Sanskrit - 2

[HareKrishna]

Sanskrit as computational language,the original article
http://www.gosai.com/science/sanskrit-nasa.html


Sanskrit is the only unambiguous spoken language on the planet.
In early AI research it was discovered that in order to clear up the inherent ambiguity of natural languages for computer comprehension, it was necessary to utilize semantic net systems to encode the actual meaning of a sentence. Briggs gives the example of how a simple sentence would be represented in a semantic net.

John gave the ball to mary

He further comments, "The degree to which a semantic net (or any unambiguous nonsyntactic representation) is cumbersome and odd-sounding in a natural language is the degree to which that language is 'natural' and deviates from the precise or 'artificial.' As we shall see, there was a language (Sanskrit) spoken among an ancient scientific community that has a deviation of zero."

http://www.gosai.com/science/sanskrit-en...nment.html

[Bharatvarsh]

Is kroora (as in kroora mriga) of sanskrit cognate with English cruel?

[Guest]

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Renowned singer Andrea of only Sanskrit rock band marries in Nevada</b>
Nevada (US), May 9 : Andrea Devi Forman, the lead singer of the only Sanskrit rock band of the world Shanti Shanti, married an attorney Joel A. Santos in a traditional Catholic church ceremony in Sparks (Nevada, USA) on May eight.

Acclaimed Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, who was present at the wedding, will also bless the couple in customary Hindu way once they return from their honeymoon in Canada.

Andrea recently released her sixth album titled "Veda" on the oldest scripture of the world Vedas. This groundbreaking work, which took one year to complete involving extensive research, contains shlokas (hymns) from all four Vedas-Rig-veda, Sama-veda, Atharva-veda, and Yajur-veda; some as old as 1,500 BCE.

<b>Andrea has never been to India, never had a Sanskrit teacher, and still she can spontaneously chant, read, write, and translate Sanskrit since she was nine years old. </b>She has toured various countries and various states of USA with her Shanti Shanti band giving packed Sanskrit musical performances. She has been in various television shows, mentioned in various publications, and extensively written about. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

[Bodhi]

One of the well-known arts of poetics used to be Ashu-kavitA: in which poets complete impromtu, a poem of some other poet, and should they be rivals then usually in a way to subvert the original meaning of the first poet. There are several examples of it, here is a funny one related to bhoja:

Once bhoja is taking a morning stroll in the royal garden with his court poet (named kAlidAsa - but not to be confused with the prince of saMskR^ita literature), when another poet named maNibhadra, a visiting scholar from a neighbouring kingdom, is announced and allowed to join them. As per the royal etiquettes kAlidAsa should have been walking by the king's left side, but since they were more like friends he was not following this manner. The visiting poet seized the opportunity to show his rival down, and quickly taking to bhojadeva's left he started saying this poem to subtly point to the folly of the king's favourite poet...

Thre first three steps:

gR^ihyAtyeSha ripOH shiraH pratijavaM karShatyasau vAjinaM
dhR^itvA charmadhanuH prayAti satataM saMgrAmabhUmAvapi
dyUtaM chauryamadhamathastriyaM cha shapathaM jAnAti nAyaM karo

roughly:

This, the LEFT, clamps down the heads of the enemies; draws the running horses to halt; weilds armour and the mighty bow at the field. But this the LEFT hand has never known to gamble or theive, nor embracing others' wives, and rising in (false) oaths, this it has never learnt...

but before the poet can complete the last line, kAlidAsa by now knowing the intent of the visiting rival, jumped in to complete the poem with this line:

dAnAnudyatatAM vilokya vidhinA shauchAdhikArI kR^itaH

meaning:

being all that good, still, finding this LEFT unwilling to rise in donations, bramhA appointed it in the service of cleaning (the rear)...

Thereby also subtly suggesting that this visitor walking on the left is good for nothing, certainly deserves no grants. <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->

[Bodhi]

One more...

Once bhoja was resting under a tree as he saw a poor and elderly brahmin passing by.

bhoja: kuta Agamyate vipra? (Where from, O brAhmaNa?)
brAhmaNa: kailAshAdAgato smyahaM (Returning from a pilgrimage to kailAsha)
bhoja: shivasya charaNo svasti? (Hope shiva's feet are alright)
brAhmaNa: kiM pR^ichcHasi shivoMR^itaM (What you ask! shiva has died!!)

When an intrigued bhoja insisted that the brAhmaNa explained to him what he meant, the latter recited:

ardhaM dAnavavairiNA girijayApyardhaM harasyAhR^itaM
devetthaM bhuvanatraye smaraharAbhAve samunmIlati
ga~NgA sAgaramambaraM shashikalA sheShashcha pR^ithvItalaM
sarva~jnatvamadhIshvaratvamagamattvAM mAM cha bhikShATanaM

His one half is seized by the enemy of the dAnava-s, and the other half is taken by the daughter of the hills (i.e. viShNu had used half of shiva in the image of hari-hara, and pArvatI the other half in that of ardha-nArIshvara) - thereby devoiding the three worlds of its master. (And now that he is no more here is how his property is distributed his ga~NgA has gone to the seas, moon to the space, and snake to pAtAla. Remained his Omniscience and aishwarya, which you have taken, and his begging bowl, that has come to my fate.

A way of hinting for some donations...

[Guest]

RASHTRIYA SANSKRIT UNIVERSITY
(University established under section 3 of UGC Act, 1956)
TIRUPATI – 517 064.
Prof. A.Gurmurthi,
Registrar


ADMISSION NOTIFICATION
For M.Sc Computer Science and Sanskrit Language Technology

The Rashtriya Sanskrit University, Tirupati is offering a new course “M.Sc (Computer Science and Sanskrit Language Technologies)”, approved by UGC under Center of Excellence (CoE). This course aims to generate young research scholars in Indian language Technologies making use of rich Sanskrit traditional knowledge skills.

This blended course is designed to contribute to the development of language processing applications for Indian Languages. Students are basically trained to use the advanced concepts of Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Sanskrit Grammar, language processing to develop good applications.

The course provides four theory papers consisting of computer paper natural Language processing and Sanskrit grammar and two labs each semester. One lab in each semester is exclusively reserved to work with lexical resources and language processing tools. The students will be trained to develop full-fledged NLP tool for Sanskrit in the final semester.

The course combines the best features of instructor-led and internet based instructions. These features include:

Ø Demonstration of live-projects through the use of e-class room.
Ø Convenient, flexible lab schedules
Ø A specific time schedule for course completion and
Ø Interaction of the students with leading research personalities in the field
Ø Seminars and workshops.

Hence it is requested to the wide publicity for the benefit the students of your institution. For more details, please contact Dr. R.J.Rama Sree, Reader & Head, Dept. of Computer Science, R.S.University, Tirupati. E-Mail: rsvpcs@gmail.com Ph (Mobi) :9704870412, Ph (Off) : 0877-22877649 Ext. 260, Ph (Resi) : 0877-2244012.

Sd/-
.REGISTRAR

[Husky]

http://www.hinduwisdom.info/Glimpses_V.htm
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->As Max Mueller, the propagator of the Aryan invasion theory, wrote to his wife,  "It took only 200 years for us to Christianise the whole of Africa, but even after 400 years India eludes us, I have come to realize that it is Sanskrit which has enabled India to do so. And to break it I have decided to learn Sanskrit."<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->Source? (Book, collection of writings - where?) How can one confirm or not that mueller wrote this? A mere statement attributed to him as being in a letter to his wife is not 'proof'.

[Guest]

Jul 06, 2009

<b>trend: learning sanskrit</b>

<b>Wax Sanskritic </b>

<i>Urban young are rediscovering the lure of the classical language </i>

RACHNA BISHT-RAWAT
http://www.outlookindia.com/fullprint.asp?...+cool+(F)&sid=1
Back To The Classic

* There's a big revival of interest in Sanskrit, especially among the urban young
* The thousands enrolling for Sanskrit classes this year include young techies, MBAs, civil servants, students of history and philosophy, as well as those interested in ayurveda or yoga
* They are attracted by Sanskrit's highly logical grammatical structure; the access it gives them to classics and texts on ayurveda, yoga; and the guidance on ethics, leadership and strategy in texts like the Bhagavad Gita and the Arthashastra;
* The fact that Sanskrit is a 'scoring subject' in CBSE, UPSC exams has also fuelled interest

***
"Bhagini, shighram, shighram gachchami," mutters someone, giving me a gentle nudge from behind. Translated, that means: move faster, sister. I've been told I'm slow before, but never in Sanskrit. The guy getting late for class, whose way I'm blocking, is tall, with an apologetic smile, a shaven head, a choti, and a forehead smeared with tilak. The rest of him is hip young Gen X Indian—cool T-shirt, stylish bracelet and frayed-edge jeans that end at his bare feet. Ashish Kuliyal, 18, is a BA in English from DAV College, Rishikesh, and is at Delhi's Samvadshala Residential Centre for Teaching Sanskrit to brush up his spoken Sanskrit. "I want to complete my BEd and teach Sanskrit," he explains, after his class. "And I would like to speak to my students in Sanskrit, since it is ridiculous to teach one language via another."

There are others like him. Bangalore-based Sanskrit enthusiast Kokila Narayan, 27, works for an IT company. Weekends find her in spaghetti tops and capris, enjoying a movie or a vodka at the pub. Hard to believe that she speaks Sanskrit. But she does. "I started learning shlokas with a group of friends. What had me hooked was the perfect grammar and the science behind the language," she says. Narayan is preparing for the civil service exam, for which Sanskrit is among the subjects she has chosen.

Then there is Bharath Lakshminarayan, 24, who works with a consultancy firm in Bangalore. Every week, he takes time out of his busy schedule to drive down to a friend's place in Malleshwaram, where a group reads out chapters from Shringeri Math textbooks, and discusses Sanskrit classics like Kalidasa'sShakuntala. "I started learning Sanskrit in school because it was a scoring subject. But now, I'm drawn to it by the fascinating literature it offers," he says.

As many as 30,000 people have enrolled for countrywide classes that are starting this July under the aegis of the Gita Shiksha Kendra, to help people know the Gita better, through Sanskrit. And 60 per cent of these are in the 18-28 age group. At the Delhi Samvadshala, students from 37 countries come down in winters to learn spoken Sanskrit. And in 2008, 2,000 Delhiites enrolled for spoken Sanskrit crash courses that were held across the city. Again, 60 per cent were in the 18 to 28 age group.

These statistics back up the claim of many Sanskrit institutions that young people are rediscovering Sanskrit. "Yes, we're going back to our roots," smiles Krishna Shastry, who, along with a group of like-minded people, started the Sanskrita Sambhashanam (Speak Sanskrit) movement in 1981. Just seven students joined the first course, held in Jayanagar, Bangalore. Obviously, a few stereotypes had to be broken. "Over the years, Sanskrit has been considered difficult, boring and irrelevant in a modern world. So we started with evolving a new, more interesting style of teaching," he says.This included teaching Sanskrit directly (without using another language) and creating an atmosphere where students were first taught words and sentences they could use in daily life.

The movement began gathering momentum slowly. Since 1981, 70 lakh-plus people have learnt to speak Sanskrit. Many of them are from metro cities like Delhi, Chennai and Bangalore. The current interest, according to Shastry, is fuelled by the worldwide fascination with yoga, Vedanta, ayurveda and chanting shlokas, together with the trend among management gurus to quote from the Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads, for guidance about ethics in corporate life, leadership qualities and team-building. It helps, too, that Sanskrit is a "scoring subject" in upsc exams. Modern-day students of Sanskrit include doctors, software professionals and MBA students and faculty, apart from students of history and philosophy. B. Mahadevan, professor and dean, IIM-Bangalore, and ayurveda practitioner Dr Robert Svobada from Texas are just two unlikely people who have learnt to speak Sanskrit.

Back at the Delhi Samvadshala, Kuliyal readily translates Gabbar Singh's "kitne aadmi the" into Sanskrit, with a booming "kati gana asa". Just as quickly, he switches to a meek "sardara, do janau staha" just to emphasise that one can have fun in Sanskrit too. On the net, there is a Sanskrit learning site, translating popular Shahrukh Khan film songs like "Tum paas aye, aur muskuraye" into Sanskrit: "Twam samipamagatam, ani mandsmitam". Though Sanskrit pandits may not necessarily approve of this frivolous use of what is called Devbhasha, the teachers with Samskritam Bharati are indulgent because it helps draw young people into their fold. Teachers like Pune-based Manjushri Rahalkar, 35, are encouraging youngsters not to judge Sanskrit by the classes they used to hate in school. S. Deopujari, who is in charge of Samskritam Bharati projects all over India, is simplifying grammar to make speaking easier for beginners. Homemaker and Sanskrit enthusiast Padmavati, an Andhra native living in Delhi, teaches 8-13-year-olds to speak Sanskrit via the medium of games and plays at Ganesh Mandir in Delhi's Sarojini Nagar.

In the 2001 census, a mere 48,400 people have listed Sanskrit as their mother tongue. But by the time the next census is completed, the numbers may well have doubled or trebled, to include hip young urban professionals who think in English, feed on KFC fried chicken and compare the revival of Sanskrit in India to that of Hebrew in Israel. Easy to understand why they are fascinated with this ancient language that promises to take them back to their roots and shastras. Amen to that. Or, maybe the word to use here would be Tathastu!

[Bodhi]

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->http://haindavakeralam.com/HKPage.aspx?PageID=8893&SKIN=B

QUOTE
Muslim girl tops B.A. Sanskrit exam
02/07/2009 11:24:06  PTI

Thiruvananthapuram: A Muslim girl has emerged topper in Sanskrit Vedanta graduation examination conducted by the University of Kerala.

A student of a college at Sasthamcottah in Kollam run by the Devaswom Board, 21-year-old Rahmath said she chose Sanskrit and Vedanta as she believed this language was a “symbol of our national culture.”

Hailing from an orthodox Muslim family, Ms. Rahmath said she did not face any resistance from her family or the community when she chose Sanskrit as her principal subject. “In fact, my parents and others in the family encouraged me when I told them of my wish to join the B.A. Sanskrit Vedanta course. Teachers in my college also gave me total support,” she said.

It was at the Plus-One level that Ms. Rahmath started learning Sanskrit as second language.

“Since Sanskrit was Greek to me when I started learning, I had to put in some extra effort. But soon I became interested, picked up the basic grammar,” she said<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

[Husky]

indiatoday.intoday.in/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=49706&sectionid=22&issueid=112&Itemid=1
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>National Library in all metros</b>
Abhijit Dasgupta
July 2, 2009


The Visva-Bharati University and the National Library are set for a complete overhaul with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh doling out Rs 100 crore and Rs 20 crore, respectively, to these two institutions which have been in dire straits because of apathy, negligence and wastage of funds over the years.

While the stress in Visva-Bharati will be more on restoration of art works and preserving Tagore’s traditions, the National Library will be fully computerized and its 25-lakh treasure trove of books, documents and newspapers brought under the click of a mouse.

This is the first time that such a huge step is being taken at the Union government level, driven by Union culture secretary Jahar Sarkar, to save these two institutions from negligence. Sarkar has already held meetings with the Visva-Bharati and National Library authorities and money is being released in parts.

Visva-Bharati sources, however, said that the money may not be released to the university directly and that the government would carry out the work through its agencies. “This is good  and we welcome it because Visva-Bharati does not have the expertise to launch and carry out such delicate restoration work. Work on Udayan, where Tagore lived, has already begun and the restoration work on paintings and frescos by masters like Nandalal Bose and Ramkinkar Beij will start soon,” they said. They also said that some buildings and works of art were “beyond restoration” and a “loss to the nation.”

The sources made it clear that former administrations of the university had dragged their feet on these sort of initiatives and had Sarkar not stepped in at the right time, matters would have gone out of hand. Sculptures by legends like Ramkinkar were kept out in the open without any protection and over the years, some had been ruined beyond recognition.

<b>The vice-chancellor, Dr Rajat Kanta Roy, said that philology had always been Visva-Bharati’s strong point but it was sad that foreigners had ceased to come as students to learn languages over the years as they used to earlier. “We are creating a special cell where the comparative languages will be taught in a big way. Uniting languages is the basic aim of philology. Once the other works like restoration and preservations take off and Visva-Bharati is set to return to its old glory, then our philology section shall be the pride of the nation,” he said.</b>

Dr K.K. Banerjee, director of the National Library, once the residence of the English Lieutenant Governor after the capital shifted to Delhi, said that the amount released by the Centre and Sarkar’s initiative would go a long way to help overcome the various crises that book-lovers were facing. “We intend to bring our collection of 25 lakh books under a computer click. Once that happens, it will revolutionise the world of knowledge in the country,” he said.

Dr Banerjee said that around three lakh books were simply “lying around” with no cataloguing having been done. “We have books and documents, not to forget newspapers, dating back to 250 years and more. Godowns were stacked with books with readers having no access to them and termites eating into them. “Öur first priority is cataloguing. An inventory is a must,”the director added.

Dr Banerjee said that he had plans to take the National Library to other metros of the country through city hubs, the first of which had been set up in Kolkata but is languishing. “Once computers take over, this should not be difficult and somebody sitting in Delhi can visit our hubs and access books from there, if not from home directly. Obviously, there will be a membership fee but given the treasure that we have, that is a pittance,” he said. In another two years, the National Library project would go online.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
"Uniting languages is the basic aim of philology."
Shimma? Oh, I get ya. Like how they 'united' the Hindu languages of Samskritam and Tamizh (Tamizh purged of Samskrita words by christoterrorist bishop of Tirunelvelli and his minions, etcetera). Yeah, that was a grand achievement.

[acharya]

http://putindiafirst.blogspot.com/

http://putindiafirst.blogspot.com/2009/07/...ou-even-if.html

[ramana]

I think we should contact Mr Sarkar and give him our feedback on the on-line libraries and how the IISc/CMU portal needs on-line connection to read the books and thus limits the access to 'scholars' with broadband connections aka Westerners. And second point is to dissuade the NL from charging access fee. Its effort is already paid by GOI and charging fee will dissuade non-scholarly browsers and thus defeats the prupose of having the archives on-line.

NL is national treasure and there shouldnt be an access fee for its on-line access.

[Husky]

Disagree with the red bit, but rest of it is about right.
http://rajeev2004.blogspot.com/2009/08/san...s-in-india.html
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Sanskrit cadre of scholars in India reaching extinction</b>
aug 15th, 2009

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Rajiv Malhotra
Subject: Re: Sanskrit cadre of scholars in India reaching extinction
To:


I wish to make a few comments to Tavleen Singh's article quoted below.
I am glad that she has raised awareness of the decline of sanskrit
studies in India. But we have said this for years, so why does it
become a crisis only when a white american scholars says it? Read my
Sulekha article, "Geopolitics and Sanskrit Phobia at:
http://rajivmalhotra.sulekha.com/blog/post...krit-phobia.htm
It also explains why this decline matters at all. Neither Tavleen nor
Pollock explain why it matters beyond apparant nostalgia.

<b>Sheldon Pollock has teamed up with the Indian Left to show Sanskrit as
an elite language of brahmins, brought to India by foreign aryans. He
loves the language but hates hinduism or at least likes to twist the
knife once in a while. The same is true of many Indological aryan
theorists since Max Mueller -- they love sanskrit as something
belonging to THEIR ANCESTORS. In front of their western academic peers
from other disciplines, Sanskrit is presented as something superior
and deserving funds for their department and programs. In front of
South Asian scholars, the discourse becomes the oppression of the
masses by Sanskrit hegemony. In front of Indian philanthropists the
goal is how to get money for books, foreign trips, academic programs
of the western scholars.</b>
(Very important. Very true.)

Also the Clay Sanskrit Library is filled with works by biased scholars
as well as good ones. aryan invasion, "caste, cows, dowry" mindset
permeates some of these translations. So blindly distributing all
works is a bad idea.

Finally, deep change is not a matter of giving copies away. Tavleen is
proposing as though it were some tabloid to be handed out at the
railway stations. Who will read them? where will the sanskrit teachers
in india come from?

What Kapil Sibal should be asked to do is not spend money on the US
publisher of those books. He should fund high quality Sanskrit
learning, INCLUDING teaching them purva-paksha of Western thought to
be able to respond to the global discourse in sanskrit categories.
They should not be trained as irrelevant pandits (exotic pets) staring
at their own navels out of touch with global reality today.
(Disagree. Most vehemently.)
This is another divergence I have with Pollock (who btw is a very fine
Sanskrit scholar in terms of his competence).
They want to limit
Sanskrit to its old texts and not as a relevant way of thinking for
today's issues. This prevents the "Sanskrit threat" of challenging
ways of thinking. It gives Sanskrit a place of respect in a museum,
and not as a living language. When people have made feeble attempts to
bring Sanskrit based ideas into today's discourse, the same Pollock
types attack them as chauvinists. Well, how does one instill pride and
thereby boost a language, if anything positive is to be denied as
chauvinism? Why would anyone want to study a language deemed to be
filled with horrible things with nothing worthwhile for today's
predicaments? Pollock's own monograph titled, "The Death of Sanskrit"
many years ago played a role in perpetuating this idea of a dead
language.

Specifically, Sanskrit based science, mathematics, astronomy,
computational linguistics -- these are some of the examples of what
can be encouraged for today. But Western Sanskritists are not well
versed here, and feel threatened that indian technocrats will run
circles around them, so they dont encourage this kind of modernized
approach to sanskrit. <b>They like it as the romantic past of white
europeans,</b> now preserved in safe museums for posterity, but feel
threatened when it comes out alive and competes with Western epistemic
categories.

Pollock is not the issue here, and i use his name only because Tavleen
uses him. The problem is the entire establishment that controls the
demonology against Sanskrit which I explained in my article referenced
above.

regards,
rajiv

> http://www.indianexpress.com/news/towards-...olarship/499770
>
> Tavleen Singh
> Aug 9, 2009
>
> Last week I read a report by my friend Sheldon Pollock, who teaches Sanskrit
> at Columbia University, and it made me weep. Listen to the report's first
> paragraph. 'As recently as 50 years ago, India could boast of a cadre of
> scholars in classical studies (defined here as research based on textual
> materials—literary, philosophical, religious, historical, etc. — produced
> prior to 1800) who were as skilled as any in the world. In the time since,
> this class has diminished to the point of extinction.'
>
> The report predicts that in less than ten years, classical studies will have
> died in all Indian languages unless the HRD minister initiates a move to set
> up at least one Indian Institute of Classical Studies. The report makes the
> point that if we can invest in IITs and IIMs by the dozen, then we can
> surely fund one Institute of Classical Studies. This report was prepared for
> a Mumbai industrialist who is trying to set up such an institute with
> private funding. But, in the end, if government and universities do not make
> a concerted effort, nothing will change. There will be no Indian scholars of
> classical studies left in India. Those that there are will be in foreign
> universities.
>
>
>
> Already, as I have mentioned before in this column, the best translations of
> classical Sanskrit texts are those that have been done by foreigners. I am
> at the moment reading Sheldon Pollock's translation of the Ramayana and have
> no hesitation in admitting that I have not read a single Indian translation
> that comes anywhere close. Thanks to the American billionaire who funded the
> creation of the Clay Sanskrit Library, nearly a hundred classical Sanskrit
> texts are available in excellent English.
>
> If Kapil Sibal wants his name written in letters of gold in the history of
> Indian education, he should just make the Clay Sanskrit Library's books
> available in all our universities. Then, since higher education comes
> entirely under his Ministry, he needs to find out why our universities are
> not producing scholars of classical studies. Why do none of Delhi's
> universities have a single professor of classical Hindi literature? Why was
> it impossible for the University of Chicago to find a single scholar of
> Telugu literature in ten years of trying? Why do Maharashtra's universities
> not have a single serious scholar of classical Marathi?
>
> The most important question of all is why has the HRD Ministry not invested
> in an Indian Institute of Classical Studies? The state of classical
> scholarship is so dismal that we need such institutes in every state if we
> are not to end up as a country that loses all sense of its past.

Posted by nizhal yoddha at 8/15/2009 08:22:00 AM 0 comments<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

[Hauma Hamiddha]

Sheldon Pollock Gets govt of India Award

Sheldon Pollock who is well know for his death of Sanskrit and signing the letter drafted by the great Narr von Deutschland has been awarded the President's prize by the India govt.

[Hauma Hamiddha]

Prof. Sethuraman's page : A modern Sanskrit poet

[Bodhi]

A query for HH:

In the NI vernacular poetics, names of some of the meters are derived from region names such as soraThA meter after saurAShTra and mAgadhI meter (same as vaitAlIya of skt.) after magadha etc., as opposed to skt. names of the meters, which have no connection to regions (to my knowledge).

What could be behind such modification of the meter names in proto-hindI vernaculars, especially when there appears to be no evidence of any regional concentration of their usage too?

[Hauma Hamiddha]

I must make clear my ignorance in post-apabhraMsha evolution of Indo-Aryan prosody, so my explanation might not be correct.
Nevertheless:
In saMskR^ita we have the concept or rIti or style in which the diction is laid out. All these rIti's have regional names: vaidarbhI (kAlidAsa, padmagupta the poetess vijayA~NkA are famous for this), gauDI, pa~nchAlI, lATikA mAgadhI etc. By the classical period when these rIti-s are discussed we find that there is no particular geographical concentration of them in those parts of the country. For example after kAlidAsa the next famous vaidarbhI user vijayA~nkA is from karnATa. So I suspect the rIti name might have had some early geographical link due to some exemplars chosen from poets of those regions but as they became widespread these names were lost any geographic implication. Similarly I think we some of the Hindi meters might have been designated in some early phase by exemplars coming from such regions. Yet other are not geographic like dohA or Chand. Also I think there is rAg in hindustAnI called soraThA ? It may have similarly acquired its name.

[Bodhi]

Thanks, yes that could be a possibility. there is rAga soraTha, and as far as rAga-s and uparAga-s in hindusthAnI and their variants thereby are concerned, there are so many examples of geographical names, like gUjarI, mAlavI, kambojI, pahADI, kedAra, pUrvI, bhUpAlI, revA, saindhava bhairavI, tila~NgI, kAnaDA etc...

[Guest]

Sanskrit gets second official language status in Uttarakhand

[url="http://www.dailypioneer.com/230492/Sanskrit-gets-second-official-language-status-in-Uttarakhand.html"] link[/url]

PNS | Dehradun

In a bid to encourage Sanskrit, the State Government has given Sanskrit the status of second official language. It will attract the younger generation of the State towards Sanskrit and will also create many opportunities of employment.



Since becoming the Chief Minister of the State, Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank started working towards propagation and development of Sanskrit language. It has been accepted by the scholars and people from all sections of the society. The CM has been receiving congratulations on having given Sanskrit the status of second official language of Uttarakhand. He reviewed the progress of Sanskrit Education Department in Bijapur State Guest House on Tuesday and received information about Sanskrit Education in the State.



Uttarakhand is the first State to give Sanskrit the status of second official language, and the State Government wants to increase the usage of Sanskrit at school and higher education level in the State. State is also willing to link Sanskrit language with employment; and after been given the status of second official language, the propagation and acceptance of Sanskrit will be accelerated. Nishank instructed the officials to ensure that the students in all the schools of the State take Sanskrit as a compulsory subject.



Additional Secretary Sanskrit Education Radhika Jha said that under Article 345 of the Constitution of India, the Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly has passed the proposal of making Hindi as official language and Sanskrit as the second official language of Uttarakhand.

[Bharatvarsh2]

The richness of meaning



After years of fruitless pursuit R felt that she had finally engaged with the sensuality of Sanskrit poetry. Foundations of this have been a part of our tradition since its very beginning, even though today we tend to separate the shruti from kAvya. Yet the authors of the shruti called themselves kavI-s and referred to pUrva kavI-s who had existed before them. The tradition of the Arya-s holds that a word has three layers of meaning: 1) The direct meaning or the entity designated by the word. 2) The ability to fill in a correct sense that is only indirectly stated: He lives on the river ga~NgA means he lives on its bank rather than on the river itself. 3) The tertiary reverberation which arouses in the reader one or more implied senses or feelings that are not even directly mentioned. Thus, in bhArata (both in saMskR^ita itself and cultures that descend from it or are laterally influenced by it to different degrees) we encounter evocation of rasa-s within every poetic verse – poetry is supposed to be sensual – it is supposed to produced neural states similar to the eating of a chocolate or some other delicacy or experiencing the pleasure of sea breeze or sex. As a consequence, in Hindu tradition a single verse can stand by itself as a quantum of sensory input, without the entire poem even being available. The ability to incite a sensory wave is the dhvani which lies at the heart of Sanskritic artistic expression (not just in the Sanskrit language but in the culture whose foundation it forms) and has been commented upon by several great savants of the Hindu world. The Arya-s have for long valued oral mode as the primary means of memetic transmission despite having acquired writing long ago. This tendency along with each verse being a quantum of sensory input by itself has resulted in emergence of subhAShita saMgraha-s or anthologies, not of entire poems, but just verses selected for their ability deliver a range of standalone sensory inputs. Thus, it can be said that the poetic tradition of the Arya-s is a vector in a rather opposite direction of to neurological states typical of the Asperger syndrome. Those closer in spectrum towards the literalist world-view are unable to appreciate Sanskritic poetic thought because they only see the primary meaning of the word and often miss the secondary and tertiary one which are so important for the Sanskritic sensual experience. Thus Sanskritic expression has the ability of creating a community of those who can feel a resonance of their first person experiences generated by the poetic expression.



We picked up a verse attributed by some to a mahAkavI Chittapa who lived some time before the 1000s of CE near the astronomical observatory of Bhilsa (Now destroyed by the Mohammedans; in modern Madhya Pradesh). We are not sure of the very first word of the verse in the copy available to us but the whole sensory input and the layers of meanings emanating from the words are still clear as to us.



yAtas te .adhara-khaNDanAt paribhavaH kApAlikAd amba yaH sa brahmAdiShu kathyatAm iti muhur vANIM guhe jalpati |

gaurIM hasta-yugena ShaNmukha-vacho roddhuM nirIkShyAkShamAM vailakShyAch chaturAsya-niShphala-parAvR^ittish chiraM pAtu vaH ||



yAtas= inflict; te = your; .adhara=lower [lip]; khaNDanAt biting; paribhavaH=injury; kApAlikAd=skull-bearer (ablative singular masc.); amba= mother; yaH=one who; sa= he; brahmAdiShu- to brahmA and others; kathyatAm= let it be told; iti= so; muhur= multiply; vANIM= voice (acc.singular fem); guhe= in guha; jalpati=babbles |



gaurIM->;( acc.singular fem.); hasta-yugena= by pair of hands; ShaNmukha-vacho=the speech of the six-headed one block; roddhuM=shut up; nirIkShyAkShamAM =having seen unable to; ; vailakShyAch= embarrassment; chaturAsya= four-headed one; niShphala= fruitless; parAvR^ittish= turning away; chiraM= for ever; pAtu= protection; vaH your ||



Roughly: That the skull-bearer has inflicted you injury by biting your lower-lip, mother, should be told to brahmA and the others, thus multiply the voice of guha babbles. Seeing gaurI with two hands unable to shut up the speech from the six mouths, the four-faced one in embarrassment turns away, though unsuccessful [i.e. the turning away], may it be for your protection.



The saMskR^ita original emanates multiple secondary and tertiary effects in the words. For this one has understand that setting that it immediately clearly to one within the tradition. In course of their amorous dalliance rudra has bitten the lower-lip of umA. Seeing her lip, the childishly innocent new-born kumAra who feeling that the skull-bearing rudra has wounded, say that it must be reported to brahmA and the other deva-s for action to be taken against the perpetrator. However, this only alarms umA whose dalliance has now been made public by her son’s blathering and tries to shut him up. But she has only two hands and he six mouths and so she is unsuccessful. The four headed brahmA who has seen all of this embarrassed himself and try to turn away as though he has not seen it. To illustrate an example of a secondary meaning: adhara-khaNDanAt= biting of the lower lip. Even though the word for lip has not been specified the sense comes out as a secondary meaning of the compound. The tertiary meanings are even more abundant. To illustrate just one more clearly: the name for used for rudra is kApAlika. This name is used to evoke terror for it specifies the most terrifying form of rudra, the bhairava with his kapAla. Thus, the sense of the terrible rudra as the causer of injury to the lower lip is implied. Given the precocious birth of kumAra after the thousand year dalliance and intercourse of rudra and umA another tertiary sense could be the allusion to this very event as a consequence of which kumAra is born and then he looks at his mother.



The poet attempts to incite several sensations:

1) The amorous one by a mere allusion to the dalliance of the deities.

2) Humor arising from the inappropriate and embarrassing comments that are so commonly made by children.

3) Irony – kumAra wants the skull-bearer reported to brahmA, when the very skull he bears comes from a severed head of brahmA.

4) Humor via incongruity – the two hands of gaurI trying to shut the six mouths of kumAra.

5) Pity for umA being embarrassed by her son’s awkward comment.



The reader is supposed to experience an admixture of all of this.



Let us consider a few more master pieces.

amaru’s praise of the missile of rudra that destroyed the three pura-s:

kShipto hastAvalagnaH prasabham abhihato .apy AdadAno .aMshukAntaM gR^ihNan kesheShv apAstash charaNa-nipatito nekShitaH saMbhrameNa |

Ali~Ngan yo .avadhUtas tripura-yuvatibhiH sAshru-netrotpalAbhiH kAmIvArdrAparAdhaH sa dahatu duritaM shAmbhavo vaH sharAgniH ||



kShipto=cast off; hastA= hands; avalagnaH= adhering to; prasabham=forcibly; abhihato= pushed away; .apy= moreover ; AdadAno= taking; aMshuka= dress; antaM=fringes; gR^ihNan=seized kesheShv=hair (locative plural); apAstash=thrown off; charaNa= foot; nipatito= fallen down; nekShitaH= not looked at; saMbhrameNa=perturbed/fear (instrumental singular)



Ali~Ngan= embrace; yo= which; .avadhUtas= shaken off; tripura-yuvatibhiH= tripura maids; sAshru-netrotpalAbhiH= tear-laden eye-lotuses (instrumental plural); kAmiiva= like a lover; ardrAparAdhaH= transgression of an affair; sa=he; dahatu=burn; duritaM=sins; shAmbhavo=of shaMbhu; vaH= you; sharAgniH= arrow fire.



Roughly: Though cast off he grasped their hands, moreover though forcibly pushed away he took hold of the fringes of their dress, though thrown off he got into their hair; though in fearful awe he was not looked at, he fell at their feet like a lover guilty from the affair with another; thus, though shaken off by the tripura maids, with their lotus eyes laden with tears, did the fire from shaMbhu’s missile embrace them; may be burn your sins.



Here we sense the following:

1) By the repeated use of the phrases describing how the fire continues to fall upon the tripura maids despite their attempts to escape from it the poet captures a feeling of terror, urgency and inescapability of the holocaust that has come upon the tripura-s struck by the missile of rudra – in essence a tragic trope though it visits the malignant enemies of the gods.

2) At the same time by comparing the fire to a lover persistently engaging the beautiful asuri-s the poet mixes in an amorous trope into horror of their inevitable destruction.

3) After raising the reader to a peak of the subtle mixture of the tragic and the erotic the poet brings him down to a more level plane by stating that this terrifying fire that is seized tripura-s is also his protection against sins. He also does the same via a contrast in the final phrase: he designates rudra here by his auspicious name shaMbhu – the causer of good. This in combination with the alliteration produces a remarkable effect of awe towards the great rudra, the destroyer as well as the bringer of healing. This motif goes back to the old R^ik-s to rudra from the RV. For the tripurAntaka motif in the RV one may turn to the mantra composed by bharadvAja bArhaspatya (6.16.39):

ya ugra iva sharyahA tigma-shR^i~Ngo na vaMsagaH | agne puro rurojitha ||

ugra who like the archer, sharp-horned like the bull, agni destroys the citadels.



chaTach-chaT iti charmaNi chCham iti chochChala-chChoNite dhagad-dhag iti medasi sphuTataro .asthiShu ShThAd iti |

punAtu bhavato harer amara-vairi-nAthorasi kvaNatkaraja-pa~njara-krakacha-kASha-janmAnalaH ||



chaTach-chaT iti charmaNi= ripping into the skin; chCham iti chochChala-chChoNite=splashing into the splattering blood; dhagad-dhag iti medasi=cracking into the marrow; sphuTataro .asthiShu ShThAd iti = cleanly smashing into bones.



punAtu= purify (3rd person imperative active); bhavato= present/being; harer= of hari (masc. singular genitive); amara-vairi-nAthorasi=chest of the lord of the enemies of the immortals; kvaNat= crashing; karaja= claw; pa~njara=cage; -krakacha= hacksaw; kASha=appearing; janmAnalaH=fire born of;



Roughly: Ripping into skin, splattering around the gore, cracking into the marrow and cleanly smashing into the bones; may the fire emerging from the hacksaw-like claw-cage of his majesty hari crashing into the chest of the lord of the enemies of the immortals purify you.



The verse is by vAkpati. He was a court poet of yashovarman who revived the fortunes of the maurya-s after long and displaced the gupta-s in the Gangetic Doab. He also demolished the gauDa-s which is praised by vAkpati in a Prakrit poem. This verse achieves its great beauty in saMskR^ita by the force of its alliteration. Those conversant with the secrets of the mantra lore would recognized that vAkpati is setting in elegant verse same alliterative elements of the mantra known as the nR^ikesari mAlA.



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