Vedic Sanskrit | |
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Native to | Present-day India, Afghanistan, Nepal and Pakistan |
Region | Northwestern Indian subcontinent |
Era | c. 200 – 100 BC |
Indo-European
| |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | vsn |
vsn | |
qnk Rigvedic | |
Glottolog | vedi1234 |
Vedic Sanskrit, also simply referred as the Vedic language, is an ancient language of the Indo-Aryan subgroup of the Indo-European language family. It is attested in the Vedas and related literature[1] compiled over the period of the mid-2nd to mid-1st millennium BCE.[2] It is orally preserved, predating the advent of writing by several centuries.[3][4]
Extensive ancient literature in the Vedic Sanskrit language has survived into the modern era, and this has been a major source of information for reconstructing Proto-Indo-European and Proto-Indo-Iranian history. Vedic Sanskrit and its sister language, Avestan, are mutually intelligible with very careful listening, although multiple words remain unintelligible and have different pronunciations.[5][6]