1999); Param Dayal Faqir, Satya Sanatan Dharam: Or,
True Religion of Humanity. Translated by B. R. Kamal
and Swami Yogeshwar Ananda Saraswati (Hoshiarpur:
Manavta Mandir, 1978); Swami Rama Tirtha, Sanatan
Dharma (Lucknow: Rama Tirtha Pratisthan, 1990).
sannyas See SANNYASI.
sannyasi (f. sannyasini)
A sannyasi is a male renunciant who has “thrown
everything down.” (Rarely, there will be female
sannyasinis.) Many sects in India have sannyasis,
men who are seen as no longer a part of the every-
day world (only a very few allow women renun-
ciants). The rules or vows vary in the different
traditions, but until modern times, sannyasis were
expected to shun worldly occupations, living only
through alms or in a monastic environment.
The vows for sannyasis all entail dietary
restrictions that limit the number and size of
meals, avoidance of women, prohibition on use
of alcohol, and a focus on the divine at all times.
Sannyasi is the fourth stage of life or ASHRAMA FOR
BRAHMIN males, the point at which they ideally
throw down all conventional life and take up a life
of wandering as they focus on God or BRAHMAN.Further reading: Patrick Olivelle, “Contributions to the
Semantic History of Samnyasa,” Journal of the American
Oriental Society 101 (1981): 265–274; ———, Renun-
ciation in Hinduism: A Mediaeval Debate, 2 vols. (Vienna:
University of Vienna, 1986–87).Sanskrit (Samskritam)
Sanskrit (sam, complete; krita, done, i.e., that
which is done completely, the perfected, the
refined) is the ancient liturgical or ritual language
of India. In the Sanskrit language itself the lan-
guage is called Samskritam.
Sanskrit is the oldest extant Indo-European
language. It is linguistically related to such Euro-
pean languages as English, French, and German
and such Asian languages as Persian. The earli-
est evidence for Sanskrit is in the ancient Indian
texts, the VEDAS, the earliest of which, the RIG
VEDA, dates from approximately 1500 B.C.E. The
Vedas were received as divine revelation by seers
called RISHIS, who recorded them. The Sanskrit of
the Vedas is noticeably different from its classical
form, as defined authoritatively by the grammar-
ian Panini around 450 B.C.E.
After Panini, virtually no changes were
accepted into the language. Today Sanskrit is still
spoken by pandits (scholars) and those learnedAn ochre-robed wandering sannyasi in Benares
(Varanasi) (Constance A. Jones)
Sanskrit 381 J