167-468: Agni ( Sanskrit : अग्नि , Sanskrit pronunciation: [ˈɐgni] ) is the Hindu god of fire. and the guardian deity of the southeast direction , he is typically found in southeast corners of Hindu temples . In the classical cosmology of Hinduism , fire ( Agni ) is one of the five inert impermanent elements ( Pañcabhūtá ) along with sky ( Ākāśa ), water ( Apas ), air ( Vāyu ) and earth ( Pṛthvī ),
334-689: A Brahmana-proper, although it has been published as one. Linked with the Krishna (Black) Yajurveda, it is 'actually part of the Vadhula Shrauta Sutra'. S. Sharva states that in 'the brahmana literature this word ['brahmana'] has been commonly used as detailing the ritualism related to the different sacrifices or yajnas ... The known recensions [i.e. schools or Shakhas ] of the Vedas , all had separate brahmanas. Most of these brahmanas are not extant .... [ Panini ] differentiates between
501-411: A beard, pot-bellied and holding in his right hand a amrtaghata (nectar-pot). Many of these early carvings and early statues show just one head, but elaborate details such as ear-rings made of three fruits, a detailed necklace, a slightly smiling face wearing a crown, and flames engraved into the hairs at the back of Agni's statue. The iconographic statues and reliefs of god Agni are typically present in
668-560: A cardinal direction, world body, eye and knowledge, and the abstract principle of Brahman which the Upanishad states is in everything and is everywhere and he becomes a boy sage. Agni appears in section 1.13 of Chandogya Upanishad as well. In verse 18 of the Isha Upanishad , Agni is invoked with, "O Agni, you know all the paths, lead me on to success by the good path, keep me away from the wrong path of sin". In sections 4.5–6 of
835-602: A ceremony by which people of non-Aryan stock could be admitted into the Aryan family'. The Sadvimsa Brahmana is also of the Kauthuma Shakha, and consists of 5 adhyayas (lessons or chapters). Caland states it is 'a kind of appendix to the [Panchavimsha Brahmana], reckoned as its 26th book [or chapter]... The text clearly intends to supplement the Pancavimsabrahmana, hence its desultory character. It treats of
1002-909: A commentary on the Vedas, so that even common people would be able to understand the meaning of the Vedic Mantras. Madhavacharya told him that his younger brother Sayana was a learned person and hence he should be entrusted with the task'. Modak also lists the Brahmanas commented upon by Sayana (with the exception of the Gopatha): For ease of reference, academics often use common abbreviations to refer to particular Brahmanas and other Vedic, post-Vedic (e.g. Puranas ), and Sanskrit literature. Additionally, particular Brahmanas linked to particular Vedas are also linked to (i.e. recorded by) particular Shakhas or schools of those Vedas as well. Based on
1169-553: A dead language in the most common usage of the term. Pollock's notion of the "death of Sanskrit" remains in this unclear realm between academia and public opinion when he says that "most observers would agree that, in some crucial way, Sanskrit is dead." Brahmana Divisions Sama vedic Yajur vedic Atharva vedic Vaishnava puranas Shaiva puranas Shakta puranas The Brahmanas ( / ˈ b r ɑː m ə n ə z / ; Sanskrit : ब्राह्मणम् , IAST : Brāhmaṇam ) are Vedic śruti works attached to
1336-433: A focus on Indian philosophies and Sanskrit. Though written in a number of different scripts, the dominant language of Hindu texts has been Sanskrit. It or a hybrid form of Sanskrit became the preferred language of Mahayana Buddhism scholarship; for example, one of the early and influential Buddhist philosophers, Nagarjuna (~200 CE), used Classical Sanskrit as the language for his texts. According to Renou, Sanskrit had
1503-591: A language competed with numerous, less exact vernacular Indian languages called Prakritic languages ( prākṛta - ). The term prakrta literally means "original, natural, normal, artless", states Franklin Southworth . The relationship between Prakrit and Sanskrit is found in Indian texts dated to the 1st millennium CE. Patañjali acknowledged that Prakrit is the first language, one instinctively adopted by every child with all its imperfections and later leads to
1670-658: A limited role in the Theravada tradition (formerly known as the Hinayana) but the Prakrit works that have survived are of doubtful authenticity. Some of the canonical fragments of the early Buddhist traditions, discovered in the 20th century, suggest the early Buddhist traditions used an imperfect and reasonably good Sanskrit, sometimes with a Pali syntax, states Renou. The Mahāsāṃghika and Mahavastu, in their late Hinayana forms, used hybrid Sanskrit for their literature. Sanskrit
1837-435: A mantra infallible, while one mistake made it powerless. Scholars suggest that this orthological perfection preserved Vedas in an age when writing technology was not in vogue, and the voluminous collection of Vedic knowledge were taught to and memorized by dedicated students through Svādhyāya , then remembered and verbally transmitted from one generation to the next. It seems breaking silence too early in at least one ritual
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#17327650343862004-454: A natural part of the earliest Vedic language, and that these developed in the centuries after the composition had been completed, and as a gradual unconscious process during the oral transmission by generations of reciters. The primary source for this argument is internal evidence of the text which betrays an instability of the phenomenon of retroflexion, with the same phrases having sandhi-induced retroflexion in some parts but not other. This
2171-479: A negative evidence to Pollock's hypothesis, but it is not positive evidence. A closer look at Sanskrit in the Indian history after the 12th century suggests that Sanskrit survived despite the odds. According to Hanneder, On a more public level the statement that Sanskrit is a dead language is misleading, for Sanskrit is quite obviously not as dead as other dead languages and the fact that it is spoken, written and read will probably convince most people that it cannot be
2338-546: A pan-Indo-Aryan accessibility to information and knowledge in the ancient and medieval times, in contrast to the Prakrit languages which were understood just regionally. It created a cultural bond across the subcontinent. As local languages and dialects evolved and diversified, Sanskrit served as the common language. It connected scholars from distant parts of South Asia such as Tamil Nadu and Kashmir, states Deshpande, as well as those from different fields of studies, though there must have been differences in its pronunciation given
2505-567: A personage or deity) and dakshinagni (for fighting against all evil). Yāska states that his predecessor Sākapuṇi regarded the threefold existence of Agni as being in earth, air and heaven as stated by the Rig Veda, and the Brāhmanas considered the three manifestations of Agni to be the fire, the lightning, the sun. A sage of the Ṛg Veda (Sūkta IV.iii.11) states that the Sun became visible when Agni
2672-882: A portion, could be reckoned as part of the Brâhmana literature of the Rig-veda (see Aitareya-âranyaka, Introduction, p. xcii), and that hence the Upanishad might be called the Upanishad of the Brâhmana of the Kaushîtakins'. W. Caland states that of the Samaveda , three Shakhas (schools or branches) 'are to be distinguished; that of the Kauthumas, that of the Ranayaniyas, and that of the Jaiminiyas'. Visnu
2839-428: A rainbow in his form as the sun. Agni has three forms, namely fire, lightning, and the Sun, forms sometimes symbolized by giving his icon three heads or three legs. He sometimes is shown wearing a garland of fruits or flowers, symbolic of the offerings made into the fire. The earliest surviving artwork of Agni have been found at archaeological sites near Mathura (Uttar Pradesh), and these date from 1st-century BCE. In
3006-578: A refined and standardized grammatical form that emerged in the mid-1st millennium BCE and was codified in the most comprehensive of ancient grammars, the Aṣṭādhyāyī ('Eight chapters') of Pāṇini . The greatest dramatist in Sanskrit, Kālidāsa , wrote in classical Sanskrit, and the foundations of modern arithmetic were first described in classical Sanskrit. The two major Sanskrit epics, the Mahābhārata and
3173-538: A restrained language from which archaisms and unnecessary formal alternatives were excluded". The Classical form of the language simplified the sandhi rules but retained various aspects of the Vedic language, while adding rigor and flexibilities, so that it had sufficient means to express thoughts as well as being "capable of responding to the future increasing demands of an infinitely diversified literature", according to Renou. Pāṇini included numerous "optional rules" beyond
3340-439: A similar phonetic structure to Tamil. Hock et al. quoting George Hart state that there was influence of Old Tamil on Sanskrit. Hart compared Old Tamil and Classical Sanskrit to arrive at a conclusion that there was a common language from which these features both derived – "that both Tamil and Sanskrit derived their shared conventions, metres, and techniques from a common source, for it is clear that neither borrowed directly from
3507-491: Is Agni that conveys the soul of the dead from the pyre to be reborn in the next world or life. However, this role was in post-Vedic texts subsumed in the role of god Yama. Agni has been important in temple architecture, is typically present in the southeast corner of a Hindu temple . The most important ritual of Hindu weddings is performed around Agni. It is called the Saptapadi (Sanskrit for "seven steps"), and it represents
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#17327650343863674-711: Is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages . It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late Bronze Age . Sanskrit is the sacred language of Hinduism , the language of classical Hindu philosophy , and of historical texts of Buddhism and Jainism . It was a link language in ancient and medieval South Asia, and upon transmission of Hindu and Buddhist culture to Southeast Asia, East Asia and Central Asia in
3841-521: Is a symbolic reminder and equivalent to the Sun, where the fire keeper is reminded of the heat that creates life, the fire in beings, the heat in the womb behind the cycle of life. Two major festivals in Hinduism, namely Holi (festival of colors) and Deepavali (festival of lights) incorporate Agni in their ritual grammar, as a symbol of divine energy. During the autumn celebrations of Deepavali, traditional small fire lamps called Diya are included to mark
4008-574: Is addressed as Atithi ('guest'), is also called Jatavedasam (जातवेदसम्), meaning "the one who knows all things that are born". He symbolizes will-power united with wisdom. Agni is the essence of the knowledge of Existence. Agni destroys ignorance and all delusions, removes nescience. The Kanvasatpathabrahmanam (SB.IV.i.iv.11) calls Agni "wisdom" (मेधायैमनसेऽग्नये स्वाहेति). Agni is symbolism for "the mind swiftest among (all) those that fly". The iconography of Agni varies by region. The design guidelines and specifications of his iconography are described in
4175-516: Is akin to that of Latin and Ancient Greek in Europe. Sanskrit has significantly influenced most modern languages of the Indian subcontinent , particularly the languages of the northern, western, central and eastern Indian subcontinent. Sanskrit declined starting about and after the 13th century. This coincides with the beginning of Islamic invasions of South Asia to create, and thereafter expand
4342-468: Is also linked with the Ashvalayana Shakha. The text itself consists of eight pañcikā s (books), each containing five adhyaya s (chapters), totaling forty in all. C. Majumdar states that 'it deals principally with the great Soma sacrifices and the different ceremonies of royal inauguration'. Haug states that the legend about this Brahmana, as told by Sayana , is that the 'name "Aitareya"
4509-620: Is below and night to what is on the other side. In fact, the sun never sets. Nor does it set for him who has such a knowledge. Such a one becomes united with the sun, assumes its form, and enters its place. As detailed in the main article, the Aitareya Brahmana (AB) is ascribed to the sage Mahidasa Aitareya of the Shakala Shakha (Shakala school) of the Rigveda , and is estimated to have been recorded around 600-400 BCE . It
4676-447: Is by Indian tradition traced to Itara ... An ancient Risi had among his many wives one who was called Itara . She had a son Mahidasa by name [i.e. Mahidasa Aitareya]... The Risi preferred the sons of his other wives to Mahidasa, and went even so far as to insult him once by placing all his other children in his lap to his exclusion. His mother, grieved at this ill-treatment of her son, prayed to her family deity ( Kuladevata ), [and]
4843-826: Is considered to be an appendix to the Panchavismsha / Tandya Brahmana. The Adbhuta Brahmana is from the last part of the Sadvimsa Brahmana and deals with 'omens and supernatural things'. Attributed by Caland to the Kuthuma-Ranayaniya Shakha, but by Macdonell to the Tandin Shakha . Also called the Devatadhyaya Brahmana. The Mantra Brahmana (also called the Samaveda-Mantrabrahmana, SMB)
5010-595: Is divided into thirty chapters [adhyayas] and 226 Khanda[s]. The first six chapters dealing with food sacrifice and the remaining to Soma sacrifice. This work is ascribed to Sankhyayana or Kaushitaki'. S. Shrava disagrees, stating that it 'was once considered that [the] Kaushitaki or Samkhayana was the name of the same brahmana... [but the Samkhayana] differs, though slightly, from the Kaushitaki Brahmana'. C. Majumdar states that it 'deals not only with
5177-452: Is found in the writing of Bharata Muni , the author of the ancient Natya Shastra text. The early Jain scholar Namisādhu acknowledged the difference, but disagreed that the Prakrit language was a corruption of Sanskrit. Namisādhu stated that the Prakrit language was the pūrvam ('came before, origin') and that it came naturally to children, while Sanskrit was a refinement of Prakrit through "purification by grammar". Sanskrit belongs to
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5344-939: Is from the first two chapters of the Chandogya Brahmana (also called the Chandogyaopanishad and the Upanishad Brahmana); the remaining chapters of the Chandogya Brahmana form the Chandogya Upanishad . Also called the Catapatha Brahmana (CB; this abbreviation also denotes the Mâdhyandina recension ) Part of the Taittiriya Aranyaka ; explains the Pravargya rite. Generally not considered
5511-609: Is originally conceptualized as the ultimate source of the "creator-preserver-destroyer" triad, then one of the trinities, as the one who ruled the earth. His twin brother Indra ruled the atmosphere as the god of storm, rain and war, while his other brother Sūrya ruled the sky and heavens were the other two gods in that trinity. His position and importance evolves over time, in the "creator-preserver-destroyer" aspects of existence in Hindu thought. The Shatapatha Brahmana mentions there have been three previous Agnis who died and current Agni
5678-544: Is permissible in the Satapatha (1.1.4.9), where 'in that case mutter some Rik [ Rigveda ] or Yagus-text [ Yajurveda ] addressed to Vishnu ; for Vishnu is the sacrifice, so that he thereby regains obtains a hold on the sacrifice , and penance is there by done by him'. Recorded by the grammarian Yaska , the Nirukta , one of the six Vedangas or 'limbs of the Vedas' concerned with correct etymology and interpretation of
5845-532: Is rare in the later version of the language. The Homerian Greek, like Ṛg-vedic Sanskrit, deploys simile extensively, but they are structurally very different. The early Vedic form of the Sanskrit language was far less homogenous compared to the Classical Sanskrit as defined by grammarians by about the mid-1st millennium BCE. According to Richard Gombrich—an Indologist and a scholar of Sanskrit, Pāli and Buddhist Studies—the archaic Vedic Sanskrit found in
6012-455: Is relating to all people), Tanūnapāta (he who is self-made), Narāśaṃsa (he who embodies all people's praise), Tripatsya (he who is with three dwellings), and many others. In Hindu mythology, Agni is also presented as one who is mysterious with a tendency to play hide and seek, not just with humans but with the deities. He hides in strange places such as waters, where in one myth, he imbues life force into fishes that dwell therein, due to which
6179-474: Is repeatedly presented in the Vedas, such as with the following words in the Maṇḍala 1 of the Rigveda : They call it Indra, Mitra, Varuna, Agni , and he is heavenly-winged Garuda. To what is One, sages give many a title, they call it Agni , Yama, Matarisvan (Agni). — Rigveda 1.164.46 , Translator: Klaus Klostermaier Agni features prominently in the major and minor Upanishads of Hinduism. Among
6346-470: Is shown in Rohitasva form, which has no ram as his vahana, but where he is pulled in a chariot with seven red horses, and the symbolic wind that makes fire move as the wheels of the chariot. In Cambodian art , Agni has been depicted with a rhinoceros as his vahana. The number seven symbolizes his reach in all seven mythical continents in ancient Hindu cosmology where Agni lives and also the seven colours of
6513-479: Is taken along with evidence of controversy, for example, in passages of the Aitareya-Āraṇyaka (700 BCE), which features a discussion on whether retroflexion is valid in particular cases. The Ṛg-veda is a collection of books, created by multiple authors. These authors represented different generations, and the mandalas 2 to 7 are the oldest while the mandalas 1 and 10 are relatively the youngest. Yet,
6680-586: Is the sacrifice ; what here (on this day) is not brought about, that he brings about through Vishnu (who is) the sacrifice. Caland states that the Panchavimsha / Tandya Brahmana of the Kauthuma Shakha consists of 25 prapathakas (books or chapters). C. Majumdar states that it 'is one of the oldest and most important of Brahmanas. It contains many old legends, and includes the Vratyastoma ,
6847-517: Is the fourth one now. In the Hindu pantheon, Agni occupies, after Indra, the most important position. Agni is prominent in the hymns of the Vedas and particularly the Brahmanas . In the Rigveda there are over 200 hymns that praise Agni. His name or synonyms appear in nearly a third of 1,028 hymns in the Rigveda . The Rigveda opens with a hymn inviting Agni, who is then addressed later in
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7014-589: Is the predominant language of one of the largest collection of historic manuscripts. The earliest known inscriptions in Sanskrit are from the 1st century BCE, such as the Ayodhya Inscription of Dhana and Ghosundi-Hathibada (Chittorgarh) . Though developed and nurtured by scholars of orthodox schools of Hinduism, Sanskrit has been the language for some of the key literary works and theology of heterodox schools of Indian philosophies such as Buddhism and Jainism. The structure and capabilities of
7181-484: Is used in many contexts, ranging from fire in the stomach, the cooking fire in a home, the sacrificial fire in an altar, the fire of cremation, the fire of rebirth, the fire in the energetic saps concealed within plants, the atmospheric fire in lightning and the celestial fire in the sun. In the Brahmanas layer of the Vedas, such as in section 5.2.3 of Shatapatha Brahmana, Agni represents all the gods and goddesses, all concepts of spiritual energy that permeates everything in
7348-540: The Bhagavata Purana , the Panchatantra and many other texts are all in the Sanskrit language. The Classical Sanskrit with its exacting grammar was thus the language of the Indian scholars and the educated classes, while others communicated with approximate or ungrammatical variants of it as well as other natural Indian languages. Sanskrit, as the learned language of Ancient India, thus existed alongside
7515-582: The Maitri Upanishad , the students ask their Hindu Guru (teacher) Maitri about which deity is best among deities they name, a list that includes Agni. The Guru replies that they are all supreme, all merely forms of the Brahman, the whole world is Brahman. So pick anyone, says the Upanishad, meditate and adore that one, then meditate over them all, then deny and discard the individuality of every one of these deities including of Agni, thus journey unto
7682-597: The Brahmana layer of the Vedas, ranging from the most common simple keeping of sacred fire and its symbolism, to more complicated procedures for the expiation of guilt, to rituals claimed to grant immortality to the performer. According to the Jaiminiya Brahmana , for example, an Agnihotra sacrifice frees the performer from evil and death. In contrast, states the Shatapatha Brahmana, Agnihotra
7849-580: The Dalai Lama , the Sanskrit language is a parent language that is at the foundation of many modern languages of India and the one that promoted Indian thought to other distant countries. In Tibetan Buddhism, states the Dalai Lama, Sanskrit language has been a revered one and called legjar lhai-ka or "elegant language of the gods". It has been the means of transmitting the "profound wisdom of Buddhist philosophy" to Tibet. The Sanskrit language created
8016-613: The Indo-European family of languages . It is one of the three earliest ancient documented languages that arose from a common root language now referred to as Proto-Indo-European : Other Indo-European languages distantly related to Sanskrit include archaic and Classical Latin ( c. 600 BCE–100 CE, Italic languages ), Gothic (archaic Germanic language , c. 350 CE ), Old Norse ( c. 200 CE and after), Old Avestan ( c. late 2nd millennium BCE ) and Younger Avestan ( c. 900 BCE). The closest ancient relatives of Vedic Sanskrit in
8183-567: The Monier-Williams Sanskrit dictionary, 'Brahmana' means: M. Haug states that etymologically , 'the word ['Brahmana' or 'Brahmanam'] is derived from brahman which properly signifies the Brahma priest who must know all Vedas , and understand the whole course and meaning of the sacrifice ... the dictum of such a Brahma priest who passed as a great authority, was called a Brahmanam'. S. Shrava states that synonyms of
8350-563: The Puranas (e.g. Bhagavata Purana , Canto 4, Chapter 8-12). The gods and the Asuras were in conflict over these worlds. From them Agni departed, and entered the seasons. The gods, having been victorious and having slain the Asuras, sought for him; Yama and Varuna discerned him. Him (the gods) invited, him they instructed, to him they offered a boon. He chose this as a boon, '(Give) me
8517-699: The Rigveda had already evolved in the Vedic period, as evidenced in the later Vedic literature. Gombrich posits that the language in the early Upanishads of Hinduism and the late Vedic literature approaches Classical Sanskrit, while the archaic Vedic Sanskrit had by the Buddha 's time become unintelligible to all except ancient Indian sages. The formalization of the Saṃskṛta language is credited to Pāṇini , along with Patañjali's Mahābhāṣya and Katyayana's commentary that preceded Patañjali's work. Panini composed Aṣṭādhyāyī ('Eight-Chapter Grammar'), which became
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#17327650343868684-532: The Rigveda , a collection of 1,028 hymns composed between 1500 BCE and 1200 BCE by Indo-Aryan tribes migrating east from the mountains of what is today northern Afghanistan across northern Pakistan and into northwestern India. Vedic Sanskrit interacted with the preexisting ancient languages of the subcontinent, absorbing names of newly encountered plants and animals; in addition, the ancient Dravidian languages influenced Sanskrit's phonology and syntax. Sanskrit can also more narrowly refer to Classical Sanskrit ,
8851-613: The Rigveda . A.B. Keith , a translator of the Aitareya and Kausitaki Brahmanas, states that it is 'almost certainly the case that these two [Kausitaki and Samkhyana] Brahmanas represent for us the development of a single tradition, and that there must have been a time when there existed a single... text [from which they were developed and diverged]'. Although S. Shrava considers the Kausitaki and Samkhyana Brahmanas to be separate although very similar works, M. Haug considers them to be
9018-531: The Rāmāyaṇa , however, were composed in a range of oral storytelling registers called Epic Sanskrit which was used in northern India between 400 BCE and 300 CE, and roughly contemporary with classical Sanskrit. In the following centuries, Sanskrit became tradition-bound, stopped being learned as a first language, and ultimately stopped developing as a living language. The hymns of the Rigveda are notably similar to
9185-520: The Samhitas (hymns and mantras) of the Rig , Sama , Yajur , and Atharva Vedas. They are a secondary layer or classification of Sanskrit texts embedded within each Veda, which explain and instruct on the performance of Vedic rituals (in which the related Samhitas are recited). In addition to explaining the symbolism and meaning of the Samhitas , Brahmana literature also expounds scientific knowledge of
9352-712: The Soma , but also other sacrifices'. Keith estimates that the Kaushîtaki-brâhmana was recorded around 600–400 BCE, adding that it is more 'scientific' and 'logical' than the Aitareya Brahmana, although much 'of the material of the Kausitaki, and especially the legends, has been taken over by the Brahmana from a source common to it and the Aitareya, but the whole has been worked up into a harmonious unity which presents no such irregularities as are found in
9519-754: The Subrahmanya formula, of the one-day-rites that are destined to injure ( abhicara ) and other matters. This brahmana, at least partly, is presupposed by the Arseyakalpa and the Sutrakaras'. Caland states that the Adbhuta Brahmana, also of the Kauthuma Shakha, is the 'latest part [i.e. 5th adhyaya of the Sadvimsa Brahmana], that which treats of Omina and Portenta [ Omens and Divination ]'. Majumdar agrees. Caland states that
9686-412: The Vedas , references several Brahmanas to do so. These are (grouped by Veda): Both apply to the Śukla (White) Yajurveda. The 14th Century Sanskrit scholar Sayana composed numerous commentaries on Vedic literature, including the Samhitas , Brahmanas, Aranyakas , and Upanishads . B.R. Modak states that 'king Bukka [1356–1377 CE] requested his preceptor and minister Madhavacharya to write
9853-485: The Vedic Period , including observational astronomy and, particularly in relation to altar construction, geometry . Divergent in nature, some Brahmanas also contain mystical and philosophical material that constitutes Aranyakas and Upanishads . Each Veda has one or more of its own Brahmanas, and each Brahmana is generally associated with a particular Shakha or Vedic school. Less than twenty Brahmanas are currently extant, as most have been lost or destroyed. Dating of
10020-412: The krodha-agni or "fire of anger", the kama-agni or "fire of passion and desire", and the udara-agni or "fire of digestion". These respectively need introspective and voluntary offerings of forgiveness, detachment and fasting, if one desires spiritual freedom, liberation. Agni variously denotes the natural element fire, the supernatural deity symbolized by fire and the inner natural will aspiring for
10187-406: The sandhi rules, both internal and external. Quite many words found in the early Vedic Sanskrit language are never found in late Vedic Sanskrit or Classical Sanskrit literature, while some words have different and new meanings in Classical Sanskrit when contextually compared to the early Vedic Sanskrit literature. Arthur Macdonell was among the early colonial era scholars who summarized some of
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#173276503438610354-500: The verbal adjective sáṃskṛta- is a compound word consisting of sáṃ ('together, good, well, perfected') and kṛta - ('made, formed, work'). It connotes a work that has been "well prepared, pure and perfect, polished, sacred". According to Biderman, the perfection contextually being referred to in the etymological origins of the word is its tonal—rather than semantic—qualities. Sound and oral transmission were highly valued qualities in ancient India, and its sages refined
10521-414: The 13th century, a premier center of Sanskrit literary creativity, Sanskrit literature there disappeared, perhaps in the "fires that periodically engulfed the capital of Kashmir" or the "Mongol invasion of 1320" states Pollock. The Sanskrit literature which was once widely disseminated out of the northwest regions of the subcontinent, stopped after the 12th century. As Hindu kingdoms fell in the eastern and
10688-414: The 7th century where he established a major center of learning and language translation under the patronage of Emperor Taizong. By the early 1st millennium CE, Sanskrit had spread Buddhist and Hindu ideas to Southeast Asia, parts of the East Asia and the Central Asia. It was accepted as a language of high culture and the preferred language by some of the local ruling elites in these regions. According to
10855-415: The Aitareya. It is clearly a redaction of the tradition of the school made deliberately after the redaction of the Aitareya'. Max Müller states that the Kaushitaki Upanishad – also called the Kaushitaki Brahmana Upanishad (KBU) – 'does not form part of the Kaushîtaki-brâhmana in 30 adhyâyas which we possess, and we must therefore account for its name by admitting that the Âranyaka , of which it formed
11022-416: The Brahmans, consists, according to the opinion of the most eminent divines of Hindustan , of two principal parts, viz. Mantra [ Samhita ] and Brahmanam... Each of the four Vedas ( Rik , Yajus , Saman , and Atharvan ) has a Mantra, as well as a Brahmana portion. The difference between both may be briefly stated as follows: That part which contains the sacred prayers, the invocations of the different deities,
11189-453: The Brâhma n as are thus our oldest sources from which a comprehensive view of the sacrificial ceremonial can be obtained, they also throw a great deal of light on the earliest metaphysical and linguistic speculations of the Hindus . Another, even more interesting feature of these works, consists in the numerous legends scattered through them. From the archaic style in which these mythological tales are generally composed, as well as from
11356-509: The Buddhist traditions. In the ancient Jainism thought, Agni (fire) contains soul and fire-bodied beings, additionally appears as Agni-kumaras or "fire children" in its theory of rebirth and a class of reincarnated beings and is discussed in its texts with the equivalent term Tejas . Traditional Sanskrit अग्नि ( Agni ) continues one of two core terms for fire reconstructed to Proto-Indo-European , * h₁n̥gʷnis , other reflexes of which include Albanian : *Enj-i ( [ɛɲi] ),
11523-425: The Classical Sanskrit language launched ancient Indian speculations about "the nature and function of language", what is the relationship between words and their meanings in the context of a community of speakers, whether this relationship is objective or subjective, discovered or is created, how individuals learn and relate to the world around them through language, and about the limits of language? They speculated on
11690-416: The Dravidian languages borrowed from Sanskrit vocabulary, but they have also affected Sanskrit on deeper levels of structure, "for instance in the domain of phonology where Indo-Aryan retroflexes have been attributed to Dravidian influence". Similarly, Ferenc Ruzca states that all the major shifts in Indo-Aryan phonetics over two millennia can be attributed to the constant influence of a Dravidian language with
11857-417: The Dravidian words and forms, without modifying the word order; but the same thing is not possible in rendering a Persian or English sentence into a non-Indo-Aryan language. Shulman mentions that "Dravidian nonfinite verbal forms (called vinaiyeccam in Tamil) shaped the usage of the Sanskrit nonfinite verbs (originally derived from inflected forms of action nouns in Vedic). This particularly salient case of
12024-540: The Earth ( Bhumi ), who appeared in her celestial form in the midst of the assembly, placed him on a throne ( simhasana ), and gave him as a token of honour for his surpassing all other children in learning a boon (vara) which had the appearance of a Brahmana [i.e. the Aitareya]'. P. Deussen agrees, relating the same story. Notably, The story itself is remarkably similar to the legend of a Vaishnava boy called Dhruva in
12191-486: The Hindu Agama texts. He is shown with one to three heads, two to four arms, is typically red-complexioned or smoky-grey complexioned standing next to or riding a ram, with a characteristic dramatic halo of flames leaping upwards from his crown. He is shown as a strong looking man, sometimes bearded, with a large belly because he eats everything offered into his flames, with golden brown hair, eyes and mustache to match
12358-409: The Hindu deities and natural things have their basis in the timeless, universal monistic principle called Brahman. Another ancient major Hindu scripture named Prashna Upanishad mentions Agni in its second Prashna (question section). The section states that Agni and other deities manifest as five gross constituents that combine to make the entire universe, and that all the deities are internalized in
12525-535: The Indo-Aryan language underwent rapid linguistic change and morphed into the Vedic Sanskrit language. The pre-Classical form of Sanskrit is known as Vedic Sanskrit . The earliest attested Sanskrit text is the Rigveda , a Hindu scripture from the mid- to late-second millennium BCE. No written records from such an early period survive, if any ever existed, but scholars are generally confident that
12692-519: The Indo-European languages are the Nuristani languages found in the remote Hindu Kush region of northeastern Afghanistan and northwestern Himalayas, as well as the extinct Avestan and Old Persian – both are Iranian languages . Sanskrit belongs to the satem group of the Indo-European languages. Colonial era scholars familiar with Latin and Greek were struck by the resemblance of
12859-503: The Kauthuma Shakha is 'in 3 prapathakas [books or chapters]... It deals with the deities to which the samans are addressed'. Dalal adds that the 'first part of the Devatadhyaya is the most important as it provides rules to determine the deities to whom the samans are dedicated. Another section ascribes colours to different verses, probably as aids to memory or for meditation... [It] includes some very late passages such as references to
13026-744: The Kauthumas, i.e. the Gramegeya-gana / Veya-gana and the Aramyegeya-gana / Aranya-gana]'. The nature of the ganas noted are discussed in the same text. As illustrated below, this Brahmana is virtually identical to the Jaiminiya Arsheya Brahmana of the Jaiminiya Shakha . Caland states that the Vamsha Brahmana of the Kauthuma Shakha is 'in 3 khandas [books]... it contains the lists of teachers of
13193-532: The Muslim rule in the form of Sultanates, and later the Mughal Empire . Sheldon Pollock characterises the decline of Sanskrit as a long-term "cultural, social, and political change". He dismisses the idea that Sanskrit declined due to "struggle with barbarous invaders", and emphasises factors such as the increasing attractiveness of vernacular language for literary expression. With the fall of Kashmir around
13360-496: The Muslim rulers. Hindu rulers such as Shivaji of the Maratha Empire , reversed the process, by re-adopting Sanskrit and re-asserting their socio-linguistic identity. After Islamic rule disintegrated in South Asia and the colonial rule era began, Sanskrit re-emerged but in the form of a "ghostly existence" in regions such as Bengal. This decline was the result of "political institutions and civic ethos" that did not support
13527-483: The Parvati who already understands Brahman, explains what Brahman is and how the deities reached victory through the nature of Brahman. Indra shares this knowledge with Agni and Vayu. The Kena Upanishad closes these sections by stating that "Agni, Vayu, Indra" are revered first because they were the first among the deities to realize Brahman from Parvati. The allegorical legend, states Paul Deussen, aims to teach that all
13694-461: The Samaveda'. Notably, Dalal adds that of the 53 teachers listed, the 'earliest teacher, Kashyapa , is said to have received the teaching from the god, Agni '. He should proceed thus: Having taken a water-pot or a water-jar he should go pouring it out from the garhapatya to the ahavaniya with the verse: "Here Visnu strode". The rc [RigVeda verse, e.g. 1.22.17] is a divine purification, water
13861-609: The Samavidhana Brahmana of the Kauthuma Shakha is 'in 3 prapathakas [books or chapters]... its aim is to explain how by chanting various samans [hymns of the Samaveda ] some end may be attained. It is probably older than one of the oldest dharmasastras, that of Gautama'. M. S. Bhat states that it is not properly a Brāhmaṇa text, but belongs to the Vidhāna literature. Caland states that the Daivata Brahmana of
14028-499: The Saṃskṛta language, both in its vocabulary and grammar, to the classical languages of Europe. In The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World , Mallory and Adams illustrate the resemblance with the following examples of cognate forms (with the addition of Old English for further comparison): The correspondences suggest some common root, and historical links between some of
14195-638: The South India, such as the great Vijayanagara Empire , so did Sanskrit. There were exceptions and short periods of imperial support for Sanskrit, mostly concentrated during the reign of the tolerant Mughal emperor Akbar . Muslim rulers patronized the Middle Eastern language and scripts found in Persia and Arabia, and the Indians linguistically adapted to this Persianization to gain employment with
14362-447: The Vedic Sanskrit in these books of the Ṛg-veda "hardly presents any dialectical diversity", states Louis Renou – an Indologist known for his scholarship of the Sanskrit literature and the Ṛg-veda in particular. According to Renou, this implies that the Vedic Sanskrit language had a "set linguistic pattern" by the second half of the 2nd millennium BCE. Beyond the Ṛg-veda, the ancient literature in Vedic Sanskrit that has survived into
14529-451: The Vedic Sanskrit's bahulam framework, to respect liberty and creativity so that individual writers separated by geography or time would have the choice to express facts and their views in their own way, where tradition followed competitive forms of the Sanskrit language. The phonetic differences between Vedic Sanskrit and Classical Sanskrit, as discerned from the current state of the surviving literature, are negligible when compared to
14696-504: The abbreviations and Shakhas provided by works cited in this article (and other texts by Bloomfield , Keith , W. D, Whitney , and H.W. Tull), extant Brahmanas have been listed below, grouped by Veda and Shakha . Note that: The Kausitaki and Samkhyana are generally considered to be the same Brahmana. Also called the Cankhayana Brahmana. The Panchavismsha and Tandya are the same Brahmana. The Sadvimsa Brahmana
14863-459: The alphabet, the structure of words, and its exacting grammar into a "collection of sounds, a kind of sublime musical mold" as an integral language they called Saṃskṛta . From the late Vedic period onwards, state Annette Wilke and Oliver Moebus, resonating sound and its musical foundations attracted an "exceptionally large amount of linguistic, philosophical and religious literature" in India. Sound
15030-440: The capacity to understand the old Prakrit languages such as Ardhamagadhi . A section of European scholars state that Sanskrit was never a spoken language. However, evidences shows that Sanskrit was a spoken language, essential for oral tradition that preserved the vast number of Sanskrit manuscripts from ancient India. The textual evidence in the works of Yaksa, Panini, and Patanajali affirms that Classical Sanskrit in their era
15197-637: The central witness of the rite-of-passage ritual in traditional Hindu weddings called Saptapadi (seven steps and mutual vows), in the Upanayana ceremony of rite of passage, as well being part of the diyā (lamp) in festivals such as Deepavali and Arti in Puja . Agni ( Pali : Aggi ) is a term that appears extensively in Buddhist texts and in the literature related to the Senika heresy debate within
15364-527: The close relationship between the Indo-Iranian tongues and the Baltic and Slavic languages , vocabulary exchange with the non-Indo-European Uralic languages , and the nature of the attested Indo-European words for flora and fauna. The pre-history of Indo-Aryan languages which preceded Vedic Sanskrit is unclear and various hypotheses place it over a fairly wide limit. According to Thomas Burrow, based on
15531-486: The collection at Bharata Kalā Bhavana, there is a red sandstone sculpture from around the start of the common era but no later than 1st-century CE, identifiable as Agni shown in the garb of a Brahmana, very much like sage Kashyapa . In the Panchala coins of Agnimitra , Agni is always present with a halo of flames. In Gupta sculptures, Agni is found with a halo of flames round the body, the sacred thread across his chest,
15698-448: The color of fire. Agni holds a rosary in one hand to symbolize his prayer-related role, and a sphere in another hand in eastern states of India. In other regions, his four arms hold an ax, torch, spoon (or fan) a flaming spear (or rosary). Seven rays of light or flames emit from his body. One of his names is Saptajihva , "the one having seven tongues", to symbolize how rapidly he consumes sacrificial butter. Occasionally, Agni iconography
15865-614: The context of a speech or language, is found in verses 5.28.17–19 of the Ramayana . Outside the learned sphere of written Classical Sanskrit, vernacular colloquial dialects ( Prakrits ) continued to evolve. Sanskrit co-existed with numerous other Prakrit languages of ancient India. The Prakrit languages of India also have ancient roots and some Sanskrit scholars have called these Apabhramsa , literally 'spoiled'. The Vedic literature includes words whose phonetic equivalent are not found in other Indo-European languages but which are found in
16032-653: The crystallization of Classical Sanskrit. As in this period the Indo-Aryan tribes had not yet made contact with the inhabitants of the South of the subcontinent, this suggests a significant presence of Dravidian speakers in North India (the central Gangetic plain and the classical Madhyadeśa) who were instrumental in this substratal influence on Sanskrit. Extant manuscripts in Sanskrit number over 30 million, one hundred times those in Greek and Latin combined, constituting
16199-533: The desire to consume the forest of Khāṇḍava protected by Indra for the sake of Takṣaka , the chief of the Nāgas . Aided by Krishna and Arjuna, Agni consumes the Khāṇḍava Forest , which burnt for fifteen days, sparing only Ashvasena, Maya, and the four birds called sarangakas ; later, as a boon Arjuna got all his weapons from Indra and also the bow, Gāṇḍīva , from Varuṇa . There is the story about King Shibi who
16366-467: The detailed and sophisticated treatise then transmitted it through his students. Modern scholarship generally accepts that he knew of a form of writing, based on references to words such as Lipi ('script') and lipikara ('scribe') in section 3.2 of the Aṣṭādhyāyī . The Classical Sanskrit language formalized by Pāṇini, states Renou, is "not an impoverished language", rather it is "a controlled and
16533-471: The differences between the Vedic and Classical Sanskrit. Louis Renou published in 1956, in French, a more extensive discussion of the similarities, the differences and the evolution of the Vedic Sanskrit within the Vedic period and then to the Classical Sanskrit along with his views on the history. This work has been translated by Jagbans Balbir. The earliest known use of the word Saṃskṛta (Sanskrit), in
16700-460: The distant major ancient languages of the world. The Indo-Aryan migrations theory explains the common features shared by Sanskrit and other Indo-European languages by proposing that the original speakers of what became Sanskrit arrived in South Asia from a region of common origin, somewhere north-west of the Indus region , during the early 2nd millennium BCE. Evidence for such a theory includes
16867-484: The divine witness to those mutual vows. In the Indian subcontinent and Suriname , the bride leads the first four circuits followed by the groom leading the last three circuits. The Agnihotra involves fire, and the term refers to the ritual of keeping fire at home, and in some cases making "sacrificial offerings" such as milk and seeds to this fire. The Srauta texts state that it is the duty of man to perform Agnihotra . A wide range of Agnihotra procedures are found in
17034-471: The earliest mention is the legend of a boy sage named Satyakāma Jābāla , the son of an unwed father and an unwed mother, in chapter 4 of the Chhāndogya Upanishad (~700 BCE). He honestly admits his poverty and that his mother does not know who his father was, an honesty that earns him a spot in a Hindu school ( gurukula ). During his studies, the boy sage meets Agni, who then becomes the god for him as
17201-490: The early Vedic literature, Agni primarily connotes the fire as a god, one reflecting the primordial powers to consume, transform and convey. Yet the term is also used with the meaning of a Mahabhuta (constitutive substance), one of five that the earliest Vedic thinkers believed to constitute material existence, and that later Vedic thinkers such as Kanada and Kapila expanded widely, namely Dyaus (aether), Vayu (air), Varuna (water), Bhumi (earth) and Agni (fire). The word Agni
17368-490: The early medieval era, it became a language of religion and high culture , and of the political elites in some of these regions. As a result, Sanskrit had a lasting impact on the languages of South Asia, Southeast Asia and East Asia, especially in their formal and learned vocabularies. Sanskrit generally connotes several Old Indo-Aryan language varieties. The most archaic of these is the Vedic Sanskrit found in
17535-581: The fact that not a few of them are found in Brâhma n as of different schools and Vedas , though often with considerable variations, it is pretty evident that the ground-work of many of them goes back to times preceding the composition of the Brâhma n as'. The Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) states that while 'the Upanishads speculate on the nature of the universe, and the relationship of
17702-423: The falcon hides and disappears to heaven. Agni is molded in similar mythical themes, in some hymns with the phrase the "heavenly falcon that flies". The earliest layers of the Vedic texts of Hinduism, such as section 6.1 of Kaṭhaka Saṃhitā and section 1.8.1 of Maitrāyaṇī Saṃhitā state that the universe began with nothing, neither night nor day existed, what existed was just the god Prajāpati. Agni originated from
17869-548: The festivities. For Holi, Hindus burn bonfires as Holika, on the night before the spring festival. The bonfire marks god Agni, and in the Indian subcontinent, mothers and fathers carry their babies around the fire clockwise on Holika in Agni's remembrance. Agni has two forms: Jataveda and Kravyada : Agni is symbolism for psychological and physiological aspects of life, states Maha Purana section LXVII.202–203. There are three kinds of Agni inside every human being, states this text,
18036-445: The final codification of the Brahmanas and associated Vedic texts is controversial, as they were likely recorded after several centuries of oral transmission. The oldest Brahmana is dated to about 900 BCE , while the most recent are dated to around 700 BCE. Brahmana (or Brāhmaṇam , Sanskrit : ब्राह्मणम्) can be loosely translated as ' explanations of sacred knowledge or doctrine ' or ' Brahmanical explanation'. According to
18203-548: The first language of the respective speakers. The Sanskrit language brought Indo-Aryan speaking people together, particularly its elite scholars. Some of these scholars of Indian history regionally produced vernacularized Sanskrit to reach wider audiences, as evidenced by texts discovered in Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Maharashtra. Once the audience became familiar with the easier to understand vernacularized version of Sanskrit, those interested could graduate from colloquial Sanskrit to
18370-432: The fishes report his presence to the deities, who take Agni to heaven. Agni is in hymn 10.124 of the Rigveda , a Rishi (sage-poet-composer) and along with Indra and Sūrya makes up the Hindu trinity of gods who create, preserve, destroy. Agni is considered equivalent to all the deities in the Hinduism, which formed the foundation for the various non-dualistic and monistic theologies of Hinduism. These theme of equivalence
18537-429: The five combining to form the empirically perceived material existence ( Prakṛti ). In the Vedas , Agni is a major and most invoked god along with Indra and Soma . Agni is considered the mouth of the gods and goddesses and the medium that conveys offerings to them in a homa (votive ritual). He is conceptualized in ancient Hindu texts to exist at three levels, on earth as fire, in the atmosphere as lightning, and in
18704-517: The fore-offering and the after-offerings for my own, and the ghee of the waters and make of plants.' Therefore they say 'Agni's are the fore-offerings and the after-offerings; Agni's is the butter.' Then indeed did the gods prosper, the Asuras were defeated. He prospers himself, his foe is defeated, who knows thus. The Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) states that the 'Kaushitaki Brahmana [is] associated with Baskala Shakha of [the] Rigveda and [is] also called Sankhyayana Brahmana. It
18871-579: The forehead of Prajāpati , assert these texts. With the creation of Agni came light, and with that were created day and night. Agni, state these Saṃhitā s , is the same as the Brahman , the truth, the eyes of the manifested universe. These mythologies develop into more complex stories about Agni's origins in the later layers of Vedic texts, such as in section 2.1.2 of the Taittiriya Brahmana and sections 2.2.3–4 of Shatapatha Brahmana . Agni
19038-412: The foundation of Vyākaraṇa, a Vedānga . The Aṣṭādhyāyī was not the first description of Sanskrit grammar, but it is the earliest that has survived in full, and the culmination of a long grammatical tradition that Fortson says, is "one of the intellectual wonders of the ancient world". Pāṇini cites ten scholars on the phonological and grammatical aspects of the Sanskrit language before him, as well as
19205-481: The four yugas or ages'. Caland states that the Samhitopanishad Brahmana of the Kauthuma Shakha is 'in 5 khandas [books]... It treats of the effects of recitation, the relation of the saman [hymns of the Samaveda ] and the words on which it is chanted, the daksinas to be given to the religious teacher'. Dalal agrees, stating that it 'describes the nature of the chants and their effects, and how
19372-537: The gods Varuna, Mitra, Indra, and Nasatya found in the earliest layers of the Vedic literature. O Bṛhaspati, when in giving names they first set forth the beginning of Language, Their most excellent and spotless secret was laid bare through love, When the wise ones formed Language with their mind, purifying it like grain with a winnowing fan, Then friends knew friendships – an auspicious mark placed on their language. — Rigveda 10.71.1–4 Translated by Roger Woodard The Vedic Sanskrit found in
19539-527: The highest knowledge. Heat, combustion and energy is the realm of Agni which symbolizes the transformation of the gross to the subtle; Agni is the life-giving energy. Agnibija is the consciousness of tapas (proto-cosmic energy); agni (the energizing principle); the sun, representing the Reality (Brahman) and the Truth (Satya), is Rta , the order, the organizing principle of everything that is. Agni, who
19706-431: The historic Sanskrit literary culture and the failure of new Sanskrit literature to assimilate into the changing cultural and political environment. Sheldon Pollock states that in some crucial way, "Sanskrit is dead ". After the 12th century, the Sanskrit literary works were reduced to "reinscription and restatements" of ideas already explored, and any creativity was restricted to hymns and verses. This contrasted with
19873-600: The hymn as the guardian of Ṛta ( Dharma ). The Vedas describe the foster-parents of Agni as two kindling fire sticks of Prajapati, whose loving action creates him. Just born, he is poetically presented as a tender baby, who needs loving attention lest he vanishes. With care, he sparks and smokes, then flames and grows stronger than his foster-parents, finally so strong that he burns to ashes what created him his residence by Prajapati. The hymns in these ancient texts refer to Agni with numerous epithets and synonyms, such as Jātaveda (he who knows all knowledge), Vaiśvānara (he who
20040-486: The intense change that must have occurred in the pre-Vedic period between the Proto-Indo-Aryan language and Vedic Sanskrit. The noticeable differences between the Vedic and the Classical Sanskrit include the much-expanded grammar and grammatical categories as well as the differences in the accent, the semantics and the syntax. There are also some differences between how some of the nouns and verbs end, as well as
20207-432: The largest cultural heritage that any civilization has produced prior to the invention of the printing press. — Foreword of Sanskrit Computational Linguistics (2009), Gérard Huet, Amba Kulkarni and Peter Scharf Sanskrit has been the predominant language of Hindu texts encompassing a rich tradition of philosophical and religious texts, as well as poetry, music, drama , scientific , technical and others. It
20374-495: The legal part of Hindu marriage. The ritual involves a couple completing seven actual or symbolic circuits around the Agni , which is considered a witness to the vows they make to each other. Each circuit of the consecrated fire is led by both the bride or the groom, varying by community and region. With each circuit, the couple makes a specific vow to establish some aspect of a happy relationship and household for each other, with Agni as
20541-412: The linguistic expression and sets the standard for the Sanskrit language. Pāṇini made use of a technical metalanguage consisting of a syntax, morphology and lexicon. This metalanguage is organised according to a series of meta-rules, some of which are explicitly stated while others can be deduced. Despite differences in the analysis from that of modern linguistics, Pāṇini's work has been found valuable and
20708-514: The literary works. The Indian tradition, states Winternitz , has favored the learning and the usage of multiple languages from the ancient times. Sanskrit was a spoken language in the educated and the elite classes, but it was also a language that must have been understood in a wider circle of society because the widely popular folk epics and stories such as the Ramayana , the Mahabharata ,
20875-400: The modern age include the Samaveda , Yajurveda , Atharvaveda , along with the embedded and layered Vedic texts such as the Brahmanas , Aranyakas , and the early Upanishads . These Vedic documents reflect the dialects of Sanskrit found in the various parts of the northwestern, northern, and eastern Indian subcontinent. According to Michael Witzel, Vedic Sanskrit was a spoken language of
21042-429: The more advanced Classical Sanskrit. Rituals and the rites-of-passage ceremonies have been and continue to be the other occasions where a wide spectrum of people hear Sanskrit, and occasionally join in to speak some Sanskrit words such as namah . Classical Sanskrit is the standard register as laid out in the grammar of Pāṇini , around the fourth century BCE. Its position in the cultures of Greater India
21209-401: The most advanced analysis of linguistics until the twentieth century. Pāṇini's comprehensive and scientific theory of grammar is conventionally taken to mark the start of Classical Sanskrit. His systematic treatise inspired and made Sanskrit the preeminent Indian language of learning and literature for two millennia. It is unclear whether Pāṇini himself wrote his treatise or he orally created
21376-602: The most archaic poems of the Iranian and Greek language families, the Gathas of old Avestan and Iliad of Homer . As the Rigveda was orally transmitted by methods of memorisation of exceptional complexity, rigour and fidelity, as a single text without variant readings, its preserved archaic syntax and morphology are of vital importance in the reconstruction of the common ancestor language Proto-Indo-European . Sanskrit does not have an attested native script: from around
21543-545: The numbers are thought to signify a wish to be aligned with the prestige of the language. Sanskrit has been taught in traditional gurukulas since ancient times; it is widely taught today at the secondary school level. The oldest Sanskrit college is the Benares Sanskrit College founded in 1791 during East India Company rule . Sanskrit continues to be widely used as a ceremonial and ritual language in Hindu and Buddhist hymns and chants . In Sanskrit,
21710-426: The old and the new brahmanas... [he asked] Was it when Krishna Dvaipayana Vyasa had propounded the Vedic recensions? The brahmanas which had been propounded prior to the exposition of recensions by [ Vyasa ] were called as old brahmanas and those which had been expounded by his disciples were known as new brahmanas'. The Aitareya , Kausitaki, and Samkhyana Brahmanas are the two (or three) known extant Brahmanas of
21877-438: The one and the many, the immanent and transcendental, the Brahmanas make concrete the world-view and the concepts through a highly developed system of ritual-yajna. This functions as a strategy for a continuous reminder of the inter-relatedness of man and nature, the five elements and the sources of energy'. The Brahmanas are particularly noted for their instructions on the proper performance of rituals, as well as explanations on
22044-403: The oral transmission of the texts is reliable: they are ceremonial literature, where the exact phonetic expression and its preservation were a part of the historic tradition. However some scholars have suggested that the original Ṛg-veda differed in some fundamental ways in phonology compared to the sole surviving version available to us. In particular that retroflex consonants did not exist as
22211-413: The origins of the god Agni, some tracing it to Indo-European mythology, others tracing to Hindu mythology. The origin myth found in many Indo-European cultures is one of a falcon that carries or brings fire from the deities to people. This messenger also brings an elixir of immortality from heaven to earth. In either case, the falcon returns everyday with sacrificial offerings for the deities, but sometimes
22378-431: The other." Reinöhl further states that there is a symmetric relationship between Dravidian languages like Kannada or Tamil, with Indo-Aryan languages like Bengali or Hindi, whereas the same relationship is not found for non-Indo-Aryan languages, for example, Persian or English: A sentence in a Dravidian language like Tamil or Kannada becomes ordinarily good Bengali or Hindi by substituting Bengali or Hindi equivalents for
22545-468: The performance of Vedic sacrifices , and Arthavada praises the rituals, the glory of the Devas and so on. The belief in reincarnation and transmigration of soul started with [the] Brahmanas... [The] Brahmana period ends around 500 BC[E] with the emergence of Buddhism and it overlaps the period of Aranyakas , Sutras , Smritis and the first Upanishads '. M. Haug states that the 'Veda, or scripture of
22712-414: The possible influence of Dravidian on Sanskrit is only one of many items of syntactic assimilation, not least among them the large repertoire of morphological modality and aspect that, once one knows to look for it, can be found everywhere in classical and postclassical Sanskrit". The main influence of Dravidian on Sanskrit is found to have been concentrated in the timespan between the late Vedic period and
22879-439: The previous 1,500 years when "great experiments in moral and aesthetic imagination" marked the Indian scholarship using Classical Sanskrit, states Pollock. Scholars maintain that the Sanskrit language did not die, but rather only declined. Jurgen Hanneder disagrees with Pollock, finding his arguments elegant but "often arbitrary". According to Hanneder, a decline or regional absence of creative and innovative literature constitutes
23046-480: The problems of interpretation and misunderstanding. The purifying structure of the Sanskrit language removes these imperfections. The early Sanskrit grammarian Daṇḍin states, for example, that much in the Prakrit languages is etymologically rooted in Sanskrit, but involves "loss of sounds" and corruptions that result from a "disregard of the grammar". Daṇḍin acknowledged that there are words and confusing structures in Prakrit that thrive independent of Sanskrit. This view
23213-568: The reconstructed name of the fire god in the Albanian pagan mythology , which continues to be used in the Albanian language to refer to Thursday ( e enjte ), Latin ignis (the root of English ignite ), Lithuanian ugnis , Kurdish agir , Old Slavonian огнь ( ognĭ ) and its descendants: Russian огонь ( ogon´ ), Serbian oganj , Polish ogień , etc., all meaning "fire". The ancient Indian grammarians variously derived it: In
23380-609: The regional Prakrit languages, which makes it likely that the interaction, the sharing of words and ideas began early in the Indian history. As the Indian thought diversified and challenged earlier beliefs of Hinduism, particularly in the form of Buddhism and Jainism , the Prakrit languages such as Pali in Theravada Buddhism and Ardhamagadhi in Jainism competed with Sanskrit in the ancient times. However, states Paul Dundas , these ancient Prakrit languages had "roughly
23547-497: The relationship between various Indo-European languages, the origin of all these languages may possibly be in what is now Central or Eastern Europe, while the Indo-Iranian group possibly arose in Central Russia. The Iranian and Indo-Aryan branches separated quite early. It is the Indo-Aryan branch that moved into eastern Iran and then south into South Asia in the first half of the 2nd millennium BCE. Once in ancient India,
23714-529: The riks or Rig Vedic verses were converted into samans. Thus it reveals some of the hidden aspects of the Sama Veda '. Caland states that the Arsheya Brahmana of the Kauthuma Shakha is ''in 3 prapathakas [books or chapters]... This quasi-brahmana is, on the whole, nothing more than an anukramanika, a mere list of the names of the samans [hymns of the Samaveda ] occurring in the first two ganas [of
23881-562: The role of language, the ontological status of painting word-images through sound, and the need for rules so that it can serve as a means for a community of speakers, separated by geography or time, to share and understand profound ideas from each other. These speculations became particularly important to the Mīmāṃsā and the Nyaya schools of Hindu philosophy, and later to Vedanta and Mahayana Buddhism, states Frits Staal —a scholar of Linguistics with
24048-472: The sacred verses for chanting at the sacrifices , the sacrificial formulas [is] called Mantra ... The Brahmanam [part] always presupposes the Mantra; for without the latter it would have no meaning... [they contain] speculations on the meaning of the mantras, gives precepts for their application, relates stories of their origin... and explains the secret meaning of the latter'. J. Eggeling states that 'While
24215-496: The same relationship to Sanskrit as medieval Italian does to Latin". The Indian tradition states that the Buddha and the Mahavira preferred the Prakrit language so that everyone could understand it. However, scholars such as Dundas have questioned this hypothesis. They state that there is no evidence for this and whatever evidence is available suggests that by the start of the common era, hardly anybody other than learned monks had
24382-402: The same work referred to by different names. The sun does never set nor rise. When people think the sun is setting (it is not so). For, after having arrived at the end of the day, it makes itself produce two opposite effects, making night to what is below and day to what is on the other side...Having reached the end of the night, it makes itself produce two opposite effects, making day to what
24549-556: The semi-nomadic Aryans . The Vedic Sanskrit language or a closely related Indo-European variant was recognized beyond ancient India as evidenced by the " Mitanni Treaty" between the ancient Hittite and Mitanni people, carved into a rock, in a region that now includes parts of Syria and Turkey. Parts of this treaty, such as the names of the Mitanni princes and technical terms related to horse training, for reasons not understood, are in early forms of Vedic Sanskrit. The treaty also invokes
24716-406: The seven tongues of Agni as kālī , karālī , manojavā , sulohita , sudhāmravarṇā , sphuliṅginī, visvarucī . Vedic rituals involve Agni. He is a part of many Hindu rites-of-passage ceremonies such as celebrating a birth (lighting a lamp), prayers (aarti lamp), at weddings (the yajna where the bride and groom circle the fire seven times) and at death (cremation). According to Atharvaveda , it
24883-476: The sky as the sun. This triple presence accords him as the messenger between the deities and humans in the Vedic scriptures. The relative importance of Agni declined in the post-Vedic era, as he was internalised and his identity evolved to metaphorically represent all transformative energy and knowledge in the Upanishads and later Hindu literature. Agni remains an integral part of Hindu traditions, such as being
25050-615: The social structures such as the role of the poet and the priests, the patronage economy, the phrasal equations, and some of the poetic metres. While there are similarities, state Jamison and Brereton, there are also differences between Vedic Sanskrit, the Old Avestan, and the Mycenaean Greek literature. For example, unlike the Sanskrit similes in the Ṛg-veda, the Old Avestan Gathas lack simile entirely, and it
25217-500: The southeast corners of a Hindu temple. However, in rare temples where Agni is envisioned as a presiding astrological divinity, according to texts such as the Samarangana Sutradhara , he is assigned the northeast corner. Agni is historically considered to be present in every grihastha (home), and therein presented in one of three forms – gārhapatya (for general domestic usage), āhavaniya (for inviting and welcoming
25384-486: The symbolic importance of sacred words and ritual actions. Academics such as P. Alper, K. Klostermaier and F.M, Muller state that these instructions insist on exact pronunciation (accent), chhandas (छन्दः, meters), precise pitch, with coordinated movement of hand and fingers – that is, perfect delivery. Klostermaier adds that the Satapatha Brahamana , for example, states that verbal perfection made
25551-730: The temple of a living body with Agni as the eyes. Agni is mentioned in many minor Upanishads, such as the Pranagnihotra Upanishad , the Yogatattva Upanishad , the Yogashikha Upanishad , the Trishikhibrahmana Upanishad and others. The syncretic and monistic Shaivism and Shaktism text, namely Rudrahridaya Upanishad states that Shiva is same as Agni, and Parvati is same as Svaha. Mundaka Upanishad (2.4) mentioned
25718-653: The turn of the 1st-millennium CE, it has been written in various Brahmic scripts , and in the modern era most commonly in Devanagari . Sanskrit's status, function, and place in India's cultural heritage are recognized by its inclusion in the Constitution of India 's Eighth Schedule languages . However, despite attempts at revival, there are no first-language speakers of Sanskrit in India. In each of India's recent decennial censuses, several thousand citizens have reported Sanskrit to be their mother tongue, but
25885-569: The universal reality, for a communion with the Purusha , which is the Ātman . Sections 3 and 4 of Kena Upanishad , another major ancient Upanishad, presents a story which includes gods Agni, Vayu , Indra and goddess Parvati . After a battle between good deities and evil demons, where the deities kill all the demons and win, the deities wonder, "what is this Brahman, a wonderful being?" Agni goes first to find out, but fails. Vayu too goes to find out and fails. Then Indra tries and fails, but meets
26052-415: The universe. In the Upanishads and post-Vedic literature, Agni additionally became a metaphor for immortal principle in humans, and any energy or knowledge that consumes and dispels a state of darkness, transforms and procreates an enlightened state of existence. Agni is also famously known as: Other names include Śikhī, Pingesa, Plavanga, Bhūritejaḥ, Rudragarva, Hiraṇyakṛta. There are many theories about
26219-408: The variants in the usage of Sanskrit in different regions of India. The ten Vedic scholars he quotes are Āpiśali, Kaśyapa , Gārgya, Gālava, Cakravarmaṇa, Bhāradvāja , Śākaṭāyana, Śākalya, Senaka and Sphoṭāyana. In the Aṣṭādhyāyī , language is observed in a manner that has no parallel among Greek or Latin grammarians. Pāṇini's grammar, according to Renou and Filliozat, is a classic that defines
26386-564: The vernacular Prakrits. Many Sanskrit dramas indicate that the language coexisted with the vernacular Prakrits. The cities of Varanasi , Paithan , Pune and Kanchipuram were centers of classical Sanskrit learning and public debates until the arrival of the colonial era. According to Lamotte , Sanskrit became the dominant literary and inscriptional language because of its precision in communication. It was, states Lamotte, an ideal instrument for presenting ideas, and as knowledge in Sanskrit multiplied, so did its spread and influence. Sanskrit
26553-439: The word 'Brahmana' include: R. Dalal states that the 'Brahmanas are texts attached to the Samhitas [hymns] – Rig , Sama , Yajur and Atharva Vedas – and provide explanations of these and guidance for the priests in sacrificial rituals'. S. Shri elaborates, stating 'Brahmanas explain the hymns of the Samhitas and are in both prose and verse form... The Brahmanas are divided into Vidhi and Arthavada. Vidhi are commands in
26720-502: The Ṛg-veda is distinctly more archaic than other Vedic texts, and in many respects, the Rigvedic language is notably more similar to those found in the archaic texts of Old Avestan Zoroastrian Gathas and Homer's Iliad and Odyssey . According to Stephanie W. Jamison and Joel P. Brereton – Indologists known for their translation of the Ṛg-veda – the Vedic Sanskrit literature "clearly inherited" from Indo-Iranian and Indo-European times
26887-408: Was a spoken language ( bhasha ) used by the cultured and educated. Some sutras expound upon the variant forms of spoken Sanskrit versus written Sanskrit. Chinese Buddhist pilgrim Xuanzang mentioned in his memoir that official philosophical debates in India were held in Sanskrit, not in the vernacular language of that region. According to Sanskrit linguist professor Madhav Deshpande, Sanskrit
27054-427: Was a spoken language in a colloquial form by the mid-1st millennium BCE which coexisted with a more formal, grammatically correct form of literary Sanskrit. This, states Deshpande, is true for modern languages where colloquial incorrect approximations and dialects of a language are spoken and understood, along with more "refined, sophisticated and grammatically accurate" forms of the same language being found in
27221-472: Was adopted voluntarily as a vehicle of high culture, arts, and profound ideas. Pollock disagrees with Lamotte, but concurs that Sanskrit's influence grew into what he terms a "Sanskrit Cosmopolis" over a region that included all of South Asia and much of southeast Asia. The Sanskrit language cosmopolis thrived beyond India between 300 and 1300 CE. Today, it is believed that Kashmiri is the closest language to Sanskrit. Reinöhl mentions that not only have
27388-738: Was also the language of some of the oldest surviving, authoritative and much followed philosophical works of Jainism such as the Tattvartha Sutra by Umaswati . The Sanskrit language has been one of the major means for the transmission of knowledge and ideas in Asian history. Indian texts in Sanskrit were already in China by 402 CE, carried by the influential Buddhist pilgrim Faxian who translated them into Chinese by 418 CE. Xuanzang , another Chinese Buddhist pilgrim, learnt Sanskrit in India and carried 657 Sanskrit texts to China in
27555-431: Was born. Offended by Agni, Bhṛgu had cursed Agni to become the devourer of all things on this earth, but Brahma modified that curse and made Agni the purifier of all things he touched. In the "Khāṇḍava-daha Parva" ( Mahābhārata CCXXV), Agni in disguise approaches Krishna and Arjuna seeking sufficient food for gratification of his hunger; and on being asked about the kind of food which would gratify, Agni expressed
27722-578: Was tested by Agni assuming the form of a pigeon and by Indra assuming the form of a hawk; Shibi offered his own flesh to the hawk in exchange of pigeon's life. The pigeon which had sought Shibi's shelter was thus saved by the king's sacrifice from the hawk and then, Indra and Agni restore Shibi to his intact state and bless him to live happily then. Sanskrit language Sanskrit ( / ˈ s æ n s k r ɪ t / ; attributively 𑀲𑀁𑀲𑁆𑀓𑀾𑀢𑀁 , संस्कृत- , saṃskṛta- ; nominally संस्कृतम् , saṃskṛtam , IPA: [ˈsɐ̃skr̩tɐm] )
27889-442: Was visualized as "pervading all creation", another representation of the world itself; the "mysterious magnum" of Hindu thought. The search for perfection in thought and the goal of liberation were among the dimensions of sacred sound, and the common thread that wove all ideas and inspirations together became the quest for what the ancient Indians believed to be a perfect language, the "phonocentric episteme" of Sanskrit. Sanskrit as
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