Namgyal - Misplaced Pages

#461538

116-1802: Namgyal , a Tibetan deity, has been a personal name in several countries; see (inter alia): Literature [ edit ] Dagpo Tashi Namgyal , a 16th-century Tibetan Buddhist scholar of the Dagpo Kagyu lineage Politics [ edit ] Namgyal dynasty (disambiguation) Namgyal dynasty of Sikkim , rulers in Sikkim Namgyal dynasty of Ladakh , rulers in Ladakh Phuntsog Namgyal (disambiguation) Phuntsog Namgyal , first king of Sikkim Palden Thondup Namgyal , last hereditary ruler of Sikkim, husband of Hope Cooke Ngawang Namgyal , founder of Bhutan Tashi Namgyal , ruler of Sikkim from 1914 to 1963 Thutob Namgyal , who transferred Sikkim's capital to Gangtok in 1894 Tshudpud Namgyal , longest-reigning king of Sikkim (from 1793 to 1863); regained independence from Nepal in 1815 Culture [ edit ] Namgyal Institute of Tibetology Namgyal Monastery , any of several Tibetan Buddhist institutions Namgyal Monastery Institute of Buddhist Studies Namgyal Lhamo , exponent of Tibetan singing Tashi Namgyal Academy in Sikkim Sports [ edit ] Namgyal Bhutia , Indian professional footballer Other [ edit ] Namgyal Rinpoche , Karma Tenzin Dorje (1931-2003), born Leslie George Dawson, in Toronto, Canada See also [ edit ] Chogyal ,

232-549: A Dhāraṇī Sūtra . The Dhāraṇī is also personified as a goddess called Uṣṇīṣavijaya , a female Buddhist deity associated with the Buddha's Uṣṇīṣa (a magical topknot or supernatural dome on top of the Buddha's head). The sūtra was translated a total of eight times from Sanskrit to Chinese between 679 and 988 CE. According to one scholar of Esoteric Buddhism (Sorensen), it was the most important esoteric sutra translated in China in

348-483: A discourse on this great Dhāraṇī. The Buddha, aware of Lord Śakra's intention and his eagerness to hear His discourse of this Dhāraṇī, immediately proclaimed the Mantra . Then the Buddha told Lord Śakra, “The Mantra is known as the ‘Purifying All Evil Path Uṣṇīṣa Vijaya Dhāraṇī’. It can eliminate all evil karmic hindrances and eradicate the suffering of all evil paths.” Again the Buddha told Lord Śakra that this great Dhāraṇī

464-433: 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

580-591: 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

696-658: 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

812-454: 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

928-479: 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

1044-546: 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

1160-593: A pure place. According to the Sūtra a devaputra by the name of Suṣṭhita (Supratiṣṭhita) was enjoying the supremely wonderful bliss of heavenly life, but then he suddenly heard a voice in space saying, Devaputra Susthita, you have only seven days left to live. After death, you will be reborn in Jambudvīpa (Earth) as an animal for seven successive lives. Then you will fall into the hells to undergo more sufferings. Only after fulfilling your kārmic retribution will you be reborn in

1276-578: 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

SECTION 10

#1732764752462

1392-538: 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

1508-482: A significant number of stone and mortuary pillars in China engraved with its text. The Uṣṇīṣavijayā-dhāraṇī was initially brought to China in the late sixth century, with additional Sanskrit manuscripts arriving during the seventh century. A series of translations were produced in the late 670s and 680s, motivated in part by attempts to address the health issues of Emperor Gaozong. Notable translators included Divākara and Yijing, with Buddhapālita's translation becoming

1624-439: 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

1740-711: 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

1856-604: Is a prominent goddess in Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism. Her name, "Uṣṇīṣavijayā," translates to "Victorious One of the Uṣṇīṣa," referring to the topknot or cranial protuberance (uṣṇīṣa) that symbolizes spiritual attainment in Buddhist iconography. She is considered a manifestation of the Buddha's wisdom and an emanation of the uṣṇīṣa as a source of protective power. This goddess is associated with long life, purification of karma, and

1972-516: 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

2088-508: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Usnisavijaya The Uṣṇīṣa Vijaya Dhāraṇī ( Sanskrit IAST ; English : Dhāraṇī of the Victorious Uṣṇīṣa, Chinese : 佛頂尊勝陀羅尼經; Pinyin : Fódǐng Zūnshèng Tuóluóní Jīng; Rōmaji : Butsuchō Sonshō Darani Kyō; Vietnamese : Kinh Phật Đảnh Tôn Thắng Đà La Ni ) is a Dhāraṇī (a Buddhist mantric chant, incantation or magical spell) which

2204-452: 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

2320-489: Is frequently recited in ceremonies aimed at healing, protection, and exorcism. In Japan, she is known as Butchō Sonshō (仏頂尊勝), she is revered as a deity of protection and long life. The practice of her dhāraṇī was propagated by Japanese esoteric traditions such as Shingon Buddhism . Since 1571, Namgyälma has been the namesake for Namgyal Monastery , the personal monastery of all the Dalai Lamas since its establishment by

2436-567: Is popular throughout Mahayana Buddhism . The Uṣṇīṣa Vijaya Dhāraṇī is considered a magical incantation in Mahayana Buddhism, seen having the power to destroying delusions, prevent lower rebirths, promoting long life, and promoting rebirth in the pure land of Sukhavati . The dhāraṇī is found in various translations and sources, including in the Uṣṇīṣa Vijaya Dhāraṇī Sūtra , an Indian Mahāyāna Sūtra , specifically

SECTION 20

#1732764752462

2552-589: Is proclaimed together by Buddhas as numerous as grains of sand in eighty-eight koṭis (hundred million) Ganges Rivers . All Buddhas rejoice and uphold this Dhāraṇī that is verified by the wisdom seal of Vairocana Tathāgata. Again the Buddha reminded Lord Śakra to transmit it to Devaputra Suṣṭhita and that he himself should receive and uphold it, recite, contemplate and treasure it, memorize and preserve it. He preached that this Dhāraṇī should be widely proclaimed to all beings in Jambudvīpa and entrusted him to this task for

2668-532: 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

2784-505: Is sometimes used in rituals for the deceased. In Nepalese Newar Buddhism , Uṣṇīṣavijayā dhāraṇī rites are still important and are widely performed. The purpose of this sūtra is said to be to help sentient beings in a troubled and tumultuous world. According to this sūtra, beings will leave suffering and obtain happiness, increase in prosperity and longevity, remove karmic obstacles, eliminate disasters and calamities, remove enmity and hatred, fulfill all wishes, and quickly be led onto

2900-479: 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,

3016-589: 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

3132-540: 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

3248-580: 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

3364-613: 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

3480-753: 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

3596-532: 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 ,

Namgyal - Misplaced Pages Continue

3712-531: 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

3828-601: The Third Dalai Lama, Gyalwa Sonam Gyatso . Namgyälma is a female yidam , or meditational deity, and a long-life deity of the Kriya Tantra class in Tibetan Buddhism. She is typically depicted with a white frontal face, a yellow face on the right, and a blue face on the left. She is seated in a lotus posture, and has eight arms holding various symbolic ritual items in each of her hands. According to

3944-623: The Uṣṇīṣavijayā-dhāraṇī was translated numerous times. The most popular and widespread edition was the one found in the Sūtra on the Superlative Dhāraṇī of the Buddha’s Crown ( Foding zunsheng tuoluoni jing 佛頂尊勝陀羅尼經, T 967), translated by *Buddhapālita (Fotuoboli 佛陁波利, fl. late seventh century) a learned scholar monk from Kashmir. This edition of the dhāraṇī became highly influential, with

4060-406: 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

4176-500: 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

4292-414: 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

4408-532: 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

4524-558: The Blessed One, the Buddha, who is exalted above the three worlds. Thus it is: Oṃ Purify, purify. The unequalled, the all-pervading, the illuminating, the pervading, the profound, the nature, the purified. Consecrate me with the nectar of the excellent words of the Sugata (Well-Gone One), in the ceremony of the immortal anointment. Bring forth, bring forth the elixir of the great mantra , sustaining life. Purify, purify, O one pure like

4640-466: The Buddha and presented their grand offerings. Once they had respectfully circumambulated the Buddha a hundred thousand times and paid homage, then happily took their seats and listened to the Buddha preach the Dharma . The World Honoured One then extended his golden arm and touched Devaputra Suṣṭhita on the head to bestow a prediction of Devaputra Suṣṭhita's attainment of Bodhi . In Chinese Buddhism ,

4756-451: The Buddha's feet, and circumambulated the Buddha seven times clockwise in worship, before laying out his great Pūjā (offerings/obeisances). Kneeling in front of the Buddha, Lord Śakra described the future destiny of Devaputra Suṣṭhita. Instantly, the uṣṇīṣa (crown of the head) of the Tathāgata radiated multiple rays of light, illuminating the world in all ten directions before returning to

Namgyal - Misplaced Pages Continue

4872-448: The Buddha's way. It is held by some that when the dhāraṇī is heard, it can imbue the alaya consciousness with pure seeds that will help lead one to buddhahood . This mantra is also associated with Green Tara . According to the text, major applications of this dhāraṇī include: Some quotes from the sutra text include: Lord of Heaven, if someone hears this Dharani even for just a moment, he will not undergo karmic retribution from

4988-425: 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

5104-532: 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

5220-521: 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

5336-476: 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

5452-519: 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

5568-532: 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

5684-496: 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

5800-585: The One Empowered by the Empowerment of all Buddhas, oṁ O Pure One, O Pure One, O Awakened One, O Awakened One, O Vajra, O Vajra, O Great Vajra, O Vajra-essence, O Victory-essence, O Triumph-essence, O Vajra-flame-essence, O Vajra-born, O Vajra-produced, O Vajra, O the One with a Vajra, let my body become a vajra and that of all beings, let there be body-purification for me and purification of all destinies, O

5916-578: The One Empowered by the Empowerment of the Heart of all Tathāgatas, let all Tathāgatas provide encouragement, oṁ awake awake, succeed succeed, awaken awaken, wake up, wake up, liberate liberate, release release, purge purge, purify purify, liberate completely, O the One Purified by an Enveloping Ray, O the One Empowered by the Empowerment of the Heart of all Tathāgatas, oṁ O Seal O Seal, O Great Seal, O Great Seal and Mantrapada svāhā D.T. Suzuki translated

SECTION 50

#1732764752462

6032-772: The One Purified by the Firmness of the Vajra Body, O the One Purged of all Obscurations Resulting from Actions, turn back for me O Life-purged One, O the One Empowered by the Empowerment of the Vow of all Tathāgatas, oṁ muni muni, mahāmuni, vimuni vimuni, mahāvimuni, mati mati, mahāmati, mamati, sumati, O the One Purified by Truth and the True Goal, O the One Purged by a Burst Open Mind, oṁ he he, triumph triumph, succeed succeed, recollect recollect, manifest manifest, expand expand, O

6148-866: The One who Nourishes Life, purge, purge, purify, purify, O the One Purified by Sky Nature, O the One Purified by the Topknot Victory, O the One Impelled by Thousand Rays, O the One Beholding all Tathāgatas, O the One Fulfilling the Six Perfections, O Mother of all Tathāgatas, O the One Established in the Ten Stages, O the One Empowered by the Empowerment of the Heart of all Tathāgatas, oṁ O Seal, O Seal, O Great Seal, O

6264-696: The Records of the Teaching of Uṣṇīṣa Vijaya Dhāraṇī Sūtra by Great Dharma Master Fa Chong (法崇, of the Tang dynasty), the great and unsurpassed merits of this Dharani can be categorised into ten doors as follows: The beginning of this Dhāraṇī is chanted in the movie Fistful of Vengeance (about 46:20-47:30 min). Sanskrit Sanskrit ( / ˈ s æ n s k r ɪ t / ; attributively 𑀲𑀁𑀲𑁆𑀓𑀾𑀢𑀁 , संस्कृत- , saṃskṛta- ; nominally संस्कृतम् , saṃskṛtam , IPA: [ˈsɐ̃skr̩tɐm] )

6380-577: The Sanskrit Dharani: Oṁ veneration to the glorious Buddha distinguished in all the Three Worlds. Namely, oṁ bhrūṃ bhrūṃ bhrūṃ, purge, purge, purify, purify, O Unequalled Enveloping Splendor Sparkle Destiny Sky, O the One of Purified Nature, O the One Purified by the Topknot Victory, let all Tathāgatas consecrate me with consecrations of the nectar of the excellent Sugata’s words along with great seals and mantrapadas, oṁ bring, bring, O

6496-499: 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

6612-638: 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

6728-794: The Uṣṇīṣa Vijaya Dhāraṇī into the English language and this was included in the Manual of Zen Buddhism. In addition to the long dhāraṇī, there is the much shorter Uṣṇīṣa Vijaya heart-mantra: This mantra is used in Shingon Buddhism . In Mahayana Buddhism, the Uṣṇīṣavijaya Dhāraṇī is personified as a female deity, called Uṣṇīṣavijayā ("Victorious Uṣṇīṣa"; Tibetan : གཙུག་གཏོར་རྣམ་རྒྱལ་མ། , Wylie : gtsug tor rnam rgyal ma , THL : Tsuktor Namgyelma ; Chinese : 佛頂尊勝佛母 ), She

6844-447: 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

6960-451: 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

7076-407: 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

SECTION 60

#1732764752462

7192-592: The benefit of all heavenly beings. The Buddha also reminded Lord Śakra that he should diligently uphold and protect it, and never allow it to be forgotten or lost. After Lord Śakra received this Dhāraṇī practice from the Buddha, he returned to his heavenly palace to convey it to Devaputra Suṣṭhita. Having received this Dhāraṇī, Devaputra Suṣṭhita kept the practice as instructed for six days and six nights, after which all his wishes were completely fulfilled. When seven days had passed, Lord Śakra and Devaputra Suṣṭhita, together with other heavenly beings, respectfully approached

7308-414: The bodhisattva Mañjuśrī . Sacred stone tablets with the Uṣṇīṣa Vijaya Dhāraṇī carved into them have been distributed widely in some regions of the Far East. An alternate longer Sanskrit title is the Sarvadurgatipariśodhana Uṣṇīṣa Vijaya Dhāraṇī Sūtra . In Tibetan Buddhism, the dhāraṇī , often alternatively entitled the Namgyälma mantra, is considered to be one of the five powerful purifying mantras and

7424-440: 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

7540-414: 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

7656-559: 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

7772-489: 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

7888-418: 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

8004-418: 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

8120-409: 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

8236-427: 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

8468-478: The eradication of suffering. With Amitayus and White Tara , she constitutes one of the three Buddhas of Long Life in Tibetan Buddhism, where she is known as Namgyälma. She is one of the more well-known Buddhist divinities in Nepal , Tibet , and Mongolia . In Chinese Buddhism, Uṣṇīṣavijayā is also a popular deity, and her dhāraṇī is part of the ritual practices in both monasteries and lay Buddhist circles. Her sūtra

8584-473: The evil karma and severe hindrances accumulated from thousands of kalpas ago, that would otherwise cause him to revolve in the cycles of birth and death - in all kinds of life forms in the evil paths - hell, hungry ghost, animal, realm of King Yama , Asuras , Yaksa , Raksasa , ghosts and spirits, Putana , Kataputana, Apasmara , mosquitoes, gnats, tortoises, dogs, pythons, birds, ferocious animals, crawling creatures and even ants and other life forms. Owing to

8700-548: 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

8816-499: The forms of a pig, dog, jackal, monkey, python, crow and vulture, all feeding on filth and putrescence. Lord Śakra could not think of any way to help Suṣṭhita. He felt that only the Tathāgata , Arhat , Samyaksambuddha could save Suṣṭhita from falling into the great suffering of the evil destinies. Soon after nightfall, Lord Śakra made preparations and headed to the garden of Anāthapiṇḍada . Upon arrival, Lord Śakra prostrated himself at

8932-412: 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

9048-537: 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

9164-431: 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

9280-528: The human realm, but to a humble and destitute family; while in the mother’s womb you will be without eyes and be born blind. On hearing this, Devaputra Suṣṭhita was so terrified and rushed over to the Heavenly Palace of Lord Śakra . Bursting into tears, he prostrated himself and revealed what had happened to Lord Śakra. Lord Śakra immediately calmed his mind and entered into samādhi . Instantly, he saw that Suṣṭhita would undergo seven successive lives in

9396-486: 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

9512-432: 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

9628-412: 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

9744-514: 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 ,

9860-579: The merits accrued from hearing for a moment this Dharani, once this very life is over, he will be reborn in the Buddhalands, together with all the Buddhas and Ekajati-pratibaddha Bodhisattvas , or in a distinguished Brahmin or Ksatriya family, or in some other wealthy and reputable family. Lord of Heaven, this man can be reborn in one of the above-mentioned prosperous and reputable families simply because he has heard this Dharani, and hence be reborn in

9976-511: 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

10092-429: 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

10208-401: 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

10324-602: 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

10440-2922: The most iconic. His version’s popularity is often attributed to a legend where he met the Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī disguised as an old man on Mt. Wutai , who urged him to bring the Sanskrit text to China. This narrative, depicted in Dunhuang murals, contributed to the widespread use of Buddhapālita’s version on dhāraṇī-pillars across China. The Chinese phonetic transcription of the dhāraṇī is: 曩謨 (一) 婆誐嚩帝 (二) 怛喇 (二合) 路枳也 (三二合) 鉢囉底 (四) 尾始瑟吒 (二合) 野 (五) 沒馱野 (六) 婆誐縛帝 (七) 怛儞也 (二合) 他 (八) 唵 (九) 尾戌馱野 (十) 娑麼娑麼三滿哆 (十一) 嚩婆娑 (十二) 娑頗 (二合) 囉拏 (十三) 蘖帝誐賀曩 (十四) 娑嚩 (二合) 婆嚩尾秫弟 (十五) 阿鼻詵左覩 [牟*含] (十六) 素蘖哆 (十七) 嚩囉嚩左曩 (十八) 阿蜜㗚 (二合) 哆 (十九) 鼻矖罽 (二十) 摩賀曼怛囉 (二合) 橎乃 (二十一) 阿賀囉阿賀囉 (二十二) 阿庾散馱囉柅 (二十三) 戌馱野戌馱野 (二十四) 誐誐曩尾秫弟 (二十五) 鄔瑟膩灑 (二十六) 尾惹野尾秫弟 (二十七) 娑賀娑囉 (二十八二合) 囉濕銘 (二十九二合) 散 [口*祖] 儞帝 (三十) 薩嚩怛他蘖哆 (三十一) 嚩路迦 [寧*頁] (三十二) 殺橎 (引) 囉弭哆 (三十三) 跛哩布囉抳 (三十四) 薩嚩怛他 (引) 蘖哆 (三十五) 紇哩 (二合) 娜野 (三十六) 地瑟姹 (二合) 曩 (三十七) 地瑟耻 (二合) 跢 (三十八) 摩賀母捺哩 (三十九二合) 嚩日囉 (二合) 迦野 (四十) 僧賀跢曩尾秫弟 (四十一) 薩嚩嚩囉拏 (四十二) 跛野訥蘖帝 (四十三) 跛哩尾秫弟 (四十四) 鉢囉 (二合) 底 (四十五) [寧*頁] 襪跢野 (四十六) 阿欲秫弟 (四十七) 三摩野 (四十八) 地瑟耻 (二合) 帝 (四十九) 麼柅麼柅 (五十) 摩賀麼柅 (五十一) 怛闥哆 (五十二) 部跢句致 (五十三) 跛哩秫弟 (五十四) 尾窣普 (二合) 吒 (五十五) 沒地秫弟 (五十六) 惹野惹野 (五十七) 尾惹野尾惹野 (五十八) 娑麼囉 (五十九) 薩嚩沒馱 (六十) 地瑟耻 (二合) 哆秫弟 (六十一) 嚩日哩 (二合) 嚩日囉 (二合) 蘖陛 (六十二) 嚩日囕 (六十三二合) 婆嚩覩麼麼 (六十四稱名) 舍哩囕 (六十五) 薩嚩薩怛嚩 (六十六二合) 難 (上) 左迦野 (六十七) 尾秫弟 (六十八) 薩嚩誐帝 (六十九) 跛哩秫弟 (七十) 薩嚩怛他蘖哆 (七十一) 三麼濕嚩 (二合) 娑演覩 (七十二) 薩嚩怛他蘖哆 (七十三) 三麼濕嚩 (二合) 娑 (七十四) 地瑟耻 (二合) 帝 (七十五) 沒地野沒地野 (七十六) 尾沒地野 (七十七) 冒馱野冒馱野 (七十八) 尾冒馱野尾冒馱野 (七十九) 三滿哆 (八十) 跛哩秫弟 (八十一) 薩嚩怛他蘖哆 (八十二) 紇哩 (二合) 娜野 (八十三) 地瑟姹 (二合) 曩 (八十四) 地瑟耻 (二合) 哆 (八十五) 摩賀母捺 [口*(隸-木+士)] (二合) 娑嚩 (二合) 賀 The Sanskrit version in IAST is: namo bhagavate trailokya prativiśiṣṭāya buddhāya bhagavate tadyathā oṃ viśodhaya viśodhaya asamasama samanta avabhāsa spharaṇa gati gahana svabhāva viśuddhe abhiṣiñcatu māṃ sugata vara vacana amṛta abhiṣeke mahāmantra pāne āhara āhara āyuḥ sandhāraṇi śodhaya śodhaya gagana viśuddhe uṣṇīṣa vijaya viśuddhe sahasraraśmi sañcodite sarva tathāgata avalokana ṣaṭpāramitā paripūraṇi sarva tathāgata mati daśa-bhūmi prati-ṣṭhite sarva tathāgata hṛdaya adhiṣṭhāna adhiṣṭhita mahāmudre vajrakāya saharaṇa viśuddhe sarva āvaraṇa apāya durgati pariviśuddhe pratinirvartaya āyuḥ śuddhe samaya adhiṣṭhite maṇi maṇi mahāmaṇi tathātā bhūta koṭi pariśuddhe visphuṭa buddhi śuddhe jaya jaya vijaya vijaya smara smara sarva buddha adhiṣṭhita śuddhe vajre vajra garbhe vajraṃ bhavatu mama śarīraṁ sarva sattvānāṁ ca kāya pariviśuddhe sarva gati pariśuddhe sarva tathāgatāśca me sama āśvāsayantu sarva tathāgata sama āśvāsa adhiṣṭhite budhya budhya vibudhya vibudhya bodhaya bodhaya vibodhaya vibodhaya samanta pariśuddhe sarva tathāgata hṛdaya adhiṣṭhāna adhiṣṭhita mahāmudre svāhā English: Homage to

10556-597: 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,

10672-403: 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

10788-431: 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

10904-414: 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

11020-497: The power of the vow. Jewel, Jewel, Great Jewel, the purified ultimate reality ( tathatā ), the peak of existence (bhūtakoṭi). O one with clear, pure wisdom. Victorious one, Victorious one, triumphant, triumphant, remember, remember. Purified by the sustaining power ( adhiṣṭhita ) of all Buddhas. O vajra, O essence of vajra, may my body and that of all beings be a vajra and be completely purified. May all paths (of rebirth ) be purified. May all Tathāgatas give me equal comfort. Empowered by

11136-439: 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

11252-480: 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

11368-609: 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

11484-558: 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,

11600-562: 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

11716-606: The ruler of the Namgyal dynasty of Sikkim Gyalpo (disambiguation) , the ruler of the Namgyal dynasty of Ladakh Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Namgyal . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Namgyal&oldid=1215012207 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description

11832-496: 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

11948-556: 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

12064-573: The seventh century. The sutra gained wide circulation in China, and its practices have been utilized since the Tang dynasty , from which it then spread to the rest of East Asia. It was also popular in Dunhuang and Tibetan Buddhism . In Chinese Buddhism , the Uṣṇīṣa Vijaya dhāraṇī is associated with Mount Wutai , which in the Chinese Buddhist tradition is considered the bodhimaṇḍa of

12180-554: The sky. O pure Victorious Uṣṇīṣa . Activated by the thousand rays of light. Behold the vision of all Tathāgatas, who fulfill the Six Perfections (Pāramitās). Established in the mind of all Tathāgatas and in the ten levels ( bhūmis ). Empowered by the heart of all Tathāgatas, the great seal ( Mahāmudrā ). With a body as strong as a vajra , by the power of the Mahāmudrā be purified from all obstacles, suffering, and unfortunate rebirths. Turn back (the causes of) death, purified in longevity, with

12296-615: 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

12412-411: The top of the Buddha's head. The Buddha smiled and said to Lord Śakra, “Lord of Heaven, there is a Dhāraṇī known as the Uṣṇīṣa Vijaya Dhāraṇī. It can purify all evil paths, completely eliminate all sufferings of beings in the realms of hell, King Yama and animals, destroy all the hells, and transfer sentient beings onto the virtuous path.” After hearing this, Lord Śakra appealed to the Buddha to give

12528-705: 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

12644-457: 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

12760-564: 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

12876-502: 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

12992-408: 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

13108-427: 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

13224-472: 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

13340-686: 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

13456-442: 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

#461538