I guess Sanskrit was NEVER a spoken language. It has always been a literary language. At the times in India when Sanskrit literature was being produced at a prodigious rate, the commoners still spoke languages like Pali, which were phonetically very similar to Sanskrit. It has always been difficult for the common man to pronounce Sanskrit. There's no ban on speaking in Sanskrit though :) News in Sanskrit are still aired on All India Radio! Sanskrit - the language of the Gods, a most rhythmic and mellifluous language.