Let’s see “How is Sanskrit related to computer?” Getting straight to the point is Samskrutam and Computing linked the answer is yes and No. Let’s get the basics right it is not Sanskrit, it is Samskrutam which means a well-perfected language. so let’s address it as Samskrutam from here now . Is Sanskrit still spoken?
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Myths about Samskrutam
- NASA is doing some research about Samskrutam.
- You can program using Samskrutam both are myths and baseless.
Factual Contributions of Samskrutam
The fact of the matter is that Samskrutam has already contributed to the technology that we are using today just that it’s not well known to many of us and now let’s see what they are
Binary number
The binary number system the very Foundation of this digital world today has originated from Samskrutam.
Combinatorics
Combinatorics a field of mathematics that deals with counting has originated from Samskrutam.
Computational linguistics
Computational linguistics or in simple terms, speech recognition is an area where research is going on some Samskrutam for its linguistic properties.
As I said we made this documentary very responsibly and every Speck of detail that you’re going to see in the “Binary number system” is fully backed with research. I’m going to give you references for you to go and check for yourself and only then take the word.History of Sanskrit language & Founder of sanskrit
Binary number system and who invented the Binary number system in India?
Here is a verse from Bhavani Ashtakam and hear me out reciting
If You observe the letters in black take less time to pronounce and the letters in red take more time to pronounce let me repeat you see that there is a wave pattern in the way the syllables are arranged in this verse thus creating a rhythmic or a rhyming effect.
The art of creating a poem by arranging the letters in such a rhythmic way is called Chhandas sastra chhandas is one of the six Vedangas that we saw some time back.Unraveling Pingala Contribution to Mathematics
Chhandas gives the tone and tenor of The Vedas the way they are recited. in addition to some Chhandas kannada and Telugu also have this Chhandas sastra blended into the language as Chhandas gives the pleasant Rhythm to the Samskrutam poems.
It is metaphorically compared with Chand which is Moon and hence the name Chanda’s shastra I will explain why we are talking about Chandra Shastra but before that one, the very important thing just like in music where every song that we listen to is an arrangement of seven different notes in different combinations.
same way every Samskrutam poem is a huge combination of short syllables and long syllables or in other words Laghu and Guru the rhyming and beauty of the Samskrutam poem lies in how beautifully we arrange these short syllables and long syllables.
Chanda sastra written by Pingalacharya historically dated to be around 200 to 300 BC gave certain algorithms to derive the way we can arrange this Guru lagu combination in a Samskrutam poem Kitchen items name in Sanskrit
Here I refer to the book Chanda Shastra by Pingalacharya. Samskrutam to English translation printed in 1874. Pingala gives a three-step algorithm as “dvikau Glau”, “Misrau cha”, and “Pruthagla Mishrah”.
Let us see what they mean Step 1 says it means there are two syllables Guru and lagu as you see
The second step of the algorithm says misrau cha which means mix themselves take lagu and Guru and make swarms with lagu and take lagu and Guru again and mix ones with Guru then you have lagu lagu, Guru lagu,lagu Guru and Guru Guru.Why learn Sanskrit
Step 3 says Pruthagla Mishrah which means mix themselves again basically repeat step two. Take the Step 2 result mix one with lagu and take the Step to result again and mix one with Guru so that will give you lagu lagu lagu Guru lagu lagu lagu Guru lagu and so on….
All these three combinations take this result set and if we take lagu as one and Guru as zero this notation of this triplet that we have here is nothing but the 76543210 of a binary number system. World’s oldest written record of binary numeral system Chandra sastra chapter 8 of 20, 21,22 sutras given by Pingalacharya.
Now let me show you how to practically apply these algorithms of Pingala. if you want to construct a three-lettered word as part of a poem let’s say I want to write a three-lettered word as part of the poem I can write in a combination of all lagus for example
All three take less time to pronounce as they are lagus. Another possibility is Guru lagu lagu like Bharata and so on.
Furthermore, Chanda Sastra Pingala says that the number of ways in which you can write an “n” lettered word is 2 to the power of n. For instance, we can write a three-letter word in two raised to the power of three which is in eight different ways. the same way a four-letter word can be written in 2 raised to the power of 4 which is 16 different ways and so on. you can read. You can also read 13 interesting facts about Sanskrit language
This formula of 2 to the power n is the basis for expressing any kind of data in terms of binary digits of 1 and 0. The binary number system as we use it today is credited to Gottfried Leibniz a German mathematician of the 17th century.
You can see his paper here where he published the binary number system back in the 17th century however mainstream Academia admits that the binary number system was well known to people across the world centuries before Gottfried himself.
While there is no written record about Gottfried Leibniz getting inspired by Pingala’s work. Those were the days when the spice trade was at its peak from India to European nations and not just wealth from India but also the knowledge sources like these from India also got transferred from India to Europe and I’m not speculating that he got inspired from Pingala’s work but there is another written evidence about another branch of mathematics where Gottfried Leibniz shares the credit along with an Indian mathematician called Madhava .
Talk about govt infinite series that is the foundation for calculus and Madhava predates Gottfried Leibniz by hundreds of years unfortunately the credit of calculus is given only to Leibniz and Newton while Madhava predated both these mathematicians hundreds of years before defining and disrupting the field of calculus.
If you’re more interested read about the history of how the binary number system originated and you will end up with pingala. This binary number system is the very basis for assembly-level programming of your microprocessors which is the very heart and soul of computing in the devices that we are using today.
The rest is history or in very simple words the reason why your pen drives are only 32 GB and 64 GB is because of Pingalas 2 to the power of n formula of the binary number system and that is the link between Samskrutam and computing that’s about the binary number system.