India is a land of languages and cultures. Thousands of years of settlements on varied settings of fertile lands, river banks, forests and mountains have
created a spectrum of languages and dialects, the synthesis of which is
reflected in the Indian union.  The tribal and hill languages are not known
to have written scripts, but are endowed with words and syntax.  Many of thewords used in the world languages most likely originated through the efforts of communication by the inhabitants in India.

The Outreach Committee at the Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies will explore the langauges and literature in India through a series of sixteen lectures spanning from 2006 through 2008.  The lectures will be held monthly on first or second Saturday at 3 PM in Hall A of theHarvard University Science Center at 1 Oxford Street in Cambridge.
Lectures and free and are open to the public.  Each lecture will be
of one hour duration followed by a thirty minute Question and Answer
session.  The lecture schedule will be announced at the Department website
http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~sanskrit and through Harvard Gazette.
All are invited to attend the lectures and participate in the discussion.

Starting with the Vedas, Sanskrit has been the mainstay of the Indian
languages collecting words from the local origin and contributing words
back to popular use.    Prakrit and Pali languages have been in
circulation probably as early as the vedic times and have contributed
immensely to the development of many modern Indian languages. The
Sanskrit grammar by Panini in fourth century BC is considered as the
oldest complete grammar text among the classical languages of the world.
The masterpiece Ashtadhyayi profusely illustrates the stability and maturity
attained by Sanskrit among scholars of the time.The southern languages
have been equally influenced by Tamil, which is perhaps as old as Sanskrit
or older.   The current set of Indian languages is spread through different
regional areas, culturally linked by customs, religion and folklores.  Each
language has a sizable speaking population; Hindi dominates in use in
the heartland of India.

While the history of the development of each of the Indian languages is
not well known, most written literature appear to have developed in the
last thousand years.  The early Sanskrit script is possibly not older than
2500 years.  Texts and manuscripts in different
languages and in Sanskrit are continually being discovered and restored,
furthering our knowledge of the history and culture of Indian people.
Harvard University has an excellent collection of manuscripts of
India that are studied and compiled.

 Sanskrit writers have produced some of the magnificent literary
compositions, which in some cases are equally massive.  The story line and
the legends have been borrowed by the writers in regional languages to
produce powerful literary compositions that have remained popular over
the ages.  Styles in Indian literature influence her culture through musical
renderings, dance and sculptural presentations.  Arts and literature
make dominant themes in Indian culture.  India's exposure to the world
and the new thrust of homogeneity has been challenges facing the
country in the 21st century.

The Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies has active language programs
in Sanskrit, Hindi, Urdu, Tamil, Bengali, Tibetan and Nepali.  Students
pursue language training for study and research.  New language programs
are initiated through student interest and research needs.  Questions on
the Department may be made through the Department website or by mail
to Department Administrator at sanskrit@fas.harvard.edu.  Questions
about the lectures and the outreach activities can be forwarded to
Dr Bijoy Misra at bmisra@fas.harvard.edu.

|