172-463: Divisions Sama vedic Yajur vedic Atharva vedic Vaishnava puranas Shaiva puranas Shakta puranas The Shatapatha Brahmana ( Sanskrit : शतपथब्राह्मणम् , lit. 'Brāhmaṇa of one hundred paths', IAST : Śatapatha Brāhmaṇam , abbreviated to 'SB') is a commentary on the Śukla Yajurveda . It is attributed to the Vedic sage Yajnavalkya . Described as
344-447: A (living) tortoise;--the tortoise means life-sap: it is life-sap (blood) he thus bestows on (Agni). This tortoise is that life-sap of these worlds which flowed away from them when plunged into the waters: that (life-sap) he now bestows on (Agni). As far as the life-sap extends, so far the body extends: that (tortoise) thus is these worlds. That lower shell of it is this (terrestrial) world; it is, as it were, fixed; for fixed, as it were,
516-415: A beard, pot-bellied and holding in his right hand a amrtaghata (nectar-pot). Many of these early carvings and early statues show just one head, but elaborate details such as ear-rings made of three fruits, a detailed necklace, a slightly smiling face wearing a crown, and flames engraved into the hairs at the back of Agni's statue. The iconographic statues and reliefs of god Agni are typically present in
688-519: A cardinal direction, world body, eye and knowledge, and the abstract principle of Brahman which the Upanishad states is in everything and is everywhere and he becomes a boy sage. Agni appears in section 1.13 of Chandogya Upanishad as well. In verse 18 of the Isha Upanishad , Agni is invoked with, "O Agni, you know all the paths, lead me on to success by the good path, keep me away from
860-476: A class of reincarnated beings and is discussed in its texts with the equivalent term Tejas . Traditional Sanskrit अग्नि ( Agni ) continues one of two core terms for fire reconstructed to Proto-Indo-European , * h₁n̥gʷnis , other reflexes of which include Albanian : *Enj-i ( [ɛɲi] ), the reconstructed name of the fire god in the Albanian pagan mythology , which continues to be used in
1032-457: 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." Agni Agni ( Sanskrit : अग्नि , Sanskrit pronunciation: [ˈɐgni] ) is the Hindu god of fire. and the guardian deity of
1204-433: 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
1376-591: 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
1548-658: 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
1720-401: A major and most invoked god along with Indra and Soma . Agni is considered the mouth of the gods and goddesses and the medium that conveys offerings to them in a homa (votive ritual). He is conceptualized in ancient Hindu texts to exist at three levels, on earth as fire, in the atmosphere as lightning, and in the sky as the sun. This triple presence accords him as the messenger between
1892-454: 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
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#17327659214222064-479: 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
2236-546: 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
2408-568: A personage or deity) and dakshinagni (for fighting against all evil). Yāska states that his predecessor Sākapuṇi regarded the threefold existence of Agni as being in earth, air and heaven as stated by the Rig Veda, and the Brāhmanas considered the three manifestations of Agni to be the fire, the lightning, the sun. A sage of the Ṛg Veda (Sūkta IV.iii.11) states that the Sun became visible when Agni
2580-578: 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
2752-486: 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
2924-564: A ship; and when the flood has risen thou shalt enter into the ship, and I will save thee from it.' Aiyangar explains that, in relation to the RigVeda , 'Sacrifice is metaphorically called [a] Ship and as Manu means man, the thinker, [so] the story seems to be a parable of the Ship of Sacrifice being the means for man's crossing the seas of his duritas, [meaning his] sins, and troubles'. SB 13.4.3.12 also mentions King Matsya Sammada, whose 'people are
3096-439: 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
3268-505: A symbol of divine energy. During the autumn celebrations of Deepavali, traditional small fire lamps called Diya are included to mark the festivities. For Holi, Hindus burn bonfires as Holika, on the night before the spring festival. The bonfire marks god Agni, and in the Indian subcontinent, mothers and fathers carry their babies around the fire clockwise on Holika in Agni's remembrance. Agni has two forms: Jataveda and Kravyada : Agni
3440-590: Is Saptajihva , "the one having seven tongues", to symbolize how rapidly he consumes sacrificial butter. Occasionally, Agni iconography is shown in Rohitasva form, which has no ram as his vahana, but where he is pulled in a chariot with seven red horses, and the symbolic wind that makes fire move as the wheels of the chariot. In Cambodian art , Agni has been depicted with a rhinoceros as his vahana. The number seven symbolizes his reach in all seven mythical continents in ancient Hindu cosmology where Agni lives and also
3612-463: Is (called) 'kûrma;' and 'kûrma' being (the same as) 'kasyapa' (a tortoise), therefore all creatures are said to be descended from Kasyapa . Now this tortoise is the same as yonder sun: it is yonder sun he thus lays down (on the altar)... On the right (south) of the Ashâdhâ [Altar Brick] (he places it), for the tortoise (kûrma, masc.) is a male, and the Ashâdhâ a female... Originally a form of Prajapati,
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#17327659214223784-516: 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
3956-452: 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
4128-448: Is great destruction for us: fish devours fish. Thou wilt first keep me in a jar. When I outgrow that, thou wilt dig a pit and keep me in it. When I outgrow that, thou wilt take me down to the sea, for then I shall be beyond destruction.' It soon became a ghasha (a large fish); for that grows largest (of all fish). Thereupon it said, 'In such and such a year that flood will come. Thou shalt then attend to me (i.e. to my advice) by preparing
4300-563: Is more rational in the Kanva text than in the other... The name 'Shatapatha', as Eggeling has suggested, might have been based on the number of Adhyayas in the Madhyandina which is exactly one hundred. But the Kanva recension, which has one hundred and four Adhyayas is also known by the same name. In Indian tradition words like 'sata' and 'sahasra', indicating numbers, do not always stand for exact numbers'. The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad forms
4472-481: Is named after the sound of Vishnu's head hitting the ground (which 'on falling became yonder sun'), and 'inasmuch as he [Vishnu] stretched out ( pra-vrig ) on the ground, therefrom the Pravargya (took its name)'. The body of Vishnu is encompassed by Indra, who possessed by His glory 'became Makhavat (possessed of makha)'. Vishnu is then divided into three parts, with Agni receiving the first (morning) portion, Indra
4644-613: Is originally conceptualized as the ultimate source of the "creator-preserver-destroyer" triad, then one of the trinities, as the one who ruled the earth. His twin brother Indra ruled the atmosphere as the god of storm, rain and war, while his other brother Sūrya ruled the sky and heavens were the other two gods in that trinity. His position and importance evolves over time, in the "creator-preserver-destroyer" aspects of existence in Hindu thought. The Shatapatha Brahmana mentions there have been three previous Agnis who died and current Agni
4816-533: Is performed around Agni. It is called the Saptapadi (Sanskrit for "seven steps"), and it represents the legal part of Hindu marriage. The ritual involves a couple completing seven actual or symbolic circuits around the Agni , which is considered a witness to the vows they make to each other. Each circuit of the consecrated fire is led by both the bride or the groom, varying by community and region. With each circuit,
4988-532: 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
5160-457: Is relating to all people), Tanūnapāta (he who is self-made), Narāśaṃsa (he who embodies all people's praise), Tripatsya (he who is with three dwellings), and many others. In Hindu mythology, Agni is also presented as one who is mysterious with a tendency to play hide and seek, not just with humans but with the deities. He hides in strange places such as waters, where in one myth, he imbues life force into fishes that dwell therein, due to which
5332-583: Is repeatedly presented in the Vedas, such as with the following words in the Maṇḍala 1 of the Rigveda : They call it Indra, Mitra, Varuna, Agni , and he is heavenly-winged Garuda. To what is One, sages give many a title, they call it Agni , Yama, Matarisvan (Agni). — Rigveda 1.164.46 , Translator: Klaus Klostermaier Agni features prominently in the major and minor Upanishads of Hinduism. Among
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5504-413: Is same as Agni, and Parvati is same as Svaha. Mundaka Upanishad (2.4) mentioned the seven tongues of Agni as kālī , karālī , manojavā , sulohita , sudhāmravarṇā , sphuliṅginī, visvarucī . Vedic rituals involve Agni. He is a part of many Hindu rites-of-passage ceremonies such as celebrating a birth (lighting a lamp), prayers (aarti lamp), at weddings (the yajna where the bride and groom circle
5676-488: Is shown as a strong looking man, sometimes bearded, with a large belly because he eats everything offered into his flames, with golden brown hair, eyes and mustache to match the color of fire. Agni holds a rosary in one hand to symbolize his prayer-related role, and a sphere in another hand in eastern states of India. In other regions, his four arms hold an ax, torch, spoon (or fan) a flaming spear (or rosary). Seven rays of light or flames emit from his body. One of his names
5848-501: Is symbolism for "the mind swiftest among (all) those that fly". The iconography of Agni varies by region. The design guidelines and specifications of his iconography are described in the Hindu Agama texts. He is shown with one to three heads, two to four arms, is typically red-complexioned or smoky-grey complexioned standing next to or riding a ram, with a characteristic dramatic halo of flames leaping upwards from his crown. He
6020-487: Is symbolism for psychological and physiological aspects of life, states Maha Purana section LXVII.202–203. There are three kinds of Agni inside every human being, states this text, the krodha-agni or "fire of anger", the kama-agni or "fire of passion and desire", and the udara-agni or "fire of digestion". These respectively need introspective and voluntary offerings of forgiveness, detachment and fasting, if one desires spiritual freedom, liberation. Agni variously denotes
6192-479: 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,
6364-529: Is the duty of man to perform Agnihotra . A wide range of Agnihotra procedures are found in the Brahmana layer of the Vedas, ranging from the most common simple keeping of sacred fire and its symbolism, to more complicated procedures for the expiation of guilt, to rituals claimed to grant immortality to the performer. According to the Jaiminiya Brahmana , for example, an Agnihotra sacrifice frees
6536-571: Is the fourth one now. In the Hindu pantheon, Agni occupies, after Indra, the most important position. Agni is prominent in the hymns of the Vedas and particularly the Brahmanas . In the Rigveda there are over 200 hymns that praise Agni. His name or synonyms appear in nearly a third of 1,028 hymns in the Rigveda . The Rigveda opens with a hymn inviting Agni, who is then addressed later in
6708-589: 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
6880-485: Is this (earth-)world. And that upper shell of it is yonder sky; it has its ends, as it were, bent down; for yonder sky has its ends, as it were, bent down. And what is between (the shells) is the air;--that (tortoise) thus is these worlds: it is these worlds he thus lays down (to form part of the altar)... And as to its being called 'kûrma' (tortoise); Prajapati , having assumed that form, created living beings. Now what he created, he made; and inasmuch as he made (kar), he
7052-401: Is used in many contexts, ranging from fire in the stomach, the cooking fire in a home, the sacrificial fire in an altar, the fire of cremation, the fire of rebirth, the fire in the energetic saps concealed within plants, the atmospheric fire in lightning and the celestial fire in the sun. In the Brahmanas layer of the Vedas, such as in section 5.2.3 of Shatapatha Brahmana, Agni represents all
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7224-540: 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
7396-741: The Brahmanas and Aranyakas [texts relating to the Vedas ]... [but the] Sulba Sutras contain the earliest extant verbal expression of the closely related theorem that is still often referred to as the Theorem of Pythagoras but that was independently discovered by the Vedic Indians ... A.A. Macdonell , A.B. Keith , J. Roy, J. Dowson , W.J. Wilkins, S. Ghose, M.L. Varadpande, N Aiyangar, and D.A. Soifer all state that several avatars and associated Puranic legends of Vishnu either originate (e.g. Matsya , Kurma , Varaha , and Narasimha ) or at least were significantly developed (e.g. Vamana ) in
7568-580: 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
7740-653: The Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), the Shatapatha Brahmana survives in two recensions : The Kanva recension is known as the Kāṇva śākhā, and is ascribed to Samkara The 14 books of the Madhyandina recension can be divided into two major parts. The first 9 books have close textual commentaries, often line by line, of the first 18 books of the corresponding samhita of
7912-675: 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
8084-525: 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
8256-699: The Rigveda had already evolved in the Vedic period, as evidenced in the later Vedic literature. Gombrich posits that the language in the early Upanishads of Hinduism and the late Vedic literature approaches Classical Sanskrit, while the archaic Vedic Sanskrit had by the Buddha 's time become unintelligible to all except ancient Indian sages. The formalization of the Saṃskṛta language is credited to Pāṇini , along with Patañjali's Mahābhāṣya and Katyayana's commentary that preceded Patañjali's work. Panini composed Aṣṭādhyāyī ('Eight-Chapter Grammar'), which became
8428-532: 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 ,
8600-531: 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
8772-701: The Upanayana ceremony of rite of passage, as well being part of the diyā (lamp) in festivals such as Deepavali and Arti in Puja . Agni ( Pali : Aggi ) is a term that appears extensively in Buddhist texts and in the literature related to the Senika heresy debate within the Buddhist traditions. In the ancient Jainism thought, Agni (fire) contains soul and fire-bodied beings, additionally appears as Agni-kumaras or "fire children" in its theory of rebirth and
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#17327659214228944-537: The YajnaVaraha sacrifice in relation to the constellation of Orion . Roy elaborates further on this example, stating that when 'the sun became united with Orion at the vernal equinox ...[this] commenced the yearly [ YajnaVaraha ] sacrifice'. The vernal (March) equinox marks the onset of spring , and is celebrated in Indian culture as the Holi festival (the spring festival of colours). A.A. Macdonell adds that
9116-406: 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
9288-500: 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
9460-414: 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
9632-532: 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
9804-657: The 7th–6th century BCE. Jan N. Bremmer dates it to around 700 BCE. J. Eggeling (translator of the Vājasaneyi mādhyandina recension into English), dates the final written version of the text to 300 BCE, although he states that some elements 'far older, transmitted orally from unknown antiquity'. There are claims of dating the text much further back than the said ranges, and scholars have extensively rejected such claims; Witzel criticizes it for "faulty reasoning" and taking "a rather dubious datum and us[ing] it to reinterpret Vedic linguistic, textual, ritual history while neglect[ing] all
9976-464: The Albanian language to refer to Thursday ( e enjte ), Latin ignis (the root of English ignite ), Lithuanian ugnis , Kurdish agir , Old Slavonian огнь ( ognĭ ) and its descendants: Russian огонь ( ogon´ ), Serbian oganj , Polish ogień , etc., all meaning "fire". The ancient Indian grammarians variously derived it: In the early Vedic literature, Agni primarily connotes
10148-534: The Brahman (neut.) was first created, the triple science. Hence they say, 'The Brahman (n.) is the first-born of this All.' For even before that Person the Brahman was created: it was created as his mouth. Hence they say of him who has studied the Veda, that 'he is like Agni ;' for it, the Brahman (Veda), is Agni's mouth... He desired, 'May I generate, this (earth) from these waters!' He compressed it and threw it into
10320-468: The Brahman (neut.), the triple science. It became to him a foundation: hence they say, 'the Brahman ( Veda ) is the foundation of everything here.' Wherefore, having studied (the Veda) one rests on a foundation; for this, to wit, the Veda, is his foundation. Resting on that foundation, he (again) practised austerity. He created the waters out of Vâk (speech, that is) the world; for speech belonged to it: that
10492-459: The Brhat or Brahman , identical with Atman , constitutes its theme'. In relation to sacrifice and astronomical phenomena detailed in texts such as the Shatapatha Brahmana (e.g. sacrifices performed during the waxing and waning of the moon), N. Aiyangar states the fact that 'the Vedic people had a celestial [i.e. astronomical] counterpart of their sacrificial ground is clear', and cites an example of
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#173276592142210664-425: 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
10836-532: 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
11008-521: 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
11180-522: The Dāsa of his magic for the Ṛṣi. For man thou madest ready pleasant pathways, paths leading as it were directly God-ward. Sanskrit language Sanskrit ( / ˈ s æ n s k r ɪ t / ; attributively 𑀲𑀁𑀲𑁆𑀓𑀾𑀢𑀁 , संस्कृत- , saṃskṛta- ; nominally संस्कृतम् , saṃskṛtam , IPA: [ˈsɐ̃skr̩tɐm] ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of
11352-476: 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
11524-519: 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
11696-532: 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
11868-496: 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
12040-560: The Namuchi legend are 'scattered throughout Brahmana literature (cf. VS [ Vajaseneyi Samhita ] 10.34; PB [ Pancavimsa Brahmana ] 12.6.8, MS [ Maitrayani Samhita ] IV.34; TB [ Taittiriya Brahmana ] 1.7.1.6)', the fullest version is in the Shatapatha Brahmana. Indra defeating Namuchi itself originates from the RigVeda (e.g. 10.73): tvaṃ jaghantha namuciṃ makhasyuṃ dāsaṃ kṛṇvāna ṛṣayevimāyam | tvaṃ cakartha manave syonān patho devatrāñjasevayānān || War-loving Namuci thou smotest, robbing
12212-627: The Reality (Brahman) and the Truth (Satya), is Rta , the order, the organizing principle of everything that is. Agni, who is addressed as Atithi ('guest'), is also called Jatavedasam (जातवेदसम्), meaning "the one who knows all things that are born". He symbolizes will-power united with wisdom. Agni is the essence of the knowledge of Existence. Agni destroys ignorance and all delusions, removes nescience. The Kanvasatpathabrahmanam (SB.IV.i.iv.11) calls Agni "wisdom" (मेधायैमनसेऽग्नये स्वाहेति). Agni
12384-499: 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
12556-539: The Shatapatha Brahmana (SB). Notably, all constitute the first five avatars listed in the Dashavatara , the ten principal avatars of Vishnu. Sofia states ''developments that occur in the general character of Visnu in the Brahmana literature have far-reaching influence on the growth and moulding of avataric Visnu ... Probably the single most important development, which is first found in the Brahmanas and exerts
12728-413: The Shatapatha Brahmana are stated by Varadpande to be the seed of Kurma. Eggeling adds that the ' kapalas [cups used in ritual sacrifices ] are usually arranged in such a manner as to produce a fancied resemblance to the (upper) shell of the tortoise, which is a symbol of the sky, as the tortoise itself represents the universe... In the same way the term kapala, in the singular, is occasionally applied to
12900-416: The Shatapatha Brahmana had numerous rules, with Staal adding - in relation to similarities with ancient Greek, Babylonian, and Chinese geometry: Vedic geometry is attached to ritual because it is concerned with the measurement and construction of ritual enclosures [and] of altars... Vedic geometry developed from the construction of these and other complex altar shapes. All are given numerous interpretations in
13072-544: The Shatapatha Brahmana, a reference such as '14.1.2' means 'Kanda 14, Adhyaya 1, Brahmana 2', or in English, 'Book 14, Chapter 1, Explanation 2'. The addition of a fourth digit at the end (e.g. 17.7.3 .11 ) refers to the verse number. Arthur Berriedale Keith states that linguistically, the Shatapatha Brahmana belongs to the later part of the Brāhmaṇa period of Vedic Sanskrit (8th-6th century BCE). M. Witzel dates this text to
13244-732: The Shatapatha in particular is notable as – unlike the Samhitas – in it the Earth was 'expressly called circular ( parimandala )'. P. N. Sinha states that the number 1,000 represents 'the thousand Maha yugas of every Kalpa ' (about 4.32 billion years), illustrated by the 1,000 hoods of the Naga Vasuki / Ananta on which the Earth is supported. According to F. Staal, layering, size, and configuration of bricks to construct sacrificial altars – real and symbolic – as detailed in texts such as
13416-638: 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
13588-447: 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
13760-451: 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
13932-679: The Videgha, was at that time on the (river) Sarasvatî. He ( Agni ) thence went burning along this earth towards the east; and Gotama Râhûgana and the Videgha Mathava followed after him as he was burning along. He burnt over (dried up) all these rivers. Now that (river), which is called 'Sadânîrâ,' flows from the northern (Himâlaya) mountain: that one he did not burn over. That one the Brâhmans did not cross in former times, thinking, 'it has not been burnt over by Agni Vaisvânara.' According to
14104-473: The [ Visvedevas ], except the two Asvins , performed a sacrificial session ', which was first attained by Vishnu , hence 'he became the most excellent of the gods'. Upadika ants then agreed with the other gods to gnaw at the bowstring of Vishnu while He rested his head on the Bow, in exchange for the boon to 'find water even in the desert' (as 'all food is water'). The Gharma (hot beverage offered as an oblation)
14276-459: 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
14448-440: 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
14620-527: 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
14792-486: The collection at Bharata Kalā Bhavana, there is a red sandstone sculpture from around the start of the common era but no later than 1st-century CE, identifiable as Agni shown in the garb of a Brahmana, very much like sage Kashyapa . In the Panchala coins of Agnimitra , Agni is always present with a halo of flames. In Gupta sculptures, Agni is found with a halo of flames round the body, the sacred thread across his chest,
14964-462: The concluding part of the last Kanda, known as 'Aranyaka' of both recensions of the Shatapatha Brahmana. Swami Madhavananda states that this Upanishad is 'the greatest of the Upanishads... not only in extent; but it is also the greatest in respect of its substance and theme. It is the greatest Upanishad in the sense that the illimitable, all-embracing, absolute, self-luminous, blissful reality –
15136-614: The context of a speech or language, is found in verses 5.28.17–19 of the Ramayana . Outside the learned sphere of written Classical Sanskrit, vernacular colloquial dialects ( Prakrits ) continued to evolve. Sanskrit co-existed with numerous other Prakrit languages of ancient India. The Prakrit languages of India also have ancient roots and some Sanskrit scholars have called these Apabhramsa , literally 'spoiled'. The Vedic literature includes words whose phonetic equivalent are not found in other Indo-European languages but which are found in
15308-518: The couple makes a specific vow to establish some aspect of a happy relationship and household for each other, with Agni as the divine witness to those mutual vows. In the Indian subcontinent and Suriname , the bride leads the first four circuits followed by the groom leading the last three circuits. The Agnihotra involves fire, and the term refers to the ritual of keeping fire at home, and in some cases making "sacrificial offerings" such as milk and seeds to this fire. The Srauta texts state that it
15480-406: The creator-god, the tortoise is thus clearly and directly linked with Vedic ritual sacrifice, the sun, and with Kasyapa as a creator (or progenitor ). The tortoise is also stated to represent the three worlds (i.e. the triloka ). SB 5.1.3.9–10 states 'Pragapati (the lord of generation) represents productiveness... the male means productiveness'. SB 14.1.1, which relates the story of Vishnu becoming
15652-653: The crystallization of Classical Sanskrit. As in this period the Indo-Aryan tribes had not yet made contact with the inhabitants of the South of the subcontinent, this suggests a significant presence of Dravidian speakers in North India (the central Gangetic plain and the classical Madhyadeśa) who were instrumental in this substratal influence on Sanskrit. Extant manuscripts in Sanskrit number over 30 million, one hundred times those in Greek and Latin combined, constituting
15824-541: The deities and humans in the Vedic scriptures. The relative importance of Agni declined in the post-Vedic era, as he was internalised and his identity evolved to metaphorically represent all transformative energy and knowledge in the Upanishads and later Hindu literature. Agni remains an integral part of Hindu traditions, such as being the central witness of the rite-of-passage ritual in traditional Hindu weddings called Saptapadi (seven steps and mutual vows), in
15996-722: The demon on His lap and killed him with claws. This concept is similar to that found in the Shatapatha brahmana (Sanskrit transliteration for Kanda XII is not available): By means of the Surâ-liquor Namuki, the Asura , carried off Indra's (source of) strength, the essence of food, the Soma-drink. He ( Indra ) hasted up to the Asvins and Sarasvatî , crying, 'I have sworn to Namuki, saying, "I will slay thee neither by day nor by night, neither with staff nor with bow, neither with
16168-555: The demons and win, the deities wonder, "what is this Brahman, a wonderful being?" Agni goes first to find out, but fails. Vayu too goes to find out and fails. Then Indra tries and fails, but meets the Parvati who already understands Brahman, explains what Brahman is and how the deities reached victory through the nature of Brahman. Indra shares this knowledge with Agni and Vayu. The Kena Upanishad closes these sections by stating that "Agni, Vayu, Indra" are revered first because they were
16340-501: The desire to consume the forest of Khāṇḍava protected by Indra for the sake of Takṣaka , the chief of the Nāgas . Aided by Krishna and Arjuna, Agni consumes the Khāṇḍava Forest , which burnt for fifteen days, sparing only Ashvasena, Maya, and the four birds called sarangakas ; later, as a boon Arjuna got all his weapons from Indra and also the bow, Gāṇḍīva , from Varuṇa . There is
16512-467: 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
16684-471: 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
16856-460: 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
17028-473: The earliest mention is the legend of a boy sage named Satyakāma Jābāla , the son of an unwed father and an unwed mother, in chapter 4 of the Chhāndogya Upanishad (~700 BCE). He honestly admits his poverty and that his mother does not know who his father was, an honesty that earns him a spot in a Hindu school ( gurukula ). During his studies, the boy sage meets Agni, who then becomes the god for him as
17200-490: 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
17372-714: The entire universe, and that all the deities are internalized in the temple of a living body with Agni as the eyes. Agni is mentioned in many minor Upanishads, such as the Pranagnihotra Upanishad , the Yogatattva Upanishad , the Yogashikha Upanishad , the Trishikhibrahmana Upanishad and others. The syncretic and monistic Shaivism and Shaktism text, namely Rudrahridaya Upanishad states that Shiva
17544-426: The falcon hides and disappears to heaven. Agni is molded in similar mythical themes, in some hymns with the phrase the "heavenly falcon that flies". The earliest layers of the Vedic texts of Hinduism, such as section 6.1 of Kaṭhaka Saṃhitā and section 1.8.1 of Maitrāyaṇī Saṃhitā state that the universe began with nothing, neither night nor day existed, what existed was just the god Prajāpati. Agni originated from
17716-442: The fire as a god, one reflecting the primordial powers to consume, transform and convey. Yet the term is also used with the meaning of a Mahabhuta (constitutive substance), one of five that the earliest Vedic thinkers believed to constitute material existence, and that later Vedic thinkers such as Kanada and Kapila expanded widely, namely Dyaus (aether), Vayu (air), Varuna (water), Bhumi (earth) and Agni (fire). The word Agni
17888-415: The fire seven times) and at death (cremation). According to Atharvaveda , it is Agni that conveys the soul of the dead from the pyre to be reborn in the next world or life. However, this role was in post-Vedic texts subsumed in the role of god Yama. Agni has been important in temple architecture, is typically present in the southeast corner of a Hindu temple . The most important ritual of Hindu weddings
18060-476: The first among the deities to realize Brahman from Parvati. The allegorical legend, states Paul Deussen, aims to teach that all the Hindu deities and natural things have their basis in the timeless, universal monistic principle called Brahman. Another ancient major Hindu scripture named Prashna Upanishad mentions Agni in its second Prashna (question section). The section states that Agni and other deities manifest as five gross constituents that combine to make
18232-606: The first five avatars in the Dashavatara (the ten principal avatars of Vishnu). There are two versions ( recensions ) available of this text. They are the Madhyandina recension and the Kanva recension. This article focuses exclusively on the Madhyandina version of the Shatapatha Brahmana. The 'Shatapatha Brahmana' ( Sanskrit शतपथब्राह्मण) can be loosely translated as 'Brahmana of one hundred paths': In relation to
18404-548: 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
18576-491: The fishes report his presence to the deities, who take Agni to heaven. Agni is in hymn 10.124 of the Rigveda , a Rishi (sage-poet-composer) and along with Indra and Sūrya makes up the Hindu trinity of gods who create, preserve, destroy. Agni is considered equivalent to all the deities in the Hinduism, which formed the foundation for the various non-dualistic and monistic theologies of Hinduism. These theme of equivalence
18748-581: The forehead of Prajāpati , assert these texts. With the creation of Agni came light, and with that were created day and night. Agni, state these Saṃhitā s , is the same as the Brahman , the truth, the eyes of the manifested universe. These mythologies develop into more complex stories about Agni's origins in the later layers of Vedic texts, such as in section 2.1.2 of the Taittiriya Brahmana and sections 2.2.3–4 of Shatapatha Brahmana . Agni
18920-412: 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
19092-537: 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
19264-507: The gods and goddesses, all concepts of spiritual energy that permeates everything in the universe. In the Upanishads and post-Vedic literature, Agni additionally became a metaphor for immortal principle in humans, and any energy or knowledge that consumes and dispels a state of darkness, transforms and procreates an enlightened state of existence. Agni is also famously known as: Other names include Śikhī, Pingesa, Plavanga, Bhūritejaḥ, Rudragarva, Hiraṇyakṛta. There are many theories about
19436-455: The gods indeed gained what they wished to gain, and (so did) the Ri shis . Now whether it be that the gods caused it (the sacrifice) to attract (or, peep forth to) them, or whether they took to it of their own accord, they said, 'Come, let us go to the place whence the gods obtained possession of the world of heaven!' They went about saying (to one another), 'What attracts? What attracts?' and came upon
19608-402: The greatest of the gods at a sacrifice of the gods before being decapitated by His bow, states the head of Vishnu became the sun when it fell. Matsya, the fish avatar of Vishnu , appears to Manu to warn him of an impending deluge . After being reared by and growing to an enormous size, Matsya then guides Manu's ship to safety at the peak of a mountain, where Manu re-establishes life through
19780-431: 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
19952-604: The hymn as the guardian of Ṛta ( Dharma ). The Vedas describe the foster-parents of Agni as two kindling fire sticks of Prajapati, whose loving action creates him. Just born, he is poetically presented as a tender baby, who needs loving attention lest he vanishes. With care, he sparks and smokes, then flames and grows stronger than his foster-parents, finally so strong that he burns to ashes what created him his residence by Prajapati. The hymns in these ancient texts refer to Agni with numerous epithets and synonyms, such as Jātaveda (he who knows all knowledge), Vaiśvānara (he who
20124-459: The individuality of every one of these deities including of Agni, thus journey unto the universal reality, for a communion with the Purusha , which is the Ātman . Sections 3 and 4 of Kena Upanishad , another major ancient Upanishad, presents a story which includes gods Agni, Vayu , Indra and goddess Parvati . After a battle between good deities and evil demons, where the deities kill all
20296-486: 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
20468-432: 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
20640-412: 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
20812-514: 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 ,
20984-455: 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
21156-429: 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
21328-420: The morning they brought to Manu water for washing, just as now also they (are wont to) bring (water) for washing the hands. When he was washing himself, a fish came into his hands. It spake to him the word, 'Rear me, I will save thee!' 'Wherefrom wilt thou save me?' 'A flood will carry away all these creatures: from that I will save thee!' 'How am I to rear thee?' It said, 'As long as we are small, there
21500-401: 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
21672-602: 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
21844-404: The most complete, systematic, and important of the Brahmanas (commentaries on the Vedas ), it contains detailed explanations of Vedic sacrificial rituals , symbolism , and mythology . Particularly in its description of sacrificial rituals (including construction of complex fire-altars), the Shatapatha Brahmana (SB) provides scientific knowledge of geometry (e.g. calculations of pi and
22016-473: The most influence over all other factors, is the identification of Vishnu with the sacrifice '. Vishnu is explicitly stated to be sacrifice repeatedly throughout the Shatapatha Brahmana (e.g. SB 1.7.4.20, 1.1.4.9, 3.2.1.38, 3.6.3.3, 5.2.3.6, 5.4.5.1, 5.4.5.18, 11.4.1.4, 12.5.4.11, 14.1.1.13, and 11.4.1.4). in SB 14.1.1 ('The Pravargya '), the story given is that 'the gods Agni , Indra , Soma , Makha, Vishnu , and
22188-404: The natural element fire, the supernatural deity symbolized by fire and the inner natural will aspiring for the highest knowledge. Heat, combustion and energy is the realm of Agni which symbolizes the transformation of the gross to the subtle; Agni is the life-giving energy. Agnibija is the consciousness of tapas (proto-cosmic energy); agni (the energizing principle); the sun, representing
22360-545: 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,
22532-1403: The oblation within himself, before Risis arrive at the sacrifice and 'the sacrificial cake (purodasa) is said to become a tortoise'. so 'yam puruṣaḥ prajāpatirakāmayata bhūyāntsyām prajāyeyeti so 'śrāmyatsa tapo 'tapyata sa śrāntastepāno brahmaiva prathamamasṛjata trayomeva vidyāṃ saivāsmai pratiṣṭhābhavattasmādāhurbrahmāsya sarvasya pratiṣṭheti tasmādanūcya pratitiṣṭhati pratiṣṭhā hyeṣā yadbrahma tasyām pratiṣṭhāyām pratiṣṭhito 'tapyata so 'po 'sṛjata | vāca eva lokādvāgevāsya sāsṛjyata sedaṃ sarvamāpnodyadidaṃ kiṃ ca yadāpnottasmādāpo yadavṛṇottasmādvāḥ so 'kāmayata | ābhyo 'dbhyo 'dhi prajāyeyeti so 'nayā trayyā vidyayā sahāpaḥ prāviśattata āṇḍaṃ samavartata tadabhyamṛśadastvityastu bhūyo 'stvityeva tadabravīttato brahmaiva prathamamasṛjyata trayyeva vidyā tasmādāhurbrahmāsya sarvasya prathamajamityapi hi tasmātpuruṣādbrahmaiva pūrvamasṛjyata tadasya tanmukhamevāsṛjyata tasmādanūcānamāhuragnikalpa iti mukhaṃ hyetadagneryadbrahma... so 'kāmayata | ābhyo 'dyo 'dhīmām prajanayeyamiti tāṃ saṃkśyāpsu prāvidhyattasyai yaḥ parāṅ raso 'tyakṣaratsa kūrmo 'bhavadatha yadūrdhvamudaukṣyatedaṃ tadyadidamūrdhvamadbhyo 'dhi jāyate seyaṃ sarvāpa evānuvyaittadidamekameva rūpaṃ samadṛśyatāpa eva Now this Person Pragâpati desired, 'May I be more (than one), may I be reproduced!' He toiled, he practised austerity. Being worn out with toil and austerity, he created first of all
22704-403: 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
22876-415: The origins of the god Agni, some tracing it to Indo-European mythology, others tracing to Hindu mythology. The origin myth found in many Indo-European cultures is one of a falcon that carries or brings fire from the deities to people. This messenger also brings an elixir of immortality from heaven to earth. In either case, the falcon returns everyday with sacrificial offerings for the deities, but sometimes
23048-494: The other contradictory data." According to Witzel, the Shatapatha Brahmana does not contain precise contemporary astronomical records, but rather only approximate naked-eye observations for ritual concerns which likely reflect oral remembrances of older time periods; furthermore, the same general observations are recorded in the Babylonian MUL.APIN tablets of c. 1000 BCE. The Shatapatha Brahmana contains clear references to
23220-431: 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
23392-454: The palm of my hand nor with the fist, neither with the dry nor with the moist!" and yet has he taken these things from me: seek ye to bring me back these things! D.A. Soifer states that ' Brahmana literature yields what must be considered as the prototype of that [Narasimha] myth, the Indra -Namuchi [or Namuki] myth', adding that other academics such as Devasthali concur that although elements of
23564-1099: The performance of Vedic sacrificial rites ( yajna ). In Puranic accounts, Matsya also rescues the Vedas taken under the water, after they were stolen from Brahma by the Asura called Hayagriva (not to be confused with Hayagriva , the horse-headed avatar of Vishnu). From the Shatapatha Brahmana: manave ha vai prātaḥ | avanegyamudakamājahruryathedam pāṇibhyāmavanejanāyāharantyevaṃ tasyāvanenijānasya matsyaḥ pāṇī āpede sa hāsmai vācamuvāda | bibhṛhi mā pārayiṣyāmi tveti kasmānmā pārayiṣyasītyaugha imāḥ sarvāḥ prajā nirvoḍhā tatastvā pārayitāsmīti kathaṃ te bhṛtiriti sa hovāca | yāvadvai kṣullakā bhavāmo bahvī vai nastāvannāṣṭrā bhavatyuta matsya eva matsyaṃ gilati kumbhyām māgre bibharāsi sa yadā tāmativardhā atha karṣūṃ khātvā tasyām mā bibharāsi sa yadā tāmativardhā atha mā samudramabhyavaharāsi tarhi vā atināṣṭro bhavitāsmīti śaśvaddha kaṣa āsa | sa hi jyeṣṭhaṃ vardhate 'thetithīṃ samāṃ tadaugha āgantā tanmā nāvamupakalpyopāsāsai sa augha utthite nāvamāpadyāsai tatastvā pārayitāsmīti In
23736-423: The performer from evil and death. In contrast, states the Shatapatha Brahmana, Agnihotra is a symbolic reminder and equivalent to the Sun, where the fire keeper is reminded of the heat that creates life, the fire in beings, the heat in the womb behind the cycle of life. Two major festivals in Hinduism, namely Holi (festival of colors) and Deepavali (festival of lights) incorporate Agni in their ritual grammar, as
23908-414: 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
24080-439: 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
24252-480: 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
24424-609: 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
24596-497: 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,
24768-562: 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
24940-530: The root of the Pythagorean theorem ) and observational astronomy (e.g. planetary distances and the assertion that the Earth is circular) from the Vedic period . The Shatapatha Brahmana is also considered significant in the development of Vaishnavism as the origin of several Puranic legends and avatars of Vishnu . Notably, all of them ( Matsya , Kurma , Varaha , Narasimha , and Vamana ) are listed as
25112-428: The sacrificial cake which had become a tortoise and was creeping about. Then they all thought, 'This surely must be the sacrifice!' They said, 'Stand still for the Asvins ! stand still for Sarasvati ! stand still for Indra !' still it crept on;--'Stand still for Agni !' at this it stopped. Having then enveloped it in fire (Agni), knowing, as they did, that it had stopped for Agni, they offered it up entirely, for it
25284-496: 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
25456-626: The second (midday) portion, and the remaining Visvedevas the third portion. Kurma, the tortoise avatar of Vishnu , is inextricably linked in the Puranas with the legend of the churning of the Ocean of Milk , referred to as the Samudra manthan . The tortoise avatar is also synonymous with Akupara , the 'world-turtle' supporting the Earth, as well as the Saptarishi sage, Kasyapa . Accounts from
25628-556: 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
25800-453: The seven colours of a rainbow in his form as the sun. Agni has three forms, namely fire, lightning, and the Sun, forms sometimes symbolized by giving his icon three heads or three legs. He sometimes is shown wearing a garland of fruits or flowers, symbolic of the offerings made into the fire. The earliest surviving artwork of Agni have been found at archaeological sites near Mathura (Uttar Pradesh), and these date from 1st-century BCE. In
25972-790: The skull, as well as to the upper and the lower case of the tortoise, e.g. Sat Br. VII, 5, 1, 2 [7.5.1.2].' tercantaḥ śrāmyantaśceruḥ | śrameṇa ha sma vai taddevā jayanti yadeṣāṃvjayyamāsarṣayaśca tebhyo devā vaiva prarocayāṃ cakruḥ svayaṃ vaiva dadhrire pretavtadeṣyāmo yato devāḥ svargaṃ lokaṃ samāśnuvateti te kim prarocate kim prarocata iti ceruretpuroḍāśameva kūrmam bhūtvā sarpantaṃ teha sarva eva menire yaṃ vai yajña iti te hocuḥ | aśvibhyāṃ tiṣṭha sarasvatyai tiṣṭhendrāya tiṣṭheti sa sasarpaivāgnaye tiṣṭheti tatastasthāvagnaye vāasthāditi tamagnāveva parigṛhya sarvahutamajuhavurāhutirhidevānāṃ tata ebhyo yajñaḥ prārocata tamasṛjanta tamatanvata so 'yam paro 'varaṃ yajño 'nūcyate pitaiva putrāya brahmacāriṇe They went on praising and toiling; for by (religious) toil,
26144-615: 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
26316-501: The southeast corners of a Hindu temple. However, in rare temples where Agni is envisioned as a presiding astrological divinity, according to texts such as the Samarangana Sutradhara , he is assigned the northeast corner. Agni is historically considered to be present in every grihastha (home), and therein presented in one of three forms – gārhapatya (for general domestic usage), āhavaniya (for inviting and welcoming
26488-401: The southeast direction , he is typically found in southeast corners of Hindu temples . In the classical cosmology of Hinduism , fire ( Agni ) is one of the five inert impermanent elements ( Pañcabhūtá ) along with sky ( Ākāśa ), water ( Apas ), air ( Vāyu ) and earth ( Pṛthvī ), the five combining to form the empirically perceived material existence ( Prakṛti ). In the Vedas , Agni is
26660-1226: The spade ( abhri; SB 3.5.4.4, 3.6.1.4, 3.7.1.1, 6.3.1.39; see section on Varaha, below), and the firepan ( ukha ; SB 6.6.2.5). The (generative) principle of gender (i.e. male and female coupling to produce something) is pervasive throughout (as reflected by the Sanskrit language itself). kūrmamupadadhāti | raso vai kūrmo rasamevaitadupadadhāti yo vai sa eṣāṃ lokānāmapsu praviddhānām parāṅraso 'tyakṣaratsa eṣa kūrmastamevaitadupadadhāti yāvānu vai rasastāvānātmā sa eṣa ima eva lokāḥ tasya yadadharaṃ kapālam | ayaṃ sa lokastatpratiṣṭhitamiva bhavati pratiṣṭhita iva hyayaṃ loko 'tha yaduttaraṃ sā dyaustadbyavagṛhītāntamiva bhavati vyavagṛhītānteva hi dyauratha yadantarā tadantarikṣaṃ sa eṣa ima eva lokā imānevaitallokānupadadhāti... sa yaḥ kūrmo 'sau sa ādityo | 'mumevaitadādityamupadadhāti taṃ purastātpratyañcamupadadhātyamuṃ tadādityam purastātpratyañcaṃ dadhāti tasmādasāvādityaḥ purastātpratyaṅ dhīyate dakṣiṇato 'ṣāḍhāyai vṛṣā vai kūrmo yoṣāṣāḍhā dakṣiṇato vai vṛṣā yoṣāmupaśete 'ratnimātre 'ratnimātrāddhi vṛṣā yoṣāmupaśete saiṣā sarvāsāmiṣṭakānām mahiṣī yadaṣāḍhaitasyai dakṣiṇataḥ santsarvāsāmiṣṭakānāṃ dakṣiṇato bhavati He then puts down
26832-653: 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
27004-669: The use of iron , so it cannot be dated earlier than c. 1200–1000 BCE, while it reflects cultural, philosophical, and socio-political developments that are later than other Iron Age texts (such as the Atharvaveda ) and only slightly earlier than the time of the Buddha (c. 5th century BCE) tarhi videgho māthava āsa | sarasvatyāṃ sa tata eva prāṅdahannabhīyāyemām pṛthivīṃ taṃ gotamaśca rāhūgaṇo videghaśca māthavaḥ paścāddahantamanvīyatuḥ sa imāḥ sarvā nadīratidadāha sadānīretyuttarādgirernirghāvati tāṃ haiva nātidadāha tāṃ ha sma tām purā brāhmaṇā na tarantyanatidagdhāgninā vaiśvānareṇeti Mâthava,
27176-408: 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
27348-564: 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
27520-513: The water-dwellers... both fish and fishermen... it is these he instructs; – 'the Itihasa is the Veda '.' Narasimha destroyed the Asura -King Hiranyakashipu , who after undertaking severe penances, was granted a boon by Brahma that he could not be killed inside or outside any residence, on the ground or in the sky, or by any god, human, animal, or weapon. The man-lion avatar of Vishnu thus put
27692-435: The water. The juice which flowed from it became a tortoise; and that which was spirted upwards (became) what is produced above here over the wafers. This whole (earth) dissolved itself all over the water: all this (universe) appeared as one form only, namely, water. Vak (speech) is female (e.g. SB 1.2.5.15, 1.3.3.8, 3.2.1.19, 3.2.1.22). Used in ritual sacrifices , so is the sacrificial altar ( Vedi ; SB 3.5.1.33, 3.5.1.35),
27864-492: The wrong path of sin". In sections 4.5–6 of the Maitri Upanishad , the students ask their Hindu Guru (teacher) Maitri about which deity is best among deities they name, a list that includes Agni. The Guru replies that they are all supreme, all merely forms of the Brahman, the whole world is Brahman. So pick anyone, says the Upanishad, meditate and adore that one, then meditate over them all, then deny and discard
28036-564: The Śukla (white) Yajurveda . The remaining 5 books of the Shatapatha cover supplementary and ritualistically newer material; the content of the 14th and last book constitutes the Bṛhad-Āraṇyaka Upaniṣad . The IGNCA also provides further structural comparison between the recensions, noting that the 'names of the Kandas also vary between the two (versions) and the sequence in which they appear': The IGNCA adds that 'the division of Kandika
28208-502: 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
28380-408: 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
28552-427: 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
28724-472: 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
28896-738: 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
29068-534: Was an oblation to the gods. Then the sacrifice pleased them; they produced it, they spread it. And this same sacrifice is taught by the former to the later; the father (teaches it) to his son when he is a student (brahmakârin). Macdonell also notes another instance in the Taittiriya Samhita (2.6.3; relating to the Krishna (Black) YajurVeda ), where Prajapati assigns sacrifices for the gods and places
29240-433: Was born. Offended by Agni, Bhṛgu had cursed Agni to become the devourer of all things on this earth, but Brahma modified that curse and made Agni the purifier of all things he touched. In the "Khāṇḍava-daha Parva" ( Mahābhārata CCXXV), Agni in disguise approaches Krishna and Arjuna seeking sufficient food for gratification of his hunger; and on being asked about the kind of food which would gratify, Agni expressed
29412-424: Was created (set free). It pervaded everything here; and because it pervaded (âp) whatsoever there was here, therefore (it is called) water (âpah); and because it covered (var), therefore also it (is called) water (vâr). He desired, 'May I be reproduced from these waters!' He entered the waters with that triple science. Thence an egg arose. He touched it. 'Let it exist! let it exist and multiply!' so he said. From it
29584-442: 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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