The Hindu calendar is based on a geocentric model of the Solar System . A geocentric model describes the Solar System as seen by an observer on the surface of the Earth.
122-573: Traditional A panchāngam ( Sanskrit : पञ्चाङ्गम् ; IAST : pañcāṅgam ) is a Hindu calendar and almanac , which follows traditional units of Hindu timekeeping, and presents important dates and their calculations in a tabulated form. It is sometimes spelled Panchāngamu, Pancanga , Panchanga , Panchaanga , or Panchānga , and is often pronounced Panchāng . Panchangas are used in Jyotisha ( Jyotiṣa ) (Indian astrology). In Nepal and Eastern India, including Assam , Bengal and Odisha ,
244-509: A pakṣa , the Moon advances 180° with respect to the Earth-Sun axis. A cāndramāsa ( Sanskrit : चन्द्रमास ) is the time taken by the moon to move from a new moon to the next new moon (as per the amānta [ Sanskrit : अमान्त ] tradition ) or a full moon to the next full moon (as per the pūrṇimānta [ Sanskrit : पूर्णिमान्त ] tradition). In other words a cāndramāsa is the synodic period of
366-538: A committee was appointed by the Government of India with experts in the field drawn from various parts of the country who were involved with preparation of Panchāngam in local languages to draw up a reliable Panchāngam in which the mathematical calculations provides the positions of grahas (the planets ) and nakshatras ( constellations ) in the sky as they are observed. Thus, the Government of India has prepared
488-476: 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." Astronomical basis of the Hindu calendar#sauravarsha The Hindu calendar defines nine measures of time ( Sanskrit : मान IAST : māna ): Of these, only
610-433: 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
732-441: A ghaṭikā, or just under 24 seconds. A prāṇa ( Sanskrit : प्राण ) or asu ( Sanskrit : असु ) is one sixth of a vighaṭikā, or just under four seconds. Sāvana māna ( Sanskrit : सावन मान ) of the Hindu calendar defines civil time . A dina ( Sanskrit : दिन ) is the time between two succeeding sunrises. dina corresponds to the concept of a solar day . The length of a dina varies with daytime length . Apart from
854-591: 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
976-658: 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
1098-454: 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
1220-479: 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
1342-546: 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
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#17327836197451464-578: 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
1586-538: 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
1708-633: A sign or the Julian calendar of starting the year from the first of January, but the most widely accepted practice in India is the Samvatsara, a 60 years cycle based on solar entry. Each zodiacal sign is represented by five years starting from Pramadi and the sixty years are equally distributed in successive order among the twelve signs (Rasis) starting from Mesha (Aries) and ending in Meena (Pisces). Varsha or
1830-439: 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
1952-410: A sāvana dina Above that a nakṣatra dina is divided into ghaṭikā (of 24 modern minutes each) and vighaṭikā (of 24 modern seconds each). These same units are used to subdivide a savana dina using sunrise as the starting point, i.e. the first 24 minutes after sunrise constitute the first ghaṭikā, the next 24 minutes the second ghaṭikā and so on. pitṛpakṣa pitṛpakṣa ( Sanskrit : पितृपक्ष )
2074-711: 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
2196-413: Is a mirror of the sky. The document used as Panchāngam has evolved over the last 5000 years. The theories propounded in the two scriptures, Surya Siddhanta and Grahalaghava formed the basis for the plethora of calendars or Panchāngas in the past in different regions of the country - a culturally complex system. The five Angas or parts of Panchāngam are elaborated in the following paragraphs but before that
2318-516: 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
2440-437: Is also possible that an entire tithi elapses between two sunrises, i.e. the Moon traverses a 12° arc in between two sunrises (it enters the arc after one sunrise and exits the arc before the next sunrise). In this such a case, neither sāvana dina will be associated with this tithi, i.e. this tithi will be skipped over in the calendar. Such a tithi is referred to as a kṣaya ( Sanskrit : क्षय ) (lost) tithi . Subdivisions of
2562-445: Is considered to be dvādaśī tithi. adhika tithi and kṣaya tithi It is possible that two consecutive sunrises may have the same tithi, i.e. the Moon continues to remain within the same 12° arc across two consecutive sunrises. In such a case, two consecutive sāvana dina will be associated with the same tithi. The tithi associated with the second sāvana dina is referred to as a adhika ( Sanskrit : अधिक ) (additional) tithi . It
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#17327836197452684-538: Is followed in Muhurtha astrology, Horary astrology and predictive astrology, which envisages grouping of Nakshtaras (stars) into nine sub-groups. Each sub-group covers three stars and has a specific name of ‘Tara’ proceeded by a word defining benefic or malefic nature. These are found to be extremely useful in Vedic astrology which is widely practiced in India. The nine taras (star groups) by their individual names are listed below. The basic purpose of Hindu Panchāngam
2806-452: 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
2928-487: Is fundamental. In addition favourable transits, purified ascendant, absence of malefic yogas, favourable Dasha (Hindu progression), name of doer, propitiations, chanting of Mantras, place of activity, social customs, omens, mode of breathing are also examined. Sanskrit language Sanskrit ( / ˈ s æ n s k r ɪ t / ; attributively 𑀲𑀁𑀲𑁆𑀓𑀾𑀢𑀁 , संस्कृत- , saṃskṛta- ; nominally संस्कृतम् , saṃskṛtam , IPA: [ˈsɐ̃skr̩tɐm] )
3050-526: Is held to be reliable, because other elements are not so difficult to compute due to their slow rates of change. There are three popular meanings of panchāngam: In Vedic astrology, the basic tenet of astrology was integrated with celestial events and thus was born various branches of Vedic astrology and the Panchānga. In simple terms, "Panchānga" means the Day, Nakshatra (Star), tithi, Yoga and Karana every day. It
3172-501: Is known as a saṅkramaṇa ( Sanskrit : सङ्क्रमण ) or saṅkrānti ( Sanskrit : सङ्क्रान्ति ). These time periods are defined based on the solstices ( Sanskrit : अयन; IAST : ayana ) and equinoxes ( Sanskrit : विषुवत्; IAST : viṣuvat ). The time taken by the Sun to move from the winter solstice to the summer solstice is known as northward movement ( Sanskrit : उत्तरायण , romanized : uttarāyaṇa ) and time taken by
3294-583: Is necessary to know the terminology used in the Panchāngam for different time slots of the day. Panchāngas are also published in English as Ephemeris - The Lahiris Ephemeris is most widely used, which gives all the details as contained in a traditional Panchāngam published in Sanskrit or Hindi and all the regional languages of the country. There are several forms of reckoning the varsha or year based on solar entry (solar ingress), lunar entry , Jupiter entry in
3416-464: Is one, Vishvavijaya Panchāngam , that covers 100 years. The theories propounded in the two scriptures, Surya Siddhanta and Grahalaghava formed the basis for the myriad calendars or Panchāngas in the past in different regions of India. The Grahalaghava was compiled about 600 years ago and Surya Siddhanta was available long before that. These had become outdated and did not tally with actual astronomical events and did not tally with each other. Hence,
3538-532: 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
3660-477: Is shorter than the saura māna varṣa by about eleven sāvana dina. As a result, unless explicitly synchronised, these two parts of the calendar will diverge over time, as the cāndra māna varṣa will keep "falling behind" the saura māna varṣa. In order to synchronise these two parts of the calendar, an additional cāndramāsa is introduced into some cāndra māna varṣa. Such a cāndramāsa is referred to as adhikamāsa ( Sanskrit : अधिकमास ) . A adhikamāsa takes its name from
3782-479: 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,
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3904-399: Is the lunar months (full moon reckoned), which are reckoned in predictive astrology, and each represents the name of the star on full moon day of the solar months. The twelve lunar months starting from Chaitra along with the names of the solar months are given below. In Vedic astrology, the basic tenets of astrology were integrated with celestial events with vara or weekday and thus was born
4026-589: 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
4148-463: Is the time taken by the Sun to orbit the Earth once and return to the starting point with respect to the fixed stars. The starting point is taken to be the position of the Sun when it is in opposition to Spica ( Sanskrit : चित्रा , romanized : citrā ). . A rāśi ( Sanskrit : राशि ) is a 30° arc of the orbit of the Sun around the Earth (i.e an arc of the ecliptic ). Starting in
4270-466: Is then associated with the entire sāvana dina. To illustrate: consider the Gregorian date 18th Sep 2021 . Instead of referring to it as "2nd dina of kanyā masa" Hindus will refer to it as " bhādrapada māsa, śukla pakṣa, dvitiyā tithi", which is the tithi prevailing at sunrise on that sāvana dina. Even though the Moon moves into the trayodaśī arc soon after sunrise (at 6:54AM), that entire sāvana dina
4392-512: Is to check various Hindu festivals and auspicious time (election- Muhurta). In the Hindu system of election, various element of Panchāngam constitute auspicious and inauspicious moments (Yogas) by combination of weekday-Tithi, weekday-constellation, weekdays-Tithis-constellations. In addition, individual weekdays, Tithis, constellations, Yoga and Karanas have been prescribed for specific activities which fructify during their currency. For selecting an auspicious moment Panchāngam Shuddhi (purified-time)
4514-540: 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
4636-580: 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
4758-613: 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
4880-602: The National Panchānga or the Indian national calendar in 1957 (was proposed by Meghnad Saha and Lahiri in 1952), which is used in predictive astrology . The Lahiris Ephemeris published annually is the most widely used English almanac in Vedic astrology, many Panchāngas are published in local languages, which are mostly based on the National Panchānga. The[Bangalore press publishes Mallige Panchanga Darshini calendar every year Accuracy of attributes depending upon
5002-753: 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
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5124-532: 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 ,
5246-531: 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
5368-504: The pakṣa , i.e. prathama (first), dvitīya (second) etc. The fifteenth, that is, the last tithi of a kṛṣṇa pakṣa is called amāvāsya (new moon) and the fifteenth tithi of a śukla pakṣa is called pūrṇimā (full moon). The saura māna ( Sanskrit : सौर मान ) of the Hindu calendar is defined by the movement of the Earth around the Sun. It contains sidereal ( Sanskrit : निरयन; nirayana ) and tropical ( Sanskrit : सायन; sāyana ) elements. A saura māna varṣa or sidereal year
5490-406: 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
5612-500: 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
5734-414: 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
5856-532: 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
5978-425: 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
6100-532: 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
6222-521: 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
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#17327836197456344-399: The Earth on its axis. This definition is not used in practice but is required for defining the following smaller units of time. Ā dina is ~4 minutes short of 24 hours. A ghaṭikā ( Sanskrit : घटिका ) or nāḍī ( Sanskrit : नाडी ) is one sixtieth of a nakṣatra dina, or just under 24 minutes. A vighaṭikā ( Sanskrit : विघटिका ) or vināḍī ( Sanskrit : विनाडी ) is one sixtieth of
6466-422: The Earth. Ṛtu corresponds to the concept of a season. The six ṛtu of the year are known as Nākṣatra māna ( Sanskrit : नाक्षत्र मान ) is defined with respect to the fixed stars, so all elements are sidereal in nature. A dina ( Sanskrit : दिन ) is the time taken by the celestial sphere to complete one sidereal rotation around the Earth. In reality, this movement is caused by the diurnal rotation of
6588-439: The Hindu calendar defines the following synodic calendar elements: A pakṣa ( Sanskrit : पक्ष ) is the time taken by the Moon to move from a new moon to a full moon and vice versa. The waxing phase of the moon is known as the bright side ( Sanskrit : शुक्ल पक्ष , romanized : śukla pakṣa ) and the waning phase is known as the dark side ( Sanskrit : कृष्ण पक्ष , romanized : kṛṣṇa pakṣa ). During
6710-476: 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
6832-519: 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
6954-443: The Moon's motions were considered most crucial for the reliability of a panchāngam, because the Moon is the fastest among all heavenly entities shown in traditional panchāngas. Tithi, Nakshatra, Rāśi, Yoga, and Karana depend upon Moon's motions, which are five in number. Panchānga is a Sanskrit word, literally meaning "having five limbs". If these five limbs, for example, the five attributes depending upon Moon, are accurate, an almanac
7076-404: The Moon, or two pakṣas . During a cāndramāsa , the Moon advances 360° with respect to the Earth-Sun axis. A candra māna varṣa or lunar year is made up of 12 consecutive candramāsa . These twelve candramāsa are designated by unique names caitra , vaiśākha , etc. In some instances an additional candramāsa , known as an adhikamāsa , is added to synchronise the candra māna varṣa with
7198-465: The Muhurtha astrology or electional astrology. Tithi or Lunar day is an important concept in Hindu astrology. It means lunation. There are thirty tithis in a Lunar month distributed in the 360 degrees of the Zodiac and each tithi is completed when the longitude of the Moon gains exactly twelve degrees or its multiple on that of the Sun. By name there are only 15 tithis repeating in the two halves of
7320-532: 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
7442-496: 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
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#17327836197457564-652: The Panchangam is referred to as Panjika , and in the Mithila region, it is known as Maithili Panchang or Patra. Panchāngams are published in India by many authors, societies, academies, and universities. Different publications differ only minutely, at least for a casual or not yet trained reader. They forecast celestial phenomena such as solar eclipses , forecasting weather (rain, dry spells) as well as more mundane occurrences. The study of Panchāngams involves understanding Rasi phala (also pronounced 'Rashi phala'),
7686-499: 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
7808-638: 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
7930-415: The Sun to move from the spring equinox ( ecliptic longitude 0°) to the autumnal equinox (ecliptic longitude 180°) is known as devayāna ( Sanskrit : देवयान ). The time taken by the Sun to move from the autumnal equinox to the spring equinox is designated as pitṛyāṇa ( Sanskrit : पितृयाण ). Due to the axial tilt of the Earth, the Sun appears to be in the north celestial sphere during devayāna and
8052-491: The Sun to move from the summer solstice to the winter solstice is called southward movement Sanskrit : दक्षिणायन , romanized : dakṣiṇāyana . Due to the axial tilt of the Earth, the Sun appears to move towards the north from the Tropic of Capricorn to the Tropic of Cancer during uttarāyaṇa , and towards the south from the tropic of Cancer to the tropic of Capricorn during dakṣiṇāyana . The time taken by
8174-447: 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
8296-451: 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
8418-407: 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
8540-440: 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
8662-527: 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
8784-547: The composition of the Samvatsara OR Years (60 Years cycle), Varsha or Year and Masa or month are first explained, as these important calendar events are part of every Panchānga. All the components of Panchangam are relevant in Predictive Astrology, Prasna Shastra (electional astrology), etc. All followers and practitioners of Vedic astrology must know how to read a Panchāngam and in this context it
8906-614: 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
9028-653: 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
9150-420: The cāndra māna and sāvana māna of the calendar define the concept of a day as tithi and dina respectively. dina are not named and are not used for calendric purposes. The tithi takes precedence instead. Human life is regulated by the rising of the Sun and not by the movement of the Moon through a 12° arc. Hence, the position of the Moon at sunrise is used to determine the tithi prevailing at sunrise. This tithi
9272-467: 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
9394-471: 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
9516-460: 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
9638-490: 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
9760-548: 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
9882-412: 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
10004-409: The four māna explained above, the concept of nakṣatra is an important characteristic of the Hindu calendar. This term has multiple meanings: The four māna explained above are used in combination in the Hindu calendar. adhikamāsa As seen above, both the cāndra māna and saura māna of the calendar define a varṣa comprising twelve māsa, but the duration of the varṣa differ; the cāndra māna varṣa
10126-537: 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
10248-431: 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
10370-428: The impact of the signs of the zodiac on the individual. Astrologers consult the Panchāngam to set auspicious dates for weddings , corporate mergers, and other activities as per their religion. The casting of a Panchāngam involves elaborate mathematical work involving high level of spherical geometry and sound understanding of astronomical phenomena, such as sidereal movements of celestial bodies. However, in practice
10492-486: 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
10614-432: 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
10736-405: The last four are in active use and are explained here. The candra māna ( Sanskrit : चन्द्र मान ) of the Hindu calendar is defined based on the movement of the Moon around the Earth. The new moon ( Sanskrit : अमावास्य , romanized : amāvāsya ) and full moon ( Sanskrit : पूर्णिमा , romanized : pūrṇimā ) are important markers in this calendar. The candra māna of
10858-412: 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
10980-514: 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 ,
11102-511: 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
11224-479: The month – Shukla 1 to Shukla 15 (known as Poornima or Full Moon) and Krishna 1 to 15 (known as Amavasya or New Moon). In astrological parlance tithi has great significance in the fact that each tithi from 1 to 14 in both Pakshas has what are called daghda rasis or burnt rasis – two rasis for each tithi except Chaturdasiwhich has four daghda rasis. But new moon and full moon have no dagdha rasis. The tithis are divided into five groups as under. A unique Vedic system
11346-429: 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
11468-401: 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
11590-602: 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
11712-420: The name of the cāndramāsa which follows, viz. adhika āśvina precedes āśvina. Most times every cāndramāsa witnesses a saṅkramaṇa . If a cāndramāsa does not witness a saṅkramaṇa, that cāndramāsa is designated as a adhikamāsa thus resulting in the cāndra māna varṣa "catching up" with the saura māna varṣa. This happens approximately once every two and a half (solar) years. dina and tithi As seen above, both
11834-545: 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,
11956-403: 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
12078-431: 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
12200-414: 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
12322-439: 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
12444-480: 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
12566-609: 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
12688-497: 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,
12810-562: 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
12932-496: 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
13054-556: 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
13176-615: 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
13298-464: The solar year or saura māna varṣa . A tithi ( Sanskrit : तिथि ) is the time taken by the Moon to advance 12° with respect to the Earth-Sun axis. In other words a tithi is the time taken for the Moon's elongation (on the ecliptic plane ) to increase by 12°. A tithi is one fifteenth of a pakṣa and one thirtieth of a cāndramāsa . A tithi corresponds to the concept of a lunar day. Tithi have Sanskrit numbers according by their position in
13420-407: The south celestial sphere during pitṛyāṇa . In Hindu tradition, the north celestial sphere is consecrated to the gods (deva) and the south celestial sphere is consecrated to the ancestors (pitṛ). Devayāna and pitṛyāṇa are not in active calendric use any longer but do form the basis for pitṛpakṣa . A ṛtu ( Sanskrit : ऋतु ) is the time taken by the Sun to move sixty degrees on its orbit around
13542-504: The tabulation is done on the basis of short-cut formulations as propounded by ancient Vedic sages and scholars. A typical Panchāngam may state tabulations of positions of Sun , Moon , and other planets for every day of the year on a fixed place (longitude, latitude) and time of day (in 24-hour format IST). The users calculate the remaining data using their relative difference from this fixed place and time. There are several panchāngas that contain information for more than one year. There
13664-653: 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
13786-408: 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
13908-564: 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
14030-403: The vicinity of Zeta Piscium ( IAST : revatī), the twelve (i.e. 360° divided by 30°) rāśi are designated meṣa ( Sanskrit : मेष ), vṛṣabha ( Sanskrit : वृषभ ) etc. A sauramāsa ( Sanskrit : सौरमास ) is the time taken by the Sun to traverse a rāśi. Sauramāsa get their names from the corresponding rāśi. sauramāsa corresponds to the concept of a month. The moment in time when the Sun enters a rāśi
14152-537: The year, used in astrological context refers to the solar calendar of year and months, which starts with Sun entering Aries (Mesha Rasi) and completing a full circle of the zodiac in a period of twelve months. There are two kinds of lunar months followed in India - the new moon ending called the Amanta or Sukladi system and the full moon ending (covering one full moon to the next) called the Purnimanta system. But it
14274-502: 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
14396-408: 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
14518-427: 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
14640-472: 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
14762-738: 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
14884-442: 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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