Colors in Samskrita

[Vasu Srinivasan]

One of our students had this interesting question about colors in Samskrita. Has there been any scientific treatise (shastra) regarding colors, like in chemistry (rasAyana shastra) ?

Also can any one throw light on etymology of the words of color in Samskrita ?

Sveta

Krishna

rakta

pIta

harita

nIla

pATala

anyother?

--
Regards,
Vasu Srinivasan

[Kotaru, Raj]

Dhoomala à purple/violet

Dhoosara à grey

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "samskrita" group.
To post to this group, send email to sams...@googlegroups.com.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to samskrita+...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/samskrita?hl=en.

[Arvind Kolhatkar]

A few more:

कपिश पिङ्गल लोहित अरुण पाण्डुर

Arvind Kolhatkar, Toronto, November 17, 2010.

http://arvindkolhatkar.blogspot.com/

--

[rahul vedi]

of the top of my head... I can add

dhuusara   --->  grey

--

[S. L. Abhyankar]

नमो नमः !

It would be better to have a developing list to avoid repetition. 

dhoosara was already suggested by Kotaru.Raj

The developing list for ready reference becomes -

श्वेत कृष्ण रक्त पीत हरित नील पाटल कपिश पिङ्गल लोहित अरुण पाण्डुर धूमल धूसर and I would now add श्याम 

Thinking of rainbow and Newton's disc, or by the science of colors 

primary colors are - red yellow blue i.e. रक्त पीत नील 

The rainbow colors when whirled as by Newton's disc become श्वेत or पाण्डुर 

When not whirled, but when primary colors are directly mixed thick and dark into each other, they become कृष्ण

सस्नेहम् ,
अभ्यंकरकुलोत्पन्नः श्रीपादः |
"श्रीपतेः पदयुगं स्मरणीयम् ।"
http://slabhyankar.wordpress.com
http://slezall.blogspot.com
स्थापित-दूरभाष-क्रमाङ्कः +91 22 2849 5365
चलितभाष-क्रमाङ्कः +91 98330 72044

[Arvind Kolhatkar]

I checked Monier Williams and came up with धूम्र which means 'smoke-colored, smoky, dark-colored, grey, dark-red, purple'.  We find it used in the following famous verse. 

प्रथमं वक्रतुण्डं च एकदन्तं द्वितीयकं तृतीयं कृष्णपिङ्गाक्षं गजवक्त्रं चतुर्थकम्।

लम्बोदरं पञ्चमं च षष्ठं विकटमेव च सप्तमं विघ्नराजेन्द्रं धूम्रवर्णं तथाऽष्टकम्॥

नवमं भालचन्द्रं च दशमं तु विनायकं एकादशं गणपतिं द्वादशं तु गजाननम्।

द्वादशैतानि नामानि त्रिसन्ध्यां यः पठेन्नरः न च विघ्नभयं तस्य सर्वसिद्धिकरं प्रभो॥

Arvind Kolhatkar, Toronto, November 18, 2010

http://arvindkolhatkar.blogspot.com/

[Madhav Gopal]

Namaste,

 

I have a doubt here. I think in Saskrit नील and श्याम (=कृष्ण) are the same colour. They are synonimously used in the language. Any body please correct me if I am wrong.

 

thanks and regards,

Madhav

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "samskrita" group.
To post to this group, send email to sams...@googlegroups.com.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to samskrita+...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/samskrita?hl=en.

--
Madhav Gopal
Centre for Linguistics,
School of Language Literature and
Culture Studies,
Jawaharlal Nehru University,
New Delhi-67
India
Mob. +91-9811021605

[Jonathan Da Fonseca]

Namaste
Can anyone kindly tell me what color is this that I can not divise accross the dictionries?

harita

हरित

Yellowish, greenish / a pale color

a pale yellow... a pale green...
Thank you a lot
Jonathan

[Arvind Kolhatkar]

Dear Group, 

While talking of the color लोहित the following verse came to mind but try as I might, I cannot get the missing words!  Can someone supply them?  Thanks for the help.

कस्त्वं लोहितलोचनास्यचरणो हंसः कुतो मानसात्।

किं तत्रास्ति सुवर्णपङ्कजवनान्यम्भः सुधासंनिभम्।

.......................................वैडूर्यरोहाः क्वचित्।

शम्बूकाः किमु सन्ति नेति च बकैराकर्ण्य हीहीकृतम्॥

Arvind Kolhatkar, Toronto, November 19, 2010.

http://arvindkolhatkar.blogspot.com/

On Fri, Nov 19, 2010 at 9:22 AM, Arvind Kolhatkar <kolhat...@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Group,

The following verse has सित, defined by Monier Williams as 'white, pale, bright, light', though in the verse it refers to the perspicuity of the water of Gangaa:

गाङ्गमम्बु सितमम्बु यामुनं कज्जलाभमुभयत्र मज्जतः।

राजहंस तव सैव शुभ्रता चीयते न च न चापचीयते॥

 

As to interchangeability of नील and श्याम or कृष्ण, I would think than the first literally does mean 'blue' and the latter two mean 'dark' or 'black' but they often substitute for each other.  This was so probably because most of Sanskrit writing was in the form of metered verses and such interchanging could be of great use in it.  This delightful confusion makes for better versification!  In our current vernaculars these terms have distinct meanings and they cannot replace each other, because we mostly write in prose and need to have more clarity in our functional writing.

Arvind Kolhatkar, Toronto, November 19, 2010.

http://arvindkolhatkar.blogspot.com/

[Chandra Sekhar]

नीलम् उत्पलम् = नीलोत्पलम् = blue lotus

मेघः इव श्यामः = मेघश्यामः = cloud color (variation here, due to varation in grey)
कृष्णः भवन्तः जानन्ति एव सर्वव्यापकत्वात्

On Fri, Nov 19, 2010 at 1:42 AM, Madhav Gopal <mgo...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Jaideep Joshi]

The गौरीदशकम् has this word:

"चन्द्रापीडालंकृतनीलालकभाराम्"

here नील अलक must mean neela = black, since hair cannot be blue! so neela means black.

But my dictionary (गीर्वाणलघुकोश) says neela is black as well as blue.

Regards,
Jaideep

[Piergiorgio Muzi]

Hi, dear friends, there must be a lot of nouns / adjectives for colours in Sanskrit. Only few of them are clearly connected with correspondent terms in other I.E. languages. I have checked some dictionaries to compare the meaning; very often they are uncertain and sometimes inconsistent; BTW, in Old Greek the same word was used for yellow and green: chloros, from which chlorophyll.

As for RED:

रुधिर (Lat. ruber, Greek, erythros and Goth rauth...)

लोह लोहित (same root, since here luh is equivalent to rudh, very probably) 

अरुण

As for YELLOW:

हरि हरित् हरित

गौर (does it refer to the colour of a kind of buffalo?)

As for WHITE:

शुक्ल शुभ्र शुचि

सित  (possibly connected with असित  = black, considered wrongly a negative from)

धौत धवल (both from dhâv , to wash)

अर्जुन (Gr argos and Lat argentum, etc.)

पाण्डु (whitish? yellowish?)

As for BLACK:

काल

श्याम (is it black or blue?)

As for BROWN:

कपिश पिशङ्ग पिङ्गल कपिल (???)

It is a subject rich of psycholinguistic issues and connected with the general problem of translation and linguistic relativity.

Thanks, regards,

Piergiorgio

----- Original Message -----

[Sunder Hattangadi]

Namaste,               The original question mentioned the interest of children wanting to know  the names of colors.   Here are some delightful sites:   Projects for colors:   http://cmtots.blogspot.com/2009/08/sanskrit-book-of-shapes-colors-etc-year.html   ==============================================================   Animated written words in Devanagari script   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2Lkz7bGbN8   ============================================   Some info:   http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_you_can_write_colors_name_in_sanskrit     Red लोहितः, रक्तवर्णः Green हरितः, पलाशः Blue नीलः Black श्यामः, कालः White शुक्लः, श्वेतः Grey धूसरः, धूषरः Brown श्यावः, कपिशः Pink पाटलः, श्वेतरक्तः Yellow पीतः, हरिद्राभः Orange कौसुम्भः, नारङगवर्णः Crimson शोणः Reddish Brown अरुणः       Regards,   sunder --- On Fri, 11/19/10, Arvind Kolhatkar <kolhat...@gmail.com> wrote:

From: Arvind Kolhatkar <kolhat...@gmail.com> Subject: Re: [Samskrita] Colors in Samskrita

To: sams...@googlegroups.com Date: Friday, November 19, 2010, 9:22 AM

Dear Group,

The following verse has सित, defined by Monier Williams as 'white, pale, bright, light', though in the verse it refers to the perspicuity of the water of Gangaa: गाङ्गमम्बु सितमम्बु यामुनं कज्जलाभमुभयत्र मज्जतः। राजहंस तव सैव शुभ्रता चीयते न च न चापचीयते॥   As to interchangeability of नील and श्याम or कृष्ण, I would think than the first literally does mean 'blue' and the latter two mean 'dark' or 'black' but they often substitute for each other.  This was so probably because most of Sanskrit writing was in the form of metered verses and such interchanging could be of great use in it.  This delightful confusion makes for better versification!  In our current vernaculars these terms have distinct meanings and they cannot replace each other, because we mostly write in prose and need to have more clarity in our functional writing. Arvind Kolhatkar, Toronto, November 19, 2010. http://arvindkolhatkar.blogspot.com/

On Fri, Nov 19, 2010 at 1:42 AM, Madhav Gopal <mgo...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Sunder Hattangadi]

with some variation:   kastvaM lohitalochanAsya charaNaH haMsaH kuto mAnasAt kiM tatrAsti suvarNapa~NkajavanAnyaMbhassudhAsannibham | ratnAnAM nichayAH pravAlamaNayo vaiDUryarohAH kvachit maNDUkA api santi neti cha bakairAkarNya hI hI kRRitam ||

कस्त्वं लोहितलोचनास्यचरणो हंसः कुतो मानसात्। किं तत्रास्ति सुवर्णपङ्कजवनान्यम्भः सुधासंनिभम्।

रत्नानां निचयाः प्रवालमणयो वैडूर्यरोहाः क्वचित्।

शम्बूकाः किमु सन्ति नेति च बकैराकर्ण्य हीहीकृतम्॥

Regards,   sunder --- On Fri, 11/19/10, Arvind Kolhatkar <kolhat...@gmail.com> wrote:

From: Arvind Kolhatkar <kolhat...@gmail.com> Subject: Re: [Samskrita] Colors in Samskrita To: sams...@googlegroups.com

[S. L. Abhyankar]

It seems Sanskrit words for different colours are also derived from the context where they are commonly seen.

e.g. लोह लोहित ताम्र हरिततृण सुवर्ण रौप्य नीलाम्बर पीताम्बर अरुण (is the color of sun at dawn अरुणोदय) मेघः-श्याम चन्द्रकान्त
गाङ्गमम्बु सितमम्बु connotes that water of Ganges is clearer in color than water of यमुना which must have been rather brackish. By that यमुन also connotes brackish color.

श्वेत शुभ्र धवल may all connote white; but, maybe, शुभ्र connotes transparency which is color-less !
It would be interesting to see what अमरकोश says on this.

[G S S Murthy]

All that I can say is that names of colors in Sanskrit form a gray area.
Murthy

Have you visited my web site? http://murthygss.tripod.com/index.htm