Request for meaning of अनावृत-कपाटं द्वारं देहि

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KN.Ramesh

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Jun 12, 2017, 8:29:01 AM6/12/17
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तदा कालिदासः ताम् अकथयत्---"अनावृत-कपाटं द्वारं देहि ।"

What is the meaning of the sentence अनावृत-कपाटं द्वारं देहि?

thanks
namaskarams

Naresh Cuntoor

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Jun 13, 2017, 5:52:51 PM6/13/17
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What is the meaning of the sentence अनावृत-कपाटं द्वारं देहि?

It means "Open the door." (As in - Kalidasa knocks on the door and says, "open the door.").

कपाट refers to a door panel. I am guessing you asked the question in the context of why "भक्तः देवं वन्दनं करोति" is wrong. If that was the context, here's the difference. In अनावृत-कपाटं द्वारं, the former refers to the door itself. In other words, अनावृतः कपाटः यस्य तत् अनावृतकपाटम् (द्वारम्). There is no such relationship between देव and वन्दन.

Naresh


Venkata Sriram

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Jun 13, 2017, 5:54:17 PM6/13/17
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My opinion:

अनावृत - moksha (liberation from the closed cycle of birth & death ; आवृत​ - closed ended (the cycle of samsaara)
कपाट​ - panel / door
द्वारं - way

The rough translation goes:

Pls bestow the liberation (ie., pls open the doors of liberation for me).

Something similar to the shloka from Annapurna Ashtakam vide mokSha dvAra kavATa-pATanakarI

regs,
sriram

KN.Ramesh

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Jun 15, 2017, 1:42:50 AM6/15/17
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Thanks Naresh ji..
No, I did not go to that extent...
I was reading this story here:

My exact trouble was in making out the meaning of अनावृत-
It has many meanings:

Which one to pick up was the trouble? 
>>अनावृतः कपाटः यस्य तत् अनावृतकपाटम् (द्वारम्)- 
Does it mean the door which is open?Then the door is already open, why should he ask it to be opened?

Or
This is my understanding.
अनावृत- Open
कपाटः - a panel of a door . Here the door happens to be the one with only one panel.
द्वारम् - Entrance & not door with reference to the context.
देहि - Give... ( Give way - open)

So the meaning is - Please give way to the entrance which has a single panel door in which the panel of the door is kept open...

Am I right?


Namaste Sriram ji,

That was an awesome explanation...

Muthuswamy dikshitar in his kamalamba navavarana kritis, in his 8th avarna kriti

shrI kamalAmbikE avAva 

states-

santataM mukti ghaNTAmaNi ghOSAyamAna kavATadvArE meaning
In the wide doorway of Her abode, wherein the jewelled bell constantly announces salvation.

here,  kavATadvArE means wide doorway ...?????

So this goes very well with your explanation.

But why should Kalidasa beckon salvation from his wife? Probably he is hinting her to accept him as Samskrit Vidvaan & grant him freedom to write the kAvyaas..??

 whether her wife immediately opened the door or not is not known, but she asked-
पत्नी अपृच्छत्----"अस्ति कश्चित् वाग्विशेषः ?"

Rest which followed is history.

Thanks a lot.

namaskarams

Naresh Cuntoor

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Jun 15, 2017, 2:18:28 AM6/15/17
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My exact trouble was in making out the meaning of अनावृत-
It has many meanings:

Which one to pick up was the trouble? 

I do not think that trying to understand the meaning of the sentence by looking up words in this manner is the best way to approach Samskrit.
 
>>अनावृतः कपाटः यस्य तत् अनावृतकपाटम् (द्वारम्)- 
Does it mean the door which is open?Then the door is already open, why should he ask it to be opened?


Questions like this would not arise if the relationship of words in a sentence and that of constituent parts of a compound word are understood. Instead of trying to pick apart a sentence like this, please follow a gradual approach to learning. And avoid the temptation to translate each part.
 
Or
This is my understanding.
अनावृत- Open
कपाटः - a panel of a door . Here the door happens to be the one with only one panel.
द्वारम् - Entrance & not door with reference to the context.
देहि - Give... ( Give way - open)

So the meaning is - Please give way to the entrance which has a single panel door in which the panel of the door is kept open...

Am I right?



No. This isn't what it means.

Here is a sequence of actions
कालिदासः द्वारम् अभिगच्छति ।

कालिदासः कीदृशं द्वारम् अभिगच्छति ?
कालिदासः आवृतकपाटं द्वारम् अभिगच्छति ।  = कालिदासः अनुद्घाटितं द्वारम् अभिगच्छति ।
आवृतः कपाटः यस्य तत् आवृतकपाटम् (द्वारम् )

द्वारस्य कपाटः आवृतः (=आच्छादितः) आसीत् । अतः तत् द्वारम् आवृतकपाटम् ।

सः खटखटायते । "अनावृतकपाटं द्वारं देहि" इति सः कथयति ।
("द्वारम् उद्घाटय" इति )

पत्नी तत् द्वारम् अनावृतकपाटं करोतु इति तस्य इच्छा ।

पत्नी द्वारं किं करोतु इति तस्य इच्छा ? अनावृतकपाटं करोतु इति ।
द्वारस्य कपाटम् अनावृतम् (अनाच्छादितम्) करोतु इति ।

The simple, straightforward translation is "open the door." That does not reflect the way the narrator of the passage describes the door or the action. If you want to understand the words and action as the author intended, you would need to understand word relationships at least to the extent described above. It comes by practice.



 Naresh

Naresh Cuntoor

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Jun 15, 2017, 2:31:14 AM6/15/17
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On Tue, Jun 13, 2017 at 2:56 AM, Venkata Sriram <srira...@gmail.com> wrote:
My opinion:

अनावृत - moksha (liberation from the closed cycle of birth & death ; आवृत​ - closed ended (the cycle of samsaara)
कपाट​ - panel / door
द्वारं - way

The rough translation goes:

Pls bestow the liberation (ie., pls open the doors of liberation for me).

Something similar to the shloka from Annapurna Ashtakam vide mokSha dvAra kavATa-pATanakarI


How did अनावृत become moksha? Does any kosha give that meaning?

Irene Galstian

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Jun 15, 2017, 4:40:06 AM6/15/17
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Could you please elaborate on the 'gradual approach to learning'?
Difficulty in going from meanings of the individual words to the phrases, and then from the phrases to the meaning of the overall sentence is the key obstacle for Sanskrit learners. Once that has been overcome, it becomes much easier to pick out suitable entries from the dictionary. 
As you state, this comes from practice. But practice of what?
For example, in pranayama longer kumbhaka comes from gradually prolonging it. It's linear in nature until we reach about 2min, then there is a qualitative change, then we continue. 
But what are we training to better understand Sanskrit sentences?
Coulson dealt with the problem by offering a 'bank' of Sanskrit sentences and their English meaning. This approach has its merits. 
But is there a way that doesn't involve English?
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Venkata Sriram

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Jun 15, 2017, 3:10:45 PM6/15/17
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Naresh ji,

Sorry...It was my mistake.  I didn't study the context (the story) sent by Ramesh ji.  

However, अनावृत has the meaning unlimited, open. So, i imagined आवृत​ (being a closed one) as samsaara chakra.

Thank you for your wonderful explanation.

Naresh Cuntoor

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Jun 16, 2017, 12:06:39 AM6/16/17
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Irene,

The short answer is Samskrita Bharati introductory classes followed by a study of Sankshepa Ramayana and a simple text or two.

I'll elaborate -- assuming that one has at least a passing familiarity with Indian language vocab. If one is not familiar with any Indian language, I'll readily admit that I don't have a good answer. I make this fundamental assumption because the vast majority of Indian languages share a vocabulary with Samskrit even though they differ in terms of word endings, usages, phrases and idioms. The Samskrita Bharati methodology capitalizes on vocab-level similarities at the beginner's level. For this technique to be effective, the student needs to learn from a teacher in person for at least the first month or two. At that stage, the instruction relies heavily on interaction and immersion which is difficult to replicate in remote, text or tech-based learning. The instruction is completely in Samskrit.

In some parts of the world, it is not difficult to locate a Samskrita Bharati chapter to get the basic lessons. This is certainly true in the case of India, US and Canada. I would guess that it applies in some measure to the UK (although I have no personal knowledge of it). I should add that I have taught several classes using this methodology and can vouch for its effectiveness.

In this approach, lessons build gradually, but quickly from individual words to simple 2 or 3-word sentences to longer phrases. This approach sets up a good foundation. Then you go through one or two text books to build on that knowledge base. But at some point one hits a brick wall if the objective is to go beyond simple conversation and/or reading simple stories.

At this stage, I have seen many teachers resort to translation, which destroys the work students would have put in until then. In my experience, this tends to happen because of insufficiently many repetitive exercises with vibhakti forms, basic kRdanta forms (shatR, kta, etc.), and conjunctive sentences using yad-tad forms. When this happens, I have found that Sankshepa Ramayana is a good text to study - preferably with a teacher. Rashtriya Samskrit Sansthanam has come out with an excellent practice text for self-study. But in self-study mode, I think it tends to hinder progress unless a student is disciplined enough to try to work on one's own before checking the detailed description in the text book. This is so because there is a fair bit of spoon-feeding and not sufficiently challenging to encourage thoughtful learning. (I am sure many will disagree with this assessment - I am just giving you my take).

Sankshepa Ramayana works nicely at this stage for two main reasons - the story is familiar so that the student does not have to pay attention to how the story develops. Secondly, vocab familiarity again. The first 15-20 shlokas are more or a less a list of adjectives of Rama - a samAsa gold mine for practicing yad-tad etc. constructions in explanation.

At the end of Sankshepa Ramayana, students are usually very well-prepared to study further. A few others and I have tried this approach a few times over with reasonable success. After Sankshepa Ramayana, classes have continued with various texts including Vetala panchavimshati, Panchatantra, several Bhaasa plays and a few Kalidasa texts. Throughout we stick to reading and learning with Samskrit itself.

Long answer, but I hope this helps.

Naresh



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Irene Galstian

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Jun 16, 2017, 5:54:40 AM6/16/17
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Naresh,

This helps immensely. Thank you.
I am keenly interested in dealing with the brick wall stage, as you may have guessed, and several willing guinea pigs kindly came forward. I'll get Sankshepa Ramayana ASAP and see how things go.
If possible, please mention which Bhaasa and Kalidasa texts you found helpful in your teaching experience as next steps. 
Once again, thank you for suggesting a realistic strategy. 

Irene

PS After much furtive photographing, I have now scanned Aralikatti's thesis on spoken Sanskrit sentence patterns. Would this list like to have a look at the book? 
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ken p

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Jun 16, 2017, 6:27:08 PM6/16/17
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