Dr. BALRAM SHUKLA _ Topic -"Lexical and Morphological similarities between Sanskrit and old Persian"
Channel: Chandragupta Bhartiya
Date: 27/04/2021

Dr. BALRAM SHUKLA
(Fellow IIAS, Shimla, Sanskrit Department, Delhi University)
Topic — "Lexical and Morphological similarities between Sanskrit and old Persian" 
International Conference on Indo Persian Literature & Culture Session IV.

Abstract

The Iranian Languages form an important group of Indo-Iranian Language family which is one of the essential divisions of Indo-European languages. We can chronologically divide the Iranian languages into three periods- Old Iranian,  Middle Iranian and New Iranian. Old Iranian includes two languages of importance represented by old texts and various inscriptions. These are– Old Persian and Avesta languages. Old Persian is understood to be the language of southwestern Iran used in the inscriptions of the Achaemenian rulers. 
The relationship of Old Persian and Sanskrit literary traditions has been noted on cultural and linguistic planes. If In spite of a huge gap of almost 1000 years and drastic cultural and linguistic changes, modern Persian still bears astonishing affinities with Sanskrit on Phonetic, Morphological and other linguistic dimensions, it is because of the homogeneity of its root language, i.e. Old Persian with Sanskrit.
This paper aims at showing affinities between these two languages on the lexical and morphological levels. This comparison unleashes several interesting dimensions of Sanskrit and modern Persian, too.