Meanings of strange words of Sanskrit

[Gmail Team]

 

October 2, 2012

 

 Respected Scholars, Namaskar!

 

First thanks to all scholars-Dr. Narang, Dr. Narayanan, Dr. Subra V and Nityananad Misra for helping me in case of meanings of Arambha and PrArambha.

 

Now Panini did ot have ळ् in his grammar, But we find its use in Veda. So I could not figure out meanings of these words. Apte's dictionar is of no help. Please help. Thanks. N.R.Joshi

 

Rigveda (10/14/16 and 6/47/3) has word षळुर्वी.

 

What is its meaning ? Is it षट्+उर्वी

 

Similarly we have in Mantra pus'panjali एकराळिति

 

What is its meaning? Is it एकराट्+इति

 

In Rgveda ईडे becomes ईळेand मीढुषे becomes मीळ्हुषे

 

What is the meaning of मीढुषे?

 

Why retroflex sounds are changed into ळ् and ळ्ह्?

 

Panini did not refer to them I think.

 

 Please help. Thanks. N.R.Joshi

 

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[Hnbhat B.R.]

On Tue, Oct 2, 2012 at 8:47 PM, Gmail Team <gira...@juno.com> wrote:

 

October 2, 2012

 

 Respected Scholars, Namaskar!

 

First thanks to all scholars-Dr. Narang, Dr. Narayanan, Dr. Subra V and Nityananad Misra for helping me in case of meanings of Arambha and PrArambha.

 

Now Panini did ot have ळ् in his grammar, But we find its use in Veda. So I could not figure out meanings of these words. Apte's dictionar is of no help. Please help. Thanks. N.R.Joshi

 

Rigveda (10/14/16 and 6/47/3) has word षळुर्वी.

 

What is its meaning ? Is it षट्+उर्वी

 

Similarly we have in Mantra pus'panjali एकराळिति

 

What is its meaning? Is it एकराट्+इति

 

In Rgveda ईडे becomes ईळेand मीढुषे becomes मीळ्हुषे

 

What is the meaning of मीढुषे?

 

Why retroflex sounds are changed into ळ् and ळ्ह्?

 

I am not trying to explain the meanings of the words from Veda quoted out of their context. Better we can refer to the commentaries available or look into the Modern Translations or classical ones for their meaning. For, the commentators rely on the Nirukta and Nighantu for the Vedic words supported by Brahmana texts for the explanation of the words, and the classical modern commentators rely on the other texts like Zend Avesta and the so called Proto Indo European Langauge etymologies. Recent ones rely on their own interpretation on the words as they conceive the words to be conveying.  I have no opinion about it.

The issue of the two were discussed in the following thread long ago.

https://groups.google.com/d/topic/bvparishat/t66mMJhN7Vc/discussion

Please go through and doubts if any from among the opinions from different scholars there, would be discussed in continuation here. 

With regards

--
Dr. Hari Narayana Bhat B.R. M.A., Ph.D.,
Research Scholar,

Ecole française d'Extrême-OrientCentre de Pondichéry

16 & 19, Rue Dumas

Pondichéry - 605 001

[Hnbhat B.R.]

Here is the reply by DK Bhattacharya, separated from the topic in the link given in my previous  for some reason:

https://groups.google.com/d/topic/bvparishat/DleAzpv89ss/discussion

A note: These retroflexes are governed by प्रतिशाख्य grammars which deal with mostly with the recitation of the letters and lay down the rules regarding them in संहिता  or पदपाठ, which is considered to be the प्रकृति of the text. These and some other phonetic changes found in Vedic संहिता-s are not governed by Panini, with his rules for Sandhi. These also differ from the शाखा, of the संहिता-s, and division of Veda-s. Some have more complicated phonetic changes preserved in प्रातिशाख्य-s.  

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan]

Dear Sri Joshi,

As a thumb rule, you can take the occurrence of the La-kAra as a
specialty of Rgveda recitation, which is not present elsewhere in
Sanskrit. In the Rgveda saura sUkta, for example, you will hear two
consecutive verses: the first begins, "baN mahAn asi sUrya baLAditya
mahAn asi" and the second begins, "baT sUrya SravasA mahAn asi ..."
The basic pada used in both verses is baT, which changes to baN when
followed by the word mahAn, to baL when followed by Aditya, and
remains unchanged when followed by sUrya.

You can easily deduce a rule about external sandhi here. When word
ending -T is followed by a word-initial vowel, the sound -L appears
(instead of becoming -D as in classical Sanskrit). This explains your
examples, ShaLurvI and ekarALiti - your sandhi vigraha is correct.
There are other nuances governing internal sandhi in words like ILe
and mILhuShe, but again, as a general thumb rule, -L and -Lh in Rgveda
are equivalent to retroflex -D and -Dh respectively. You may have
noticed that yajurvedins recite -D and -Dh in the same contexts,
e.g. ... ShaDurvIr uruNaH kR^iNota ..., mIDhushTama Sivatama... etc.

An aside - The word mahAn in the two Rgveda verses quoted above is
followed by the word asi, beginning with a vowel. It is pronounced not
with the dantya na-kAra, but is an anusvAra, sounding more or less
like a kaNThya nasal and written with a candrabindu in printed
editions. In the context of yajurveda recitation, the same sound would
become the heavily glottalized anusvAra, sounding like there is an
explicit -g- sound in there, e.g. mahA(g)M indro vajrabAhuH ..., ...
bAnavA(g)M uta, etc. This pronunciation complexity of the nasals has
also been lost in classical Sanskrit.

There is really no logical answer for the question why. They just are,
as characteristics of Rgveda and yajurveda chanting. What is
fascinating is how these sounds have been retained in the context of
veda recitation, even after disappearing from classical Sanskrit.

Best Regards,
Vidyasankar

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[Hnbhat B.R.]

I think these and other special features of pronunciation specific to each Veda-s and reach recensions there also differ and are governed by the related शिक्षा texts and प्रातिशाख्य texts. These are not available for each and every शाखा or its recensions of each Veda-s, only some are available. But since recitation is practiced orally by tradition, the importance of प्रातिशाख्य-s and शिक्षा are lost altogether. Only they are reviewed by linguists of 19th centuries and not many Vedic scholars are familiar with them though they pronounce correctly as they have learnt from their teachers orally. Here is the topic discussed long ago with these specific two formations ळ and ळ्ह corresponding to ड and ढ respectively in similar sequences of following vowels:

https://groups.google.com/d/topic/bvparishat/DleAzpv89ss/discussion