Editing Sanskrit (section)

=== Liturgy, ceremonies and meditation ===
Sanskrit is the sacred language of various Hindu, Buddhist, and [[Jain]] traditions. It is used during worship in [[Hindu temple]]s. In [[Newar Buddhism]], it is used in all monasteries. Sanskrit mantras and Sanskrit as a ritual language was commonplace among Jains throughout their medieval history.<ref>{{cite book |author=Paul Dundas |author-link=Paul Dundas |editor=Jan E. M. Houben |title=Ideology and Status of Sanskrit: Contributions to the History of the Sanskrit Language |year=1996 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-10613-0 |pages=152–155 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_eqr833q9qYC |access-date=20 July 2018 |archive-date=29 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240329140438/https://books.google.com/books?id=_eqr833q9qYC |url-status=live }}</ref>

Many Hindu rituals and rites-of-passage such as the "giving away the bride" and mutual vows at weddings, a baby's naming or first solid food ceremony and the goodbye during a cremation invoke and chant Sanskrit hymns.<ref>{{cite book |author=Swami Veda Bharati |title=Ritual Songs and Folk Songs of the Hindus of Surinam: Proefschrift |year=1968 |publisher=Brill Archive |pages=11–22 |id=GGKEY:GJ0YGRH08YW |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cyIVAAAAIAAJ |access-date=13 August 2018 |archive-date=29 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240329145026/https://books.google.com/books?id=cyIVAAAAIAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> Major festivals such as the ''[[Durga Puja]]'' ritually recite entire Sanskrit texts such as the ''[[Devi Mahatmya]]'' every year particularly among the numerous communities of eastern India.<ref>{{cite book |author=John Stratton Hawley |title=Devi: Goddesses of India |year=1996 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-20058-6 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/devi00john/page/42 42]–44 |url=https://archive.org/details/devi00john |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=John Stratton Hawley |title=Devi: Goddesses of India |year=1996 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-20058-6 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/devi00john/page/187 187]–188 |url=https://archive.org/details/devi00john |url-access=registration}}</ref> In the south, Sanskrit texts are recited at many major Hindu temples such as the [[Meenakshi Temple]].<ref>{{cite book |author=Christopher John Fuller |title=The Renewal of the Priesthood: Modernity and Traditionalism in a South Indian Temple |year=2003 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-11658-7 |pages=49–53 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GEFuDcK7i44C |access-date=13 August 2018 |archive-date=29 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240329145206/https://books.google.com/books?id=GEFuDcK7i44C |url-status=live }}</ref> In India and beyond, recitations of the ''[[Bhagavad Gita]]'' occur in diverse settings, including "simple private household readings, to family and neighborhood recitation sessions, to holy men reciting in temples or at pilgrimage places for passersby, to public Gita discourses held almost nightly at halls and auditoriums in every Indian city".<ref>{{cite book |author=Richard H. Davis |title=The Bhagavad Gita: A Biography |year=2014 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-1-4008-5197-3 |page=179 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vQ3rAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA179 |access-date=13 August 2018 |archive-date=29 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240329145025/https://books.google.com/books?id=vQ3rAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA179#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref>