Is Sanskrit considered divine language to those of the Hindu faith?

Question

Is Sanskrit considered divine language to those of the hindu faith? If so why?

I am not Hindu, but I am interested in this topic.

Answer 1

Yes it is considered divine and is referred to as Dev-bhasha or the 'Language of the Gods'. The following verses from Mahabharat Shanti Parva महाभारते १२.२३१.५६ and महाभारत १२.२३२.२४ clearly declare its divine status:

अनादिनिधना ह्येषा वागुत्सृष्टा स्वयम्भुवा ।

आदौ वेदमयी दिव्या यतस्सर्वाः प्रसूतयः ॥

English Translation -

Beginning-less and endless is this vāk manifested on its own,

First as Veda the celestial and from that everything else born.

Hindi Translation -

आदि-रहिता एवं अन्त-रहिता यह वेदमयी दिव्या विद्यावाणी स्वयम्भू है

एवं यही प्रथम वेद के रूप में एवं तदनन्तर सर्व वस्तुज्ञान को प्रसवित करती है

This is the confirmation of the belief that the language is of a non-human or divine origin.

Answer 2

Yes, Sanskrit is a divine language. As commented by Rohit, Sanskrit is considered divine because Sanskrit sounds emanated from Lord Shiva's Damru.

Sanskrit is written in devanagari script. The word devanagari can be divided into deva and nagari where deva means immortal beings and nagari means city. So, devanagari means city of immortals. In Sanskrit, there are no capital letters. Each letter represents one, and only one, sound. In English, the letter 'a' for example, may indicate many sounds (e.g. fat,fare, far), but not so in Sanskrit.

Sanskrit is the oldest language living till today. If you will listen to Sanskrit especially the mantras then you might be able to feel the vibration caused by it. Sanskrit is the language spoken by gods. Our Scriptures have been written in Sanskrit language.

In most languages you will find words that represent particular objects. For e.g. tree represents an object. In Sanskrit words represent properties of an object. So, there is no translation of a tree in Sanskrit. Now ofcourse people might argue that tree in Sanskrit is called as वृक्ष (Briksha). For those, I suggest to read the following article: Features of Sanskrit that make it an extra-ordinary language.

Answer 3

Sanskrit is among best languages, the world has to offer.

Language is never a barrier to communicate with lord in my locality at least.

You can say it sacred in sense, in todays world, since it is no more used commonly but used to read scriptures for god only.

Otherwise, It is a good language, easily communicable and expressible to god, but sacred, nothing like that in sense you think.

We read Hindi translated version, we believe expression matters more than words.

Reading something incomprehensible is worthless, just express, you dont need words often for that.

A language is a tool. It cannot be any sacred entity.

Sanskrit does not have any abusive words, but still, that just make it highly respectable and not sacred.