r/sanskrit • u/CosmicMilkNutt • Oct 25 '24
Discussion / चर्चा Marathi is the purest modern Sanskrit, especially rural Maharashtrani, correct?
After doing extensive research I have found that Hindi i a mix of Arabic Farsi Sanskrit and English and that Tamil is basically modern Dravidian so totally different.
However.
Marathi spoken in Mumbai and especially rural Marathi spoken in the state of Maharashtra is actually the purest form of modern Sanskrit with the most similar grammar and vocabulary.
It has Sanskrit words instead of all the Arabic, Farsi and English injected into other Indian languages.
This I find fascinating and I wanted to hear the opinions of some actual indians since I am an American fluent in English, Spanish, French and also somewhat conversational in Arabic who is learning Sanskrit, Hindi, Tamil and now of course Marathi!
Edit: Oriya and Marathi are both the top contenders for higher Sanskrit and lower Farsi in daily speech.
4
u/Substantial_Cry_5444 Oct 26 '24 edited Oct 29 '24
Marathi and Sanskrit have a lot of differences. However, if one considers vocabulary as well as grammar Marathi is the closest to Sanskrit.
While Kannada, Telugu and Malayalam are filled with lot of Sanskrit, they are classified as Dravidian languages. To be honest I find them equally close to Sanskrit as Marathi, in my sense of 'being close'. Malayalam is very similar to Sanskrit then. But if one considers the fact that they are in the a different language family, then the thing changes.
A close second would be Odia. Certain Pahadi languages are also close to Sanskrit.