174-475: The Tejobindu Upanishad ( Sanskrit : तेजोबिन्दु उपनिषद्) is a minor Upanishad in the corpus of Upanishadic texts of Hinduism . It is one of the five Bindu Upanishads , all attached to the Atharvaveda , and one of twenty Yoga Upanishads in the four Vedas . The text is notable for its focus on meditation , calling dedication to bookish learning as rubbish, emphasizing practice instead, and presenting
348-848: A Guru , respect him and strive to learn from him, states the text. Definition of Yamas Yamas is restraining organs of perception and action, in and through knowledge. — Tejobindu Upanishad 1.17 The Tejobindu Upanishad begins its discussion of Yoga, with a list of fifteen Angas (limbs), as follows: Yamas (self control), Niyama (right observances), Tyaga (renunciation), Mauna (silence, inner quietness), Desa (right place, seclusion), Kala (right time), Asana (correct posture), Mula-bandha (yogic root-lock technique), Dehasamyama (body equilibrium, no quivering), Drksthiti (mind equilibrium, stable introspection), Pranasamyama (breath equilibrium), Pratyahara (withdrawal of senses), Dharana (concentration), Atma - dhyana (meditation on Universal Self), Samadhi (identification with individual self
522-445: A beautiful face in a soiled mirror, Seeing that reflection I wish myself you, an individual soul, as if I could be finite! A finite soul, an infinite Goddess – these are false concepts, in the minds of those unacquainted with truth, No space, my loving devotee, exists between your self and my self, Know this and you are free. This is the secret wisdom. The concept of moksha , according to Daniel Ingalls , represented one of
696-522: A concept common in Buddhism, is accompanied by the realization that all experienced phenomena are not self ; while moksha , a concept common in many schools of Hinduism, is acceptance of Self (soul), realization of liberating knowledge, the consciousness of Oneness with Brahman, all existence and understanding the whole universe as the Self. Nirvana starts with the premise that there is no Self, moksha on
870-421: 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." Moksha Traditional Moksha ( / ˈ m oʊ k ʃ ə / ; Sanskrit : मोक्ष , mokṣa ), also called vimoksha , vimukti , and mukti ,
1044-433: 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
1218-624: A form of Brahman. The one who is liberated, knows himself to be sat-chit-ananda Renouncing greed, delusion, fear, pride, anger, love, sin, Renouncing the pride of the Brahmin descent, and all the rubbish liberation texts, Knowing no fear, nor lust, nor pain, nor respect, nor disrespect any more, Because Brahman is free from all these things, the highest goal of all endeavor. The Tejobindu Upanishad, states Laurence Rosan, Professor and Departmental Representative in University of Chicago ,
1392-591: 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
1566-658: 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
1740-405: A middle Upanishadic-era script dated to the second half of the first millennium BCE, is among the earliest expositions about saṃsāra and moksha . In Book I, Section III, the legend of boy Naciketa queries Yama , the lord of death to explain what causes saṃsāra and what leads to liberation. Naciketa inquires: what causes sorrow? Yama explains that suffering and saṃsāra results from a life that
1914-454: 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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#17328019536642088-479: 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
2262-546: 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
2436-592: A person to be more truly a person in the full sense; the concept presumes an unused human potential of creativity, compassion and understanding which had been blocked and shut out. Moksha is more than liberation from a life-rebirth cycle of suffering ( samsara ); the Vedantic school separates this into two: jivanmukti (liberation in this life) and videhamukti (liberation after death). Moksha in this life includes psychological liberation from adhyasa (fears besetting one's life) and avidya (ignorance or anything that
2610-578: 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
2784-500: A repeated process of rebirth. This bondage to repeated rebirth and life, each life subject to injury, disease and aging, was seen as a cycle of suffering. By release from this cycle, the suffering involved in this cycle also ended. This release was called moksha , nirvana , kaivalya , mukti and other terms in various Indian religious traditions but as per Hindu scripture veda one can attain mokhsha by giving up shadripu ( kama, lobha, krodha, moha, mada and matsarya). A desire for
2958-538: 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
3132-439: 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
3306-507: A way to liberation ( moksha ). In Sāmkhya literature, liberation is commonly referred to as kaivalya . In this school, kaivalya means the realization of purusa , the principle of consciousness, as independent from mind and body, as different from prakrti . Like many schools of Hinduism, in Sāmkhya and Yoga schools, the emphasis is on the attainment of knowledge, vidyā or jñāna , as necessary for salvific liberation, moksha . Yoga's purpose
3480-527: Is Karma Yoga , the way of works. The fourth mārga is Rāja Yoga , the way of contemplation and meditation. These mārgas are part of different schools in Hinduism, and their definition and methods to moksha . For example, the Advaita Vedanta school relies on Jñāna Yoga in its teachings of moksha . The marga s need not lead to all forms of moksha, according to some schools of Hinduism. For example,
3654-427: Is Brahman alone. The Buddhist concept of "Anatman" (not-self) is a false concept, asserts Ribhu, and there is no such thing as Anatman by reason that it contradicts the existence of free will. The Anatman concept that assumes absence of consciousness is flawed because if consciousness is nonexistent then nothing could be conceived, just like no destination could be reached in the absence of feet, and no work can be done in
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#17328019536643828-689: Is a central concept and the utmost aim of human life; the other three aims are dharma (virtuous, proper, moral life), artha (material prosperity, income security, means of life), and kama (pleasure, sensuality, emotional fulfillment). Together, these four concepts are called Puruṣārtha in Hinduism. In some schools of Indian religions, moksha is considered equivalent to and used interchangeably with other terms such as vimoksha , vimukti , kaivalya , apavarga , mukti , nihsreyasa , and nirvana . However, terms such as moksha and nirvana differ and mean different states between various schools of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. The term nirvana
4002-493: Is a classic in the history of absolute subjective idealism. The Neoplatonism of Proclus , though not identical, parallels the monistic idealism found in Tejobindu Upanishad. The 5th-century CE philosopher Proclus of Greece proposed organic unity of all levels of reality, the integrative immanence of One Reality, and universal love. These ideas independently appear, states Rosan, in Tejobindu Upanishad as well, in
4176-524: Is a compound word of sara and sva , meaning "essence of self". After the prayer verses, the Upanishad inquires about the secret to freedom and liberation (mukti). Sarasvati's reply in the Upanishad is: It was through me the Creator himself gained liberating knowledge, I am being, consciousness, bliss, eternal freedom: unsullied, unlimited, unending. My perfect consciousness shines your world, like
4350-628: Is a fairly detailed Hindu treatise on Raja Yoga . Sanskrit 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 the Indo-European languages . It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from
4524-537: Is a false impression created by mind: Then the text asserts again the truth that the Unchanging is the Atman. It is also stated that this chapter is probably a later addition to the original version of the Upanishad. The last chapter continues the discourse attributed to Muni Nidagha and the Vedic age Ribhu . Everything is of the nature of Sat-Chit-Ananda , existence-consciousness-bliss, asserts Ribhu. Sat-Chit-Ananda
4698-523: Is a soul or after life moksha . Both Sāmkhya and Yoga systems of religious thought are mokshaśāstras , suggests Knut Jacobsen , they are systems of salvific liberation and release. Sāmkhya is a system of interpretation, primarily a theory about the world. Yoga is both a theory and a practice. Yoga gained wide acceptance in ancient India, its ideas and practices became part of many religious schools in Hinduism, including those that were very different from Sāmkhya. The eight limbs of yoga can be interpreted as
4872-492: Is a term in Hinduism , Buddhism , Jainism , and Sikhism for various forms of emancipation, liberation, nirvana , or release. In its soteriological and eschatological senses, it refers to freedom from saṃsāra , the cycle of death and rebirth . In its epistemological and psychological senses, moksha is freedom from ignorance: self-realization, self-actualization and self-knowledge. In Hindu traditions, moksha
5046-516: 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
5220-537: Is also called Vishnu, it is consciousness as such. This discussion in Tejobindu Upanishad, a Yoga Upanishad, is entirely compatible with the discussions in the major Vedanta Upanishads. In the shorter manuscript version, translates Eknath Easwaran , "the Brahman gives himself through his infinite grace to ones who abandon the viewpoint of duality". The chapter 4 of the Upanishad, in a discourse from Shiva to his son Kumara, describes Jivanmukta as follows (abridged): He
5394-459: Is because a guru can help one develop knowledge of maya (the illusionary nature of the world), a critical step on the path to moksha. Shankara cautions that the guru and historic knowledge may be distorted, so traditions and historical assumptions must be questioned by the individual seeking moksha . Those who are on their path to moksha (samnyasin), suggests Klaus Klostermaier , are quintessentially free individuals, without craving for anything in
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5568-620: Is closely related to the Neoplatonic doctrine of Proclus. The Tejobindu stands as a wonderful monument in the history of subjective monistic idealism, the Tejobindu is a victorious, fully accomplished statement. It is also said that the nondualism concept in Tejobindu is philosophic, it is metaphysics and cannot be reduced to phenomenology . The text has also been important to the historical study of Indian yoga traditions. Klaus Klostermaier , for example, states that Tejobindu Upanishad
5742-496: Is considered timeless, eliminating the cycle of birth and death ( samsara ). Advaita Vedanta emphasizes Jnana Yoga as the means of achieving moksha . Bliss, claims this school, is the fruit of knowledge (vidya) and work (karma). The Dvaita (dualism) traditions define moksha as the loving, eternal union with God and considered the highest perfection of existence. Dvaita schools suggest every soul encounters liberation differently. Dualist traditions (e.g. Vaishnava ) see God as
5916-467: Is continuous and everywhere. Moksha , suggests Shankara, is a final perfect, blissful state where there can be no change, where there can be no plurality of states. It has to be a state of thought and consciousness that excludes action. He questioned: "How can action-oriented techniques by which we attain the first three goals of man ( kama , artha and dharma ) be useful to attain the last goal, namely moksha ?" Scholars suggest Shankara's challenge to
6090-410: Is difference between these ideas, as explained elsewhere in this article, but they are all soteriological concepts of various Indian religious traditions. The six major orthodox schools of Hinduism have had a historic debate, and disagree over whether moksha can be achieved in this life, or only after this life. Many of the 108 Upanishads discuss amongst other things moksha . These discussions show
6264-457: Is dropped). The Tejobindu briefly defines these fifteen limbs in verses 1.17 to 1.37, without details. The verses 1.38 to 1.51 describe the difficulty in achieving meditation and Samadhi, and ways to overcome these difficulties. One must function in the world and be good at what one does, improve upon it, yet avoid longing, state verses 1.44–1.45. Physical yoga alone does not provide the full results, unless introspection and right knowledge purifies
6438-526: Is essential to Buddhist nirvana. Realization of atman (atta) is essential to Hindu moksha . Ancient literature of different schools of Hinduism sometimes use different phrases for moksha . For example, Keval jnana or kaivalya ("state of Absolute"), Apavarga , Nihsreyasa , Paramapada , Brahmabhava , Brahmajnana and Brahmi sthiti . Modern literature additionally uses the Buddhist term nirvana interchangeably with moksha of Hinduism. There
6612-452: 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
6786-584: Is freedom. Kathaka Upanishad also explains the role of yoga in personal liberation, moksha . The Svetasvatara Upanishad , another middle-era Upanishad written after Kathaka Upanishad , begins with questions such as why is man born? what is the primal cause behind the universe? what causes joy and sorrow in life? It then examines the various theories, that were then existing, about saṃsāra and release from bondage. Svetasvatara claims that bondage results from ignorance, illusion or delusion; deliverance comes from knowledge. The Supreme Being dwells in every being, he
6960-587: Is known as a Jivan-mukta who stands alone in Atman, who realizes he is transcendent and beyond the concept of transcendence, who understands, "I am pure consciousness, I am Brahman". He knows and feels that there is one Brahman, who is full of exquisite bliss, and that he is He, he is Brahman, he is that bliss of Brahman. His mind is clear, he is devoid of worries, he is beyond egoism, beyond lust, beyond anger, beyond blemish, beyond symbols, beyond his changing body, beyond bondage, beyond reincarnation, beyond precept, beyond religious merit, beyond sin, beyond dualism, beyond
7134-458: Is little, all that is big, and it is Brahman. "Individual One Essence" is identical to but called by many names such as Hari and Rudra , and it is without origin, it is gross, subtle and vast in form. "Individual One Essence" is thou, a mystery, that which is permanent, and that which is the knower. It is the father, it is the mother, it is the sutra, it is the Vira , what is within, what is without,
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7308-468: Is lived absent-mindedly, with impurity, with neither the use of intelligence nor self-examination, where neither mind nor senses are guided by one's atma (soul, self). Liberation comes from a life lived with inner purity, alert mind, led by buddhi (reason, intelligence), realization of the Supreme Self ( purusha ) who dwells in all beings. Kathaka Upanishad asserts knowledge liberates, knowledge
7482-446: Is long, and has six chapters with a cumulative total of 465 verses. The first chapter contains 51 verses, the second has 43 verses, the third with 74 verses, the fourth contains 81 verses, fifth has 105, and the last sixth chapter has 111 verses. Two chapters, in the longer version, are structured as a discourse, with chapters 2 to 4 between Kumara and his father Shiva, and the last two chapters between Nidagha and Ribhu. Deussen states that
7656-465: Is more common in Buddhism, while moksha is more prevalent in Hinduism . Moksha is derived from the Sanskrit root word, muc , which means to free, let go, release, liberate. According to Jain scriptures, it is a combination of two Sanskrit words, moh (attachment) and kshay (its destruction) The definition and meaning of moksha varies between various schools of Indian religions. Moksha means freedom, liberation, but from what and how
7830-454: Is not true knowledge). Many schools of Hinduism according to Daniel Ingalls , see moksha as a state of perfection. The concept was seen as a natural goal beyond dharma . Moksha , in the epics and ancient literature of Hinduism, is seen as achievable by the same techniques necessary to practice dharma . Self-discipline is the path to dharma , moksha is self-discipline that is so perfect that it becomes unconscious, second nature. Dharma
8004-532: 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
8178-501: Is really Real except existence-consciousness-bliss. Ultimately all is Brahman alone. Ribu asserts: Time is Brahman, Art is Brahman, happiness is Brahman, Self-luminousity is Brahman, Brahman is fascination, tranquility, virtue, auspiciousness, inauspiciousness, purity, impurity, all the world is the manifestation of the One Brahman. Brahman is the Self of all, (Atman), there is no world other than that made of Brahman. Know thyself as
8352-464: Is release from such avidya, towards the intuition and eternal union with God. Among the Samkhya, Yoga and Vedanta schools of Hinduism, liberation and freedom reached within one's life is referred to as jivanmukti , and the individual who has experienced this state is called jivanmukta (self-realized person). Dozens of Upanishads, including those from middle Upanishadic period, mention or describe
8526-399: Is seen as a final release from illusion, and through knowledge ( anubhava ) of one's own fundamental nature, which is Satcitananda . Advaita holds there is no being/non-being distinction between Atman , Brahman , and Paramatman . True knowledge is a direct, permanent realization that the Atman and Brahman are one. This realization instantly removes ignorance and leads to moksha , and
8700-534: Is short. It has fourteen verses, describing how difficult meditation is in its first two verses, the requirements for a successful meditative practice in next two, the need for the universal constant Brahman as the radiant focal point of meditation and the nature of Brahman in verses 5 to 11, then closes the text by describing the Yogi who has achieved the state of "liberation, freedom" ( moksha ) while being alive. The manuscript translated by TRS Ayyangar of Adyar Library
8874-479: 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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#17328019536649048-507: Is the imperishable essence of all and everything. In a certain sense there is, translates TRS Ayyangar of Adyar Library , no such thing as "thou", nor "I" nor "other", and all is essentially the absolute Brahman. In the deepest analysis there are no scriptures, no beginning, no end, no misery, no happiness, no illusions, no such thing as arising out of gods, nor evil spirits, nor five elements, no permanence, no transience, no worship, no prayer, no oblation, no mantra, no thief, no kindness, nothing
9222-589: 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
9396-485: Is the primal cause, he is the eternal law, he is the essence of everything, he is nature, he is not a separate entity. Liberation comes to those who know Supreme Being is present as the Universal Spirit and Principle, just as they know butter is present in milk. Such realization, claims Svetasvatara, come from self-knowledge and self-discipline; and this knowledge and realization is liberation from transmigration,
9570-517: Is then seen as a means to remove the avidyā – that is, ignorance or misleading/incorrect knowledge about one self and the universe. It seeks to end ordinary reflexive awareness ( cittavrtti nirodhah ) with deeper, purer and holistic awareness ( asamprājñāta samādhi ). Yoga, during the pursuit of moksha , encourages practice ( abhyāsa ) with detachment ( vairāgya ), which over time leads to deep concentration ( samādhi ). Detachment means withdrawal from outer world and calming of mind, while practice means
9744-406: Is thus a means to moksha . The Samkhya school of Hinduism, for example, suggests that one of the paths to moksha is to magnify one's sattvam . To magnify one's sattvam , one must develop oneself where one's sattvam becomes one's instinctive nature. Many schools of Hinduism thus understood dharma and moksha as two points of a single journey of life, a journey for which the viaticum
9918-411: Is unworldly understanding, a state of bliss. "How can the worldly thought-process lead to unworldly understanding?", asked Nagarjuna. Karl Potter explains the answer to this challenge as one of context and framework, the emergence of broader general principles of understanding from thought processes that are limited in one framework. Adi Shankara in the 8th century AD, like Nagarjuna earlier, examined
10092-405: Is where the schools differ. Moksha is also a concept that means liberation from rebirth or saṃsāra . This liberation can be attained while one is on earth ( jivanmukti ), or eschatologically ( karmamukti , videhamukti ). Some Indian traditions have emphasized liberation on concrete, ethical action within the world. This liberation is an epistemological transformation that permits one to see
10266-540: 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
10440-520: The bhakti schools of Hinduism, is devoted to the worship of God, sings his name, anoints his image or idol, and has many sub-schools. Vaishnavas (followers of Vaishnavism) suggest that dharma and moksha cannot be two different or sequential goals or states of life. Instead, they suggest God should be kept in mind constantly to simultaneously achieve dharma and moksha , so constantly that one comes to feel one cannot live without God's loving presence. This school emphasized love and adoration of God as
10614-637: The Brahmabindu Upanishad , the Amritabindu Upanishad and the Dhyanabindu Upanishad , all forming part of the Atharvaveda . All five of Bindu Upanishads emphasize the practice of Yoga and Dhyana (meditation) with Om, to apprehend Atman (soul, self). Like almost all other Yoga Upanishads, the text is composed in poetic verse form. The text exists in multiple versions. The manuscript translated by Deussen
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#173280195366410788-580: 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
10962-681: The Ekasarana dharma denies the sayujya form of mukti, where the complete absorption in God deprives jiva of the sweetness and bliss associated with bhakti . Madhavadeva begins the Namghoxa by declaring his admiration for devotees who do not prefer mukti . The three main sub-schools in Vedanta school of Hinduism – Advaita Vedanta , Vishistadvaita and Dvaita – each have their own views about moksha . The Vedantic school of Hinduism suggests
11136-613: 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
11310-753: 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
11484-531: 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
11658-663: The Vedanta doctrine from Yoga perspective. The Tejobindu is listed at number 37 in the serial order of the Muktika enumerated by Rama to Hanuman in the modern era anthology of 108 Upanishads. Tejobindu , states Paul Deussen , means "the point representing the power of Brahman ", wherein the point is the Anusvara in Om . The Tejobindu Upanishad is sometimes spelled as Tejabindu Upanishad ( Sanskrit : तेजबिन्दु), such as in
11832-406: 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
12006-500: 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
12180-414: 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
12354-532: 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
12528-566: The 8th century AD, until the arrival of a Mimamsa scholar named Kumarila . Instead of moksha , the Mimamsa school of Hinduism considered the concept of heaven as sufficient to answer the question: what lay beyond this world after death. Other schools of Hinduism, over time, accepted the moksha concept and refined it over time. It is unclear when the core ideas of samsara and moksha developed in ancient India. Patrick Olivelle suggests these ideas likely originated with new religious movements in
12702-425: 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
12876-532: 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
13050-521: 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
13224-476: 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
13398-519: 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
13572-532: 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
13746-496: 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
13920-542: The Nirvana of Buddhism is same as the Brahman in Hinduism, a view other scholars and he disagree with. Buddhism rejects the idea of Brahman , and the metaphysical ideas about soul (atman) are also rejected by Buddhism, while those ideas are essential to moksha in Hinduism. In Buddhism, nirvana is 'blowing out' or 'extinction'. In Hinduism, moksha is 'identity or oneness with Brahman'. Realization of anatta (anatman)
14094-563: The Poona manuscript versions. Mircea Eliade suggests that Tejobindu Upanishad was possibly composed in the same period as the didactic parts of the Mahabharata , the chief Sannyasa Upanishads and along with other early Yoga Upanishads: Brahmabindu (probably composed about the same time as Maitri Upanishad ), Ksurika, Amritabindu , Brahmavidya , Nadabindu , Yogashikha , Dhyanabindu and Yogatattva . Eliade's suggestion places these in
14268-606: The Purusha from what one is not), but from Vedic studies, observance of the Svadharma (personal duties), sticking to Asramas (stages of life). The six major orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy offer the following views on moksha , each for their own reasons: the Nyaya, Vaisesika and Mimamsa schools of Hinduism consider moksha as possible only after death. Samkhya and Yoga schools consider moksha as possible in this life. In
14442-499: 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
14616-638: 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
14790-454: The Vedanta school, the Advaita sub-school concludes moksha is possible in this life, while Dvaita, Visistadvaita, Shuddhadvait sub-schools of Vedanta tradition believes that moksha is a continuous event, one assisted by loving devotion to God, that extends from this life to post-mortem. Beyond these six orthodox schools, some heterodox schools of Hindu tradition, such as Carvaka, deny there
14964-447: 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
15138-451: 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
15312-405: The absence of hands or no death can happen in the absence of birth, states the text in verses 5.16 to 5.21. Anatman is a false notion, asserts the text, as it implies that ethics etc. has no basis to it. The verses in chapter 5 repeat the ideas of the previous chapters. It adds in verses 5.89–5.97 that the idea, "I am my body" is false and the definition of self as body is the reason for bondage. It
15486-459: 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
15660-427: The ancient scholars observed that people vary in the quality of virtuous or sinful life they lead, and began questioning how differences in each person's puṇya (merit, good deeds) or pāp (demerit, sin) as human beings affected their afterlife. This question led to the conception of an afterlife where the person stayed in heaven or hell, in proportion to their merit or demerit, then returned to earth and were reborn,
15834-416: The application of effort over time. Such steps are claimed by Yoga school as leading to samādhi, a state of deep awareness, release and bliss called kaivalya . Yoga, or mārga (meaning "way" or "path"), in Hinduism is widely classified into four spiritual approaches. The first mārga is Jñāna Yoga , the way of knowledge. The second mārga is Bhakti Yoga , the way of loving devotion to God. The third mārga
16008-440: 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
16182-527: 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
16356-495: The collection of Upanishads under the title "Oupanekhat", put together by Sultan Mohammed Dara Shikhoh in 1656, consisting of a Persian translation of 50 Upanishads and who prefaced it as the best book on religion, the Tejobindu is listed at number 27 and is named Tidj bandeh. This text is part of the five Bindu Upanishads collection, the longest among the five, the other four being the Nadabindu Upanishad ,
16530-506: The concept of moksha appears in three forms: Vedic, yogic and bhakti. In the Vedic period, moksha was ritualistic. Mokṣa was claimed to result from properly completed rituals such as those before Agni – the fire deity. The significance of these rituals was to reproduce and recite the cosmic-creation event described in the Vedas; the description of knowledge on different levels – adhilokam , adhibhutam , adhiyajnam , adhyatmam – helped
16704-609: The concept of moksha parallels those of Plotinus against the Gnostics , with one important difference: Plotinus accused the Gnostics of exchanging an anthropocentric set of virtues with a theocentric set in pursuit of salvation ; Shankara challenged that the concept of moksha implied an exchange of anthropocentric set of virtues ( dharma ) with a blissful state that has no need for values. Shankara goes on to suggest that anthropocentric virtues suffice. Vaishnavism , one of
16878-614: 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
17052-653: 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
17226-559: The cycle continuing indefinitely. The rebirth idea ultimately flowered into the ideas of saṃsāra , or transmigration – where one's balance sheet of karma determined one's rebirth. Along with this idea of saṃsāra , the ancient scholars developed the concept of moksha , as a state that released a person from the saṃsāra cycle. Moksha release in eschatological sense in these ancient literature of Hinduism, suggests van Buitenen , comes from self-knowledge and consciousness of oneness of supreme soul. Scholars provide various explanations of
17400-467: 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
17574-420: The difference between the world one lives in and moksha , a state of freedom and release one hopes for. Unlike Nagarjuna, Shankara considers the characteristics between the two. The world one lives in requires action as well as thought; our world, he suggests, is impossible without vyavahara (action and plurality). The world is interconnected, one object works on another, input is transformed into output, change
17748-471: 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
17922-463: The differences between the schools of Hinduism, a lack of consensus, with a few attempting to conflate the contrasting perspectives between various schools. For example, freedom and deliverance from birth-rebirth, argues Maitrayana Upanishad, comes neither from the Vedanta school's doctrine (the knowledge of one's own Self as the Supreme Soul) nor from the Samkhya school's doctrine (distinction of
18096-460: 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
18270-614: The final centuries of BCE or early centuries of the CE. All these, adds Eliade, were likely composed earlier than the ten or eleven later Yoga Upanishads such as the Yoga-kundalini , Varaha and Pashupatabrahma Upanishads . Gavin Flood dates the Tejobindu text, along with other Yoga Upanishads, to be probably from the 100 BCE to 300 CE period. This Upanishad is among those which have been differently attached to two Vedas , depending on
18444-457: The final goal of the Upanishad. Starting with the middle Upanishad era, moksha – or equivalent terms such as mukti and kaivalya – is a major theme in many Upanishads . For example, Sarasvati Rahasya Upanishad, one of several Upanishads of the bhakti school of Hinduism, starts out with prayers to Goddess Sarasvati. She is the Hindu goddess of knowledge, learning and creative arts; her name
18618-548: 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
18792-549: The first millennium BCE. The concepts of mukti and moksha , suggests J. A. B. van Buitenen , seem traceable to yogis in Hinduism, with long hair, who chose to live on the fringes of society, given to self-induced states of intoxication and ecstasy, possibly accepted as medicine-men and "sadhus" by ancient Indian society. Moksha to these early concept-developers, was the abandonment of the established order, not in favor of anarchy, but in favor of self-realization, to achieve release from this world. In its historical development,
18966-399: The first step towards mokṣa begins with mumuksutva , that is desire of liberation. This takes the form of questions about self, what is true, why do things or events make us happy or cause suffering, and so on. This longing for liberating knowledge is assisted by, claims Adi Shankara of Advaita Vedanta, a guru (teacher), study of historical knowledge and viveka (critical thinking). This
19140-412: 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
19314-537: 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
19488-468: The heart of man, as the most subtle centre of effulgence, revealed to yogis by super-sensuous meditation. This Atman and its identity with Brahman, that where the saying Tat Tvam Asi refers to, is the subject of chapter 3. It is that which is to be meditated upon, and realised in essence, for the absolute freedom of the soul, and for the realization of the True Self. The text mentions Shiva explaining
19662-431: 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
19836-732: The individual transcend to moksa. Knowledge was the means, the ritual its application. By the middle to late Upanishadic period, the emphasis shifted to knowledge, and ritual activities were considered irrelevant to the attainment of moksha . Yogic moksha replaced Vedic rituals with personal development and meditation, with hierarchical creation of the ultimate knowledge in self as the path to moksha . Yogic moksha principles were accepted in many other schools of Hinduism, albeit with differences. For example, Adi Shankara in his book on moksha suggests: अर्थस्य निश्चयो दृष्टो विचारेण हितोक्तितः | न स्नानेन न दानेन प्राणायमशतेन वा || १३ || By reflection, reasoning and instructions of teachers,
20010-486: 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
20184-432: 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
20358-412: 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
20532-514: 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 ,
20706-541: The many expansions in Hindu Vedic ideas of life and the afterlife. In the Vedas, there were three stages of life: studentship, householdship and retirement. During the Upanishadic era, Hinduism expanded this to include a fourth stage of life: complete abandonment . In Vedic literature, there are three modes of experience: waking, dream and deep sleep. The Upanishadic era expanded these modes to include turiyam –
20880-420: The meaning of moksha in epistemological and psychological senses. For example, Deutsche sees moksha as transcendental consciousness, the perfect state of being, of self-realization, of freedom and of "realizing the whole universe as the Self". Moksha in Hinduism, suggests Klaus Klostermaier , implies a setting-free of hitherto fettered faculties, a removing of obstacles to an unrestricted life, permitting
21054-513: The means and the end, transcending moksha ; the fruit of bhakti is bhakti itself. In the history of Indian religious traditions, additional ideas and paths to moksha beyond these three, appeared over time. The words moksha , nirvana ( nibbana ) and kaivalya are sometimes used synonymously, because they all refer to the state that liberates a person from all causes of sorrow and suffering. However, in modern era literature, these concepts have different premises in different religions. Nirvana,
21228-570: The means of achieving moksha . The Vishistadvaita tradition, led by Ramanuja , defines avidya and moksha differently from the Advaita tradition. To Ramanuja, avidya is a focus on the self, and vidya is a focus on a loving god. The Vishistadvaita school argues that other schools of Hinduism create a false sense of agency in individuals, which makes the individual think oneself as potential or self-realized god. Such ideas, claims Ramanuja, decay to materialism, hedonism and self worship. Individuals forget Ishvara (God). Mukti, to Vishistadvaita school,
21402-510: The mind, state verses 1.48–1.49 of the longer manuscript. One must abandon anger, selfish bonds to things and people, likes and dislikes to achieve Samadhi, states verse 3 of the shorter version of the manuscript. Chapter 2 is a discourse from Shiva to his son Kumara on "Individual One Essence". This is Atman (soul, self), states Shiva, it is all existence, the entire world, all knowledge, all space, all time, all Vedas, all introspection, all preceptors, all bodies, all minds, all learning, all that
21576-511: 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
21750-429: 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
21924-401: 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
22098-602: 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
22272-533: The most fully developed, longest litany of singular consciousness. While the conceptual foundations of Tejobindu are found in ancient major Upanishads such as the Chandogya (~800–600 BCE) and many minor Upanishads such as Atmabodha , Maitreyi and Subala , it is Tejobindu that dwells on the idea extensively, states Rosan, with the phrases Akhanda-eka-rasa (Undivided One Essence) and Chit-matra (Consciousness as such). The absolute idealism doctrine in Tejobindu
22446-409: 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 ,
22620-443: The muddled mind and cognitive apparatus. For example, Patanjali 's Yoga Sutra suggests: After the dissolution of avidya (ignorance), comes removal of communion with material world, this is the path to Kaivalyam. Nirvana and moksha , in all traditions, represent resting in one's true essence, named Purusha or Atman, or pointed at as Nirvana, but described in a very different way. Some scholars, states Jayatilleke, assert that
22794-524: The nectar, the home, the sun, the crop field, the tranquility, the patience, the good quality, the Om, the radiance, the true wealth, the Atman. Shiva describes the nature of consciousness in verses 2.24–2.41, and asserts the Vedanta doctrine, "Atman is identical with Brahman" in the final verses of chapter 2. The Tejabindu Upanishad , states Madhavananda , conceives the Supreme Atman as dwelling in
22968-493: The non-dual ( Advaita ) nature of Atman and Brahman. The verses describe the Atman to be bliss, peace, contentment, consciousness, delight, satisfaction, absolute, imperishable, radiant, Nirguna (without attributes or qualities), without beginning, without end, and repeatedly states "I am Atman", "I am Brahman" and "I am the Indivisible One Essence". The Upanishad also states that the ultimate reality (Brahman)
23142-435: 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 the early medieval era, it became a language of religion and high culture , and of
23316-545: 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,
23490-434: The object of love, for example, a personified monotheistic conception of Shiva , Vishnu or Adishakti . By immersing oneself in the love of God, one's karmas slough off, one's illusions decay, and truth is lived. Both the worshiped and worshiper gradually lose their illusory sense of separation and only One beyond all names remains. This is salvation to dualist schools of Hinduism. Dvaita Vedanta emphasizes Bhakti Yoga as
23664-403: 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
23838-470: The other hand, starts with the premise that everything is the Self; there is no consciousness in the state of nirvana, but everything is One unified consciousness in the state of moksha . Kaivalya, a concept akin to moksha , rather than nirvana, is found in some schools of Hinduism such as the Yoga school. Kaivalya is the realization of aloofness with liberating knowledge of one's self and disentanglement from
24012-508: The other world. He who does not conceive of "Thou Art That", "this Atman is Brahman", yet is the Atman that never decays. He is consciousness, devoid of light and non-light, blissful. He is Videhamukta, states verses 4.68–4.79 of the text. The fifth chapter of the text presents the theory of Atman and of Anatman , as a discourse between Muni Nidagha and the Vedic sage Ribhu . Atman is imperishable, states Ribhu, full of bliss, transcendental, bright, luminous, eternal, identical to Brahman and it
24186-431: 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
24360-600: The path of moksha include (1) vivekah (discrimination, critical reasoning) between everlasting principles and fleeting world; (2) viragah (indifference, lack of craving) for material rewards; (3) samah (calmness of mind), and (4) damah (self restraint, temperance ). The Brahmasutrabhasya adds to the above four requirements, the following: uparati (lack of bias, dispassion), titiksa (endurance, patience), sraddha (faith) and samadhana (intentness, commitment). The Advaita tradition considers moksha achievable by removing avidya (ignorance) by knowledge. Moksha
24534-513: The path to moksha , as: Beyond caste, creed, family or lineage, That which is without name and form, beyond merit and demerit, That which is beyond space, time and sense-objects, You are that, God himself; Meditate this within yourself. ||Verse 254|| Moksha is a concept associated with saṃsāra (birth-rebirth cycle). Samsara originated with religious movements in the first millennium BCE. These movements such as Buddhism, Jainism and new schools within Hinduism, saw human life as bondage to
24708-476: The path to "moksha" (salvation and release), rather than works and knowledge. Their focus became divine virtues, rather than anthropocentric virtues. Daniel Ingalls regards Vaishnavas' position on moksha as similar to the Christian position on salvation, and Vaishnavism as the school whose views on dharma , karma and moksha dominated the initial impressions and colonial-era literature on Hinduism, through
24882-529: 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 the Rigveda , a collection of 1,028 hymns composed between 1500 BCE and 1200 BCE by Indo-Aryan tribes migrating east from
25056-414: 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
25230-439: 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
25404-480: 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
25578-643: The region where the manuscript was found. Deussen states, it and all Bindu Upanishads are attached to the Atharvaveda, while Ayyangar states it is attached to the Krishna Yajurveda . Colebrooke 's version of 52 Upanishads, popular in north India, lists this Upanishad's text at number 21 along with the other four Bindu Upanishads with similar theme. The Narayana anthology also includes this Upanishad at number 21 in Bibliothica Indica . In
25752-609: 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
25926-497: 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,
26100-579: The release from pain and suffering seems to lie at the root of striving for moksha, and it is commonly believed that moksha is an otherwordly reality, only achievable at the end of life, not during. However there is also a notion that moksha can be achieved during life in the form of a state of liberation, known as jivan-mukti , although this is still reliant on personal and spiritual endeavours attributed to attaining moksha. Eschatological ideas evolved in Hinduism. In earliest Vedic literature, heaven and hell sufficed soteriological curiosities. Over time,
26274-562: 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
26448-496: 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
26622-556: 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
26796-470: The shorter form may be a trimmed, "enormously corrupt text transmission". The text opens by asserting that Dhyana (meditation) is difficult, and increasingly so as one proceeds from gross, then fine, then superfine states. Even the wise and those who are alone, states the text, find meditation difficult to establish, implement and accomplish. दुःसाध्यं च दुराराध्यं दुष्प्रेक्ष्यं च दुराश्रयम् | दुर्लक्षं दुस्तरं ध्यानं मुनीनां च मनीषिणाम् ||२|| "Even to
26970-615: 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
27144-399: The stage beyond deep sleep. The Vedas suggest three goals of man: kama , artha and dharma . To these, the Upanishadic era added moksha . The acceptance of the concept of moksha in some schools of Hindu philosophy was slow. These refused to recognize moksha for centuries, considering it irrelevant. The Mimamsa school, for example, denied the goal and relevance of moksha well into
27318-430: The state of liberation, jivanmukti . Some contrast jivanmukti with videhamukti ( moksha from samsara after death). Jivanmukti is a state that transforms the nature, attributes and behaviors of an individual, claim these ancient texts of Hindu philosophy. For example, according to Naradaparivrajaka Upanishad, the liberated individual shows attributes such as: When a Jivanmukta dies he achieves Paramukti and becomes
27492-413: The text. The Tejobindu Upanishad, in verses 4.33–4.79 describes Videhamukta , and the difference between Videha mukti and Jivanmukti. A Videhamukta, states the text, is one who is beyond the witnessing state of awareness. He is beyond the "all is Brahman" conviction. He sees all in his Atman, but does not have the conviction that I am Brahman. A Videhamukta accepts the other world, and has no fear of
27666-501: The three worlds, beyond nearness, beyond distance. He is the one who realizes, "I am Brahman, I am pure Consciousness; Pure Consciousness is what I am". The text asserts that a Jivanmukta has Self-knowledge, knows that his Self (Atman) is pure as a Hamsa (Swan), he is firmly planted in himself, in the kingdom of his soul, peaceful, comfortable, kind, happy, living by his own accord. He is "the Lord of his own Self", state verses 4.31–4.32 of
27840-536: The truth and reality behind the fog of ignorance. Moksha has been defined not merely as absence of suffering and release from bondage to saṃsāra. Various schools of Hinduism also explain the concept as presence of the state of paripurna-brahmanubhava (the experience of oneness with Brahman , the One Supreme Self), a state of knowledge, peace and bliss. For example, Vivekachudamani – an ancient book on moksha , explains one of many meditative steps on
28014-433: The truth is known, Not by ablutions, not by making donations, nor by performing hundreds of breath control exercises. || Verse 13 || Bhakti moksha created the third historical path, where neither rituals nor meditative self-development were the way, rather it was inspired by constant love and contemplation of God, which over time results in a perfect union with God. Some Bhakti schools evolved their ideas where God became
28188-653: 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
28362-408: 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
28536-564: 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
28710-525: The wise and the thoughtful this meditation is difficult to perform, and difficult to attain, difficult to cognise and difficult to abide in, difficult to define and difficult to cross." For success in Dhyana , asserts the text, one must first conquer anger, greed, lust, attachments, expectations, worries about wife and children. Give up sloth and lead a virtuous life. Be temperate in the food you eat, states Tejobindu, abandon your delusions, and crave not. Find
28884-520: The works of Thibaut, Max Müller and others. The concept of moksha appears much later in ancient Indian literature than the concept of dharma . The proto-concept that first appears in the ancient Sanskrit verses and early Upanishads is mucyate , which means "freed" or "released". In the middle and later Upanishads, such as the Svetasvatara and Maitri , the word moksha appears and begins becoming an important concept. The Katha Upanishad ,
29058-413: The worldly life, thus are neither dominated by, nor dominating anyone else. Vivekachudamani , which literally means "Crown Jewel of Discriminatory Reasoning", is a book devoted to moksa in Vedanta philosophy. It explains what behaviors and pursuits lead to moksha , as well what actions and assumptions hinder moksha . The four essential conditions, according to Vivekachudamani, before one can commence on
29232-502: 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
29406-408: 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
29580-427: 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
29754-472: 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
29928-738: 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
30102-435: Was discipline and self-training. Over time, these ideas about moksha were challenged. Dharma and moksha , suggested Nagarjuna in the 2nd century, cannot be goals on the same journey. He pointed to the differences between the world we live in, and the freedom implied in the concept of moksha . They are so different that dharma and moksha could not be intellectually related. Dharma requires worldly thought, moksha
30276-442: 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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