Podcast #33 - Sanskrit in Indonesian [English Audio]

 

Hello and welcome to Bet.ID Podcast. The podcast where I talk about Indonesian language and things related to it so that you can improve your listening comprehension and get to know more about Indonesia and its culture. I’m Jeff

                It’s the episode number 33 of this podcast. I’m gonna be telling you the Sanskrit language in Indonesia. But again before we jump into it, if you’d like to read the transcripts for this episode you can click the link down below. Let’s start

Sanskrit is an archaic language and now only be used when a religious ritual is being held. In Nusantara, this language existed in the 5^th century C. E. This language was brought by the Brahmanas or the Hindu priests from India to Indonesia. Some hundred years later, in about the 7^th century C. E. this language had spread widely throughout Nusantara or Indonesia now. That’s why if you have listened to my podcast before, you might know that there were many Hindu-Buddhist Kingdoms in Indonesia and they had many monuments written in Sanskrit.

In former times in India, Sanskrit was only taught to the people of high hierarchy. It was also the case in Nusantara. Sanskrit was used in royal family. But then, this language influenced all the languages in Nusantara and to a great extent, it influenced Indonesian now.

                Nowadays, Sanskrit is not being used like then still its influence is very strong in Indoneesian. For example, when we say bahasa Indonesia, the word ‘bahasa’ originally comes from Sankskrit. Even the official motto of Indonesia, Bhineka Tunggal Ika means unity in diversity, comes from it.

                Sanskrit is also being used in official document like in award. For instance, we have Pataka Parasamya Purnakarya Nugraha Award which is given by president to an organisation which helps people or Anugerah Adipura award which is given to the cleanest city in Indonesia and many other awards using Sanskrit.

                So, here are some words which are Sanskrit that we use in everyday speech.

1.       Busana means clothes

2.       Cakrawala means horizone

3.       Desa means a village

4.       Graha means a building

5.       Istana means a castle

6.       Sarjana means a bachelor

7.       Bencana means a disaster

Okay, so that’s pretty everything for today’s podcast. What do you think? Let me know by leaving your thoughts wherever you’re listening to this podcast. If you’d like to learn Indonesian online with me, you can do that by clicking the links down below. Sampai jumpa