José Carlos Calazans (PhD)
Historian and Orientalist. Teacher at the University “Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias” (Lisbon) in Political Science and International Relations; Teacher of the Science of Religions Course (2007-2013). Investigator of the “Centre d’Etudes de l’Inde et de l’Asie du Sud (CNRS-EHESS), founding member of the Association “Portuguesa para o Estudo das Religiões” ; partner of the “Sociedade de Geografia de Lisboa” and the association “Portuguesa de Estudos Orientais” (“Faculdade de Letras de Lisboa”) . JC Calazans has devoted several years to the comparative study of religions and Oriental Languages (Sanskrit and Pali), the teaching of Eastern philosophies, to the history of South and Central Asia.
Sanskrit Origin
When we seek the origins of the Sanskrit the name of William Jones invariably appears in all textbooks and dictionaries, and we are left with the distinct impression that were the British (as always) , to “discover” the oldest Indo-European language, the most well organized and the most perfect.
However, the history of men is made of logs, and even though the Nations always overvalue the achievements of their actions, exaggerating the reality of events distorting them, it often takes time before historians find out the truth or falsity of the information.
Despite the disappointment of the lovers by the Anglo-America power , they will have to accept the fact that the Portuguese were the first to arrive in India, the first to circumnavigate the Earth and the first to discover the similarities between Sanskrit, the Greek and Latin.
When William Jones landed in India in 1784 to assume the post of Judge of the Supreme Court of Calcutta, already the Portuguese Jesuits of Goa and Malabar had made this identification, discovering the similarities of Latin languages with the Indo-Iranian. The reason for this interest was simple: the Christian mission in the Indian subcontinent led to the production of the first grammars and textbooks, so that the missionaries learn the language of the Indian priests, in order to better refute religion, theology and philosophy (Calazans. 2009) . We may add that the Portuguese missionaries were the first to study and write about the Konkani language (Konkan / Goa), from which Fr Lourenco Peres produced the first grammar in the XVI century , and the Bengali language from which Fr Manuel da Assunção wrote the Mysteries of Fee Compendium .
Sanskrit is both the key to the Indo-European languages as a semiotic of the Self
TIWARI, Bholanath (1955). Bhasha Vigyan. Allahabad: Kitab Mahal.