Why Is Sanskrit Fading Despite Being the Root of Many Languages?

Elitist Origins Hindered Widespread Adoption

The fact that Sanskrit was actually limited to the priestly, scholarly, and ruling caste basically made its wide adoption impossible. Major application in religious development, philosophy and court literature made it to have large literacy obstacles among the masses. This conscious social elitism imposed a limit on fluency and use. This means that the local Prakrits and the emerging vernacular languages were bound to take over commonly used communication purposes in place of Sanskrit. It was an unchanging, high-based, unrealistic language, not evolving and becoming a spoken language as a common language. The privilege it was connected to was a direct stumbling block to large-scale acceptance and sustainability as a living language outside specifically technical applications.

Colonial Policies Actively Suppressed Usage

Sanskrit weakened under the deliberate effort of the British colonial government to weaken the local framework and consolidate their grip. The English Education Act of 1835 definitively placed Sanskrit education on the periphery as all funds towards any other medium of education were transferred to English education. Later policy, especially Wood Dispatch (1854), formally established the use of English as the administrative language and prescribed the use of English as the language of the high-status jobs. Sanskrit was officially marginalized and made into a subject as having little utility in the colonial system. Naturally this active discouragement directly diminished institutional support and day-to-day usage and hastened the dwindling of Sanskrit as a living intellectual paradigm.

Perceived Lack of Modern Economic Utility

The endangerment of Sanskrit is greatly attributable to the logic that Sanskrit does not have any kind of economic significance in the modern globalized economy. The recent economy is oriented towards the language that is directly related to employment, trade, and technological growth. Knowledge of Sanskrit is of very little use in obtaining mainstream employment or developing business or business opportunities in comparison with world-speaking languages such as English, Mandarin, or Spanish, or regional major vernaculars. In turn, heavy investment in Sanskrit fluency might be considered a bad investment on an individual economic gain, thus advancing its decline towards non-specialized use rapidly.

Complex Grammar Deters Mainstream Learners

The extremely sophisticated structure of the grammar of Sanskrit puts up a serious obstacle to orthodox usage which directly leads to its demise. The language requires knowledge of a very complex system placing great emphasis on different cases, gender, verb conjugations, tenses, moods and such phonological rules as sandhi. This makes the learning curve very difficult, much steeper than that of even most modern languages. To learners who intend to apply communication skills, the high effort involved to master basic skills is not worth basic performance. This causes discouragement among the possible students restricting the number of fresh learners. Such grammatical challenge inevitably contributes to the decline of the Sanskrit language as comprehensive knowledge and usefulness are the principal priorities in language acquisition nowadays. 

Insufficient Institutional Support and Promotion

The abolishment of Sanskrit can be directly connected to systematic institutional abandonment. Colleges around the world cut specialized departments and academic staff, Weinerman says, restricting the careers of academics. Even the governmental initiatives lack the sustenance of promotion beyond ceremonial expression as they are marred with uneven and ineffective funding. Sanskrit incurs culture in education boards, which often treat it as an incidental option. This institutional failure also encompasses inadequate funds on research, lack of modern pedagogical support as well as minimal career opportunities outside academia. As long as there are no effective institutional structures facilitating and promoting study, research, and practical relevance of the language, Sanskrit has a tough time remaining relevant, and its disappearance will only gain pace despite linguistic significance that the language holds.