Language of the Immortals: A Concise History of Sanskrit
By G. N. Devy
Aleph Books, 96 pages, Rs 399

Aleph has launched a series of imprints called Essential India series. The sub-titles, however, reveal the series might have a different name: ‘A Short History of Bharat Natyam’, ‘A Concise Introduction and Commentary’ (to the Constitution), and the one under review: ‘A Concise History of Sanskrit’. At under-100 pages, these books are certainly short and concise, and come close to the OUP’s extremely successful Very Short Introduction series. Unlike VSI, though, these are not mini textbooks, but long essays.

‘Language of the Immortals’, that is ‘Devabhasha’, is having its moment. Sanskrit has long been celebrated as one of the building blocks of India’s civilization, and is venerated in temples, scriptures, and classical literature. Renowned scholar G. N. Devy uncovers the astounding paradox of Sanskrit—an ancient language that shaped Indian thought, philosophy, and identity for millennia, yet was never truly a language of the people.

The book is divided into two related essays, ‘False Perceptions and Misguided Debates’ and ‘The Memory Magic and Language Hegemony’. The first sketches out the universal appeal of the language, naming Indologists of the colonial era, touching upon one of the most fascinating aspects of it, namely, Panini’s grammar, and introduces the debates and controversies surrounding, for example, the language of Indus Civilization. The second essay traces the history of Sanskrit literature and literary criticism. A short but helpful bibliography rounds off the offering.

“Finally,” the author writes in conclusion, “Sanskrit became the world’s most spectacular example of how a language which is not large in its social spread can yet be a language enjoying an exceptionally high esteem. Sanskrit was and continues to be so, despite its decline a thousand years ago, the ultimate language hegemony that the world has seen, no matter if it was not spoken during the Indus era and no matter if it came to India from somewhere else.”

With rigorous scholarship, Devy dismantles enduring myths and offers a revealing commentary on Sanskrit’s historical and cultural trajectory. He shows how it achieved unsurpassed prestige not through conquest or commerce, but sheer intellectual brilliance. He explores the way in which Sanskrit shaped intellectual life across centuries, influenced cultures beyond India, and maintained its prestige through the oral tradition and spiritual symbolism rather than the patronage of the state.

This concise yet profound work reimagines what it means for a language to live on—long after it has ceased to be spoken.