It depends on which Indian state you're talking about. Each state relates to its native languages.
Sanskrit
in English
Telugu is the most spoken dravidian language in india and so many people mistook with hindi as the most spoken dravidian language!! But it is not so, though hindi is the most spoken language in india but it is not dravidian, it is Indo-Aryan(some say Indo-Persian) If there are any grammatical mistakes in my answer, sorry for those!
The next most widely spoken language in India after Bengali is Telugu. Telugu is mainly spoken in the state of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in southern India.
No. It is Telugu in 2nd place. Tamil is 3rd largest spoken language in India
hindi
The most common official language in India is English, used for formal communication in all 28 states and all 7 union territories. English is important in the world because it is the most widely spoken language.
The most widely spoken Indic language is Hindi. Hindi is the official language of the Republic of India, with English as secondary status.
perhaps to use it in a scholarly magazine and try to relate it to other language who are not yet dead but somehow relate to the dead language
Kannad, Malayalam, Tamil, Telegu & English.
Yes, Bengali is a real language. It is the official language of Bangladesh and the second most spoken language in India. The language is also known as Bangla.
Bengali