gita, 3rd Chapter, verses 1-2, Gurmukhi script, Punjab
Sanskrit palm-leaf copied in 1863 CE
Copied in 1863 CE, this palm leaf manuscript, Jaiminiya Aranyaka Gana, Samaveda was copied from an earlier leaf.
Rigveda (padapatha) manuscript in Devanagari, early 19th century.
Rigveda (padapatha) manuscript in Devanagari, early 19th century. The red horizontal and vertical lines mark low and high pitch changes for chanting.
The pre-Classical form of Sanskrit is known as Vedic Sanskrit. The earliest attested Sanskrit text is the Rigveda, a Hindu scripture from the mid- to late-second millennium BCE. No written records from such an early period survive, if any ever existed, but scholars are generally confident that the oral transmission of the texts is reliable, being ceremonial literature.
A Vedanta Sara manuscript
This image is from a Vedanta Sara manuscript, a Sanskrit text in Telugu script over 200 years old.
The bolded letters are the text, the light diacritics, any colored marks, light dashes, characters and dots over or under the letters are coded markers found in Sanskrit manuscripts for readers and reciters.
Geographic distribution
The Sanskrit language's historic presence is attested across a wide geography beyond South Asia. Inscriptions and literary evidence suggests that Sanskrit language was already being adopted in Southeast Asia and Central Asia in the 1st millennium CE, through monks, religious pilgrims and merchants. South Asia has been the geographic range of the largest collection of the ancient and pre-18th-century Sanskrit manuscripts and inscriptions. Beyond ancient India, significant collections of Sanskrit manuscripts and inscriptions have been found in China (particularly the Tibetan monasteries), Myanmar, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, and Malaysia. Sanskrit inscriptions, manuscripts or its remnants, including some of the oldest known Sanskrit written texts, have been discovered in dry high deserts and mountainous terrains such as in Nepal, Tibet, Afghanistan, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan. Sanskrit texts and inscriptions have also been found in Korea and Japan.
Left: Sanskrit from Shiva Temple wall, 1010 CE.
This is a Shiva temple from the Shaiva Siddhanta tradition of Hinduism, and a part of a UNESCO world heritage site. The circumambulatory passage (the pradakshinapata) houses three major sculptures of Siva. This hall describes dance postures and saints.
A Sanskrit manuscript of Lotus Sutra in South Turkestan Brahmi script
Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra (Lotus Sutra) is written in Sanskrit in an early form of South Turkestan Brahmi script. The manuscript originally comprised more than 350 folios, each consisting of two thin layers of paper pasted together.
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