Karthik Venkatesh’s 10 Indian Languages and How They Came to Be is the book most Indians need to read, but they don’t yet realize why. One of the first things you hear about India is its staggering linguistic diversity. India is home to anywhere between 780 languages (official estimates).
Yet, most Indians have little awareness of the vast number of languages spoken, let alone their origins and interconnections.
Karthik’s book doesn’t attempt an exhaustive survey of every dialect and linguistic offshoot – that would be impossible. Instead, he zeroes in on ten languages and uses them as a window into the five major language families that exist in India. The result is a fascinating linguistic journey that unpacks the evolution, influences and hidden stories behind the words we speak today.
If you’ve ever wondered why your native tongue sounds eerily similar to one spoken halfway across the country or why some languages thrived while others faded into oblivion, 10 Indian Languages holds the answers.
About the Book
Karthik starts things off by introducing the reader to 5 language families under which most languages in India fall broadly:
- Indo-Aryan language family (Hindi, Punjabi, Marathi)
- Dravidian language family (Tamil, Telugu, Brahui)
- Austro-Asiatic language family (Santali, Khasi)
- Sino-Tibetan language family (Kokbrok, Manipuri)
- The Andamanese language family (a family of its own, largely unexplored)
From here, the book dives into 10 key languages, using them as case studies to unravel India’s linguistic evolution.
I initially feared this would be a dry, academic read stuffed with etymology deep dives, but Karthik’s writing is refreshingly engaging. He doesn’t just present facts, he weaves in fascinating snippets that keep you hooked.
For example, I always assumed Punjabi was written only in Gurmukhi. It turns out, there’s another script called Shahmukhi in play – something I wouldn’t have known if not for this book.
Then there’s Brahui, a Dravidian language spoken not in South India but in the frontier regions of Pakistan. Insights like these are more than just dusty footnotes in history.
Beyond the ten languages he focuses on, Karthik also throws in fascinating bits about others. He even shares scripts, giving you a visual sense of how languages have morphed over time.
The book also challenges several misconceptions about Indian languages and their evolution. For instance, a common misconception is that most Indian languages originate from Sanskrit. While many languages in North India do, but Dravidian languages (Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada) trace an entirely different lineage.
Another widespread (mis)belief is that Hindi is the national language of India. This isn’t true. India has no national language. Hindi is an official language alongside English, but India’s constitution recognizes 22 scheduled languages, reflecting its linguistic diversity.
Key Takeaways & Strengths
Personally, 10 Indian Languages was well worth the time invested. It’s like watching an anthology film where one riveting story follows another.
Karthik doesn’t just dump linguistic facts on the reader – he tells stories. He presents historical accounts as they are, without bias or unnecessary embellishments. That’s rare.
The book turns the spotlight on a part of Indian culture we rarely discuss – its languages. And honestly, I can’t think of another book that has brought this aspect into popular conversation the way this one does.
The book is littered with unique insights that make you pause and take note. For instance, how some languages are written in multiple scripts. Punjabi in Gurmukhi and Shahmukhi. Hindi and Urdu – mutually intelligible, yet separated by Devanagari and Perso-Arabic scripts.
Serbian and Croatian follow the same pattern – Serbian in Cyrillic, Croatian in Roman script.
The real magic happens when Karthik starts unpacking individual languages and their evolution. Being from North India, I barely had any insight into the origins of the languages spoken down south. Turns out, Tamil’s Tolkappiyam, a grammar text written in 200 BCE, still exists. That makes it the oldest surviving work of Tamil literature. That’s wild.
Malayalam, Karthik notes, branched off from Tamil somewhere between 500 CE and 1000 CE. Just like Tamil, Telugu traces its origins back to around 200 BCE. Both emerged from Proto-Dravidian and developed independently.
Karthik could have taken a more textbook-heavy route, but instead, he captures these developments through short stories, historical snippets and anecdotes, never overwhelming the reader. His writing keeps you engaged without making you feel like you’re stuck in a university lecture hall.
Conclusion
The book’s biggest strength – its crisp storytelling – is also its limitation. At just 138 pages, 10 Indian Languages skims the surface of India’s vast linguistic landscape.
I, for one, would have loved Karthik to explore more Indian languages – after all, India has 780 (or more) of them. But I get it. That would have turned it into a dense tome than the crisp read it is at 138 pages.
Readers looking for deep linguistic analysis might find it too light. But then, this is not a textbook and it doesn’t try to be. It’s a story-driven exploration. Don’t go in expecting a serious academic study. If you pick it up for engaging stories and insights, you’re in for a treat.
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