Oral Tradition of Sanskri 2800052

Sound of Sanskrit
Oral Traditions of Sanskrit
Uma Swaminathan & S. Swaminathan

The arts of memory
Remembering can be the means of salvation
A.K. Ramanujan
from 'Uncollected Poems and Prose',
Many years ago, I witnessed a remarkable feat of
memory. A Jaina monk came to our college, and a
performance of his Astavadhana was arranged.
Astavadhana means 'attention to eight things at once'. He
was able to do the following eight things simultaneously:
he repeated without change a poem that was recited to
him by one person, answered several questions in
philosophy, arithmetic, or the local newspaper put to him
by three others, played a game of dice with another, and
a game of chess with still another, completed a half-
finished verse recited by a seventh person, and finished
by accurately giving us the count of pebbles that were
being thrown all the while on his bare back.
He could also dictate eight different texts, often
compositions of his own, to eight different copyists.
These feats displayed skills of both mindfulness and
memory. Such arts of memory are part of ancient
classical and oral traditions. We know that the Vedas were
orally transmitted for centuries before they were written
down; even after they were written down they were
systematically memorised, gotten by heart, inscribed as it
were on the bodies of the reciters. The techniques for
acquiring them orally included not only grammatical and
phonetic analyses, but various pedagogic methods of
marking each uttered phrase physically by various gestures
and bodily movements - so that the texts were inscribed
almost into the body's motor memory.
When I was studying linguistics at Poona, we interviewed
an 80-year-old Vedic scholar who could without a
moment's pause, repeat any part of the Rg Veda from any
point to any point, backwards, omitting every other line,
give you a concordance of any word or phrase you chose
citing its use through the entire text, and so on.
We were the ones who were exhausted at the end
of the performance.
Indian musicians know all their texts and songs and ragas
by heart, Indian epic reciters and orators often use no
notes, and I've a friend who once reproduced a poem of
mine that I'd lost, which he had seen only once some
years earlier. One may, of course, relate these skills to a
learned yet oral tradition.
Later, even with literacy and the use of palm-leaf
manuscripts, one needed to possess the text orally as the
manuscripts were few, often no more than once, in the
possession of a teacher who guarded it like gold. Yet
there were other reasons for the cultivation of these arts.
.
Remembering was not a mere skill to show off, it was the
means of enlightenment and salvation. . .
Oral Traditions of Sanskrit
India has achieved a remarkable success
in oral transmission.
Sanskrit was one among the main vehicles
through which this was accomplished.
Sanskrit language itself was best suited for this.
It is our aim to suggest these factors of Sanskrit:
making of its alphabet, its grammar
and the role played by the poetic metres.
While doing this an attempt will be made to breeze
through the treasure of its rich literature, and
through Indian advances in science
accomplished mostly through
the medium of Sanskrit
An Invocation from Rig Veda
"Om:
“O Devaa-s, may we hear with our own ears
what is auspicious;
“May we see with our own eyes what is auspicious;
“May we enjoy the term of life allotted by the devaa-s,
praising them with our body and limbs steady;
“May the glorious Indra bless us;
“May the all-knowing Sun bless us;
“May Garuda, the thunderbolt for evil, bless us;
“May Brhaspati grant us well-being.”
“Om, Peace, Peace, Peace."
Invocation
ॐ
भद्रं कर्णेभभिः शृर्णुयाम दे वािः भद्रं पश्येमाषभिभभयत्रािः |
स्थिरै रङ्गैस्तुष्टु वां सस्तनूभभिः व्यशेम दे वभितुं यदायुिः ||
स्वस्स्त न इन्द्रो वृध्दश्रवािः स्वस्स्त निः पूषा भवश्ववेदािः |

स्वस्स्त नस्तार्क्ष्योरररष्ठनेभमिः स्वस्स्त नो बृिस्पभतदत धातु ||
- Rig Veda I – 89-8
Indian Tradition
Intellectual activity in India has always

strongly favoured
oral over written means of expression
“Things from books are not as good as
things from living and abiding voice.”
Sanskrit
Sanskrit language and its literature
are some of the great heritages of India.
It is a precise and a profound language.
It is not merely a language,
but also a science and an art.
Its grammar compares
with world's complex scientific structures.
To say that Sanskrit symbolises Indian spirit
would not be an exaggeration.
The success of Indian oral tradition
owes to a great extant to Sanskrit.
Let us start from the earliest literature and
study how they contributed and furthered
oral tradition.
Veda-s
Its earliest literature, the Veda-s,

are a few thousand years old
and are transmitted wholly orally.
Veda-s are fountain-head of most
that can be called Indian.
Vedic thought is the basis for
Indian philosophy and spiritualism
and many branches of arts and science.
Vedic Literature
Vedic scriptures comprise of great Veda-s:

Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharva Veda-s.
Each of these has three main sub-divisions:
samhita-s : sacred hymns, in verse;
prayers addressed to the gods
to be recited in sacrificial ceremonies
brAhmaNa-s : commentaries on the Veda-s,
mostly in prose and are details of rites
and mode of performance.
AraNyaka-s, of which Upanishad-s are chapters
Four Veda-s
Rig veda is the most important;
oldest and forerunner of the later scriptures;
It is an important part of both
historical and living traditions of India
Yajur veda, mostly in prose form,
contains sacrificial formulae and prayers
Sama veda, its major portion from Rig veda,
explains the sacrificial rites;
it is chanted in a musical fashion, and
considered to be the basis of
Indian classical musical scale
Atharva veda, in prose and in poetry,
mainly deals with charms etc.
Rig Veda
Rig Veda consisting of more than 74000 words

was transmitted purely orally,
while preserving the text free of
interpolation,
modification or
corruption
Oral Tradition
Oral tradition was such a remarkable success

that all knowledge was passed on orally then on.
Possible factors for this were:
All literature being mainly in poetical form, and
the prosodic structure and
use accents
aiding congregational chanting, and
adopting of various modes of recitation
to avoid corruption
were some important factors.
In later times, this led to
certain highly original steps that
resulted in an oral tradition
that has not been excelled
anywhere, any time.
One such accomplishment was
the arrangement of a logical alphabet,
an outcome of scientific analysis
of sounds that form the language.
The other is even more remarkable, that is,
compiling a grammar
of great efficacy and brevity,
a feat only shared by
its neighbour language, Tamil.
A large vocabulary was, then, possible,
using precise and clear-cut rules.
Sanskrit Alphabet
Sanskrit alphabet is a remarkable and

has no parallel in the world.
Vowels and Consonants
The sounds produced by human voice

were first divided into mainly
two major groups:
vowels, which can be produced continuously, and
consonants, which cannot be.
This by itself must be a great break through.
This can be appreciated
when we see that many contemporary languages
did not make such a difference at all,
and many ancient languages,
like the Sumerian, Egyptian, Hebrew and Arabic
did not use vowels at all or used very few.
Identifying Letters of Alphabet
At least four factors have been taken into account

in identifying and defining sounds
that are included in the alphabet:
1. Place from where a sound originates in the vocal system,
called sthAna (xjÉÉlÉ)
2. Nature of effort required to produce a sound,
called prayatna (mÉërÉ¦É)
3. Duration of a sound, called kAla (MüÉsÉ)
4. Whether a sound is reflected, amplified or attenuated,
called karaNa (MüUhÉ)
Not only the formation of the alphabet
but also naming them shows the rational mind.
Alphabet
The Sanskrit alphabet consists of 48 letters

that are known
as varNa-s (uÉhÉï ‘that give colour to the language’).
These 48 form three groups:
i) vowels [svara, xuÉU], 13

(xuÉrÉÇ UÉeÉiÉå CÌiÉ xuÉUÈ ‘that exists or shines by itself’),
ii) consonants, [vyanjana, urÉgeÉlÉ] 33
(AlÉÑ urÉerÉiÉå CÌiÉ urÉgeÉlÉÈ ‘that is pronounced
after it has been joined with a svara’)],
iii) others
visarga (ÌuÉxÉaÉï), a sort of hard breathing out like ‘ha’, and
anusvAra (AlÉÑxuÉÉU), a nasal sound like ‘m’.
All these are arranged on the basis
of the origin of production of these sounds.
Normally one lists visarga अ: and anusvAra अं under vowels.
Sanskrit is syllabic, and generally, a word in Sanskrit ends in
a vowel, a visarga or a anusvAra.
Origin of Sounds
Five locations have been identified
Throat (guttural - MülP)

Roof of mouth (palatal - iÉÉsÉÑ)
Tongue (cerebral - qÉÔkÉïlÉç)
Teeth (dental - SlirÉ)
Lips (labial - AÉå¸rÉ)
Let us start with vowels (xuÉUÈ svara-s)

Vowels
Vowels are known as (xuÉUÈ svara-s)

अ, इ, उ, ऋ and ऌ are simple and short vowels.
Their long varieties are आ, ई, ऊ and ॠ.
(ऌ does not have a long sound).
There are four compound vowels ए, ऐ, ओ and औ.
(These are called diphthongs in English)
Vowels
Origin Simple
of Compound
Sound (Diphthong)
Short Long
Throat - अ आ
Roof of Mouth - इ ई ए ऐ
Tongue - ऋ ॠ
Teeth - ऌ
Lips - उ ऊ ओ औ
Simple vowels compound to produce diphthongs
अ+इ =ए
अ+ए=ऐ
अ+उ =ओ
अ+ओ=औ
Consonant
Consonants are called urÉgeÉlÉÈ (vyanjana-s).

The identification of consonants and their arrangement,
as mentioned before, are remarkable again.
Four kinds of consonants exist in Sanskrit.
Stopped Consonants
The first is called sparsha (xmÉzÉï ‘touch’),

for to produce these sounds
the tongue or other parts
have to touch specific places in the mouth.
They are known as ‘stopped consonants’
Five such positions of touch have been identified:
क a sound produced at the throat,
च the tongue touches the roof of mouth
to produce this sound,
ट a sound caused by the tongue,
त originates at the teeth, and, finally,
प a sound produced at the lips.
We can see the logic in this series.

In the first the vibration is created
at the throat,
and moves progressively towards the lips.
To each of these is associated a group (uÉaÉï varga).
The first letter of each varga,
for example, क is hard (AbÉÉåwÉ aghoSha),
that is, light in resonance, called ‘voiceless’
and since breath is held back,
it is non-aspirate (AsmÉmÉëÉhÉ alpa-prAna).
Origin of
Sound
Simple
-
Throat - क
Roof of Mouth - च
Tongue - ट
Teeth - त
Lips - प
We can see the logic in this series.

In the first the vibration is created at the throat,
and moves progressively towards the lips.
Origin of
Sound
Simple
-
Throat - क
Roof of Mouth - च
Tongue - ट
Teeth - त
Lips - प
Voiceless (aghoSha) and is called ‘simple’,

as the breadth is held back, it is non-aspirate (alpa-prAna).
Origin of Unvoiced
Sound
Simple Aspira
- te
Throat - क ख
Roof of Mouth - च छ
Tongue - ट ठ
Teeth - त ि
Lips - प फ
The second letter is also simple,

but, aspirated, that is, the breath is thrown out (mahA-prAna).
Origin of Unvoiced Voiced
Sound
Simple Aspira Simple Aspira
- te - te
Throat - क ख ग घ
Roof of Mouth - च छ ् झ
Tongue - ट ठ ड ढ
Teeth - त ि द ध
Lips - प फ ब भ
The third are ‘light’ (ghoSha), rich in resonance (voiced),

but in the first of this pair the breath is held back (alpa-prAna)
and in the latter it is thrown out (mahA-prAna).
- Stopped -
Origin of Unvoiced Voiced
Sound Nasal
- te - te
Throat - क ख ग घ ङ
Roof of Mouth - च छ ् झ ञ
Tongue - ट ठ ड ढ र्ण
Teeth - त ि द ध न
Lips - प फ ब भ म
Each group ends in a nasal sound (nAsikA)

that is soft and resonant.
Semi-vowels
Semi-vowels are the sounds that lie between

the vowels and ‘stopped’ consonants.
These are, hence called
antasparsha (AliÉxmÉzÉï semi-vowels).
To produce these sounds the tongue touches
very lightly the place of contact,
and not fully as in the sparsha.
Four have been identified and they are:
- Stopped -
Origin of Unvoiced Voiced Semi
Sound Nasal vowel
- te - te
Roof of Mouth - च छ ् झ ञ य
Tongue - ट ठ ड ढ र्ण र
Teeth - त ि द ध न ल
Lips - प फ ब भ म व
Sibilants
Sibilants produce close to whistling sounds and

create heat when sounded.
Hence these are called ushman (EwqÉlÉç ‘heat’).
The sounds are श, ष and स.
- Stopped -
Origin of Unvoiced Voiced Semi Sibi
Sound Nasal vowel lant
- te - te
Roof of Mouth - च छ ् झ ञ य श
Tongue - ट ठ ड ढ र्ण र ष
Teeth - त ि द ध न ल स
Lips - प फ बb भ म व
Others
Aspirate ि visarga अ: anusvAra अं
Normally one lists visarga and anusvAra under vowels.

(Sanskrit is syllabic, and generally,
a word in Sanskrit ends in a vowel, a visarga or a anusvAra.)
No one who looks at this alphabetical structure
can remain without being amazed
at the depth of the insights
and the clarity of vision.
It would be difficult to find
an alphabet in any language
that is organised
so systematically and logically.
Vedic recitation
Vedic stanzas are learnt and transmitted orally.
Accent is the most characteristic of Vedic chants.
Vedic stanzas were regulated by number of syllables,
and the occurrence of long and short syllables
were restricted only to the cadence.
But by the classical period, accent was discontinued,
but a definite length and a specific sequence
of short and long syllables defined the metres.
Accent
For reciting the Veda-s accents came to be used

to avoid monotony, and
to promote unison in congressional chanting
a base tone, udAtta (ESÉ¨É),
a higher tone, svarita (xuÉËUiÉ), and
a lower tone, anudAtta (AlÉÑSÉ¨É),
came in use.
Later seven notes was employed in chanting Sama Veda
It is believed this is the basis of Indian classical music
higher tone svarita, (superscripted in the text below)
base tone udAtta, (unmarked in the text below)
lower tone anudAtta, (underlined in the text below)
गर्णानां ां॑ त्वा गर्णपां॑भतं िवामिे

कभवं कां॑वीनामुां॑ पमश्रां॑ वस्तमम् |
ज्येष्ठरा्ं ब्रह्मां॑र्णां ब्रह्मर्णस्पत
आ नां॑: शृण्वन्नूभतभभां॑स्सीद सादां॑ नम् ||
Modes of Recitation
For correct transmission of Vedic text

five modes of recitation employed
In these
adjacent words are combined
in a number of ways
1. samhita pATha (xÉÎqWûiÉ mÉÉPû) (Continuous Recitation)
Governed by rules of metre
2. pada pATha (mÉS mÉÉPû) (Word Recitation)
Each word without sandhi
3. krama pATha (¢üqÉ mÉÉPû) (Step Recitation)
(ab, bc, cd, . . .)
4. jaTA pATha (eÉOûÉ mÉÉPû) (Woven Recitation)
[ab, ba, ab], [bc, cb, bc], . . .
5. ghana pATha (bÉlÉ mÉPû) (Compact Recitation)
[ab, ba, abc, cba, abc], [bc, cb, bcd, dcb, bcd], . . .
Some authorities say that eleven modes were used:
vAkya, pada, krama, jaTA, mAlA, sikhA,
rekha, dhvaja, danda, ratha, ghana
Ghana-patha
In ghana pATha adjacent words are combined as

[ab, ba, abc, cba, abc], [bc, cb, bcd, dcb, bcd] etc
As an example we shall take the first three words
and make the combination as per ghana pATha;
the first three words are
गर्णानां ां॑ त्वा गर्णपां॑भतं

a b c
गर्णानां ां॑ त्वा गर्णपां॑भतं िवामिे कभवं कां॑वीनामुां॑ पमश्रां॑ वस्तमम्
ज्येष्ठरा्ं ब्रह्मां॑र्णां ब्रह्मर्णस्पत आ नां॑: शृण्वन्नूभतभभां॑स्सीद सादां॑ नम्
In ghana pATha adjacent words are combined as

[ab, ba, abc, cba, abc], [bc, cb, bcd, dcb, bcd],
गर्णानां ां॑ त्वा त्वा गर्णानां ां॑ गर्णानां ां॑ त्वा गर्णपां॑भतं
a b b a a b c
गर्णपां॑भतं त्वा गर्णानां ां॑ गर्णानां ां॑ त्वा गर्णपां॑भतं

c b a a b c
Vedanga-s
(Limbs of Veda-s)
vedAnga-s are treatises on

correct recitation, and
adherence to ceremonial rites
SikSha (ÍzÉ¤É) – correct pronunciation

chhanda (NûlS) – poetic metres
nirukta (ÌlÉÂ£ü) – etymology of Vedic vocabulary
vyAkarNa (urÉÉMühÉï) - grammar
jyotiSha (erÉÉåÌiÉwÉ ) – science of calendar
kalpa (MüsmÉ) – performance of sacrifice
Chhanda
(Poetic Metres)
Earliest Texts
rig-veda-pratiSAkhya and
nidAna-sUtra of Sama veda
Post-Vedic Treatises
chanda-sUtra of Pingala (Pre-Kalidasa)
vRtta-ratnAkara of Kedarabhatta (15th cent.)
In poetry, poetic form is achieved in many ways;
but definite and predictable form
would be evident
In Sanskrit the pattern is based on syllables, and
on duration of time required
to express a syllable
Poetic metres of Sanskrit belong to two periods
- Vedic period
- Classical Period
Vedic poetry is a collection of sUkta-s (xÉÔ£ü ‘hymn’)
A hymn may contain upto fifteen lines
Each line is a prosodic entity,
divided into one or two pAda-s (mÉÉS ‘quarter’)
xÉWûxÉëzÉÏwÉÉïmÉÑÂwÉÈ
xÉWûxÉëÉ¤É xÉWûxÉëmÉÉiÉç
xÉpÉÔÍqÉÇÌuÉµÉiÉÉåuÉ×iuÉÉ
AirÉÌiÉ¸¬zÉÉ…¡ÓûsÉqÉç
xÉWûxÉëzÉÏwÉÉïmÉÑÂwÉÈ
xÉWûxÉëÉ¤É xÉWûxÉëmÉÉiÉç
xÉpÉÔÍqÉÇÌuÉµÉiÉÉåuÉ×iuÉÉ
Each pAda comprises
AirÉÌiÉ¸¬zÉÉ…¡ÓûsÉqÉç
a specified number of syllables,
regulated by the metre
Pause, yati (rÉÌiÉ), provided in each pAda
aiding congregational chanting
Vedic poetry is a collection of sUkta-s (xÉÔ£ü ‘hymn’)
A hymn may contain upto fifteen lines
Each line is a prosodic entity,
divided into one or two pAda-s (mÉÉS ‘quarter’)
Each pAda comprises
a specified number of syllables,
regulated by the metre
Pause, yati (rÉÌiÉ), provided in each pAda
aiding congregational chanting
Syllable
Every syllable ends in

vowel: example अ, म, रा
visarga: example निः
or
anusvAra: example िं
A syllable is either ‘heavy’ (H) or ‘light’ (L)

Light Syllable
ending in ends in a short vowel, like भत
Heavy syllable
Those that are not Light Syllables,
like, those
ending in long vowel (ऊ, रा),
visarga (अिः, निः, युिः),
anusvAra (अं, िं ),
or
ending in short vowel
but followed by one or more
unattached consonants
(examples: तस् of तस्य, ल क् ष् of लस्ि)
Light Syllable (L)
ending in ends in a short vowel, like भत
Heavy syllable (H)

Those that are not Light Syllables,
Let me explain the concept of syllables
And their being heavy and light through an example.
Here is the opening stanza of purushA sUktam
xÉWûxÉëzÉÏwÉÉï mÉÑÂwÉÈ xÉWûxÉëÉ¤É xÉWûxÉëm
xÉpÉÔÍqÉÇ ÌuÉµÉiÉÉå uÉ×iuÉÉ AirÉÌiÉ¸¬zÉÉ…¡ÓûsÉq
Let us take the first quarter, and show each syllable
(a syllable ends in a vowel, visarga or anusvara)
xÉ Wû xÉë zÉÏ wÉÉï mÉÑ Â wÉÈ
Identifying ‘heavy’ and ‘light’ syllables by tagging
unattached consonant of the following syllable
xÉ WûxÉç U zÉÏUç wÉÉ mÉÑ Â wÉÈ

L H L H H L L H
Here is the opening stanza of purushA sUktam
xÉWûxÉëzÉÏwÉÉï mÉÑÂwÉÈ xÉWûxÉëÉ¤É xÉWûxÉëmÉ
xÉpÉÔÍqÉÇ ÌuÉµÉiÉÉå uÉ×iuÉÉ AirÉÌiÉ¸¬zÉÉ…¡ÓûsÉqÉç
Showing each syllable
(a syllable ends in a vowel, visarga or anusvara)
xÉ Wû xÉë zÉÏ wÉÉï mÉÑ Â wÉÈ xÉ Wû xÉëÉ ¤É xÉ Wû
xÉ pÉÔ ÍqÉÇ ÌuÉ µÉ iÉÉå uÉ× iuÉÉ A irÉ ÌiÉ ¸ ¬ zÉÉ …¡Ó
Identifying ‘heavy’ and ‘light’ syllables by tagging

unattached consonant of the following syllable
xÉ WûxÉç U zÉÏUç wÉÉ mÉÑ Â wÉÈ xÉ WûxÉç UÉMçü w
L H L H H L L H L H H L L H L H
xÉ pÉÔ ÍqÉÇ ÌuÉzÉç uÉ iÉÉå uÉ×iÉç uÉÉ AiÉç rÉ ÌiÉwÉç PûSè

L H H H L H H H H L H H L H L H
Vedic Hymn
An example
“ We call on Thee, Lord of hosts,

“The Poet of poets, the most famous of all;
“The Supreme King of spiritual knowledge,
O Lord of spiritual wisdom!
“Listen to us with Thy graces,
and sit in the place (of sacrifice)."
- Rig Veda II 23.1
गर्णानां त्वा गर्णपभतं िवामिे कभवं कवीनामुपमश्रवस्तमम् |

ज्येष्ठरा्ं ब्रह्मर्णां ब्रह्मर्णस्पत आ निः शृण्वन्नूभतभभस्सीद सादनम् ||
Jagati Metre
jagati metre consists of two lines

each line having two pAda-s
1st Line
गर्णानां त्वा गर्णपभतं िवामिे
कभवं कवीनामुपमश्रवस्तमम् |
2nd Line
ज्येष्ठरा्ं ब्रह्मर्णां ब्रह्मर्णस्पत
आ निः शृण्वन्नूभतभभस्सीद सादनम् ||
Twelve syllables per pAda

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
कभवं कवीनामुपमश्रवस्तमम्
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
आ निः शृण्वन्नूभतभभस्सीद सादनम्

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
The first three of the last four syllables,
called cadence, are Light [L], Heavy [H] and Light [L]

L H L
कभवं कवीनामुपमश्रवस्तमम्
L H L

L H L
आ निः शृण्वन्नूभतभभस्सीद सादनम्

L H L
Yellow – Light syllable; Red – Heavy syllable

Pause, yati, occurs after 4th or 5th syllable
गर्णानां त्वा/गर्णपभतं िवामिे

4
कभवं कवीनां /उपमश्रवस्तमम्

5
ज्येष्ठरा्ं /ब्रह्मर्णां ब्रह्मर्णस्पत

4
आ निः शृण्वन्/ऊभतभभस्सीद
सादनम्
4
Important Vedic Metres
Only a few metres account for

most of the stanzas of Rig Veda
Let us listen to some of these
Gayatri Metre
The first stanza of Rig Veda is a prayer

to Agni, carrier of sacrificial offerings
It is set to gAyatri (aÉÉrÉ§ÉÏ) Metre

consisting of three pAda-s
in two lines
Each pAda is of eight syllables
with LHL as cadence
“I pray to Agni, the Priest, the God of Sacrifice,
the Offerer of Oblation;
“The Giver of best treasure.”
- Rig Veda I 1.1
अभिमीळे पुरोभितं यज्ञस्य दे वमृस्त्व्म् |

िोतारं रत्नधातमम् ||

gAyatri mantra is perhaps most important prayer.
It is set in gAyatri metre, hence the name.
“We contemplate that adorable glory of the Deity,
- that is in the earth, the sky and the heaven.
“May He stimulate our mental power.”
- Rig Veda III 62-10
ॐ
भूभुतवस्सुविः
तत्सभवतुवतरेण्यं भगोदे वस्य धीमभि |
भधयो योनिः प्रचोदयात् ||
Anushtubh Metre
Anushtubh (AlÉÑ¹ÒpÉç) is the only Vedic metre

remained in use in later period.
It is similar to the gAyatri metre,
but consists of four pAda-s
Here is the Vedic prayer to Rudra for deliverance.

"We worship Rudra,
“Who spreads fragrance and increases nourishment.
“May He release me,
like the ripe cucumber from its stem,
“From death, but not from immortality."
- Rig Veda VII 59.12
रयंबकं ््ामिे
सुगस्धं पुभिवधत नम् |
ऊवात रुकभमव बधनात्
मृत्योमुतषभिीय मामृतात् ||

Upanishad-s
While the Vedic sages raised

many innocent and profound questions,
authors of upaniShad-s (EmÉÌlÉwÉSè) attempted
to unravel the cosmic mystery;
greatest product of the Hindu mind
Here is a gem from kaThopaniShad (YPûÉåmÉÌlÉwÉSè)
that reflects predicament of man
Trishtubh Metre
The stanza set in triShTubh (Ì§É¹ÒpÉç) metre

of four pAda-s of eleven syllables each
with HLH as cadence
“Steeped in ignorance,
men engage themselves in activities and pursuits and
considering themselves men of learning,
stagger along aimlessly like the blind led by the blind
going round and round in the cycle of births.”
- KaThopaniSad I ii-5
अभवद्यायामन्तरे वततमानािः
स्वयं धीरािः पस्ितमन्यमानािः |
दन्द्रम्यमार्णािः पररयस्न्त मूढािः
अधेनैव नीयमाना यिाधािः ||

Grammar
Let us follow certain aspects of

oral tradition of grammar.
Sanskrit Language
Sanskrit can be seen belonging two stages:

pre-Paninian and post-Paninian
Pre-Paninian
Language of Rig Veda,
whose hymns and mantras are the oldest
Language of the later hymns and mantras
Language of the later Vedic prose works
Language of a part of epics
Post-Paninian
Language fixed by Panini,
to which later classical literature belongs
Panini, the grammarian
Panini, perhaps, lived in

the 4th century BCE.
His native place could have
been present day Peshawar.
Panini must have been preceded
by a number of grammarians.
We get a few names found quoted in his work.
There were a number of commentators of Panini,
the most important being Patanjali
Ashtadhyayi
This comprehensive and scientific theory of grammar
is taken to mark the end of the Vedic period.
Panini’s ashTAdhyAyi is
the most complex, most exhaustive and the shortest
grammar of classical Sanskrit.
There existed texts,
Siva-sUtra, uNAdi-sUtra,
dhAtu-pAtha and gaNa-pAtha,
before the Panini time.
The immediate predessors were
nirukta, nighaNTu and pratishakya-s.
dhAtu pAtha – list of verb-roots
uNAdi sUtra-s – etymology of vedic words
nighaNTu and nirukta - dictionary for Vedic words
uNAdi sUtra-s, nighaNTu and nirukta help

in understanding meaning of Vedic mantras
Ashtadhyayi describes algorithms to be applied
to material from the pre-existing lexical lists,
like dhAtu-pAtha and gaNa-pAtha
for generation of well-formed words.
The concepts of
root, phoneme and morpheme
inherent in words
were recognised by the Western linguists
only after about 2000 years.
Modern scholars feel that
its brevity and its unintuitive structure,
are reminiscent of contemporary
‘machine language’.
Its sophisticated logical rules and technique
have been widely influential
in ancient and modern linguistics.
Sanskrit language
Sanskrit, the classical language was

probably based on Saurasena,
the Prakrit dialect of Madhya-desa,
a dialect from
which Hindi and Punjabi evolved.
Panini refers to the language as bhASha,
and the name Sanskrit came into use later.
Even during the time of Panini,
the distance between
the ‘high’ language, Sanskrit and
the spoken languages of the people,
the prakrit dialects,
must have been wide.
But Sanskrit maintained a pre-eminent position
as the language of the scholars,
of science and art,
and the only medium
for Hindu religious ceremonies.
By Panini’s time Sanskrit was fully standardized,
some may even say, fossilized.
Cultured as it was, almost artificially,
and by and large divorced from
common people’s life,
Sanskrit was astonishingly alive and
produced great literature and geniuses.
To the best of our knowledge
there was no writing
at least upto the time of Asoka.
Even when writing came into common use,
the tradition of orality continued.
Ashtadhyayi
The text of Ashtadhyayi consists of

almost 4000 sUtra-s
distributed over eight chapters.
Hence the title ‘Ashtadhayi’.
Panini commences his Ashtadhayi with
आत्मा बुद्ध्या समेत्यिात न् मनो युङ्ते भववषभिया

“Out of desire to speak,
the soul gathers all the meaning
with the help of buddhi and impels the mind.”
Ashtadhyayi is a formal system
that gives clues for language processing insights.
It also important for studying
the structure and functioning of languages
genealogically related to Sanskrit.
Verb-roots form an important foundation
for ‘creating’ words in Sanskrit.
Most languages create new words
through the process of
adding prefixes and suffixes,
and through inflections;
but these are not very systematic.
It is quite systematic in Sanskrit.
Here we have about 2200 monosyllabic verb-roots and
following Panini’s 4000 sutra-s
almost entire vocabulary is created.
We shall take an example using
the verb-root गम् meaning ‘to go’
गत - gone
गभत - movement
गभतका - transient
गन्तव्य - to be attained
अभतगम् - to surpass
अभधगम् - to find
अनुगम् - to follow
भनगतमन - to disappear
पररगमन - to proceed
सङ्गत - in conjunction
सुगम - easily understood
We shall demonstrate
how oral tradition was made possible
using aphorisms.
These were easily memorisable
but contained substantial data
in precise manner.
Siva sutras
Siva Sutras
Legend
नृत्तावसाने नटरा्र्ो
ननाद ढक्ां नवपञ्चवारम् |
उध्दतुतकामिः सनकाभदभसद्धान्
एतभिमशे भशवसूर्ालम् ||
" With an ambition to uplift sages, Sanaka and others,

Nataraja, at the finale of his Tandava,
sounded his Damaru fourteen times.
“Thus came out the Siva Sutra-s."
ACEhÉç
GIMçü
LAÉåXèû
LåAÉæcÉç
WûrÉuÉUOèû
sÉhÉç
gÉqÉXûhÉlÉqÉç
fÉpÉgÉç
bÉRûkÉwÉç
eÉoÉaÉQûSzÉç
ZÉTüNûPûjÉcÉOûiÉu
MümÉrÉç
zÉwÉxÉUç
WûsÉç
Siva Sutras
Siva sUtra-s are clever arrangement

of alphabet (the phonemes),
that serve as symbolic rules
that enable grammatical rules
to be specified in a concise,
algebraic form.
The pre-existed sUtra-s were used
by Panini in Ashtadhyayi
1. ACEhÉç
2. GIMçü
3. LAÉåXèû
4. LåAÉæcÉç
5. WûrÉuÉUOèû
6. sÉhÉç
7. gÉqÉXûhÉlÉqÉç
There are fourteen sUtra-s
8. fÉpÉgÉç
and they are:
9. bÉRûkÉwÉç
10. eÉoÉaÉQûSzÉç
11. ZÉTüNûPûjÉcÉOûiÉuÉç
12. MümÉrÉç
13. zÉwÉxÉUç
14. WûsÉç
Abbreviated Symbols
(pratyAhAra-s)
Let me explain
how abbreviated symbols are constructed
using Siva sUtra-s, and
how these were used in Ashtadhyayi
Take the first sUtra ACEhÉç
This contains three vowels and

it is terminated by a consonant, hÉç.
It is called CûiÉç letter or terminator letter.
which has no function.
The sUtra is abbreviated simply as AhÉç
and this would mean
A, C & E, the three basic vowels.
This abbreviated AhÉç is called pratyAhAra.
In grammatical sUtra this pratyAhAra would be
used to refer all these three letters.
Let me give two more examples.
Thus, the second sUtra, GIMçü,

is abbreviated by GMçü
and would represent G & Iü
Similarly the eleventh sUtra,
ZÉTüNûPûjÉcÉOûiÉuÉç
contain as much as eight letters and
these are specified simply as ZÉuÉç
Key
1. ACEhÉç
I will go one more level.
2. GIMçü
3. LAÉåXèû
4. LåAÉæcÉç
5. WûrÉuÉUOèû
An abbreviation AMçü would stand for
6. sÉhÉç
all letters contained between
7. gÉqÉXûhÉlÉqÉç the first two sUtra-s,
8. fÉpÉgÉç that is A & Mçü,
9. bÉRûkÉwÉç
which are A, C, E, G & I.
In the same way gÉzÉç represents
12. MümÉrÉç all letters contained in sutra-s 7, 8, 9 & 9.
13. zÉwÉxÉUç
14. WûsÉç
Key
1. ACEhÉç One can appreciate the advantage of
2. GIMçü this arrangement.
3. LAÉåXèû For example,
4. LåAÉæcÉç
AMçü stands for all simple vowels
5. WûrÉuÉUOèû
6. sÉhÉç LcÉç for all diphthongs
7. gÉqÉXûhÉlÉqÉç AcÉç for all vowels
8. fÉpÉgÉç WzÉç for all soft consonants
9. bÉRûkÉwÉç ZÉUç for all hard consonants
rÉOèû for all semi-vowels
12. MümÉrÉç zÉUç for all sibilants
13. zÉwÉxÉUç
14. WûsÉç
Here are a few sUtra-s
taken from the first part of the sixth chapter
72 संभितायाम्
73 छे च
74 आङमाङोश्च
75 दीघात त्
76 पदान्तािा
77 इको यर्णभच
78 एचोऽयवायाविः
79 वान्तोभयप्रत्यये
80 धातोस्तभन्नभमत्तस्यैव
Let me explain the use of the 77th sutra

In Sanskrit words can join with each other
in a process called sandhi.
For example, in
SåuÉÏ + EuÉÉcÉ = SåurÉÑuÉÉcÉ ("Devi said.")
Here C becomes rÉç when followed by E.
The 77th sutra handles this sandhi.

1. ACEhÉç Panini simply says: CMüÉå rÉhÉç AÍcÉ, meaning
2. GIMçü CMüç is replaced by rÉhÉç when AcÉç follows.
3. That is,
LAÉåXèû
(C, E, G, I) are replaced by
4. (rÉ, uÉ, U, sÉ) respectively
LåAÉæcÉç
when (A, C, E, G, I, L, AÉå Lå, AÉæ) follows.
5.
WûrÉuÉU
Oèû Or mathematically
6. sÉhÉ (CEGI) + (ACEGILAÉåLåAÉæ) = (rÉuÉUsÉ)
(CEGI) + (ACEGILAÉåLåAÉæ) = (rÉuÉUsÉ)
implies
(C) + (ACEGILAÉåLåAÉæ) = (rÉ)
(E) + (ACEGILAÉåLåAÉæ) = (uÉ)
(G) + (ACEGILAÉåLåAÉæ) = (U)
(I) + (ACEGILAÉåLåAÉæ) = (sÉ)
This is characterised by brevity and exactitude.

There is no circumlocution in it.
(C) + (ACEGILAÉåLåAÉæ) = (rÉ)
कुसुमाभन + अस्यभत = कुसुमान्यस्यभत
(E) + (ACEGILAÉåLåAÉæ) = (uÉ)

वनेषु + अटभस = वनेष्वटभस
A Mathematical Analysis of Panini’s Sivasutras
Wiebke Petersen
Institute of Language and Information,
University of Duesseldorf, 2004
In Panini’s grammar of Sanskrit one finds the Sivasutras,

a table which defines the natural classes
of phonological segments
in Sanskrit by intervals.
We present a formal argument which shows that,
using his representation method,
Panini’s way of ordering the phonological segments
to represent the natural classes is optimal. . . .
The key idea is to link the graph of the Hasse-diagram
of the set of natural classes closed under intersection
to Sivasutra-style representations of the classes.
Synonyms
Later we shall be referring to the presence of

large number of synonyms in Sanskrit.
Synonyms do exist in other languages too,
but they may not have any inherent significance;
they could be because of just conventions.
But this is not so in Sanskrit,
where they grow out of roots as per certain rules.
Scripts for Sanskrit
I may mention now about writing Sanskrit.
Writing came much later, but when it came in use,
the scripts used for Sanskrit,
did have special feature,
namely, syllabic,
incorporating glyphs
for conjunctive consonants.
Here are two example:

श् + र = श्र
क् + ष = षभि
Metres of Classical Period
Now we shall study the classical metres

that came into use
in the later Classical period,
and how these also contributed
to the oral tradition.
In the classical period, metres evolved
far tighter structure,
but retained quantitative nature
Two kinds evolved

vRtta regulated by sequence of
hard and light syllables
jAti regulated by number of
syllabic instants (mAtra-s)
Even anuSTubh metre went through
some changes
Anushtubh
(Sloka Metre)
anuShTubh is the only Vedic metre that survived, and

became most popular.
The formula (sUtra) for this metre

can be seen to explain
not only the arrangement of syllables,
but also is set in the self-same metre.
This practice is followed in all the cases
contributing to the oral tradition.
Syllables
pAda
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
I - - - - लघु L गु रु H - -
II - - - - लघु L गु रु H लघु L -
III - - - - लघु L गु रु H -
IV - - - - लघु L गु रु H लघु L -
पञ्चमं लघुसवतर
सप्तमं भिचतुितयोिः |
षिं गुरु भव्ानीयात्
एतत् श्लोकस्य लषभिर्णम्
||
Ramayana
Ramayana may be considered to herald

the classical period.
Ramayana is an epic dear to our heart,

and Valmiki the Adi-kavi ("the First Poet").
anuShTubh metre became popular with
Valmiki employing this metre for composing
almost the entire epic.
The flexibility offered by the metre
and its 8-syllable rhythm were perhaps
the reason for its popularity even today.
An Episode from
Sundara kanda of Ramayana
Hanuman, sent by Sri Rama,

reaches Lanka looking for Sita.
In Ashoka Vana, he finds Ravana
cajoling Sita to be her queen.
On refusal, she is threatened
with dire consequences
Sita is firm, but on Ravana's departure
decides to end her life.
Hanuman is moved.
To make his presence as Rama's ambassador felt,
he recites the story of Sri Rama.
रा्ा दशरिो नाम
रिकुञ्जरवाभ्मान् |
पुण्यशीलो मिाकीभततिः
ऋ्ुरासीन्मिायशािः ||
तस्य पुरिः भप्रयो ज्येष्ठ-
स्ताराभधपभनभावनिः |
रामो नाम भवशेषज्ञिः
श्रेष्ठिः सवत धनुमतताम् ||
रभषभिता स्वस्य धमतस्य
स्व्नस्य रभषभिता |
रभषभिता ्ीव लोकस्य
धमतस्य च परन्तपिः ||
- Sundara Kanda, 31-2, 6, 7

Hearing this, startled as she was,
asked the monkey who he was.
Hanuman said,
"I am sent by Sri Rama.
“Your husband, your brother-in-law Lakshmana
and all others enquired about your well being."
अिं रामस्य सन्दे शा-

द्दे भव दू तस्तवागतिः |
वैदेभि कुशली राम-
स्त्ां च कौशलमब्रवीत् ||
- Sundara Kanda, 34-2

Vaidehi was still not satisfied.
"If you say you are rAma-dUta,
describe me in detail Rama's personality".
Hanuman is only too happy to oblige.
आभदत्य इव ते्स्वी
लोककान्तिः शशीयिा |
रा्ा सवतस्य लोकस्य
दे वो वैश्रवर्णो यिा ||
भवक्रमेर्णोपपन्नश्च
यिा भवष्णुमतिायशा: |
सत्यवादी मधुरवा-
ग्दे वो वाचस्पभतयतिा ||
रूपवान् सु भििः श्रीमान्
कन्दपत इव मूभततमान् |
थिानक्रोधिः प्रितात च
श्रेष्ठोलोके मिारििः ||
- Sundara Kanda, 34-28, 29 & 30

Sita, then, satisfied inquires how come
there was friendship with the monkey-king.
Maruti narrates the story starting from Vaali-vadha
and introduces himself as:
अिं सुग्रीवसभचवो
िनुमान्नाम वानरिः |
भवशङ्का त्य्तामेषा
श्रद्धत्स्व वदतो मम
|| - Sundara Kanda, 34-39

Overcome by joy, Sita request him
to tell her about Sri Rama.
रामिः कमलपराषभििः
सवतभूतमनोिरिः |
रूपदाभषभिण्यसम्पन्निः
प्रसूतो ्नकात्म्े ||
भवपुलाम्सो मिाबाहिः
कम्बुग्रीविः शुभाननिः |
गूढ्रिः सुताम्राषभिो
रामो दे वी ््ौ श्रुतिः ||
- Sundara Kanda, 35-9 & 10

On seeing Rama's ring, Sita's joy was boundless.
For her it looked as if she got back her beloved in person.
गृिीत्वा प्रेषभिमार्णा सा
भतुतकतरभवभूषर्णम् |
भतात रभमव सम्प्राप्ता
्ानकी मुभदताभवत्
|| - Sundara Kanda, 36-5

Popularity of Anushtubh
Because of its simplicity

anuShTubh is popular even to-day
for composing devotional hymns.
Most of the hymns recited every day like
viShNu sahasranAmaM and
lalitA sahasranAmaM
are composed in this metre.
Vishnu-sahasranamam
viSNu sahasranAmaM is a part of Mahabharata.
At the end of the Great War, bhIShma-pitAmaha,
lying on a bed of arrows waiting for his end,
recites viShNu sahasranAmaM,
1008 names of the Lord,
to the benefit of YudhiShtra.
For the devout it is more than
just a string of Lord's names.
Philosophically
it is significant for this is
one among the four religious works
for which Adi Sankara
wrote commentaries.
भवश्वं भवष्णु वषट् कारो भूतभव्यभवत्प्रभुिः |
भूतकृत्भूतभृत्भावो भूतात्मा भूतपावनिः ||
पूतात्मा परमात्मा च मुतानां परमागभतिः |
अव्ययिः पुरुषस्साभषभि षभिेरज्ञो’षभिर एव च ||
योगो योगभवदा नेता प्रधानपुरुषेश्वरिः |
नारभसम्ह वपुश्रीमान् केशव पुरुषोत्तमिः ||
- viSNu sahasranAmaM, Stotram 1-3

Purana-s
The purANA-s, eighteen in number, contain

wide information on literature, politics,
history, geography, art,
architecture, military science,
medicine, philosophy,
economics, education,
iconography etc.
Brahmanda-purana
brahmANDa-purANA is the best specimen of

ancient Indian tradition throwing light on
the manifold facets of life
from creation to destruction of the universe.
Lalita-
sahasranamam
lalitA sahasranAmaM,
very sacred in our
tradition and
recited with
devotion both by
the pundits and
the masses,
forms a part of
bRhmANDa-purANA.
Lalita-sahasranamam
श्रीमाता श्रीमिाराज्ञे श्रीमस्त्सम्हासनेश्वरी |

भचतभिकुिसम्भूता दे वकायतसमुद्यता ||
उद्यद्भानुसिस्राभा चतुभात हसमस्िता |
रागस्वरूपपाशाढ्या क्रोधकाराङ् कुशोज्ज्वला
||
मनोरूपेषभिुकोदि पञ्चतन्मारसायका |
भन्ारूर्णप्रभापूर
मज्जदब्रह्मािमिला ||
- lalitAa sahasranAmaM, Stotram 1-3

Bhakti Period
7th - 9th century CE is of great significance.

There occurred two movements from the South
which altered the course of
Indian cultural and religious history.
One was the Bhakti cult
initiated by the Tamil Shaivaite and
Vaishnavite saints
to take deep roots in the country
carried on by Jayadeva, Chaitanya,
Tukaram, Mira, Kabir and others.
The second was remarkable, not only because of its impact,
but also because it was the work of a single man.
Adi Sankara
Adi Sankara must have been an extraordinary genius.
He travelled all over India, and
conquered the mind intellectually
by his arguments and commentaries
He became a great leader of the intellectual class and
at the same time
caught the imagination of the masses.
Remarkable too is that he could achieve all these
within sixteen years.
He also composed prodigious number of hymns
which remain a source of inspiration to this day.
Rhyming is not incorporated
in classical Sanskrit poetry
as preoccupation with
alliteration, assonance and word-play
may be an obstacle to the theme.
But some of the compositions of Adi Sankara
bristle with rhythmic beauty.
Ganesapanchakam
The majestic gait of gaNeSa pañchakam is

because of its antaprASam (end rhyme) and
due to the alternating ‘light’ and ‘heavy’ syllables.
This meter is called pancha-chAmara.
You may also note that
this satisfies rules of anuShTubh metre also.
मु दाकरात्तमोदकं
सदाभवमु स्तदायकम् |
कलाधरावतंसकं भवलाभसलोकरषभिकम्
||
अनायकैकनायकं भवनाभशतेभदै त्यकम्
|
नताशुभाशुनाशकं नमाभम तं भवनायकम्
||
नतेकराभतभीकरं नवोभदताकतभास्वरम् |
नमस्सुराररभन्त रं नताभधकापदु धतरम् ||
Other Metres of Classical Poetry
In classical poetry two kinds of metres are used.

One is called vRtta metre, which is based on syllables.
The other is jAti matre,
that is regulated by syllabic instants.
We shall take up vRtta metres first.
Vritta Metres
vRtta metres,
governed by a given number of syllables
in specified sequence,
are the most popular in classical poetry
There are simple as well as complex metres
Bhujanga-prayata Metre
bhujanga-prayAta is a simple metre

with twelve syllables per quarter
LHH, repeated four times
with a pause following the 6th syllable
Subrahmanya-bhujangam
Here are a a few stanzas from

subrahmaNya bhujangam
composed by Adi Sankara.
Bhujanga-prayata
LHHLHH#LHHLHH
सदा बाल रूपाभप भवघ्नाभद्रिस्ि

मिादस्न्त वक्त्राभप पञ्चास्यमान्या |
भवधीन्द्राभदमृग्या गर्णेशाभभधामे
भवधत्तां भश्रयं काभप कल्यार्णमूभततिः ||
यदासभन्नधानं गतामानवा मे
भवां भोभधभारं गतास्ते तदै व |
इभतव्यञ्जयस्िधु तीरे य आस्ते
तमीडे पभवरं पराशस्त पुरम् ||

Now let us graduate to more complex metres.
Mandakranta Metre
mandAkrAntA is a complex metre of

a sequence of the following seventeen syllables
H H H H # L L L L L H # H L H H L H H -17
(Pauses are incorporated avoiding splitting of words).
We shall give an example from
viShNu-sahasranAmaM again.
mandAkrAnta
H H H H # L L L L L H # H L H H L H H -17
शान्ताकारं # भु्गशयनं # पद्मनाभं सुरेशं

भवश्वाधारं # गगनसदृशं # मेघवर्णं शुभाङ्गम् |
लिीकान्तं # कमलनयनं # योभगहृद्ध्यानगम्यं
वन्दे भवष्णुं # भवभयिरं # सवतलोकैकनािम् ||
- viSNu sahasranAmaM, dhyAnam

This string of syllables
HHHLLLLLHHLHHLHH
don’t seem to have any pattern at first sight.
Actually the arrangement is regulated by
certain tri-syllabic combinations called gaNa-s.
In these metres the sequence is given
in the form of tri-syllabic combinations, called, gaNa-s.
Using two kings of syllables, Heavy and Light,
There are eight combinations possible.
These are:
LHH HLH HHL

HLL LHL LLH
HHH LLL
These eight combinations are given names,
like ya-gaNa, ra-gaNa etc,
and the sUtra defining the gaNa-s is:
AÉÌSqÉkrÉÉuÉxÉÉlÉåwÉÑ rÉUiÉÉ rÉÉÎliÉ sÉÉbÉuÉ

pÉeÉxÉÉ aÉÉæUuÉÇ rÉÉÎliÉ qÉlÉÉæiÉÑ aÉÑÂsÉÉ
AÉÌSqÉkrÉÉuÉxÉÉlÉåwÉÑ rÉUiÉÉ
rÉÉÎliÉ
Light sÉÉbÉuÉqÉç
syllables would be
on the first, middle and last positions of
ya-, ra- and ta-gaNa-s respectively
rÉ-aÉhÉ LHH U-aÉhÉ HLH iÉ-aÉhÉ HHL
pÉeÉxÉÉ aÉÉæUuÉÇ rÉÉÎliÉ

In bha-, ja- and sa-gaNa-s
it would be Heavy syllables
(on the first, middle and last positions)
pÉ-aÉhÉ HLL eÉ-aÉhÉ LHL xÉ-aÉhÉ LLH
qÉlÉÉæiÉÑ aÉÑÂsÉÉbÉuÉå
In ma- and na-gaNa-s
they would be all Heavy and Light syllables
(respectively)
qÉ-aÉhÉ HHH lÉ-aÉhÉ LLL

Now let us see how this sUtra is used, and
how it contribute to oral tradition.
I shall take an example of a metre, ShArdUlavikrIdita.
The literal meaning would be ‘Tiger-sport’ and
I have no idea whether the meaning
has any thing to do with
the nature metre.
The formula for this metre is given as
xÉÔrÉÉïµÉærÉïÌS qÉÈ xÉeÉÉæ xÉiÉiÉaÉÉÈ zÉÉSÕïsÉÌuÉ¢üÏÌQûiÉÇ
µÉærÉïÌS qÉÈ xÉeÉÉæ xÉiÉiÉaÉÉÈ zÉÉSÕïsÉÌuÉ¢ü
The total number of syllables

in each quarter are 19, and
the sequence of the syllables in the sUtra is,
rÉzÉç cÉæUç rÉ ÌS aÉÈ xÉ eÉÉæ xÉ iÉ iÉ aÉÉÈ zÉÉUç SÕ sÉ ÌuÉMçü UÏ ÌQ
H H H L L H L H L LLH H HL H H L H
which regulates the metre
Key
ya LHH
ra HLH Secondly, the sUtra means
ta HHL that the metre contains
bha HLL the following sequence of gaNa-s/syllables
ja LHL ma sa ja sa ta ta guru
HHH-LLH-LHL-L LH-H HL-HHL-H
sa LLH
ma HHH
na LLL
Lastly, the pause is at the end the twelfth syllable.

This is given by cryptically as xÉÔrÉï (12) AµÉ (7)
xÉÔrÉÉïµÉærÉïÌS qÉÈ xÉeÉÉæ xÉiÉiÉaÉÉÈ # zÉÉSÕïsÉÌuÉ¢üÏÌQûiÉÇ
Now we shall listen to the first two sloka-s from
Lalita Sahasranamam, which are set to
SArdUla-vikrIDita
Shardulavikridita 19
HHHLLHLHLLLH#HHLHHLH
ÍxÉlSÕUÉÂhÉÌuÉaÉëWûÉÇ Ì§ÉlÉrÉlÉÉÇ qÉÉÍhÉYrÉqÉÉ

iÉÉUÉlÉÉrÉMüzÉåZÉUÉÇ ÎxqÉiÉqÉÑZÉÏqÉÉmÉÏlÉuÉ¤É
mÉÉÍhÉprÉÉqÉÍsÉmÉÔhÉïU¦ÉcÉwÉMÇü U£üÉåimÉsÉ
xÉÉæqrÉÉÇ U¦ÉbÉOûxjÉU£ücÉUhÉÉÇ krÉÉrÉåimÉUÉq

We shall now hear a sloka from Mahanyasam
Shardulavikridita 19
HHHLLHLHLLLH#HHLHHLH
xÉÇuÉiÉÉïÎalÉiÉÌOûimÉëSÏmÉMülÉMü
mÉëxmÉÍkÉiÉåeÉÉåÂhÉÇ
aÉÇpÉÏUkuÉÌlÉxÉÉqÉuÉåSeÉlÉMÇü
iÉÉqÉëÉkÉUÇ xÉÑlSUqÉç |
AkÉåïlSÒ±ÑÌiÉsÉÉåsÉÌmÉÇaÉsÉeÉOû
ÉpÉÉUmÉëoÉÉå®ÉåSMÇü
uÉlSå ÍxÉ®xÉÑUÉxÉÑUålSìlÉÍqÉiÉÇ
mÉÔuÉïÇ qÉÑZÉÇ zÉÔÍsÉlÉÈ ||
All metres are defined this way.
Let us take a few examples and demonstrate them.
Kalidasa
Kalidasa is the great representative

of Indian spirit and grace.
Characterised by a simple dignity of language,
precision of phrase, a classical taste,
a cultivated judgement and
a fusion of thought and feeling,
Kalidasa is the greatest poet of Sanskrit.
Kalidasa is best known as the author of the play
AbhijñAna ShAkuntalaM.
He is also the author of three kAvya-s
raghu-vamSaM, kumAra-sambhavaM and
megha-dUtam.
It is also believed that he wrote
a few hymns and other smaller poems.
Kalidasa’s
Meghadutam
Kalidasa composed the famous epic

megha-dUtam (‘Cloud-Messenger’)
in mandAkrAnta, (‘slow-stepper’)
a slow moving metre,
to suit the theme.
An emaciated and sorrowful
yaksha in exile requests
the rain cloud to convey
a message of love and consolation
to his beloved
in the remote Himalayas.
The stanza anticipates
the objection of the unreality of
requesting the clouds
to carry a message.
"Where is a cloud, which is a composite
of smoke, light, water and air,
and where are the messages
that can be conveyed by living beings
endowed with strong limbs?
“Unmindful of this the Yaksha in his eagerness

begged the cloud to carry his message.
Those that are love-stricken are
by nature undiscriminating
between conscious and unconscious beings."
mandA-krAnta metre
H H H H # L L L L L H # H L H H L H H (4,6,7: 17 Syllables)
धुमज्योभतिः सभललमरुतां सभन्नपातिः क्व मेघिः

सन्दे शािात िः क्व पटु करनैिः प्रार्णभभिः प्रापनीयिः
|
इत्यौसुक्यादपररगनयन्गु ह्यकस्तं ययाचे
कामातात भि प्रकृभतकृपर्णाश्चे तनाचेतनेषु ||
- Megha-dutam, I - 5

There is another metre, SikhariNi
which has the same number of syllables,
namely, 17,
but differently disposed.
The sUtra is:
UxÉæÂSìæÍ¶É³ÉÉ rÉqÉlÉxÉpÉsÉÉaÉÈ ÍzÉZÉËUhÉÏ (6, 11: 17)
There is another metre, SikhariNi
which has the same number of syllables,
namely, 17,
but differently disposed.
The sUtra is:
UxÉæÂSìæÍ¶É³ÉÉ rÉqÉlÉxÉpÉsÉÉaÉÈ
ÍzÉZÉËUhÉÏ (6, 11: 17)
UxÉæÂSìæÍ¶É³ÉÉ rÉqÉlÉxÉpÉsÉÉaÉÈ
ÍzÉZÉËUhÉÏ (6, 11: 17)
Key
ya LHH
From the sutra itself we find
ra HLH the following sequence of syllables.
ta HHL
LHH-HHH-LLL-LLH-HLL- L- H
bha HLL ya ma na sa bha laghu guru
ja LHL and the pauses at
sa LLH UxÉÈ (taste: 6) and ÂSìÈ (Rudra:11)
ma HHH
na LLL
The incomparable Soundaryalahari of Adi Sankara
is composed in this metre.
Let us listen to the first two atanzas
Soundaryalahari
Siva, united with Sakti, becomes able to manifest;
If otherwise, this god knows not even how to pulsate,
How then could one of ungained merit be able
to bow to, or even praise,
One, such as You, adored even by
Vishnu, Siva and Brahma? 1
The fine dust arising from Your lotus feet,

Brahma, gathering up, the worlds creates,
Vishnu incessantly bears them up somehow
with his thousand heads,
And Siva, having shaken it up,
accomplishes with it his ash-wearing rite. 2
SikhariNi metre
LHHHHH#LLLLLHHLLLH
ÍzÉuÉÈzÉYirÉÉrÉÑ£üÉå
rÉÌSpÉuÉÌiÉzÉ£üÈ mÉëpÉÌuÉiÉÑÇ
lÉcÉåSåuÉÇSåuÉÉå
lÉZÉsÉÑMÑüzÉsÉÈ xmÉÎlSiÉÑqÉÌmÉ |
AiÉxiuÉÉqÉÉUÉprÉÉÇ
iÉlÉÏrÉÉxÉÇmÉÉÇxÉÑÇ
WûËUWûUÌuÉûËUgcÉÉÌSÍpÉUÌmÉ
iÉuÉcÉUhÉmÉƒ¡åûÂWûpÉuÉÇ
mÉëhÉliÉÑÇxiÉÉåiÉÑÇuÉÉ
ÌuÉËUÎlgÉÈ xÉÇÍcÉluÉlÉç
MüjÉqÉM×üiÉmÉÑhrÉÈ mÉëpÉuÉÌiÉ
ÌuÉUcÉrÉÌiÉsÉÉåMülÉÌuÉMüsÉqÉç |
|| 1 ||
uÉWûirÉålÉÇzÉÉæËUÈ
MüjÉqÉÌmÉxÉWûxÉëåhÉÍzÉUxÉÉ
WûUÈ
Yellow –xÉÇ¤ÉÑ±ælÉÇ
Light syllable; Red – Heavy syllable
One may wonder whether creativity would be
possible with such tight poetic structures.
I can identify two main features of Sanskrit,
which are true to most Indian languages.
First is Sanskrit is an inflexional language,
so are most Indian languages
in varying measures.
Because of this, the position of
a word in a sentence
could be arbitrarily chosen.
In poetry where conforming to
a metre is necessary,
this is an advantage.
The second is even more important.
Sanskrit is rich in synonyms and homonyms,
offers excellent flexibility for composing.
This is true of most Indian languages.
Synonyms
Amarasimha, a contemporary of Kalidasa,

the most important lexicographer,
composed amara-koSha,
in the form of Thesaurus
Amara-kosha
One among the couplets that give the

synonyms for 'man'.
मनुष्या मानुषा मत्यात मनु्ा मानवा नरिः |

स्युिः पुमाम्सिः पञ्च्नािः पुरुषा पूरुषा नरिः ||
The couplet is set to anuSTubh.

And one of the couplets for ‘beauty’
सुन्दरं रुभचरं चारु सुषभं साधु शोभनम् |

कान्तं मनोरमं रुच्यं मनोज्ञं मञ््ु मञ््ु लम् ||
This couplet is also set to anuSTubh.

Oral Tradition
Following the oral tradition

in which India has excelled,
young aspirants memorised
a large volume of rules and
vocabulary like amara-koSha.
While composing they drew
the appropriate word
to suit the occasion and
to fit into the prosodic structure.
But understanding a Sanskrit stanza could be
difficult for most like me.
This is because there need be no implicit order.
One needs to first separate out all the words,
for which one needs to know
the rules of sandhi.
Now we have to identify
the subject and its associated adjectives,
verb and its adverbs and
the accusative object(s) and
their qualifying attributes.
All these may be thrown here and there
to satisfy the poetic metre.
Then we can make a meaningful sentence.
The rhetoric, allusions etc,
characteristic to the language
don’t confuse us in small measure.
For the South Indians there are
two more added problems;
Sanskrit nouns are
either masculine, feminine or neuter
and in addition to singular and plural
there is dual too!
Kalidasa’s
Kumara-sambhavam
kumAra-sambhavaM, a major work of Kalidasa, narrates

the birth of kumaara, the divine warlord.
An episode from this work is penance of Parvati.
Parvati, the daughter of Himavan,
is doing severe penance in the Himalayas
seeking Siva himself as her husband.
To test her devotion Siva appears
as an elderly Brahmin and
dissuades her from her endeavour
by pointing out the incongruity in the match.
Vamashatha Metre
L H L H H # L L H L H L H -12
I know Maheshvara.
Had I only seen you before,
I would have dissuaded you. [Why?]
Shiva is addicted practices to that cause disgust.
On thinking of him, I am absolutely unable
to agree with you.
अिािवर्णी भवभदतो मिे श्वरिः

तदभितनी त्वं पुर एव वततसे |
अमङ्गलाभ्यासरभतं भवभचन्त्य तं
तवानुवृभत्तं नतु कतुतमुत्सिे ||

Vamashatha Metre
You, who insist on a worthless object!

How will you endure
the very first seizure of the hand with mantras
this tender hand of yours that wears the marital thread
with the hand of Siva,
where serpents play the role of bangles?
अवस्तु भनबत धपरे किं नु ते
करोऽयमामु त भववाि
कौतुकिः |
करे र्ण शम्भोवतलयी कृताभिना
सभिष्यते तत्प्रिमावलम्बलम् ||
Vamashatha Metre
Have you given thought to

whether these the two things match -
your silken robes embroidered with swans and
Siva’s elephant skin dripping with blood?
त्वमेव तावत्पररभचन्तय स्वयं

कदाभचदे ते यभद योगमित तिः |
वधूदुकूलं कलिम्सलषभिर्णं
ग्ाभ्नं शोभर्णतभबन्दु वभषत च
||

Vamashatha Metre
Accustomed to walking on heaps of flowers

strewn on the floor of parlours,
your feet wet with red paint of Alta,
to walk on the floor of cremation ground
strewn with hair of dead bodies;
who will consent, be he even an enemy?
चतुष्कपुष्पप्रकरावकीर्णतयो-
पतरोऽभप को नाम तवानुमन्यते |
अलतकाङ्काभन पदाभन पादयो-
भवकीर्णतकेशासु परे तभूभमषु ||

Vamashatha Metre
(It is said that girls look for beauty in a groom)

His body is possessed of ugly eyes.
(Mother is interested in the wealth)
Through His scant clothing his wealth is proclaimed;
(Relatives look for nobility of descent) His heredity is unknown.
What exists in Him that is usually sought for in bridegrooms?
वपुभवतरूपाषभिमलर्क्ष्य्न्मता
भदगम्बरत्वेन भनवेभदतं वसु |
वरे षु यद्बाल मृगाभषभि मृग्यते
तदस्स्त भकं व्यस्तमभप भरलोचने
||
I mentioned that almost the entire vocabulary
of Sanskrit can be derived
starting with one of the 2200 monsyllabic roots
and following appropriate
rules from the 4000-sutras of
Panini’s Ashthadhayi.
Taking examples of a few words
from the following stanza
I shall attempt to this.
वपुभवतरूपाषभिमलर्क्ष्य्न्मता भदगम्बरत्वेन भनवेभदतं वसु |

वरे षु यद्बाल मृगाभषभि मृग्यतेत दस्स्त भकं व्यस्तमभप भरलोचने ||
One may find the text to be like this, without any separation
uÉmÉÑÌuÉïÃmÉÉ¤ÉqÉsÉ¤rÉeÉlqÉiÉÉÌSaÉÇoÉUiuÉålÉ
ÌlÉuÉåÌSiÉÇuÉxÉÑ |
uÉUåwÉÑrÉ¯ÉsÉqÉ×aÉÉÍ¤ÉqÉ×arÉiÉåiÉSÎxiÉÌMÇüur
The first step is to separate
ÉxiÉqÉÌmÉÌ§ÉsÉÉåcÉlÉå || the words
uÉmÉÑÈ ÌuÉÃmÉÉ¤ÉÇ AsÉ¤rÉeÉlqÉiÉÉ ÌSaÉÇoÉUiuÉålÉ
ÌlÉuÉåÌSiÉÇ uÉxÉÑ |
uÉUåwÉÑ rÉSè (rÉiÉç?) oÉÉsÉqÉ×aÉÉÍ¤É qÉ×arÉiÉå iÉiÉç
Then
AÎxiÉ we shall
ÌMÇü arrange
urÉxiÉÇ theÌ§ÉsÉÉåcÉlÉå
AÌmÉ words into natural
|| order of
sentences, called AluÉrÉÇ
ÌuÉÃmÉÉ¤ÉÇ uÉmÉÑÈ AsÉ¤rÉeÉlqÉiÉÉ ÌSaÉqoÉUiuÉålÉ uÉxÉÑ ÌlÉuÉ
(Wåû) oÉÉsÉqÉ×aÉÉÍ¤É ! uÉUåwÉÑ rÉiÉç (ÃmÉÉÌSMÇü) qÉ×arÉiÉå
iÉiÉç Ì§ÉsÉÉåcÉlÉå urÉxiÉÇ (LMÇü) AÌmÉ AÎxiÉ ÌMÇü?
Let us first take the word ÌuÉÃmÉÉ¤ÉÇ uÉmÉÑÈ
(‘body possessed of deformed or unnatural,
meaning, ‘ugly’, eyes’).
The first word ÌuÉÃmÉÉ¤ÉÇ consists of two parts

(1) ÌuÉÃmÉÇ and (2) A¤ÉÇ, and the second word is uÉmÉÑÈ
I. Let us take up first ÌuÉÃmÉÇ
Its root is ÃmÉç (neuter gender)

meaning ‘to form’, ‘to fashion’
ÃmÉç + Suffix AcÉç = ÃmÉ
(cÉç is droped as it is an its letter)
Its nominative singular = ÃmÉÇ
(ÃmÉç-Mü pÉÉuÉå AcÉç uÉÉ) from Apte. What does this signi
ÌuÉ is a preposition added to mean
ÌuÉM×üiÉÇ (‘deformed’, ‘unnatural’)
Then ÌuÉM×üiÉÇ ÃmÉÇ is ÌuÉÃmÉÇ
Dandakam Metre
This is a rather long and ponderous metre and

can have as much as 999 syllables!
The first six syllables are ‘light’ and
the remaining being a long chain of (H L H).
Syamala-dandakam
The portion presented is from SyAmalA-daNDakaM,

a hymn believed to have been
composed by Kalidasa.
daNDakaM - LLL LLL followed by HLH repeated all through
श्रवर्णिरर्ण
दभषभिर्ण क्वार्णया वीर्णया भकन्नरै गीयसे |
यषभिगधवत भसद्धाङ्गनामिलैरच्यतसे |
सवतसौभाग्यवाञ्छावतीभभवतधूभभिः सुरार्णां समाराध्यसे |
सवतभवद्याभवशेषात्मकं चाटु गा तासमुच्चारर्णं
कण्ठमूलोल्लसवर्णतराभ्रयं
कोमलश्यामलोदारपषभिियं तुिशोभाभतदू रीभवस्कंशुकं
तं शुकं लालयन्ती पररक्रीडभस |

HLH repeated all through
पाभर्णपद्मियेनाषभिमालामभप स्फाभटकीं ज्ञानसारात्मकं पुस्तकं

चापरे र्णाङ् कुशंपाशमाभबभ्रती येन सभञ्चन्त्यसे चेतसे
तस्यवक्त्रान्तराद्गद्यपद्यास्त्मका भारती भनिःसरे त् |
येन वा यावका भाकृभतभात व्यसे तस्य वश्या भवस्न्त स्ियिः पूरुषिः
येन वा शातकुम्भद् युभतभात व्यसे सोऽभप लिी सिस्रैिः
पररक्रीडते ||

HLH repeated all through
भकं न भसद्ध्यिपुिः श्यामलं कोमलं चन्द्र चूडास्ितं तावकं ध्यायतिः

तस्य लीलासरोवाररभधस्तस्य केलीवनं नन्दनं तस्य भद्रासनं
भूतलं
तस्यगीदे वता भकङ्करर तस्य चाज्ञाकरी श्रीिः स्वयम् |
सवततीिात स्त्मके सवतमिास्त्मके सवततिास्त्मके सवतयिास्त्मके
सवतपीठास्त्मके सवत तत्वास्त्मके सवत शक्त्यास्त्मके सवत भवद्यास्त्मके
सवतयोगास्त्मके सवत नादास्त्मके सवत शब्दास्त्मके सवत वर्णात स्त्मके
सवतभवश्वास्त्मके सवतगे |
िे ्गन्मातृके पाभि मां पाभि मां पाभि मां
दे भव तुभ्यं नमो दे भव तुभ्यं नमो दे भव तुभ्यं नमिः ||

Jati Metres
jAti metres are regulated by

number of syllabic instants (mAtra-s)
in a quarter.
A heavy syllable is of two mAtra-s and
a light syllable one mAtra.
The poets handled these jAti metres
less frequently compared
to the vRtta metres.
Arya Metre
This is one of the jAti metres and is defined by the sUtra

यस्या: प्रिमे पादे
2 2 1 1 2 2 2 Total 12
िादशमारस्तिा तृतीयेभप
2 1 1 2 2 1 2 1 2 2 2 Total 18
अिादश भितीये
2 2 1 2 1 2 2 Total 12
चतुिेके पञ्चदशसायात
1 2 1 2 2 1 1 1 2 2 Total 15
The meaning of the sUtra

In the 1st pAda there are 12 mAtra-s, so in the 3rd,
18 in the 2nd and 15 in the 4th make AryA.

Arya Metre
This is one of the jAti metres and is defined by the sUtra

Abhijnana-sakuntalam
King Dushyanta while hunting

reaches the hermitage of sage Kanva
and accidentally meets Sakuntala.
It was love at first sight.
The king is extremely happy
that his love is also reciprocated.
He is relieved.
He says to himself that his desire of
marrying her can now be fulfilled.
AryA: 12,18,12,15 mAtra-s
"O heart, be full of desire,

(for) a doubt has now been cleared;
“what you suspected to be fire is a gem,
which is capable of being touched."
भवहृदय साभभलाषं
सं प्रभत सन्दे िभनर्णत्ातिःयो |
आशङ्कसे यदभिं
तभददं स्पशतषभिमं रत्नम् ||

Matra-samaka Metre
Bhajagovindam of Adisankara
is an example for this jAti metre,
with 16 mAtra-s per pAda.
Bhaja-govindam
In order to teach the truths of vedAnta,

Adi Sankara has made use of
several forms of literary compositions,
from vigorous prose to scintillating poetry.
Bhaja-govindam is a simple and moving song,
exhorting people to lead a God-centred life.
The fundamentals of vedAnta are taught
in plain and musical language.
Sixteen mAtra-s per pAda
“Adore the Lord, adore the Lord,

adore the Lord, O fool!
When the appointed time (for departure) comes,
the repetition of grammatical rules
will not indeed, save you.”
भ् गोभवन्दं भ् गोभवन्दं
गोभवन्दं भ् मूढमते |
संप्राप्ते सभन्नभिते काले
न भि न भि रषभिभत डु कृङ्करर्णे ||

Sixteen mAtra-s per pAda
“Day and night, dusk and dawn,

winter and spring come repeatedly;
Time sports, life is fleeting;
yet one does not leave the winds of desire.”
भदनयाभमन्यौ सायं प्रातिः

भशभशरवसन्तौ पुनरायातिः |
कालिः क्रीडभत गच्छत्यायु-
स्तदभप न मुञ्चत्याशावायुिः ||

Oral tradition in Science
Now we shall see how in the field of science

oral tradition might have helped.
Use of mnemonics and
poetic composability
are two major factors
that contributed to this, we would see.
INDIAN CONTRIBUTION to science and technology is
substantial. Most of us relate to the ‘creating’ zero and to
knowledge of Pythagorean Theorem before Pythagoras. The
areas of excellence extended quite wide and the knowledge
acquired quite deep. Mathematics, astronomy and medicine are
such major areas, at least in the first two the knowledge was
through analytical reasoning.
There are, however, fields in which we had excelled, but
hardly acclaimed by us, perhaps, as they belong to crafts. I
celebrate them differently.
The Indian exploration has started from the Vedic times.
Sulbasutra-s were the basis for building ritual altar. They were so
complex and required knowledge of geometry, which even by
standard of later Renaissance period, was quite advanced.
Beyond the Pythagorean triplets a clear understanding of the
proof of the theorem, squaring circle, relationship among sine,
cosine and tangent are the achievements in geometry.
Numbers and presentation of numerical data through a number
of numerical systems, calculations with zero, knowledge of
infinity, use of fractions, square- and cube-roots etc are some of
the areas in mathematics. These were for practical applications
can be seen in the permutation-combination, interest - simple
and compound – calculations etc.
The credit for contribution in these areas, for lack of
documentation and other reasons, went to the European
mathematicians, who came many centuries later. Newton-Sterling
interpolation, the Taylor series, Gregory-Leibnitz series, De
Moivre’s approximation to ‘pi’ are definitely Indian contribution.
Astronomy is another area. In the minds of most it is confused
with astrology, with its divine association. The fifth vedanga is
called jyotisha, which should mean both astrology and astronomy.
Though astrology and its predictions have been a subject of
controversy, our astronomical knowledge is well documented
though less studied. Varahamira (of Panch-siddhantika; 587 CE)
informs of the mathematical basis of astrology.
xÉqÉqÉhQûsÉå (ZÉÉ) xÉÇmÉëzÉuÉåsÉÉÈ MüUÉåÌiÉ
rÉÉåÅMïüxrÉ
iÉimÉëirÉrÉÇ cÉ eÉlÉrÉÌiÉ eÉÉlÉÉÌiÉ xÉ pÉÉxMüUÈ
xÉÇrÉMçü
“One is fit to be called an expert astronomer only if he knows
the problem of dealing with the Sun crossing the prime vertical
and prove his method mathematically and graphically. (Panch-
siddhantika: 4-36)”
In astrological calculations Rahu and Ketu are graha-s. Are these
planets, but they don’t exist, is our question. Interestingly
astronomical calculations consider only the real planets, which
are called ‘tara graha-s’. The astronomers in the past, perhaps,
were as derisive as the non-believers today. Lallacharya (Sishyadi
vriddhai Tantra; 749 CE) makes fun of the claim that serpent
causes eclipses by swallowing sun or the moon.
AxÉÑUÉå rÉÌS qÉÉrÉrÉÉ rÉÑiÉÉå
ÌlÉrÉiÉÉåÅÌiÉaÉëxÉiÉÏÌiÉ iÉå qÉiÉÇ |
aÉÍhÉiÉålÉ MüjÉÇ xÉ sÉprÉiÉå aÉëWûM×üiÉÉå
ÌuÉlÉÉ MüjÉgcÉlÉ ||
“If Rahu, the artificial demon, is always the cause of eclipse by
swallowing (the Sun or the Moon), then how is it that an eclipse
can be determined by calculations. Moreover, why is that there is
not an eclipse on a day other than the day of new moon or full
moon?”
In fact in Indian astronomical books by astronomers like
Varahamira and Bhaskaracharya, Rahu is used to refer as the
shadow of earth.
Two more interesting facts. Lallacharya anticipates gravitational
force of attraction, when he says:
mÉgcÉqÉWûÉpÉÑiÉxrÉxiÉÉUÉaÉhÉ mÉgeÉUå
qÉWûÏaÉÉåsÉÈ |
ZÉåÅrÉxMüÉliÉxjÉÉå sÉÉåWû CuÉÉÅuÉÎxjÉiÉÉå uÉ×¨ÉÈ
||
“In the group of great celestial bodies, all planets made of
pancha-bhoota, exist in space, like magnet attracts a piece of iron,
from all sides.” (Pancha-siddhantika 13-1)
Now we may give our own definition of pancha-bhoota-s!
The other is the scientific definition and character of planets by
Nilakantha Somayaji (1444-1544 CE), the famous commentator
of Aryabhattiya, who says:
¥ÉÉiÉ pÉÉåaÉaÉëWÇû uÉ×¨ÉÇ xÉuÉï§É
mÉëÌiÉqÉhQûsÉÇ |
Mü¤rÉÉuÉ×¨ÉÇ cÉ iÉ¨ÉÑsrÉÇ ¥ÉårÉÇ
pÉÉåaÉmÉëSåzÉaÉÇ ||
“Know that all planets are spherical. And also know that it
revolves in eccentric (pratimandalam) orbits which are equal to
circular orbit of planets.”
Number Systems
There were at least three number systems employed:

Arya-bhaTTIya number system
bhUta-saMkhya system, and
kaTapayAdi system.
We shall follow these systems with some examples.
Arya-bhattiya Number system
Aryabhatta has used this system

in his Arya-bhaTTIya (5th century CE).
This system is based on the Sanskrit alphabet
with numerical value attributed to each syllable,
that is vowel and consonant-vowel.
This is capable of expressing numbers
upto 1016 and fractions.
The table explains the principle.
अ इ उ ऋ ऌ ए ऐ ओ औ
× 10 0 10 2 10 4 10 6 10 8 1010 1012 1014 1016
क 1 क भक कु कृ कॄ के कै को कौ
Thus, ख, ग, घ, ङ, . . . will have the numerical values 2, 3, 4, 5, . . .

This goes on till qÉ, which would be 25.
Then would be characters, य, र, ल etc upto ि,
which correspond to 30, 40, etc uopt 100 respectively
Let me explain the principle through an example.
अ इ उ ऋ अ इ उ ऋ
× 10 0 10 2 10 4 10 6 × 10 0 10 2 10 4 10 6
1 क भक कु कृ 20 न भन नु नृ
2 ख स्ख खु खृ 30 य भय यु यृ
3 ग भग गु गृ 40 र रर रु रृ
4 घ भघ घु घृ
50 ल भल लु लृ
5 ङ भङ ङु ङृ
60 व भव वु वृ
6 च भच चु चृ
70 श भश शु शृ
7 छ भछ छु छृ
8 ् भ् ्ु ्ृ 80 ष भष षु षृ
9 झ भझ झु झृ 90 स भस सु सृ
10 ञ भञ ञु ञृ 100 ि भि ह हृ
We shall write a number, say, 8,54,63,152.
It may be remembered that the traditional Indian digit order
is reversed compared to the modern way.
अ इ उ ऋ अ इ उ ऋ
× 10 0 10 2 10 4 10 6 × 101 10 3 10 5 10 7
1 क भक कु कृ
2 ख स्ख खु खृ 30 य भय यु यृ
3 ग भग गु गृ
40 र रर रु रृ
4 घ भघ घु घृ
50 ल भल लु लृ
5 ङ भङ ङु ङृ
60 व भव वु वृ
6 च भच चु चृ
7 छ भछ छु छृ
70 श भश शु शृ
8 ् भ् ्ु ्ृ 80 ष भष षु षृ
9 झ भझ झु झृ 90 स भस सु सृ
10 ञ भञ ञु ञृ 100 ि भि ह हृ
10 0 10 1 10 2 10 3 10 4 105 106 107
2 5 1 3 6 4 5 8
Here is the number ख ल भक भय चु रु ङृ षृ
10 0 10 1 10 2 10 3 10 4 105 106 107
2 5 1 3 6 4 5 8
ख ल भक भय चु रु ङृ षृ
In today’s system of writing it would be

8,54,63,152
Here is the sUtra for the system.
uÉaÉÉï¤ÉUÉÍhÉ uÉaÉåïÅuÉaÉåïÅuÉaÉÉï¤ÉUÉÍhÉ MüÉiÉç ‰Éæ rÉÈ

ZÉÌ²lÉuÉMåü xuÉU lÉuÉ uÉaÉåïÅuÉaÉåï lÉuÉÉlirÉuÉaÉåï
(The varga class letters Mü to qÉ
are to be placed in the varga (square) places
(1st, 100th, 10000th . . . places and
avarga letters (like य, र, ल , . . .)
are to placed in avarga places
(10th, 1000th, etc)
Bhuta-sankhya system
In the bhUta-saMkya system,

in place of name of numbers,
objects (and all their synonyms)
universally associated with the numbers
are given.
Here are some examples:
sky (0)
moon, rUpam (1)
eyes, ears, yamam, nose, aSvini (2)
fire, guNa, loka (3)
veda, ocean (4)
bhUta (5)
seasons, vedAnga (6)
muni, mountains, svara (7)
vasu, serpent, prakriti, knowledge (8)
openings in body (9)
avatara, finger (10)
Here are a sample sUtra
from Sanakaranarayana’s commentary for
Laghubhaskareeyam of Bhakaracharya I (7th century).
cÉlSìzzÉÏiÉÉÇzÉÑËUlSì¶É cÉlSìqÉÉ ÌWûqÉaÉÑÈ zÉzÉÏ |

LuÉqÉÉSÏÌlÉ lÉÉqÉÉÌlÉ cÉlSìxrÉ MüÍjÉiÉÉÌlÉ cÉ ||
ÃmÉÍqÉirÉåiÉSåMüxrÉ ²rÉÉåUÌmÉ cÉ MüÐirÉïiÉå |
lÉrÉlÉxrÉ iÉÑ lÉÉqÉÉÌlÉ rÉÑaqÉÇ rÉÑaÉsÉqÉåuÉ cÉ || . .
For moon and its synonyms, rupam etc is one;

eyes and its synonyms, ears etc denote two . . .
Key
sky (0)
moon, rUpam (1) Here are some examples:
eyes, ears, (2)
fire, guNa, loka (3) sÉÉåcÉlÉÉMüÉzÉaÉÑhÉqÉç 203 (read as 30
veda, ocean (4) lochana-AkAsha-guNam
bhUta (5) qÉWûÉpÉÔiÉUxÉsÉÉåcÉlÉqÉç 562 (rea
Seasons, tastes (6) mahAbhUta-rasa-lochanam
muni, svara (7)
vasu, serpent (8) aÉÑhÉÉMüÉwÉaÉaÉlÉlÉå§ÉqÉç 3002 (rea
openings in body (9) guNa-AkAsha-gagana-netram
avatara, finger (10)
The total number of days in a mahAyuga:
1,57,79,17,500.
(157 crore, 79 lakh, 17 thousand, 5 hundred)
akasa-sunya-bhuta-rishi-sasi-nanda-svara-giri-bhuta-rupam
0 0 5 7 1 9 7 7 5 1
Brahmagupta (7th cent.), Bhaskaracharya I (7th cent.),
Lallacharya (8th cent.) and Bhaskaracharya II (12th cent.)
are some of the prominent mathematicians
who followed this system.
The use of synonyms makes it suitable for

presenting mathematical data
in metrical, poetic form.
We use this system in naming the chakra-s
in the melakarta-s of our music.
The 72 melas are divided into

twelve chakra-s of 6 mela-s each:
indu (1), netra (2), agni (3), veda (4) etc.
But the naming of melakarta follows
another popular system, called,
kaTapayAdi system.
Katapayadi system
Here numbers are assigned to letters as below:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0
M ZÉ aÉ bÉ Xû cÉ N eÉ fÉ gÉ
ü û
O P Q Rû hÉ iÉ jÉ S kÉ lÉ
m Tü oÉ pÉ qÉ
É
As per
rÉ the
U sUtra:
sÉ uÉ zÉ wÉ xÉ W
lÉgÉÉuÉcÉ¶É zÉÔlrÉÉÌlÉ xÉXçZrÉÈ
MüOûmÉrÉÉSrÉÈ
ÍqÉ´ÉÉåcÉÉÅlirÉWûsxxÉXçZrÉÉ lÉ cÉ ÍcÉlirÉÉ
WûsÉxxuÉUÉÈ
lÉgÉÉuÉcÉ¶É zÉÔlrÉÉÌlÉ xÉXçZrÉÈ
MüOûmÉrÉÉSrÉÈ
ÍqÉ´ÉÉåcÉÉÅlirÉWûsxxÉXçZrÉÉ lÉ cÉ ÍcÉlirÉÉ
WûsÉxxuÉUÉÈ
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0
(from Sankaravarman’s Sadratnam)
Mü ZÉ aÉ bÉ Xû cÉ Nû eÉ fÉ gÉ
mÉ Tü oÉ pÉ qÉ
rÉ U sÉ uÉ zÉ wÉ xÉ W
"Zero is denoted by lÉ and gÉ,

1 is represented by Mü, O, mÉ and rÉ and
other successive digits
by successive consonants respectively.
If a mixed consonant is of two consonants
the latter one is to be considered and
if a mixed word is of a consonant and a vowel
then the vowel is to be ignored.
Here is an example:
Puthumana Somayaji,
a Kerala mathematician of the 15th century
has given the position of planets
at sunrise for the Kali day 17,72,786
in kaTapAyadi system.
Sun aÉÉlÉÉiÉç xÉÑqÉåUÉæ lÉ

xÉÑqÉl§ÉÌlÉÌiÉÈ
Moon sÉÉåMåüM×üzÉÉÇarÉÉ
ÌlÉeÉMüÉqÉmÉÑgeÉ
Mars AlÉÇaÉqÉÉlÉÇ
M×üiÉlÉÉqÉUåhÉ
Mercury ÌlÉpÉÉïxÉpÉÉlÉÉåÈ
MüjÉlÉåÍ¤ÉmÉÉsÉÈ
Jupiter sÉÏlÉÉÌuÉpÉÉuÉå
Let us now apply the kaTapayAdi rule
to the position of the sun.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0
M ZÉ aÉ bÉ Xû cÉ N eÉ fÉ gÉ
ü û
m Tü oÉ pÉ qÉ
É
rÉ U sÉ uÉ zÉ wÉ xÉ W
aÉÉlÉÉiÉç xÉÑqÉåUÉæ lÉ
aÉÉ lÉÉiÉç xÉÑ qÉå UÉæ lÉ
xÉÑ qÉ l§É ÌlÉ ÌiÉÈ
3 0 7 5 2 0 7 5 2 0 6
Sun: aÉÉlÉÉiÉç xÉÑqÉåUÉæ lÉ
aÉÉ lÉÉiÉç xÉÑ qÉå UÉæ lÉ
xÉÑ qÉ l§É ÌlÉ ÌiÉÈ
3 0 7 5 2 0 7 5 2 0 6
Writing the modern way, it is
6 02 57 02 57 03
And this is read as
Note6s
that ‘s’ is equal
2 57’ 2” 57’” 3””
0 to 30 0, and
the division goes to 1/60th of a second (liptam) and

1/60th of that value (praliptam).
Those who are familiar with the naming of
melakarta-s in our music
would be aware of the katapayAdi system.
For example
Ka-na-kambari (ka=1, na=0), that is, 01
Ma-ya-malavagaula (ma=5, ya=1) that is, 15
Kha-ra-harapriya (kha=2, ra=2), that is, 22
These systems are OK for presenting data.
How were the mathematical manipulations done?
Now let me give a snapshots of
vintage mathematics.
First would be the general solution
to quadratic equation.
Then would be an exercise from algebra.
cÉiÉÑUÉWûiÉuÉaÉïxÉqÉæÈ ÃmÉæÈ mÉ¤É²rÉÇ aÉÑhÉrÉåiÉç
AurÉ£üuÉaÉï ÃmÉærÉÑï£üÉæ mÉ¤ÉÉæ iÉiÉÉå qÉÔsÉqÉç
Add on both sides of an equation,
four times the unknown value;
Again add on both sides
the square of the unknown (?);
And then take the square root.
Mathematical operations are:

Equation: ax2 + bx + c = 0
Multiply both sides ‘4a’
4a2x2 + 4abx + 4ac = 0
Add b2 on both sides
4a2x2 + 4abx + b2 = b2 - 4ac
Take square-root.
oÉÉsÉå qÉUÉsÉMÑüsÉqÉÔsÉSsÉÉÌlÉ xÉmiÉ iÉÏUå ÌuÉsÉÉxÉpÉUq
MÑüuÉïgcÉ MåüÍsÉMüsÉWÇû MüsÉWÇûxÉrÉÑaqÉÇ zÉåwÉÇ e
I saw that one half of seven times of the square root
of all the total number of swans
were slowly moving away in the river;
remaining 2 are playing in water.
What is the total number of swans?
[The equation is: (7/2)(sqrt x) + 2 = x]
Bhaskaracharya’s Lilavati
Sulbasutras prescribe geometrical shapes
and their dimensions.
Baudhayana and Apastamba sutras
belong to 1000-500 BCE.
One finds the Pythagorean theorem
and its proof,
at least 400 years before Pythagoras.
The Sulbasutras and the Sathapatha Brahmana
contain valuable information about the geometry
of ancient India,
including instructions
for constructing sacrificial altars (vedi) and
locating sacred fires (agni).
One of was shaped like a giant falcon.
Mathematical problems of its construction
involved finding a square equal in area
to two or more given squares, and
converting other geometrical shapes
into a square of equal area, or vice versa, and
involve methods for approximating
the values for the square roots of 2 and 5.
Karika City Layout
Mahavedi
Solutions were achieved through
the principle of dissection and reassembly and
ingenious algorithms,
including the so-called Pythagorean theorem.
xÉqÉcÉiÉÑU´ÉxrÉ¤ÉhÉrÉÉU‹Ñ Ì²¹ÉuÉÌiÉÇpÉÔÍqÉÇ MüiÉÉåÌ
The diagonal of a square produces
double the area of the square.
- Bhaudhayana Sulbsutra I-45
SÏbÉïcÉiÉÑ´ÉxrÉrÉ¤ÉhÉU‹ÑÈ mÉÉµÉïqÉÉÌlÉ ÌiÉrÉïlqÉÉÌlÉ
cÉ rÉimÉ×jÉapÉÔiÉå MÑüÂiÉxiÉSÒpÉrÉÇ MüUÉåÌiÉ |
Areas produced separately
by the length and breadth of
a rectangle together
equal to the area of the (square)
produced by the diagonal.
This is observed (seen in earlier)
iÉÉxÉÉÇ in rectangles having sides
Ì§ÉMücÉiÉÑwMürÉÉåÈ 3 and 4 (=5),
²ÉSÍzÉMümÉÉÎgcÉMürÉÉåÈ 12 and 5 (=13),
mÉgcÉSÍzÉMüÉÌ¹MürÉÉåÈ 15 and 8 (=17),
MücÉiÉÑÌuÉïÇzÉÌiÉMürÉÉåÈ 7 and 24 (=25),
zÉMümÉgcÉÌ§ÉÇzÉMürÉÉåÈ 12 and 35 (=37) and
zÉMüwÉÎOè§ÉÇÍzÉMürÉÉåÈ 15 and 36 (=39)
CirÉåiÉÉxÉÔmÉsÉÎokÉÈ|
These numbers are called Pythagorean triplets,

But these are a few centuries older than Pythagoras
Pi is the ratio of circumference of a circle
to its diameter.
It is an irrational number, which means,
it cannot be expressed as a fraction.
Aryabhatta gives the value of ‘pi’ as
cÉiÉÑUÍkÉMÇü zÉiÉqÉ¹aÉÑhÉÇ ²ÉwÉÌ¹xiÉjÉÉ xÉWûxÉëÉ
ArÉÑiÉ²rÉ ÌuÉwMÇüpÉxrÉÉxÉ³ÉÉå uÉ×¨ÉmÉËUhÉÉWûÈ
Let me translate it my way
cÉiÉÑUÍkÉMÇü zÉiÉqÉç Four more than hundred (=104)

A¹aÉÑhÉÇ multiplied by 8 (= 104 x 8 = 832)
²ÉwÉÌ¹È (added to) 62
iÉjÉÉ xÉWûxÉëÉhÉÉÇ of 1000 (= 62000) that is 62832;
ArÉÑiÉ²rÉ twice 10,000 (= 20,000)
ÌuÉwMÇüpÉxrÉ of the diameter
AÉxÉ³ÉÈ approximately
uÉ×¨É mÉËUhÉÉWûÈ to the circumference.
That is ‘pi’ = 62832 divided by 20000 = 3-1416 (approximately)

On may ask,
why not simply give the value
in one of the number systems,
instead of
‘touching the nose around the head”?
Here we see the Paninian brevity

gave place to
‘subject expanding to fill a stanza’!
By the way, it is difficult to give
the correct value of ‘pi’.
How I wish I could enumerate Pi easily,

since all these horrible mnemonics
prevent recalling
any of Pi's sequence more simply.
Just now you have read the value of ‘pi’

correct to 20 decimals:
3.14159265358979323846
There is an interesting fact about
our traditional calendar, in which a
Aani 32
Solar year is divided into 12
Aadi 31
unequal months. Unlike the
Aavani 31
western system where the division
Purattasi 31
is not logical, in our year, the
Aippasi 30
number of days taken to move
Karthigai 29
through 300 is the basis. Thus, in
Margazhi 29
Aani it is the slowest, that is, it takes
Thai 30
closer to 32 days (actually 31 days
Masi 30
36’ 38”) and fastest in Margazhi,
Panguni 30
that is, closer to 29 days (actually 29
Chittirai 31
days 20’ 53”). Thus we have our
Vaikasi 31
months having ‘natural’ number of
days, that is, ‘realistic’:
Reckoning of Kali era (Kali-yugam) has an incredulous story.
Unlike the popular belief, it starts on that day when the Sun,
the Moon and all the planets where almost in a line. This
happened according to our astronomers, like Aryabhatta (5th-
6th centuries CE), on the midnight 17th & 18th of February,
3102 BCE. This is an epoch, from which the later events are
reckoned.
European astronomers, having heard of Indian advances in
mathematics and astronomy visited India from the 17th
century. Some found astronomical tables in various parts of
India, and compared the position of heavenly bodies given in
them with their own calculations.
One among the very important results was the reckoning of
calyougham, which they found to be very accurate. Remember
by this time, Kepler, Newton etc have made their
contributions in the West, and they could go back in time to
calculate the position of heavenly bodies 5000 years ago. But
how did the Indian do this within the last one thousand years,
was a question they could not handle.
There were two possibilities. One is that on the Kali day the
then Indian astronomers ‘determined by actual observation’.
The other is that the Indian astronomers some 1000 years ago
had observed the movement of heavenly bodies, formulated
theories and calculated backwards. They could not accept
either.
For the former possibility, one has to accept that 5000 years
ago the Indians had instruments to locate planets, had
knowledge of spherical trigonometry and a language to pass
on to the future generations. In fact it was easier to concede
this rather than accept that ‘there had arisen a Newton among
the Brahmins, to discover that universal principle which
connects, not only the most distant regions of space, but the
most remote periods of duration; and a De L Grange, to trace,
through the immensity of both, in most subtle and
complicated operations’.
While going through all these, can we be devil’s advocate
ourselves?
What about the criticism that all ‘Hindu’ so-called
achievements, in mathematics, astronomy etc, are just elitist,
and the actual achievements in the areas that really added
value to life and society, like achievements in textiles, leather
etc, all these were contributions of the lower classes and these
had never been given credit?
Some thing that would need introspection.
Let us now turn to some lighter subjects.
Ornamentation in Sanskrit Poetry
chitra-kAvya
All native languages of India are

basically consonantal.
The languages developed a vocabulary
that has some uniqueness.
Having very large synonyms is
one among the features.
From early times,
astonishing ornamentation
has been the result.
I may present some from the corpus of Sanskrit.

Let us start with an amazing creation,
where all the 33 consonants in Sanskrit
come in their natural order and
each consonant is used only once.
MüÈ
ZÉaÉÉæbÉÉXûÍcÉcNûÉæeÉÉfÉÉg¥ÉÉåÅ
OûÉæPûÏQûQûhRûhÉÈ |
Who isiÉjÉÉåSkÉÏlÉç
he, the lover of birds, pure in intelligence,
expert in stealing the strength of others,
mÉTüoÉÉïpÉÏqÉïrÉÉåÅËUsuÉÉÍzÉwÉÉÇ
leader among the destroyers of the enemies,
xÉWûÈ
the ||
steadfast, the fearless,
the one who filled the ocean?
He is the king Maya, the repository of the blessings
that can destroy the foes.
Making use the flexibility afforded
by the undefined syllables of anuSTubh metre
A number of ornamentations are possible.
Ekakshara Sloka
Here are a stanza from Magha's Sishu-pAla-vadha
as example of ornamentation.
ekAShara-Sloka is one that employs
only one consonant throughout.
दददो दु द्दा दु द्दादी दादादो दू दा दी दा दो |
दु द्दाद दददे दु द्दे ददऽदद ददोऽददिः ||
'The giver of gifts, the giver of grieves to the foes,

‘The bestower of purity, whose arms destroys the giver of grief,
‘The destroyer of demons, bestower of bounty
on generous and miser alike,
‘Raised his weapon against the foes.'
Sarvato-bhadra
Megha’s Sisu-pAla-vadha (8th century, CE) is studded

with such ingenious compositions.
sarvatobhadra ("valid all ways") is positively startling.
सकारनानारकास
कायसाददसायका |
रसािवावािसार
नादवाददवादना ||
“His army was eager for battle

“Whose arrows destroyed
the bodies of the varied hosts
of his brave enemies
“Its trumpets vied with the cries
“Of the splendid horses and elephants.”
Suppose I reverse and add to the stanza
स का र ना ना र का स
का य सा द द सा य का
र सा ि वा वा ि सा र
ना द वा द द वा द ना
ना द वा द द वा द ना
र सा ि वा वा ि सा र
का य सा द द सा य का
स का र ना ना र का स
You can read left-to-right, left-to-right, and

Bottom-to-to and top-to-bottom, etc!
Gata-pratyaagatam
gata-pratyAgatam ("gone-and-come-back") is
a perfect syllabic palindrome,
that reads alike backward and forward.
तं भश्रयाघनयाऽनस्तरुचासारतया तया |
यातयातरसाचारुतस्नयाऽनघयाभश्र तं ||
“He who was eagerly and closely embraced

“By the fair-bosomed Sri, the sinless goddess
“Of never fading beauty, and endowed
“With every excellence.”
Here is a stanza where only one vowel is used through out!
EÃaÉÑÇ ±ÑaÉÑÂÇ rÉÑmxÉÑ cÉÑ¢ÑüzÉÑxiÉÑ¹Òu

sÉÑsÉÑpÉÑÈ mÉÑmÉÑzÉÑqÉÑïixÉÑ qÉÑqÉÑWÒû
The gods took refuge in Brihaspati, the lord of speech,

the preceptor of the gods in the heaven,
when they went for the battle.
They prayed so that he would remain happy and strong, and
not withdraw into unconsciousness, again and again.
Here is a stanza where only one vowel is used through out!
The gods took refuge in Brihaspati, the lord of speech,

the preceptor of the gods in the heaven,
when they went for the battle.
They prayed so that he would remain happy and strong, and
not withdraw into unconsciousness, again and again.
Here only one consonant-vowel is used throughout.
rÉÉrÉÉrÉÉrÉÉrÉÉrÉÉrÉÉrÉÉrÉÉrÉÉrÉÉrÉÉrÉÉrÉÉrÉÉrÉÉ |
rÉÉrÉÉrÉÉrÉÉrÉÉrÉÉrÉÉrÉÉrÉÉrÉÉrÉÉrÉÉrÉÉrÉÉrÉÉrÉÉ ||
The words are,
rÉÉrÉÉrÉÉ, AÉrÉ, AÉrÉÉrÉ, AÉrÉÉrÉ, AÉrÉÉrÉ, AÉrÉÉrÉ, AÉrÉÉrÉ, A
rÉÉrÉÉrÉ, AÉrÉÉrÉÉrÉ, AÉrÉÉrÉÉ, rÉÉ, rÉÉ, rÉÉ, rÉÉ, rÉÉ, rÉÉ, rÉÉ,
The meaning:
The sandals (paduka) which adorn the Lord,
which help in attainment of all that is good and auspicious,
which give knowledge,
which cause the desire (of having the lord as one’s own),
which remove all that is hostile, which have attained the Lord,
which are used for going and coming from one place to another,
by which all places of the world can be reached,
these sandals are for Lord Vishnu.
In this verse, the zig-zag pattern resembles
urine of a walking cow, called go-mUtrika.
Essentially, the even syllables of the 1st and 2nd pAda-s
are same and so are those of the 3rd and the fourth.
MüÉXç¤ÉlmÉÑsÉÉåqÉiÉlÉrÉÉxiÉlÉmÉÏÌQûiÉÉÌlÉ
uÉ¤ÉxjÉsÉÉåÎxjÉiÉUrÉÉgcÉlÉmÉÏÌQûiÉÉÌlÉ |
mÉÉrÉÉSmÉÉrÉpÉrÉiÉÉå lÉqÉÑÍcÉmÉëWûÉËU
qÉÉrÉÉqÉmÉÉxrÉ pÉuÉiÉÉåÅqoÉÑqÉÑcÉÉÇ mÉëx
May Indra,
who uses the thunder-bolt as his weapon,
who disperses the clouds in the sky,
who desires to embrace and enjoy the pleasures
of the bosoms of his consort Sachi,
the daughter of the demon Puloma –
may that Indra, having removed all illusions,
protect you from the fear of
all dangers and misfortunes.
MüÉ lmÉ qÉ l xiÉ m iÉ
Xç É ÉÏ É
¤ sÉ iÉ rÉ l ÌQ ÌlÉ
É Éå É É û
uÉ xjÉ Îxj U gc m iÉ
m S rÉ É r lÉÉ ÍcÉÏ W É
ÉÉ É É ûÉ
rÉ m p iÉ q m Ë
É ÉÉ É Éå É Éë U
Ñ
qÉ qÉ xrÉ
u Åq cÉ xÉ
É É oÉ ÉÇ É
Ñ
Frequent use of certain letters produce sound effects.
Here Mü and sÉ are repeated and

you can see what a musical effect
this stanza creates.
This kind of composition is called Amita composition.
Madana, the god of love, uses even the spots of the moon
as his beautiful weapon at the time
when the Bakula plant shines with new buds and
when the cuckoos and women with melodious voices
fill the air with their enchanting sounds.
Here is another interesting example.
The stanza is formed of four parts (pAda-s)
of exact sequence of letters.
But because they are broken and combined
in various ways,
different words and meanings emerge.
xÉpÉÉxÉqÉÉlÉÉxÉWûxÉÉmÉUÉaÉÉiÉç
xÉpÉÉxÉqÉÉlÉÉxÉWûxÉÉmÉUÉaÉÉiÉç |
xÉpÉÉxÉqÉÉlÉÉxÉWûxÉÉmÉUÉaÉÉiÉç ||
xÉpÉÉxÉqÉÉlÉÉxÉWûxÉÉmÉUÉaÉÉiÉç |
xÉpÉÉxÉqÉÉlÉÉxÉWûxÉÉmÉUÉaÉÉiÉç ||
xÉpÉÉ-qÉÉlÉ-AÉxÉÈ WûxÉ (LiÉæÈ xÉWû uÉiÉïiÉÈ CÌiÉ)

xÉ pÉÉxÉqÉÉlÉÉxÉWûÉxÉÉ (rÉiÉÈ) AmÉUÉaÉÇ AÌiÉ
xÉpÉÉxÉqÉÉlÉÉ (mÉëÉxÉqÉÉlÉæ xÉWû uÉiÉïiÉ CÌiÉ)
xÉWûxÉÉ (qÉÉaÉïzÉÏwÉåïhÉ WåûiÉÑlÉÉ) mÉUÉaÉÉlÉç (UeÉ?ÈMühÉÉlÉç) AÉ
pÉÉ (MüÉÎliÉ) xÉqÉÉlÉÉ (xÉÃmÉÉ, iÉæÈ xÉWû uÉiÉïiÉå)
xÉ pÉÉxÉqÉÉlÉÉ (xrÉÎliÉ mÉUÉlÉç CÌiÉ xÉÈ iÉæÈ xÉWû uÉiÉïiÉ CÌiÉ) AmÉUa
LuÉÇ pÉÔiÉÉ AxÉqÉÉlÉÉ - xÉpÉÉ-xÉWûxÉÉ-mÉUÉaÉÉiÉiÉç (mÉUÉaÉiÉÉ)
Let us digress.
Is there a path that
has a knight visit all the fields of the chess board?
This was a hot topic
among the European mathematicians
of the 18th century.
Solution to the problem of
Knight's tours by the mathematicians
Raimond de Montmort, Abraham de Moivre and
Jean-Jacques de Mairan
was that published in Paris in 1725
First mathematical paper analysing knight's tours
was presented by
the most productive mathematician of the eighteenth century,
Leonhard Euler (1707–1783),
to the Academy of Sciences at Berlin in 1759
We have a desi solution executed the desi way!
But it was not attempted as a chess problem.
Vedanta Desaka, a philosopher-poet,
lived in the 13th-14th century (or earlier)
not far from this place.
Among his works is Paduka Sahasram,
"1000 Verses on the Sandals of the Lord",
believed to have been written in a quarter of a night.
In one of the chapters the saint has written

the verses in various chitra-kAvya-s.
Here one such stanza
ÎxjÉUÉaÉxÉÉÇ xÉSÉUÉkrÉÉ
ÌuÉWûiÉÉMüiÉiÉÉqÉiÉÉ |
xÉimÉÉSÒMåü xÉUxÉÉ qÉÉ
O sacred sandals ( paduka) of the Brahman;
U…¡ûUÉeÉmÉSÇ lÉrÉ ||
You are always adored by those
who have committed unpardonable sins;
You remove all that is sorrowful and unwanted;
You create a musical sound;
(be pleased) and lead me
to the feet of Lord Rangaraja (Rama).
Let us write the syllables of the Sloka
in the squares on a chessboard.
ÎxjÉUÉaÉxÉÉÇ xÉSÉUÉkrÉÉ
ÌuÉWûiÉÉMüiÉiÉÉqÉiÉÉ |
xÉimÉÉSÒMåü xÉUxÉÉ qÉÉ
ÎxjÉ UÉ aÉ xÉÉ xÉ SÉ UÉ krÉ
U…¡ûUÉeÉmÉSÇ lÉrÉ ||
Ç É
ÌuÉ Wû ûiÉÉ Mü iÉ iÉÉ qÉ iÉÉ
xÉ imÉ SÒ Må xÉ U xÉÉ qÉÉ
É ü
U …¡ UÉ eÉ mÉ SÇ lÉ rÉ
Interestingly the next stanza is also contained in this table,
but follows a zig-zag path, as per the numbers given serially.
ÎxjÉiÉÉ xÉqÉrÉUÉeÉimÉÉaÉiÉUÉqÉÉSÇMå aÉÌuÉ |

SÒUÇWûxÉÉ xÉ³ÉiÉÉSÉ xÉÉkrÉÉiÉÉmÉMüUÉxÉUÉ ||
ÎxjÉ UÉ aÉ xÉÉÇ xÉ SÉ UÉ krÉÉ
1 30 9 20 3 24 11 26
16 19 2 29 10 27 4 23
xÉ imÉÉ SÒ Måü xÉ U xÉÉ qÉÉ
31 8 17 14 21 6 25 12
18 15 32 7 28 13 22 5
ÎxjÉiÉÉ xÉqÉrÉUÉeÉimÉÉaÉiÉUÉqÉÉSÇMå aÉÌuÉ |
SÒUÇWûxÉÉ xÉ³ÉiÉÉSÉ xÉÉkrÉÉiÉÉmÉMüUÉxÉUÉ
ÎxjÉ UÉ aÉ xÉÉÇ xÉ SÉ UÉ krÉÉ

1 30 9 20 3 24 11 26
16 19 2 29 10 27 4 23
xÉ imÉÉ SÒ Måü xÉ U xÉÉ qÉÉ
31 8 17 14 21 6 25 12
18 15 32 7 28 13 22 5
It is extraordinary to find the letters

follow the movement of the knight on the chessboard,
giving simultaneously a solution to the chess knight problem.
In fact the writing of the verses in this fashion is
far more difficult than
the original chess-knight problem.
One is even more amazed when one realises that the
manuscript is of the 13th-14th centuries and
the saint lived centuries before Euler.
Now the meaning of the second stanza:
ÎxjÉiÉÉ xÉqÉrÉUÉeÉimÉÉaÉiÉUÉqÉÉSÇMåÇü aÉÌuÉ |

SÒUÇWûxÉÉ xÉ³ÉiÉÉSÉ xÉÉkrÉÉiÉÉmÉMüUÉxÉUÉ ||
The sandals (paduka) which protect those

who shine by their right attitude,
whose place is in the centre of the blissful rays,
who destroy the melancholy of the distressed,
whose radiance brings peace to those
who take refuge in them,
who move everywhere, -
may those golden and radiating sandals of the Brahman
lead me to the feet of Lord Rangaraja.
Dvi-samdhana-kavya
dvi-samdhAna kAvya is simultaneous narration of two stories.
One among the earliest is attributed
to Dandin (6th-7th century CE),
a poet of great importance in Sanskrit literature,
and the author of Kavya-darSa (‘Mirror of Poetry)
the earliest surviving systematic treatment
of poetics in Sanskrit. .
His Raghava-pandaviyam is a bi-textual narration
of Ramayana and Mahabharata.
Unfortunately the work is lost except the first stanza.
ESÉUqÉÌWûqÉÉUÉqÉÈ mÉëeÉÉlÉÉÇ WûwÉïuÉkÉïlÉÈ
kÉqÉïmÉëpÉuÉ CirÉÉxÉÏiZrÉÉiÉÉå pÉUiÉmÉÔuÉïeÉÈ
The two readings are:

Bharata’s elder brother, the great and exalted Rama,
guarantor of his subjects’ happiness,
was called the paragon of righteousness.
A descendent of Bharata, the son of the god Dharma,
(Yudhishtira) was the exalted majesty,
joy and delight of the people.
Such ingenious techniques were used even later.
rAghava-yAdavIyaM by Venkatadvari (17th cent.)
narrates the story of Rama.
But the Shlokas read in the reverse relate
an adventure of Shri Krishna.
Raghava-yadaviyam
वन्दे ऽिं दे वं तं श्रीतं रन्तारं कालं भासा यिः |

रामो रामाधीराप्यागो लीलामारायोध्ये वासे ||
(In reverse)
सेवाध्येयो रामालाली गोप्याराधी मारामोरा |

यस्साभालंकारं तारं तं श्रीतं वन्दे ऽिं दे वम् ||
वन्दे ऽिं दे वं तं श्रीतं रन्तारं कालं भासा यिः |
रामो रामाधीराप्यागो लीलामारायोध्ये वासे ||
“I pay my obeisance to Lord Shri Rama,

who with his heart pining for Sita,
travelled across the Sahyadri Hills and
returned to Ayodhya after killing Ravana and
sported with his consort, Sita, in Ayodhya for a long time.”
In reverse
सेवाध्येयो रामालाली गोप्याराधी मारामोरा |

यस्साभालंकारं तारं तं श्रीतं वन्दे ऽिं दे वम् ||
“I bow to Lord Shri Krishna,

whose chest is the sporting resort of Shri Lakshmi;
who is fit to be contemplated through penance and sacrifice,
who fondles Rukmani and his other consorts and
who is worshipped by the gopis, and
who is decked with jewels radiating splendour.”
The virtuosity is granted, but these are hardly elegant!
Jayadeva
Jayadeva’s Geeta-govindam (12th century)

is a watershed in Sanskrit literature.
This is the last in its classical phase;
and then begins literature of regional languages.
Unlike the classical poets,
who appealed to the elite
conversant with poetic grammar,
Jayadeva attracted the attention
of diverse audience and
Geeta-govindam is characterised by
broader literary taste and
religious devotion.
Geeta-govindam
Jayadeva was a pioneer in not conforming

to the then existing poetic structure.
In Geeta-govindam the body of the poem contains
poems of eight stanzas (aShTa-padi).
Each aShTa-padi is preceded by recitative poem
identifying the singer and elaborating its context
which is set in classical metres.
The selection is from the fourth part
titled snigdha-madhusUdanaH
(ÎxlÉakÉqÉkÉÑxÉÔSlÉÈ ‘tender Krishana’)
Here the sakhi describes the plight of Radha,

who is pining for the company of Krishna.
The context is detailed
in the formal metre, anuShTubh
rÉqÉÑlÉÉiÉÏUuÉÉlÉÏU ÌlÉMÑügeÉåqÉlSqÉÉÎxjÉiÉÇ |
mÉëÉWûmÉëåqÉpÉUÉåSèpÉëÉliÉÇ qÉÉbÉuÉÇ UÉÍkÉ
In a clump of reed on the Jamuna riverbank

Where Madhava waited helplessly,
Reeling under the burden of ardent love,
Radhika’s friend spoke to him.
Then follows the song.
In these aShTa-padi-s
the number of
syllable instants decides
the metrical structure.
Unlike the classical poetry
Geeta-govindam is rhymed.
Jayadeva was the pioneer to be
followed and copied,
but never excelled,
by the later vernacular poets.
Sparkling with
beautiful rhythmic patterns
for which Jayadeva
is justly famous.
Each line has
a fixed number of 28 mAtra-s.
Each couplet is followed by
a refrain (dhruvapada)
that unifies the song.
“Lying dejected by your desertion, fearing Love’s arrows
“She clings to you in fantasy, oh Madhava”
“She slanders sandalbeam and moonbeams – weariness confuses her.

“She feels venom from nests of deadly snakes in sandal mountain winds.
“She evokes you in deep meditation to reach your distant form;
“She laments, laughs, collapses, cries, trembles, utters her pain.
“In your heart hopes to dance to the haunting song of jayadeva.
“Study what her friend said about Radha suffering Hari’s desertion.
“She slanders sandalbeam and moonbeams – weariness confuses her.
“She feels venom from nests of deadly snakes in sandal mountain winds.
भनन्दभत चन्दनभमन्दु भकरर्णमनुभवन्दभतखेदमदीरम् |

व्यालभनलयभमलनेन गरलभमव कलयभत मलयसमीरम् ||
माधव मनभस्भवभशखभयाभदव भावनया त्वभय लीना
सा भवरिे तव दीना ||
“She evokes you in deep meditation to reach your distant form;
“She laments, laughs, collapses, cries, trembles, utters her pain.
ध्यानलयेन पुरिः पररकल्प्प्य भवन्तमतीव दु रापम् |

भवलपभत िसभत भवषीदभत रोभदभत चञ्चभतमुञ्चभत तापम् ||
“In your heart hopes to dance to the haunting song of jayadeva.
“Study what her friend said about Radha suffering Hari’s desertion.
श्री्यदे वभभर्णतभमदमभधकं यभद मनसा नटनीयम् |

िररभवरिाकुलवल्लवयुवभतसस्खवचनं पठनीयम् |
Thank You ……
Uma & Swaminathan

Oral Tradition of Sanskri 2800052

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Sound of Sanskrit

Oral Traditions of Sanskrit

Uma Swaminathan & S. Swaminathan

स्वस्स्त न इन्द्रो वृध्दश्रवािः स्वस्स्त निः पूषा भवश्ववेदािः |

Intellectual activity in India has always

Its earliest literature, the Veda-s,

Vedic scriptures comprise of great Veda-s:

Rig Veda consisting of more than 74000 words

Oral tradition was such a remarkable success

Sanskrit alphabet is a remarkable and

The sounds produced by human voice

At least four factors have been taken into account

The Sanskrit alphabet consists of 48 letters

i) vowels [svara, xuÉU], 13

Five locations have been identified

Throat (guttural - MülP)

Let us start with vowels (xuÉUÈ svara-s)

Vowels are known as (xuÉUÈ svara-s)

Consonants are called urÉgeÉlÉÈ (vyanjana-s).

The first is called sparsha (xmÉzÉï ‘touch’),

We can see the logic in this series.

We can see the logic in this series.

Voiceless (aghoSha) and is called ‘simple’,

The second letter is also simple,

The third are ‘light’ (ghoSha), rich in resonance (voiced),

Each group ends in a nasal sound (nAsikA)

Semi-vowels are the sounds that lie between

Sibilants produce close to whistling sounds and

Aspirate ि visarga अ: anusvAra अं

Normally one lists visarga and anusvAra under vowels.

For reciting the Veda-s accents came to be used

गर्णानां ां॑ त्वा गर्णपां॑भतं िवामिे

For correct transmission of Vedic text

In ghana pATha adjacent words are combined as

गर्णानां ां॑ त्वा गर्णपां॑भतं

In ghana pATha adjacent words are combined as

गर्णपां॑भतं त्वा गर्णानां ां॑ गर्णानां ां॑ त्वा गर्णपां॑भतं

vedAnga-s are treatises on

SikSha (ÍzÉ¤É) – correct pronunciation

Every syllable ends in

A syllable is either ‘heavy’ (H) or ‘light’ (L)

Heavy syllable (H)

xÉ WûxÉç U zÉÏUç wÉÉ mÉÑ Â wÉÈ

Identifying ‘heavy’ and ‘light’ syllables by tagging

xÉ pÉÔ ÍqÉÇ ÌuÉzÉç uÉ iÉÉå uÉ×iÉç uÉÉ AiÉç rÉ ÌiÉwÉç PûSè

“ We call on Thee, Lord of hosts,

गर्णानां त्वा गर्णपभतं िवामिे कभवं कवीनामुपमश्रवस्तमम् |

jagati metre consists of two lines

गर्णानां त्वा गर्णपभतं िवामिे

ज्येष्ठरा्ं ब्रह्मर्णां ब्रह्मर्णस्पत

आ निः शृण्वन्नूभतभभस्सीद सादनम्

गर्णानां त्वा गर्णपभतं िवामिे

ज्येष्ठरा्ं ब्रह्मर्णां ब्रह्मर्णस्पत

आ निः शृण्वन्नूभतभभस्सीद सादनम्

Yellow – Light syllable; Red – Heavy syllable

गर्णानां त्वा/गर्णपभतं िवामिे

कभवं कवीनां /उपमश्रवस्तमम्

ज्येष्ठरा्ं /ब्रह्मर्णां ब्रह्मर्णस्पत

Only a few metres account for

The first stanza of Rig Veda is a prayer

It is set to gAyatri (aÉÉrÉ§ÉÏ) Metre

अभिमीळे पुरोभितं यज्ञस्य दे वमृस्त्व्म् |

Yellow – Light syllable; Red – Heavy syllable

Anushtubh (AlÉÑ¹ÒpÉç) is the only Vedic metre