How Old Is Sanskrit?

Proposing a timeline for Sanskrit’s origins based on historical records, horse genetics, and archaeology

A 19th-century illustration of the Bhagavad Gita, with Sanskrit verses shown. Image source: Wikimedia

Sanskrit is the oldest language that is still spoken. About 25,000 people in India consider it to be their first language. As of 2011, the country had another two million Sanskrit speakers. The United States has the most higher education institutes that offer Sanskrit courses (36), followed by India (15), Germany (14), and Italy (12).

But how old is the language?

There are two extreme views in the controversy over the antiquity of Sanskrit. Opinions on the language’s age range from 22,000 to 2,000 years ago, depending on who you ask.

We must examine a language's oldest text and written documents to date it. The earliest scriptures in Sanskrit, the Vedas, were composed orally and passed down through generations before they were written. This makes dating them a challenging task.

However, the Vedas contain clues that allow linguists and archaeologists to come up with when they were authored.

In this story, we’ll look at Sanskrit’s earliest written evidence and suggest possible dates for the oldest Sanskrit text, the Rigveda. Let’s begin with the first known proof of written Sanskrit.