Traditional
148-633: Asuras ( Sanskrit : असुर ) are a class of beings in Indian religions . They are described as power-seeking beings related to the more benevolent Devas (also known as Suras) in Hinduism . In its Buddhist context, the word is translated as " titan " or " antigod ". According to Hindu texts , the asuras are in constant fear of the devas. Asuras are described in Indian texts as powerful superhuman demigods with good or bad qualities. In early Vedic literature,
296-634: A Pasha (noose, rope loop) and a pitcher in his hands. He has multiple wives and fathered many children, including the Vedic sage Vasishtha . He is also mentioned in the Tamil grammar work Tolkāppiyam , as Kadalon the god of sea and rain. He is found in Japanese Buddhist mythology as Suiten . He is also found in Jainism . In Hindu tradition, the theonym Váruṇa ( Devanagari : वरुण )
444-557: A realm of rebirth based on one's karma in current or past lives. They are described in Buddhist texts as creatures who live in lower levels of mount Sumeru, obsessed with sensuous aspects of existence, living with jealousy, and endlessly engaged in wars against the creatures who are Devas (gods). As Buddhism spread into East Asia and Southeast Asia, the Asura concept of Indian Buddhism expanded and integrated local pre-existing deities as
592-411: A bridge and cross over to Lanka. Although, most of the sources claim it was Samudra , the god of the oceans who met Rama not the water god Varuna. The Tolkāppiyam , a Tamil grammar work from the 3rd century BCE divides the people of ancient Tamilakam into five Sangam landscape divisions: kurinji, mullai, paalai, marutham and neithal . Each landscape is designated with different gods. Neithal
740-560: A count of the word use for every Vedic deity: Asura is used as an adjective meaning "powerful" or "mighty". In the Rig Veda , two generous kings – as well as some priests – have been described as asuras . One hymn requests a son who is an asura . In nine hymns, Indra is described as asura . He is said to possess asurya 5 times, and once he is said to possess asuratva . Agni has total of 12 asura descriptions, Varuna has 10, Mitra has 8, and Rudra has 6. Book 1 of
888-426: 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." Varuna Traditional Varuna ( / ˈ v ɜːr ʊ n ə , ˈ v ɑː r ə -/ ; Sanskrit : वरुण , IAST : Varuṇa ) is a Hindu god , associated with
1036-433: 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
1184-427: A host of parallels such as Inmar-Indra, Sampas-Stambha and many other elements of respective mythologies. In the earliest Vedic literature, all supernatural beings are called Devas and Asuras. A much-studied hymn of the Rig Veda states Devav asura (Asuras who have become Devas), and contrasts it with Asura adevah (Asuras who are not Devas). Each Asura and Deva emerges from the same father ( Prajapati ), share
1332-538: 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
1480-658: 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
1628-589: A much more pleasurable life than humans, but they are plagued by envy for the devas, whom they can see just as animals perceive humans. Edelmann and other scholars state that the dualistic concept of Asura and Deva in Hinduism is a form of symbolism found throughout its ancient and medieval literature. In the Upanishads , for example, Devas and Asuras go to Prajāpati to understand what is Self (Atman, soul) and how to realize it. The first answer that Prajāpati gives
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#17327731130911776-454: 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
1924-479: 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
2072-546: 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
2220-406: A part of regional Buddhist pantheon. The asura realm is one of the realms in which one can be reborn as a result of experiencing the fruits of wholesome karma, while engaging in unwholesome karma. Generally, the desire realm is recognized as consisting of five realms and the realm of the asuras tends to be included among the deva realms, but the addition of the asuras in the six-world bhavacakra
2368-578: 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
2516-486: 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
2664-439: 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
2812-539: A special group of gods in one of major Vedic theories of creation of the universe. Their role changes only during and after the earth, sky and living beings have been created. The sky world becomes that of Devas , the underworld becomes that of Asuras . The god Indra is the embodiment of good and represents the Devas, while the dragon Vrtra is the embodiment of evil and an Asura. During this battle between good and evil, creation and destruction, some powerful Asuras side with
2960-542: A warrior and old man who preached and reprimanded Mirkhshah that Muslims and Hindus deserve the same religious freedoms. He, as Jhulelal, became the saviour of the Sindhi Hindus, who according to this legend, celebrate the new year as Uderolal's birthday. Chalio or Chaliho, also called Chaliho Sahib, is a forty-day-long festival celebrated by Sindhi Hindus to express their gratitude to Jhulelal for saving them from their impending conversion to Islam. The festival
3108-599: A warrior caste who contributed as army and navy soldiers of Tamil kings. They were noted as the army generals and navy captains of the Aryacakravarti dynasty. The Karaiyars emerged in the 1990s as strong representatives of Sri Lankan Tamil nationalism. The nuclear leadership of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam have background in the wealthier enterprising section of the Karaiyars. The word "Karaiyar"
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#17327731130913256-423: Is Deva-like or Asura-like. Asuri is the feminine of an adjective from asura and in later texts means 'belonging to or having to do with demons and spirits'. Asuri parallels Asura in being "powerful beings", and in early Vedic texts includes all goddesses. The term Asuri also means a Rakshasi in Indian texts. The powers of an Asuri are projected into plants offering a remedy against leprosy . First, before all,
3404-711: 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
3552-683: Is a presumption of Kuiper. Many scholars describe Asuras to be "lords" with different specialized knowledge, magical powers and special abilities, which only later choose to deploy these for good, constructive reasons or for evil, destructive reasons. The former become known as Asura in the sense of Devas , the later as Asura in the sense of demons. Kuiper, Brown, Otto and others are in this school; however, none of them provide an explanation and how, when and why Asura came ultimately to mean demon. Asuras are non-believers of God and believe in their own powers. Ananda Coomaraswamy suggested that Devas and Asuras can be best understood as being similar in concept to
3700-709: Is a reference to their maritime origin. Varuna is the god of sea and rain, mentioned in Vedic Literature , but also in Sangam literature as the principal deity of the Neithal Sangam landscape (i.e. littoral landscape). Arasakulam means "clan of kings". They used the Makara as emblem, the mount of their clan deity, the sea god Varuna, which was also seen on their flags. Jhulelal is believed by Sindhi Hindus to be an incarnation of Varuna. They celebrate
3848-464: 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
3996-441: Is an abhichara (craft) which contains various rites derived from special knowledge and magic of Asuri. Asuras ( Classical Tibetan : ལྷ་མིན , romanized: lha min ; simplified Chinese : 阿修罗 ; traditional Chinese : 阿修羅 ; pinyin : āxiūluó ; Japanese : 阿修羅 , romanized : ashura, asura ) are a type of supernatural beings (antigods, demigods, or titans) in traditional Buddhist cosmology and
4144-461: Is derived from the Tamil language words karai ("coast" or "shore") and yar ("people"). The term Kareoi mentioned by 2nd century CE writer Ptolemy , is identified with the Tamil word "Karaiyar". The Portuguese and Dutch sources mentions them under the term Careas , Careaz , or Carias, which are terms denoting "Karaiyar". Kurukulam , Varunakulam and Arasakulam were historically one of
4292-419: Is described as a derivation from the verbal root vṛ ("to surround, to cover" or "to restrain, bind") by means of a suffixal -uṇa- , for an interpretation of the name as "he who covers or binds", in reference to the cosmological ocean or river encircling the world, but also in reference to the "binding" by universal law or Ṛta . Georges Dumézil (1934) made a cautious case for the identity of Varuna and
4440-534: Is described as a seashore landscape occupied by fishermen and seatraders, with the god of sea and rain, Varunan or Kadalōn . "Varuna" means water which denotes the ocean in the Tamil language. The Cheti Chand festival in the Hindu month of Chaitra marks the arrival of spring and harvest, but in Sindhi Hindu community, it also marks the mythical birth of Uderolal in the year 1007. Uderolal morphed into
4588-708: Is equal in age and glory (vanna) with Sakka and takes the third seat in the assembly of devas. In East Asian Buddhism , Varuna is a dharmapāla and often classed as one of the Twelve Devas (Japanese: Jūniten , 十二天). He presides over the western direction. In Japan, he is called "Suiten" (水天 lit. "water deva "). He is included with the other eleven devas, which include Taishakuten ( Śakra/Indra ), Fūten ( Vāyu ), Emmaten ( Yama ), Rasetsuten ( Nirṛti / Rākṣasa ), Ishanaten ( Īśāna ), Bishamonten ( Vaiśravaṇa/Kubera ), Katen ( Agni ), Bonten ( Brahmā ), Jiten ( Pṛthivī ), Nitten ( Sūrya/Āditya ), and Gatten ( Chandra ). Varuna
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4736-452: 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
4884-456: Is in these anuvakas that sage Varuni advises Bhrigu with one of the oft-cited definition of Brahman, as "that from which beings originate, through which they live, and in which they re-enter after death, explore that because that is Brahman". This thematic, all encompassing, eternal nature of reality and existence develops as the basis for Bhrigu's emphasis on introspection, to help peel off the outer husks of knowledge, in order to reach and realize
5032-695: Is observed every year in the months of July to August; dates vary according to the Hindu calendar . It is a thanksgiving celebration in honor of Varuna Deva for listening to their prayers. Nārali Poornima is a ceremonial day observed by Hindu fishing communities in Maharashtra , India particularly around Mumbai and the Konkan coast . It is held on the full-moon day of the Hindu month of Shravan which falls around July or August. On this day offerings such as rice, flowers and coconuts are offered to Lord Varuna,
5180-708: Is only when they turn to lust, hate, cravings, arrogance, conceit, anger, harshness, hypocrisy, cruelty and such negativity- and destruction-inclined that natural human inclinations metamorphose into something demonic (Asura). In the Brahmanda Purana , it is stated the term 'Asura' was used for the Daityas due to their rejection of Varuni (Goddess of Wine) after she emerged from the Ocean of Milk (i.e. 'a-sura', meaning 'those who do not have Sura' , that is, 'wine' or more generally 'liquor'). However, in other legends,
5328-532: 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
5476-544: Is simplistic, which the Asuras accept and leave with, but the Devas led by Indra do not accept and question because Indra finds that he hasn't grasped its full significance and the given answer has inconsistencies. Edelmann states that this symbolism embedded in the Upanishads is a reminder that one must struggle with presented ideas, learning is a process, and Deva nature emerges with effort. Similar dichotomies are present in
5624-498: Is stated to be mother of all gods. In Yajurveda it is said: "In fact Varuna is Vishnu and Vishnu is Varuna and hence the auspicious offering is to be made to these deities." || 8.59 || Varuna, addressed as Varuni explained Brahman in Taittiriya Upanishad to sage Bhrigu . First six anuvakas of Bhrigu Valli are called Bhargavi Varuni Vidya , which means "the knowledge Bhrigu got from (his father) Varuni". It
5772-511: Is stipulated for a woman as a charm to win over the lover she wants. I dig this Healing Herb that makes my lover look on me and weep, That bids the parting friend return and kindly greets him as he comes. This Herb wherewith the Asuri drew Indra downward from the Gods, With this same Herb I draw thee close that I may be most dear to thee. Thou art the peer of Soma, yea, thou art the equal of
5920-479: 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,
6068-589: 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
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6216-540: 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
6364-576: The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (~800 BCE), for example, he is stated to be the god of the western quarter, but one who is founded on "water" and dependent ultimately on "the heart" and the fire of soul. In the Katha Upanishad , Aditi is identified to be same as the goddess earth. She is stated in the Vedic texts to be the mother of Varuna and Mitra along with other Vedic gods, and in later Hindu mythology she as mother earth
6512-472: The Assyrian deity Ashur . Some scholars such as Asko Parpola suggest that the word Asura may be related to proto-Uralic and proto-Germanic history. The Aesir-Asura correspondence is the relation between Vedic Sanskrit Asura and Old Norse Æsir and Proto-Uralic * asera , all of which mean 'lord, powerful spirit, god'. Parpola states that the correspondence extends beyond Asera / Asura, and extends to
6660-518: The Asuras are "evil spirits, demons and opponents of the gods". Asuras connote the chaos-creating evil, in Indo-Iranian mythology about the battle between good and evil. According to Finnish Indologist Asko Parpola , the word Asura was borrowed from Proto-Indo-Aryan into Proto-Uralic during an early period of contact, in the form *asera-, showing a meaning "lord, prince". Bhargava states
6808-580: 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
6956-613: 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
7104-705: The Puranas literature of Hinduism, where god Indra (a Deva) and the antigod Virocana (an Asura) question a sage for insights into the knowledge of the self. Virocana leaves with the first given answer, believing now he can use the knowledge as a weapon. In contrast, Indra keeps pressing the sage, churning the ideas, and learning about means to inner happiness and power. Edelmann suggests that the Deva-Asura dichotomies in Hindu mythology may be seen as "narrative depictions of tendencies within our selves". The god (Deva) and antigod (Asura), states Edelmann, are also symbolically
7252-622: The Rig Veda describes Savitr (Vedic solar deity) as an asura who is a "kind leader". हिरण्यहस्तो असुरः सुनीथः सुमृळीकः स्ववाँ यात्वर्वाङ् । अपसेधन्रक्षसो यातुधानानस्थाद्देवः प्रतिदोषं गृणानः ॥१०॥ May he, gold-handed Asura , kind leader, come hither to us with his help and favour. Driving off Raksasas and Yatudhanas , [he] the god is present, praised in hymns at evening. – Translated by Ralph Griffith The golden-handed lord of good guidance, of good grace, of good help—let him drive in our direction. Repelling demons and sorcerers,
7400-753: 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
7548-532: 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 ,
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#17327731130917696-531: 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
7844-488: The Twelve Olympians and the titans of Greek mythology: Both are powerful, but have different orientations and inclinations – in Hindu mythology the Devas represent the powers of light and the Asuras represent the powers of darkness. According to Coomaraswamy (1935) , p. 374 "the titan [Asura] is potentially an angel [Deva], the angel still by nature a titan" in Hinduism. In the 19th century, Haug pioneered
7992-408: The god of the sky . Varuna and Mitra are the gods of the societal affairs including the oath , and are often twinned Mitra-Varuna . Both Mitra and Varuna are classified as Asuras in the Rigveda (e.g. RV 5 .63.3), although they are also addressed as Devas as well (e.g. RV 7 .60.12). Varuna, being the king of the Asuras, was adopted or made the change to a Deva after the structuring of
8140-406: 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
8288-500: 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
8436-424: The "Asuras who remain Asuras" question, challenge, and attack the "Asuras who became Devas" to loot or extract a portion of what the Devas have and the Asuras do not. The hostility between the two groups is the source of extensive legends, tales, and literature in Hinduism; however, many texts discuss their hostility in neutral terms – without explicit moral connotations or condemnation. Some of these tales constitute
8584-414: 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
8732-532: 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
8880-780: The Asuras accept Varuni (see Kurma ). According to the Vishnu Purana, during the Samudra Manthana or the "churning of the ocean", the daityas came to be known as asuras because they rejected Varuni , the goddess of sura "wine", while the devas accepted her and came to be known as suras. Alain Daniélou states that Asuras were initially good, virtuous and powerful in Indian mythology. However, their nature gradually changed and they came to represent evil, vice and abuse of power. In Shiva Purana, they evolved into anti-gods and had to be destroyed because they threatened
9028-654: The Asuras are broken into different tribes or factions. In Pali texts, names that are found include Vepacitti , Rāhu ( Verocana ), Pahārāda , Sambara , Bali , Sucitti , and Namucī . According to the Lotus Sutra , the four leaders of the asuras took refuge in the Buddha after hearing his sermon. Sanskrit language Sanskrit ( / ˈ s æ n s k r ɪ t / ; attributively 𑀲𑀁𑀲𑁆𑀓𑀾𑀢𑀁 , संस्कृत- , saṃskṛta- ; nominally संस्कृतम् , saṃskṛtam , IPA: [ˈsɐ̃skr̩tɐm] )
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#17327731130919176-425: 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
9324-532: 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
9472-521: 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
9620-699: The Greek god Ouranos at the earliest Indo-European cultural level. The etymological identification of the name Ouranos with the Sanskrit Varuṇa is based in the derivation of both names from the PIE root *ŭer with a sense of "binding" – the Indic king-god Varuṇa binds the wicked, the Greek king-god Ouranos binds the Cyclopes. This derivation of the Greek name is now widely rejected in favour of derivation from
9768-497: The Hindu pantheon, and Rudra-Shiva became both "timeless and the god of time". In Vajasaneyi Samhita 21.40 ( Yajurveda ), Varuna is called the patron deity of physicians, one who has "a hundred, a thousand remedies". His capacity and association with "all comprehensive knowledge" is also found in the Atharvaveda (~1000 BCE). Varuna also finds a mention in the early Upanishads , where his role evolves. In verse 3.9.26 of
9916-476: 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
10064-519: 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
10212-532: 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
10360-496: 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
10508-499: 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
10656-638: 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
10804-610: The Sun, The peer of all the Gods art thou: therefore we call thee hitherward. I am the speaker here, not thou: speak thou where the assembly meets. Thou shalt be mine and only mine, and never mention other dames. If thou art far away beyond the rivers, far away from men, This Herb shall seem to bind thee fast and bring thee back my prisoner. Similarly, in the Atharva Veda, all sorts of medical remedies and charms are projected as Asuri manifested in plants and animals. Asuri Kalpa
10952-492: The Vedas. Rig veda 10.123 says Hiranyapaksha (golden winged bird) as the messenger of Varuna. The golden winged messenger bird of Varuna may not be a mythical one but most probably flamingos because they have colourful wings and the sukta further describes Vulture as the messenger of Yama, the beaks of both these birds have similar morphology and flamingos are seen nearby seashores and marshlands. The Rigveda also features him as
11100-447: 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
11248-451: 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
11396-476: The Vedic texts (Varuna later gets associated with west), both can be offered "injured, ill offerings", all of which suggest that Varuna may have been conceptually overlapping with Rudra. Further, the Rigvedic hymn 5.70 calls Mitra-Varuna pair as rudra , states Srinivasan. According to Samuel Macey and other scholars, Varuna had been the more ancient Indo-Aryan deity in 2nd millennium BCE, who gave way to Rudra in
11544-459: 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
11692-641: The background of major Hindu Epics and annual festivals, such as the story of Asura Ravana and Deva Rama in the Ramayana , and the legend of Asura Hiranyakashipu and Deva Vishnu as Narasimha , the latter celebrated with the Hindu spring festival of Holika and Holi . In Buddhist mythology, while all the gods of the Kāmadhātu are subject to passions to some degree, the asuras above all are addicted to them, especially wrath, pride, envy, insincerity, falseness, boasting, and bellicosity. The asuras are said to experience
11840-468: The bad in pre- Zoroastrianism , while Deva evolves to represent the good in Vedic religion. These contrary roles have led some scholars to infer that there may have been wars between proto-Indo-European communities, and that adapted their gods and demons to reflect their social differences. This idea was thoroughly researched and reviewed by Peter von Bradke in 1885. The relationship between ahura s / asura s and daeva s / deva s in Indo-Aryan times,
11988-458: The battle against the Asuras , the devas of Tāvatiṃsa were asked to look upon the banner of Varuna in order to have all their fears dispelled (S.i.219). The Tevijja Sutta mentions him among Indra , Soma , Isāna , Pajāpati , Yama and Mahiddhi as gods that are invoked by the brahmins . The Ātānātiya Sutta lists him among the Yakkha chiefs. Buddhaghosa states (SA.i.262) that Varuna
12136-440: 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
12284-527: 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
12432-559: 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
12580-476: The contradictory forces that motivate each individual and people, and thus Deva-Asura dichotomy is a spiritual concept rather than mere genealogical category or species of being. In the Bhāgavata Purana, saints and gods are born in families of Asuras, such as Mahabali and Prahlada , conveying the symbolism that motivations, beliefs and actions rather than one's birth and family circumstances define whether one
12728-601: 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
12876-1042: The demons, spirits, and ghosts worshipped by the enemies of Vedic people, and this created the myths of the malevolent asuras and the rakshasa . The allusions to the disastrous wars between the asuras and the suras , found in the Puranas and the epics, may be the conflict faced by people and migrants into ancient India. Scholars have disagreed on the nature and evolution of the Asura concept in ancient Indian literature. The most widely studied scholarly views on Asura concept are those of F.B.J. Kuiper , W. Norman Brown, Haug, von Bradke, Otto, Benveniste, Konow, Rajwade, Dandekar, Darmesteter, Bhandarkar, and Raja, Banerji-Sastri, Padmanabhayya, Skoeld, S.C. Roy, Kumaraswamy, Shamasastry , Przyluski, Schroeder, Burrows, Hillebrandt, Taraporewala, Lommel, Fausboll, Segerstedt, Thieme, Gerschevitch, Boyce, Macdonnell, Hermann Oldenberg , Geldner, Venkatesvaran, and Jan Gonda . Kuiper calls Asuras
13024-467: 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
13172-471: 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
13320-460: 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
13468-490: 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
13616-521: The etymological roots of asura ( असुर ) to asu ( असु ), which means 'life of the spiritual world' or 'departed spirits'. In the oldest verses of the Samhita layer of Vedic texts, the Asuras are any spiritual, divine beings including those with good or bad intentions, and constructive or destructive inclinations or nature. In later verses of the Samhita layer of Vedic texts, Monier Williams states
13764-458: The festival of Cheti Chand in his honor. The festival marks the arrival of spring and harvest, but in Sindhi community it also marks the birth of Uderolal in year 1007, after they prayed to Hindu god Varuna to save them from the persecution by tyrannical Muslim ruler named Mirkhshah. Uderolal morphed into a warrior and old man who preached and reprimanded Mirkhshah that Muslims and Hindus deserve
13912-548: 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
14060-412: 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
14208-503: The fourth morning, enraged. He states to his brother Lakshamana that "even lords of the elements listen only to violence, Varuna does not respect gentleness, and peaceful prayers go unheard". With his bow and arrow, Rama prepares to attack the oceans to dry up the waters and create a bed of sand for his army of monkeys to cross and thus confront Ravana. Lakshmana appeals to Rama, translates Menon, that he should return to "peaceful paths of our fathers, you can win this war without laying waste
14356-608: The god has taken his place facing evening, while being hymned. – Translated by Stephanie W. Jamison, Joel P. Brereton In the Jaiminya (3.35.3), one of three recensions of the SamaVeda , the term 'Asura' is stated to be derived from 'rests' (√ram) in the vital airs (asu), i.e. 'Asu' + 'ram' = 'Asuram' (Asura); this is in reference to the mind being 'asura[-like]'. According to the Bhagavad Gita (16.6-16.7), all beings in
14504-626: The god of ocean and waters. Karaiyar is a Sri Lankan Tamil caste found mainly on the northern and eastern coastal areas of Sri Lanka, and globally among the Tamil diaspora. They are traditionally a seafaring community that is engaged in fishing, shipment and seaborne trade. They fish mostly in deep seas, and employ gillnet and seine fishing methods. The Karaiyars were the major maritime traders and boat owners who among other things, traded with pearls, chanks, tobacco, and shipped goods overseas to countries such as India, Myanmar and Indonesia. The community known for their maritime history, are also reputed as
14652-537: 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
14800-484: The gods". Asuras are part of Hinduism along with Yakshas (nature spirits), Rakshasas (fierce man-eating beings or demons), Bhutas (ghosts) and many more . Asuras have been featured in many cosmological theories and legends in Hinduism and Buddhism . Asura is a given name by Devas to other races collectively as Asura means not-sura , where sura is another name for Devas. The 5th century Buddhist philosopher, Buddhaghosa explains that their name derives from
14948-454: The gods. The asuras (anti-gods) were depicted to have become proud, vain, to have stopped performing sacrifices, to violate sacred laws, not visit holy places, not cleanse themselves from sin, to be envious of devas, torturous of living beings, creating confusion in everything and challenging the devas. Alain Daniélou states that the concept of asuras evolved with changing socio-political dynamics in ancient India. Asuras gradually assimilated
15096-515: The good Asuras are called Adityas and are led by Varuna , while the malevolent ones are called Danavas and are led by Vritra . In the earliest layer of Vedic texts, Agni , Indra and other gods are also called Asuras, in the sense of their being "lords" of their respective domains, knowledge and abilities. In later Vedic and post-Vedic texts, the benevolent gods are called Devas , while malevolent Asuras compete against these Devas and are considered "enemy of
15244-543: The good and are called Devas, other powerful Asuras side with the evil and thereafter called Asuras. This is the first major dualism to emerge in the nature of everything in the Universe. Hale (1999) , in his review, states that Kuiper's theory on Asura is plausible, but weak, because the Vedas never call Vrtra (the central character) an Asura , as the texts describe many other powerful beings. Secondly, Rig Veda never classifies Asura as "group of gods" states Hale, and this
15392-431: 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
15540-512: The idea that the term Asura is linguistically related to the Ahuras of Indo-Aryan people and pre- Zoroastrianism era. In both religions, Ahura of pre-Zoroastrianism ( Asura of Indian religions), Vouruna (Varuna) and Daeva ( Deva ) are found, but their roles are on opposite sides. That is, Ahura evolves to represent the good in pre- Zoroastrianism , while Asura evolves to represent the bad in Vedic religion; where Daeva evolves to represent
15688-519: The innermost kernel of spiritual Self-knowledge. Rama interacts with Varuna in the Hindu epic Ramayana . For example, faced with the dilemma of how to cross the ocean to Lanka , where his abducted wife Sita is held captive by the demon king Ravana , Rama (an Avatar of Vishnu ) performs a pravpavesha (prayer, tapasya ) to Varuna, the Lord of Oceans, for three days and three nights, states Ramesh Menon. Varuna does not respond, and Rama arises on
15836-486: 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
15984-432: 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
16132-412: 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
16280-514: 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 ,
16428-511: 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
16576-429: 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
16724-401: 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
16872-602: 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
17020-467: The myth of their defeat at the hands of the god Śakra . According to the story, the asura were dispossessed of their state in Trāyastriṃśa because they became drunk and were thrown down Mount Sumeru . After this incident, they vowed never to drink sura again. In some Buddhist literature, they are sometimes referred to as pūrvadeva (Pāli: pubbadeva ), meaning "ancient gods." Monier-Williams traces
17168-545: 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,
17316-403: 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
17464-431: 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
17612-414: 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
17760-439: 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
17908-404: The primordial cosmos, imposed by Indra after he defeats Vritra . According to Doris Srinivasan , a professor of Indology focusing on religion, Varuna-Mitra pair is an ambiguous deity just like Rudra - Shiva pair. Both have wrathful-gracious aspects in Indian mythology. Both Varuna and Rudra are synonymous with "all comprehensive sight, knowledge", both were the guardian deity of the north in
18056-480: 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
18204-609: 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
18352-497: 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,
18500-562: 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
18648-459: The root * wers- "to moisten, drip" (Sanskrit vṛṣ "to rain, pour"). In the earliest layer of the Rigveda , Varuna is the guardian of moral law, one who punishes those who sin without remorse, and who forgives those who err with remorse. He is mentioned in many Rigvedic hymns, such as 7.86–88, 1.25, 2.27–30, 8.8, 9.73 and others. His relationship with waters, rivers and oceans is mentioned in
18796-496: 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
18944-567: The same religious freedoms. He, as Jhulelal, became the champion of the people in Sindh, from both religions. Among his Sufi Muslim followers, Jhulelal is known as "Khwaja Khizir" or "Sheikh Tahit". The Hindu Sindhi, according to this legend, celebrate the new year as Uderolal's birthday. The Pali Canon of the Theravada school recognizes Varuṇa (Sanskrit; Pali: Varuna) as a king of the devas and companion of Sakka , Pajāpati and Isāna . In
19092-619: The same residence ( Loka ), eat together the same food and drinks ( Soma ), and have innate potential, knowledge and special powers in Hindu mythology; the only thing that distinguishes "Asura who become Deva" from "Asura who remain Asura" is intent, action and choices they make in their mythic lives. "Asuras who remain Asura" share the character of powerful beings obsessed with their craving for ill-gotten Soma , and for wealth, ego, anger, unprincipled nature, force, and violence. Further, in Hindu mythology, when they lose, miss, or don't get what they want (because they were distracted by their cravings)
19240-460: The sea". Rama shoots his weapon sending the ocean into flames. As Rama increases the ferocity of his weapons, Varuna arises out of the oceans. He bows to Rama, stating that he himself did not know how to help Rama because the sea is deep, vast and he cannot change the nature of sea. Varuna asked Rama to remember that he is "the soul of peace and love, wrath does not suit him". Varuna promised to Rama that he will not disturb him or his army as they build
19388-556: 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
19536-520: The significant clans of the Karaiyars. Kurukulam, meaning "clan of the Kuru ", may be a reference to their origin from Kurumandalam (meaning "realm of Kuru's") of Southern India . They attribute their origin myth from the Kuru Kingdom , mentioned in the Hindu epic Mahabharata . Some scholars derived Kurukulam from Kuru, the Tamil name for Jupiter . Varunakulam, meaning "clan of Varuna ",
19684-521: The sky, oceans, and water. In the Vedic scriptures , he is paired with the god Mitra and is the lord of Ṛta (justice) and Satya (truth). Varuna is also mentioned as an Aditya , the sons of the goddess Aditi . In the later Hindu texts like the Puranas , Varuna is also a Dikpala or guardian of the western direction. He is depicted as a youthful man, mounted on Makara (crocodile) and holding
19832-615: 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
19980-487: The strong-winged Bird was born, thou wast the gall thereof. Conquered in fight, the Asuri took then the shape and form of plants. The Asuri made, first of all, this medicine for leprosy, this banisher of leprosy. She banished leprosy, and gave one general colour to the skin. In Book 7, Asuri is a powerful female with the special knowledge of herbs, who uses that knowledge to seduce Deva Indra in Atharva Veda. A hymn invokes this special power in Asuri , and this hymn
20128-653: 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
20276-592: The universe have both the divine qualities ( daivi sampad ) and the demonic qualities ( asuri sampad ) within each. The sixteenth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita states that pure god-like saints are rare and pure demon-like evil are rare among human beings, and the bulk of humanity is multi-charactered with a few or many faults. According to Jeaneane Fowler, the Gita states that desires, aversions, greed, needs, emotions in various forms "are facets of ordinary lives", and it
20424-408: 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
20572-564: 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
20720-513: The word, asura , including its variants, asurya and asura , occurs "88 times in the Rig Veda , 71 times in the singular number, 4 times in the dual, 10 times in the plural, and 3 times as the first member of a compound. In this, the feminine form, asuryaa , is included twice. The word, asurya , has been used 19 times as an abstract noun, while the abstract form asuratva occurs 24 times, 22 times in one hymn and twice each in two other hymns". Bhargava gives
20868-446: 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
21016-408: 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
21164-427: 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
21312-472: 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
21460-738: 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
21608-621: Was created in Tibet at the authority of Je Tsongkhapa . The asuras were dispossessed of their state in Trāyastriṃśa because they became drunk and were thrown down Mount Sumeru by the bodhisatta, as mentioned in Jatakas . This led to ever lasting war between the Devas of Tavatimsa and Asuras, which still continues. In Buddhism, the leaders of the asuras are called asurendra (Pāli: Asurinda, 阿修羅王; lit. "Asura-lord"). There are several of these, as
21756-410: Was discussed at length by F.B.J. Kuiper. This theory and other Avesta-related hypotheses developed over the 20th century, are all now in question, particularly for lack of archaeological evidence. Asko Parpola has re-opened this debate by presenting archaeological and linguistic evidence, but notes that the links may go earlier to Uralic languages roots. The Indo-Aryan Asura may also be related to
21904-442: 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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