130-432: Vaikuntha Ekadashi ( Sanskrit : वैकुण्ठ एकादशी , lit. 'Eleventh day of Vaikuntha') is a Hindu occasion and festival. It is primarily observed by Vaishnavas , who regard it to be a special ekadashi . It coincides with Mokshada Ekadashi or Putrada Ekadashi . It is observed on the 11th lunar day of the waxing lunar fortnight of the solar month of Dhanu . This falls between 16 December and 13 January in
260-435: A conversation between sage Maitreya and his Guru , Parashara , with the sage asking, "What Is The Nature Of This Universe And Everything That Is In It?" The first Amsha (part) of Vishnu Purana presents cosmology, dealing with the creation, maintenance and destruction of the universe. The mythology, states Rocher, is woven with the evolutionary theories of Samkhya school of Hindu philosophy . The Hindu god Vishnu
390-436: 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." Vishnu Purana Divisions Sama vedic Yajur vedic Atharva vedic Vaishnava puranas Shaiva puranas Shakta puranas The Vishnu Purana
520-433: 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
650-591: 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
780-658: 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
910-401: A meal, which the latter accepted, but went first to perform his ritual ablutions. Even as Ambarisha waited for a long while, the sage did not return, and the auspicious moment of breaking his fast approached. He faced a dilemma: If he did not break his fast before the day was over, the act of his fasting would not bear fruit; However, if he ate a single morsel of food before Durvasa returned, that
1040-454: 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
1170-479: 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
1300-546: 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
1430-578: 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
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#17327930742291560-538: 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
1690-439: 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
1820-565: A version of Vishnu Purana existed by about 1000 CE, but it is unclear to what extent the extant manuscripts reflect the revisions during the 2nd millennium. Vishnu Purana like all Puranas has a complicated chronology. Dimmitt and van Buitenen state that each of the Puranas including the Vishnu Purana is encyclopedic in style, and it is difficult to ascertain when, where, why and by whom these were written: As they exist today,
1950-658: A year, only on the occasion of Vaikuntha Ekadashi. It is said that anyone who goes through the Paramapada Vasal will attain Vaikuntha. For this reason, it is also known as the Svarga Vasal . The Tirumala Venkateswara Temple also has a similar concept to celebrate Mukkoti Ekadasi, as it is known in the Telugu-speaking regions. Tirumala has a special entrance called Vaikunta Dvaram that encircles
2080-537: Is pantheistic and the ideas in it, like other Puranas, are premised on the Vedic beliefs and ideas. Vishnu Purana , like all major Puranas, attributes its author to be sage Vyasa . The actual author(s) and date of its composition are unknown and contested. Estimates of its composition range from 400 CE to 900 CE. The text was likely composed and rewritten in layers over a period of time, with roots possibly in ancient 1st-millennium BCE texts that have not survived into
2210-711: 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
2340-516: 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
2470-579: Is also notable as the earliest Purana to have been translated and published in 1840 CE by HH Wilson , based on manuscripts then available, setting the presumptions and premises about what Puranas may have been. The Vishnu Purana is among the shorter Purana texts, with about 7,000 verses in extant versions. It primarily centers around the Hindu god Vishnu and his avataras such as Rama and Krishna , but it praises Brahma and Shiva and says that they are dependent on Vishnu. The Purana, states Wilson,
2600-575: Is composed in metric verses or sloka , wherein each verse has exactly 32 syllables, of which 16 syllables in the verse may be free style per ancient literary standards. The Vishnu Purana is an exception in that it presents its contents in Vishnu worship-related Pancalaksana format – Sarga ( Cosmogony ), Pratisarga ( Cosmology ), Vamsa (Mythical genealogy of the gods, sages, and kings), Manvantara (Cosmic Cycles), and Vamsanucaritam (Legends During The Times Of Various Kings and Queens). This
2730-481: Is designed to be wholesome, nutritious, and filling. Vaikuntha Ekadashi fasting is an important aspect of those associated with it. People fast the whole day and keep vigil. Special prayers are offered to Vishnu and devotees engage in Japa (chanting of Vishnu's name) and Dhyana (Meditation). On 'Dashami', the previous day of the observance, devotees who take up Vaikuntha Ekadashi fasting are to take only lunch. On Ekadashi,
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#17327930742292860-469: Is equivalent to fasting on the remaining 23 ekadashis of the (Hindu) year. However, according to Vaishnava tradition, fasting is mandatory on all ekadashis of both Shukla paksha and Krishna paksha . Fasting on Ekadashi is considered holier than any other religious observation. Complete fasting has to be observed on Ekadashi, the 11th day of the paksha. That is why the meal on the Dvadashi (the 12th day)
2990-452: 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
3120-624: Is one of the eighteen Mahapuranas , a genre of ancient and medieval texts of Hinduism . It is an important Pancharatra text in the Vaishnavism literature corpus. The manuscripts of Vishnu Purana have survived into the modern era in many versions. More than any other major Purana , the Vishnu Purana presents its contents in Pancalaksana format – Sarga ( cosmogony ), Pratisarga ( cosmology ), Vamsa ( genealogy of
3250-489: Is presented as the central element of this text's cosmology, unlike some other Puranas where Shiva or Brahma or the Tridevi are offered prominence. The reverence and the worship of Vishnu is described in 22 chapters of the first part as the means for liberation, along with the profuse use of the synonymous names of Vishnu such as Hari , Janardana , Madhava, Achyuta, Hrishikesha and others. The chapters 1.16 through 1.20 of
3380-532: 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
3510-418: Is rare, state Dimmitt and van Buitenen, because just 2% of the known Puranic literature corpus is about these five Pancalaksana items, and about 98% is about diverse range of encyclopedic topics. Who Is Vishnu? Out Of Vishnu This Universe Has Arisen, In Him Its Exists, He Is The One Who Governs Its Existence And Destruction, He Is The Universe. — Vishnu Purana , 1.14 Vishnu Purana opens as
3640-448: Is regarded to be the realm for Vishnu and his devotees to reside in the suddha-sattva , or the supreme state of purity and goodness. In Vishnu temples, Vaikuntha Ekadashi is part and parcel of Dhanurmasam (Margaḻi) vratam and its puja. Fasting for the entire month of Dhanurmasam is practised by several Vaishnavas, including temperance and food restrictions for Sri Vaishnavas. According to the Vishnu Purana , fasting on Vaikuntha Ekadashi
3770-479: 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,
3900-589: 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
4030-432: Is the shortest, with 8 chapters. The first part of the sixth book asserts that Kali Yuga is vicious, cruel and filled with evilness that create suffering, yet "Kali Yuga is excellent" because one can refuse to join the evil, devote oneself to Vishnu and thus achieve salvation. The last chapters, from 6.6 to 6.7 of the text discusses Yoga and meditation, as a means to Vishnu devotion. Contemplative devotion, asserts
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4160-540: 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
4290-580: 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
4420-731: The Dharmasutra literature. Rajendra Hazra, in 1940, assumed that Vishnu Purana is ancient and proposed that texts such as Apasthamba Dharmasutra borrowed text from it. Modern scholars such as Allan Dahlaquist disagree, however, and state that the borrowing may have been in the other direction, from Dharmasutras into the Purana. Other chapters, particularly those in book 5 and 6 of the Vishnu Purana have Advaita Vedanta and Yoga influences. The theistic Vedanta scholar Ramanuja , according to Sucharita Adluri, incorporated ideas from
4550-543: The Gregorian calendar . The origin of Vaikuntha Ekadashi is mentioned in a legend of the Padma Purana . There was once an asura named Murāsura, who was a nightmare to the devas , owing to a boon he had received from Brahma . They sought the assistance of Vishnu, who fought against the asura in a battle, but were unable to defeat him. He travelled to a cave called Simhavati in the vicinity of Badarikashrama, where he
4680-613: 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
4810-753: 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
4940-532: 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 ,
5070-531: 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
5200-490: The Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam Vaikuntha Ekadashi celebrations last for 20 days, divided into two parts: pagal pathu (morning part 10 days) and Ira pathu (night part 10 days). Vishnu, as the mulavar (central temple idol) of Ranganatha , is regarded to bless devotees in his Muthangi , an armuor of pearls, on all 20 days. On the 10th day of Pagal Pathu (previous day of Vaikuntha Ekadashi),
5330-576: The Sun and the Moon . Four Chapters (2.13 to 2.16) of the second book of the text present the legends of King Bharata , who abdicates his throne to lead the life of a Sannyasi , which is similar to the legends found in section 5.7 to 5.14 of the Bhagavata Purana . The geography of Mount Mandara is east of Mount Meru, presented in this book and other Puranas, states Stella Kramrisch, may be related to
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5460-581: The Vedas , Naalayira Divya Prabandham , Vaikuntha Gadyam as well as the Vaikuntha Dvara Puja, Prakarothsvam (Sri Veli), Oonjal Seva (swing pooja), Oonjal Prabhandham, yagnas , discourses, and speeches are arranged at several Vishnu temples around the world on this auspicious day. Vaikuntha refers to the abode of the Hindu preserver deity, Vishnu. Vaishnavas consider the feet of Vishnu to be Vishnupada , or Parama Padam (Ultimate feet), as it
5590-473: The Vishnu Purana presents the legend of compassionate and Vishnu devotee Prahlada and his persecution by his demon king father Hiranyakashipu , wherein Prahlada is ultimately saved by Vishnu when Vishnu as Narasimha disimbowels and kills Hiranyakashipu. This story is also found in other Puranas. Vishnu is described in the first book of Vishnu Purana as, translates Wilson, all elements, all matter in
5720-508: The Yugas (eras), with Parikshita is a current king. The text includes the legends of numerous characters such as Shaubhri, Mandhatri , Narmada , Kapila , Rama , Nimi , Janaka , Satyavati , Puru , Yadu , Krishna , Devaka, Pandu , Kuru , Bharata , Bhishma , and others. The fifth book of the Vishnu Purana is the longest, with 38 chapters. It is dedicated to the legend of Krishna, an incarnation of Vishnu. The book begins with
5850-406: 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
5980-408: The utsavar (processional idol), named Namperumal, is believed to bless devotees, in his form as Mohini . On Vaikuntha Ekadashi, during daybreak, Namperumal is regarded to bless devotees, clad in an armour of diamonds and gems, and brought to the thousand-pillared hall from the sanctum sanctorum, through the northern gate known as Paramapada Vasal , the gate to Vaikuntha. This gate is opened once in
6110-500: 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
6240-414: 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
6370-532: 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
6500-561: The British India colonial era, some in the 19th century. The scholarship on Vishnu Purana , and other Puranas, has suffered from cases of forgeries, states Ludo Rocher , where liberties in the transmission of Puranas were normal and those who copied older manuscripts replaced words or added new content to fit the theory that the colonial scholars were keen on publishing. The extant text comprises six amsas (parts) and 126 adhyayas (chapters). The first part has 22 chapters,
6630-425: 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
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#17327930742296760-532: 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
6890-521: 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
7020-570: The Hindu pantheon pay obeisance to Shiva . The celebrations of the occasion span across all Venkateswara temples. The most important for this particular festival is considered to be in Srirangam which is specifically known for the Svarga Vasal opening. The next most important is considered to be in Tirupati in the Tirumala hills, which houses the highly venerated abode of Venkateswara. At
7150-476: 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
7280-519: 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
7410-702: The Legend Of Vishnu, through Mayamoha , helping the Devas and Devis win over Asuras and Asuris by teaching the Asuras and Asuris heretical doctrines that deny the Vedas, who declare their contempt for the Vedas, which makes them easy to identify and all are killed. The fourth book of the text, in 24 long chapters, presents royal dynasties, starting with Brahma and Sarasvati, followed by solar and lunar , fire and snake dynasties, then those on earth over
7540-532: 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
7670-496: 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
7800-412: The Puranas are a stratified literature. Each titled work consists of material that has grown by numerous accretions in successive historical eras. Thus, no Purana has a single date of composition. It is as if they were libraries to which new volumes have been continuously added, not necessarily at the end of the shelf, but randomly. Many of the extant manuscripts were written on palm leaf or copied during
7930-483: The Sanskrit edition. It is: The Critical Edition of the Visnupuranam , edited by M. M. Pathak, 2 vols., Vadodara: Oriental Institute , 1997, 1999. All scholars citing translations of Sanskrit texts are expected to refer to the Sanskrit original, because translations are inexact. From 1999 onward, anyone citing the Vishnu Purana will be expected to refer to this Sanskrit critical edition. A translation of
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#17327930742298060-499: 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
8190-638: 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
8320-447: 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
8450-451: 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
8580-459: 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
8710-440: 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
8840-527: 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
8970-614: 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
9100-458: The country of Bharata ) along with its numerous rivers and diverse people . The seven continents are named Jambu , Plaksha , Salmala , Kusha , Krauncha , Saka, and Pushkara , each surrounded by different types of oceans ( saltwater , freshwater , wine , sugarcane juice , ghrita , yogurt , and milk ). This part of the Vishnu Purana describes spheres above the Earth , Planets ,
9230-527: The critical edition was published in 2021 under the title, The Vishnu Purana: Ancient Annals of the God with Lotus Eyes. Vishnu Purana is one of the 18 major Puranas, and these text share many legends, likely influenced each other. The fifth chapter of the Vishnu Purana was likely influenced by the Mahabharata. Similarly, the verses on rites of passage and ashramas (stages) of life are likely drawn from
9360-653: 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
9490-407: The current age belong to the seventh. In each age, asserts the text, the Vedas are arranged into four, it is changed, and this has happened twenty eight times already. Each time, a Vyasa appears and he diligently organizes the eternal knowledge, with the aid of his students. After presenting the emergence of Vedic schools, the text presents the ethical duties of the four Varnas in chapter 2.8,
9620-467: 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
9750-471: 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
9880-460: 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
10010-490: 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
10140-569: The earth, the Vaishya should engage in commerce and farming, while the Shudra should subsist by profits of trade, service other varnas and through mechanical labor. The text asserts the ethical duties of all Varnas is to do good to others, never abuse anyone, never engage in calumny or untruth, never covet another person's wife, never steal another's property, never bear ill-will towards anyone, never beat and kill anyone wrongfully. Be diligent in
10270-414: The first Ekadashi, which was a Dhanurmasa Shukla Paksha Ekadashi. According to a later story, there was once a Vaishnava king of Ayodhya called Ambarisha , who always maintained his vow of fasting for the occasion. Once, after three days of fasting for the occasion, he was about to break his fast, when the sage Durvasa appeared at his city's gates. The king received the sage with honour, and offered him
10400-548: 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
10530-412: 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
10660-572: The four Ashrama (Stages) of the life of each human being in chapter 2.9, the rites of passage including wedding rituals in chapters 2.10 through 2.12, and Shraddha (Ancestral rites) in chapters 2.13 through 2.16. The Vishnu Purana asserts that the Brahmana should study the Shastras , worship deities and perform libations on behalf of others, the Kshatriya should maintain arms and protect
10790-442: The four stages of life as Brahmacharya (Student), Grihastha (Householder), Vanaprastha (Retirement) and Sannyasa (Renunciation, Mendicant). The text repeats the ethical duties in this chapter, translates Wilson. The chapters on Shraddha (Rites For Ancestors) describe the rites associated with a death in family, the preparation of the dead body, its cremation and the rituals after the cremation. The third book closes with
10920-537: 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
11050-425: The gods and goddesses, sages and kings and queens), Manvantara (cosmic cycles), and Vamsanucarita (legends during the times of various kings and queens). Some manuscripts of the text are notable for not including sections found in other major Puranas, such as those on Mahatmyas and tour guides on pilgrimage, but some versions include chapters on temples and travel guides to sacred pilgrimage sites. The text
11180-431: 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
11310-480: The image of Vishnu coming out of the door called Vaikuntha Dvaram, would reach Vaikuntha as well. Temples all over India make a door kind of structure on this day for devotees to walk through. Vaishnavas (Devotees of Vishnu ) believe that ‘Vaikuntha Dvaram’ (the gate to Vaikuntha) is opened on this day. The Margashirsha Shukla Paksha Ekadashi in the Lunar calendar is known as a 'Mokshada Ekadashi.' Special prayers from
11440-486: 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
11570-432: 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
11700-458: The latter abridged the version in former, or both depended on the Harivamsa estimated to have been composed sometime in the 1st millennium CE. Soul and Prakriti This soul is of its own nature, pure, composed of happiness and wisdom. The properties of pain, ignorance and impurity, are those of Prakriti , not of soul. — Vishnu Purana , 6.7 The last book of the Vishnu Purana
11830-412: 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
11960-514: 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 ,
12090-511: 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
12220-562: The modern era. The Padma Purana categorizes Vishnu Purana as a Sattva Purana (Purana that represents goodness and purity). The composition date of Vishnu Purana is unknown and contested, with estimates widely disagreeing. Some proposed dates for the earliest version of Vishnu Purana by various scholars include: Rocher states that the "date of the Vishnu Purana is as contested as that of any other Purana". References to Vishnu Purana in texts such as Brihadvishnu whose dates are better established, states Rocher, suggest that
12350-429: 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
12480-401: 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
12610-602: 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
12740-412: The next day, they have to maintain a complete fast and engage in prayers and meditation of Vishnu. They are strictly prohibited from taking rice. That night, people keep vigil the whole night and visit the temple of Vishnu, mostly in the wee hours of the morning. The Shaiva sect observes the day as Trikoti Ekadashi, a religious observance where adherents regard it to be the date when all the deities in
12870-545: 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,
13000-403: 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
13130-431: 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
13260-414: 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
13390-439: 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
13520-480: 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
13650-489: The protection of Brahma and Shiva , but the two deities denied him refuge. Finally, Durvasa begged for his life from Vishnu himself, who informed him that his salvation lay at the hands of his devotees. Accordingly, Durvasa sought forgiveness from Ambarisha, and was saved. According to another legend, Vishnu opened the gate of Vaikuntha (his abode) for two asuras (demons) in spite of their being against him. They also asked for this boon: Whoever listens to their story, and sees
13780-609: 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
13910-497: 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,
14040-562: 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
14170-496: 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
14300-510: The sanctum sanctorum. The dvaram (gateway) is opened only on Vaikunta Ekadasi, and it is believed that any person who passes through this 'Vaikunta Dvaram' on this particular day attains Vaikunta. The temple witnesses heavy inflow of pilgrims and dignitaries for Vaikunta Ekadashi. Sanskrit language Sanskrit ( / ˈ s æ n s k r ɪ t / ; attributively 𑀲𑀁𑀲𑁆𑀓𑀾𑀢𑀁 , संस्कृत- , saṃskṛta- ; nominally संस्कृतम् , saṃskṛtam , IPA: [ˈsɐ̃skr̩tɐm] )
14430-412: The second part consists 16 chapters, the third part comprises 18 chapters and the fourth part has 24 chapters. The fifth and the sixth parts are the longest and the shortest part of the text, comprising 38 and 8 chapters respectively. The textual tradition claims that the original Vishnu Purana had 23,000 verses, but the surviving manuscripts have just a third of these, about 7,000 verses. The text
14560-556: 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
14690-450: The service of the deities, sages and gurus , asserts the Purana, and seek the welfare of all creatures, one's own children and of one's own soul. Anyone, regardless of their varna or stage of life, who lives a life according to the above duties is the best worshipper of Vishnu and Lakshmi, says the Vishnu Purana . Similar statements on ethical things of people are found in other parts of Vishnu Purana. The text describes in chapter 2.9,
14820-615: 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
14950-546: The story of Krishna's birth, his childhood pranks and plays, his exploits, and killing the demon-tyrant king of Mathura , named Kamsa . The Krishna story in the Vishnu Purana is similar to his legend in the Bhagavata Purana , in several other Puranas and the Harivamsa of the Mahabharata . Scholars have long debated whether the Bhagavata Purana expanded the Krishna Legend in the Vishnu Purana , or whether
15080-595: The text asserts itself to be an "imperishable Vaishnava Purana". A Critical Edition of the Sanskrit text of the Visnu-purana was published in two large volumes, 1997 and 1999. A critical edition is prepared by comparing a number of different manuscripts , recording their variant readings in notes, and choosing the best readings to constitute the text of the critical edition. This is a real , large-scale critical edition, in which 43 Sanskrit manuscripts were gathered and collated, and 27 were chosen from which to prepare
15210-464: The text, is the union with the Brahman (supreme soul, ultimate reality), which is only achievable with virtues such as compassion, truth, honesty, disinterestedness, self-restraint and holy studies. The text mentions five Yamas , five Niyamas , Pranayama and Pratyahara . The pure and perfect soul is called Vishnu, states the text, and absorption in Vishnu is liberation. The final chapter 6.8 of
15340-653: 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
15470-408: 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
15600-564: 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
15730-417: The word Mandiram ( Hindu Temple ) and the reason of its Design, Image, Aim and Destination. The initial chapters of the third book of the Vishnu Purana presents its theory of Manvantaras , (each 306.72 Million Years Long ). This is premised upon the Hindu belief that everything is Cyclic, and even Yugas (Eras) start, complete and then end. Six manvantaras, states the text, have already passed, and
15860-444: The world, the entire universe, all living beings, as well as Atman (Inner Self, essence) within every living being, nature, intellect, ego, mind, senses, ignorance, wisdom, the four Vedas, all that is and all that is not. The second part of the text describes the story of earth , the seven continents and seven oceans . It describes Mount Meru , Mount Mandara and other major mountains , as well as Bharatavarsha (Literally,
15990-502: 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
16120-408: 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
16250-427: 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
16380-472: 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
16510-738: 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
16640-429: Was pursued by Murāsura. There, Vishnu summoned Yogamaya , a goddess created from his divine energy , who slew the asura. Vishnu, who was pleased, offered the goddess the epithet 'Ekadashi', and declared that she would be capable of vanquishing the sins of all the people of Earth. In Vaishnava tradition, it is held all those who observe a fast on the occasion and worship Ekadashi would attain Vaikuntha. Thus came into being
16770-412: Was regarded as disrespectful. He decided to simply sip some water, which broke his fast, but was hoped to not prove to seem insulting to the sage. Durvasa was infuriated when he returned, and tore a clump of hair from his head, which was sent charging to attack the king. The Sudarshana Chakra of Vishnu intervened to destroy the clump, which then proceeded to chase the sage. Durvasa fled, attempting to seek
16900-442: 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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