121-605: Narasimha ( Sanskrit : नरसिंह , lit. 'man-lion', IAST : Narasiṃha ), is the fourth avatara of the Hindu god Vishnu in the Satya Yuga . He incarnated as a part-lion, part-man and killed Hiranyakashipu , ended religious persecution and calamity on earth , and restored dharma . Narasimha has three eyes, and is in the God of Destruction in Vaishnavism ; he who destroys
242-536: A "wild lion, powerful, prowling, mountain-roaming", which is Vishnu as Narasimha. Another hymn 8.14 says the story of Indra killing Namuci, that with "water foam you tore off, Indra, the head of Namuci and killed him, killing all demons",. The full story of Indra killing Namuci is found in Shatapatha Brahmana (7th - 6th century BCE) of the Yajurveda in chapter 12.7.3.v Other references to Narasimha are found in
363-475: A boon. Hiranyakashipu asked, "Grant me that I not die within any residence or outside any residence, during the daytime or at nighttime, nor in the ground or in the sky. Grant me that my death not be brought about by any weapons or hands, nor by any human or animal. Grant me that I not meet death from any entity, living or nonliving created by you. Grant me, further, that I not be killed by any deity or demon or by any other organisms and divinities." Brahma granted him
484-451: A conch and a discus. This lion, flanked by five heroes ( Viras ) , is Narasimha. Standing cult images of Narasimha from the early Gupta period, survive from temples at Tigowa and Eran. These sculptures are two-armed, long maned, frontal, wearing only a lower garment, and with no demon-figure of Hiranyakashipu. Statues of Narasimha disemboweling and killing Hiranyakasipu survive from slightly later Gupta-period temples: one at Madhia and one from
605-433: A focus on Indian philosophies and Sanskrit. Though written in a number of different scripts, the dominant language of Hindu texts has been Sanskrit. It or a hybrid form of Sanskrit became the preferred language of Mahayana Buddhism scholarship; for example, one of the early and influential Buddhist philosophers, Nagarjuna (~200 CE), used Classical Sanskrit as the language for his texts. According to Renou, Sanskrit had
726-484: A furled brow, fangs, and lolling tongue is same as later images of Narasimha, but the idol's robe, simplicity, and stance set it apart. On Narasimha's chest under his upper garment appears the suggestion of an amulet, which Stella Kramrisch associated with Vishnu's cognizance, the Kaustubha jewel. This upper garment flows over both shoulders; but below Hiranyakasipu, the demon-figure placed horizontally across Narasimha's body,
847-583: A garland and threw Hiranyakashipu's organs away, along with broken pieces of a pillar which you blasted and came out, as Narasimha . Paripadal, poem 4, Verses 10 - 21 Narasimha is also found in and is the focus of Narasimha Tapaniya Upanishad . The Bhagavata Purana says that Vishnu, in his previous avatara as Varaha , killed the evil demon Hiranyaksha . The younger brother of Hiranyaksha, demon king Hiranyakashipu , hated Vishnu and wanted revenge. He undertook many years of austere penance to gain special powers. Thereafter, Brahma offered Hiranyakashipu
968-581: A language competed with numerous, less exact vernacular Indian languages called Prakritic languages ( prākṛta - ). The term prakrta literally means "original, natural, normal, artless", states Franklin Southworth . The relationship between Prakrit and Sanskrit is found in Indian texts dated to the 1st millennium CE. Patañjali acknowledged that Prakrit is the first language, one instinctively adopted by every child with all its imperfections and later leads to
1089-643: A limited role in the Theravada tradition (formerly known as the Hinayana) but the Prakrit works that have survived are of doubtful authenticity. Some of the canonical fragments of the early Buddhist traditions, discovered in the 20th century, suggest the early Buddhist traditions used an imperfect and reasonably good Sanskrit, sometimes with a Pali syntax, states Renou. The Mahāsāṃghika and Mahavastu, in their late Hinayana forms, used hybrid Sanskrit for their literature. Sanskrit
1210-454: A natural part of the earliest Vedic language, and that these developed in the centuries after the composition had been completed, and as a gradual unconscious process during the oral transmission by generations of reciters. The primary source for this argument is internal evidence of the text which betrays an instability of the phenomenon of retroflexion, with the same phrases having sandhi-induced retroflexion in some parts but not other. This
1331-479: A negative evidence to Pollock's hypothesis, but it is not positive evidence. A closer look at Sanskrit in the Indian history after the 12th century suggests that Sanskrit survived despite the odds. According to Hanneder, On a more public level the statement that Sanskrit is a dead language is misleading, for Sanskrit is quite obviously not as dead as other dead languages and the fact that it is spoken, written and read will probably convince most people that it cannot be
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#17328593306631452-546: A pan-Indo-Aryan accessibility to information and knowledge in the ancient and medieval times, in contrast to the Prakrit languages which were understood just regionally. It created a cultural bond across the subcontinent. As local languages and dialects evolved and diversified, Sanskrit served as the common language. It connected scholars from distant parts of South Asia such as Tamil Nadu and Kashmir, states Deshpande, as well as those from different fields of studies, though there must have been differences in its pronunciation given
1573-573: A refined and standardized grammatical form that emerged in the mid-1st millennium BCE and was codified in the most comprehensive of ancient grammars, the Aṣṭādhyāyī ('Eight chapters') of Pāṇini . The greatest dramatist in Sanskrit, Kālidāsa , wrote in classical Sanskrit, and the foundations of modern arithmetic were first described in classical Sanskrit. The two major Sanskrit epics, the Mahābhārata and
1694-534: A restrained language from which archaisms and unnecessary formal alternatives were excluded". The Classical form of the language simplified the sandhi rules but retained various aspects of the Vedic language, while adding rigor and flexibilities, so that it had sufficient means to express thoughts as well as being "capable of responding to the future increasing demands of an infinitely diversified literature", according to Renou. Pāṇini included numerous "optional rules" beyond
1815-439: A similar phonetic structure to Tamil. Hock et al. quoting George Hart state that there was influence of Old Tamil on Sanskrit. Hart compared Old Tamil and Classical Sanskrit to arrive at a conclusion that there was a common language from which these features both derived – "that both Tamil and Sanskrit derived their shared conventions, metres, and techniques from a common source, for it is clear that neither borrowed directly from
1936-550: A temple-doorway now set into the Kurma Matha at Nachna, both dated to the late fifth or early sixth century CE. An image of Narasimha supposedly dating to second-third century CE sculpted at Mathura was acquired by the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1987. It was described by Stella Kramrisch, the former Philadelphia Museum of Art's Indian curator, as " perhaps the earliest image of Narasimha as yet known ". This figure depicts
2057-477: A twisted waist-band suggests a separate garment covering the legs. The Hiranyakashipu's hair streams behind him, catching his head against Narasimha's right knee. He wears a simple single strand of beads. His body is caught and holded down. His face is pushed down. His eyes face away below from the face of Vishnu. Hiranyakashipu is caught and pulled down as Narasimha disembowels and kills him. His organs are disemboweled and fall over his right side. In Matsya Purana it
2178-416: Is He not present before me in this pillar?" Prahlada then answered, "He was, He is, He will be." Hiranyakashipu, unable to control his anger, smashed the pillar with his mace, and following a tumultuous sound, Vishnu in the form of Narasimha appeared from it and moved to attack Hiranyakashipu in defense of Prahlada. In order to kill Hiranyakashipu and not upset the boon given by Brahma , the form of Narasimha
2299-508: Is akin to that of Latin and Ancient Greek in Europe. Sanskrit has significantly influenced most modern languages of the Indian subcontinent , particularly the languages of the northern, western, central and eastern Indian subcontinent. Sanskrit declined starting about and after the 13th century. This coincides with the beginning of Islamic invasions of South Asia to create, and thereafter expand
2420-506: Is celebrated in many regional Hindu temples, texts, performance arts, and festivals such as the Hindu festival of colours of the spring, called Holi . One of the earliest representation of Narasimha, dating back to the 4th-century CE, is from Kondamotu in Coastal Andhra . Other older known artworks of Narasimha have been found at several sites across Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh, such as at
2541-400: Is common that each of the temples contain depictions of Narasimha in more than one form, Ahobilam contains nine temples of Narasimha dedicated to the nine forms of Narasimha. Statues of Narasimha disemboweling and killing Hiranyakashipu are common, and this image of Narasimha disemboweling and killing Hiranyakashipu is commonly worshipped in temples, and it is drawn. Narasimha is influential in
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#17328593306632662-405: Is described as the God of Destruction, who does destruction at the time of Pralaya and described as Kala . Narasimha is also described as having three eyes just like Shiva and does destruction with fire coming from his third eye. The Paripatal (Dated between 300 BCE to 300 CE) ( Tamil : பரிபாடல் , meaning the paripatal-metre anthology ) is a classical Tamil poetic work and traditionally
2783-452: Is found in the writing of Bharata Muni , the author of the ancient Natya Shastra text. The early Jain scholar Namisādhu acknowledged the difference, but disagreed that the Prakrit language was a corruption of Sanskrit. Namisādhu stated that the Prakrit language was the pūrvam ('came before, origin') and that it came naturally to children, while Sanskrit was a refinement of Prakrit through "purification by grammar". Sanskrit belongs to
2904-538: Is known primarily as the 'Great Protector' who specifically defends and protects his devotees from evil and destroys evil. The most popular Narasimha myth is the legend of his protection of his devotee Prahlada, and the killing of Prahlada's evil father and demon Hiranyakashipu. Narasimha is one of the major deities in Vaishnavism , and his legends are revered in Vaikhanasas , Sri Vaishnavism , Sadha Vaishnavism , and various other Vaishnava traditions of Hinduism. He
3025-472: Is performed during mid-November portraying Hiranyakashipu's death respecting all criteria of the boon given by Bramaha. This dance is performed mid-night at the heart of mangal bazar, Lalitpur. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5v_tzoEyyrc A number of prayers have been written in to Narasimha. These include: In Andhra Pradesh, a panel dating to third-fourth century CE shows a full theriomorphic squatting lion with two extra human arms behind his shoulders holding
3146-524: Is rare in the later version of the language. The Homerian Greek, like Ṛg-vedic Sanskrit, deploys simile extensively, but they are structurally very different. The early Vedic form of the Sanskrit language was far less homogenous compared to the Classical Sanskrit as defined by grammarians by about the mid-1st millennium BCE. According to Richard Gombrich—an Indologist and a scholar of Sanskrit, Pāli and Buddhist Studies—the archaic Vedic Sanskrit found in
3267-556: Is shown Narasimha disemboweled and killed Hiranyakashipu as a plaiter of straw mats shreds his reeds". Based on the Gandhara style of robe worn by the idol, Michael Meiste altered the date of the image to fourth century CE. An image of Narasimha, dating to the 9th century CE, was found on the northern slope of Mount Ijo, at Prambanan, Indonesia. Images of Trivikrama and Varāha avatāras were also found at Prambanan, Indonesia. Vishnu and His avataras have iconographic differences characteristic of
3388-479: Is taken along with evidence of controversy, for example, in passages of the Aitareya-Āraṇyaka (700 BCE), which features a discussion on whether retroflexion is valid in particular cases. The Ṛg-veda is a collection of books, created by multiple authors. These authors represented different generations, and the mandalas 2 to 7 are the oldest while the mandalas 1 and 10 are relatively the youngest. Yet,
3509-512: Is the destructor of not only external evil, but also one's own inner evil of "body, speech, and mind" states Pratapaditya Pal. In Indian Subcontinental art – sculptures, bronzes and paintings – Vishnu's incarnation as Narasimha is one of the most chosen incarnations in Dashavatara of Vishnu and amongst all Dashavatara of Vishnu, Narasimha is popular. Narasimha is worshipped across Telangana and Andhra Pradesh States in numerous forms. Although, it
3630-580: Is the predominant language of one of the largest collection of historic manuscripts. The earliest known inscriptions in Sanskrit are from the 1st century BCE, such as the Ayodhya Inscription of Dhana and Ghosundi-Hathibada (Chittorgarh) . Though developed and nurtured by scholars of orthodox schools of Hinduism, Sanskrit has been the language for some of the key literary works and theology of heterodox schools of Indian philosophies such as Buddhism and Jainism. The structure and capabilities of
3751-526: The Bhagavata Purana , the Panchatantra and many other texts are all in the Sanskrit language. The Classical Sanskrit with its exacting grammar was thus the language of the Indian scholars and the educated classes, while others communicated with approximate or ungrammatical variants of it as well as other natural Indian languages. Sanskrit, as the learned language of Ancient India, thus existed alongside
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3872-513: The Ashvinas . They reply they will deal with Namuci, get it all back, if Indra agrees to share his powers, the essence of food and the Soma drink with them. Indra agrees. The gods and the goddess then come up with a creative plan. They pour out a foam of water with a thunderbolt, and Indra takes a thunderbolt in his hand and Indra kills Namuci in evening. After Namuci is killed, the gods and goddesses get all
3993-568: The Dalai Lama , the Sanskrit language is a parent language that is at the foundation of many modern languages of India and the one that promoted Indian thought to other distant countries. In Tibetan Buddhism, states the Dalai Lama, Sanskrit language has been a revered one and called legjar lhai-ka or "elegant language of the gods". It has been the means of transmitting the "profound wisdom of Buddhist philosophy" to Tibet. The Sanskrit language created
4114-653: The Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages . It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late Bronze Age . Sanskrit is the sacred language of Hinduism , the language of classical Hindu philosophy , and of historical texts of Buddhism and Jainism . It was a link language in ancient and medieval South Asia, and upon transmission of Hindu and Buddhist culture to Southeast Asia, East Asia and Central Asia in
4235-613: The Indo-European family of languages . It is one of the three earliest ancient documented languages that arose from a common root language now referred to as Proto-Indo-European : Other Indo-European languages distantly related to Sanskrit include archaic and Classical Latin ( c. 600 BCE–100 CE, Italic languages ), Gothic (archaic Germanic language , c. 350 CE ), Old Norse ( c. 200 CE and after), Old Avestan ( c. late 2nd millennium BCE ) and Younger Avestan ( c. 900 BCE). The closest ancient relatives of Vedic Sanskrit in
4356-498: The Mathura archaeological site. These have been variously dated between the 2nd century CE and the 4th century CE. In Sanskrit, the word Narasimha consists of two words "nara" which means man, and "simha" which means lion, referring to the man-lion avatara of Vishnu. His other names are Agnilochana ( अग्निलोचन ) – the one who has fiery eyes, Bhairavadambara ( भैरवडम्बर ) – the one who causes terror by roaring, Karala ( कराल ) –
4477-744: The Rigveda had already evolved in the Vedic period, as evidenced in the later Vedic literature. Gombrich posits that the language in the early Upanishads of Hinduism and the late Vedic literature approaches Classical Sanskrit, while the archaic Vedic Sanskrit had by the Buddha 's time become unintelligible to all except ancient Indian sages. The formalization of the Saṃskṛta language is credited to Pāṇini , along with Patañjali's Mahābhāṣya and Katyayana's commentary that preceded Patañjali's work. Panini composed Aṣṭādhyāyī ('Eight-Chapter Grammar'), which became
4598-532: The Rigveda , a collection of 1,028 hymns composed between 1500 BCE and 1200 BCE by Indo-Aryan tribes migrating east from the mountains of what is today northern Afghanistan across northern Pakistan and into northwestern India. Vedic Sanskrit interacted with the preexisting ancient languages of the subcontinent, absorbing names of newly encountered plants and animals; in addition, the ancient Dravidian languages influenced Sanskrit's phonology and syntax. Sanskrit can also more narrowly refer to Classical Sanskrit ,
4719-526: The Rāmāyaṇa , however, were composed in a range of oral storytelling registers called Epic Sanskrit which was used in northern India between 400 BCE and 300 CE, and roughly contemporary with classical Sanskrit. In the following centuries, Sanskrit became tradition-bound, stopped being learned as a first language, and ultimately stopped developing as a living language. The hymns of the Rigveda are notably similar to
4840-714: The Vijayanagara Empire ruins in Karnataka. Some of the oldest surviving Hindu temples, such as those found in Tigava and Eran (Madhya Pradesh), dated to early 5th-century, include Narasimha along with other avatars of Vishnu. The Thuravoor Temple is the most important shrine to Narasimha in Kerala; the form of Narasimha there is known as Vatakanappan . Narasimha is a significant iconic symbol of creative resistance, hope against odds, victory over persecution, and destruction of evil. He
4961-672: The asura Hiranyakashipu being disemboweled and killed by him in his lap. The asura was the powerful younger brother of the evil powerful Hiranyaksha , who had been previously killed by Vishnu as Varaha , and thus hated the latter. Hiranyakashipu gained a boon from Brahma due to which he could not be killed during the day or night, inside or outside the house; neither in the sky nor on land nor in Svarga nor in Patala , by any weapon or hand, nor by humans, deities, demons, or animals. Endowed with this boon, he began to wreak chaos and havoc, persecuting all
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5082-406: The sandhi rules, both internal and external. Quite many words found in the early Vedic Sanskrit language are never found in late Vedic Sanskrit or Classical Sanskrit literature, while some words have different and new meanings in Classical Sanskrit when contextually compared to the early Vedic Sanskrit literature. Arthur Macdonell was among the early colonial era scholars who summarized some of
5203-500: The verbal adjective sáṃskṛta- is a compound word consisting of sáṃ ('together, good, well, perfected') and kṛta - ('made, formed, work'). It connotes a work that has been "well prepared, pure and perfect, polished, sacred". According to Biderman, the perfection contextually being referred to in the etymological origins of the word is its tonal—rather than semantic—qualities. Sound and oral transmission were highly valued qualities in ancient India, and its sages refined
5324-414: The 13th century, a premier center of Sanskrit literary creativity, Sanskrit literature there disappeared, perhaps in the "fires that periodically engulfed the capital of Kashmir" or the "Mongol invasion of 1320" states Pollock. The Sanskrit literature which was once widely disseminated out of the northwest regions of the subcontinent, stopped after the 12th century. As Hindu kingdoms fell in the eastern and
5445-405: The 18th day, after which Gandaberunda as Narasimha and Sharabha took their true forms of Vishnu and Shiva and went to their respective heavens of Vaikuntha and Kailasha respectively. Narasimha has a lion face with clawed fingers fused with a human body. He is coming out of a pillar signifying that he is everywhere, in everything, in everyone. Some temples such as at Ahobilam , Andhra Pradesh ,
5566-537: The 2nd century CE, such as those discovered in Kaushambi. A nearly complete, exquisitely carved standing Narasimha statue, wearing a pancha , with personified attributes near him has been found at the Mathura archeological site and is dated to the 6th century CE. The story of Narasimha disemboweling and killing Hiranyakashipu is a part of various Indian classical dance repertoire. For example, Kathakali theatre has included
5687-454: The 5th-century CE, when various Gupta Empire rulers minted coins with his images or sponsored inscriptions that associated the powers of Narasimha with their own. The rulers thus showed their rule as someone like Narasimha who killed and destroyed evil. Some of the coins of the Kushan era show Narasimha, showing his influence. Some of the oldest Narasimha terracotta artworks have been dated to about
5808-521: The 7th century where he established a major center of learning and language translation under the patronage of Emperor Taizong. By the early 1st millennium CE, Sanskrit had spread Buddhist and Hindu ideas to Southeast Asia, parts of the East Asia and the Central Asia. It was accepted as a language of high culture and the preferred language by some of the local ruling elites in these regions. According to
5929-455: The Chalukya and Pallava images of the 6th–7th centuries CE. Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Temple, Nira Narsimhapura. Pokharni Narasimha Temple Sanskrit language Sanskrit ( / ˈ s æ n s k r ɪ t / ; attributively 𑀲𑀁𑀲𑁆𑀓𑀾𑀢𑀁 , संस्कृत- , saṃskṛta- ; nominally संस्कृतम् , saṃskṛtam , IPA: [ˈsɐ̃skr̩tɐm] ) is a classical language belonging to
6050-425: The Classical Sanskrit language launched ancient Indian speculations about "the nature and function of language", what is the relationship between words and their meanings in the context of a community of speakers, whether this relationship is objective or subjective, discovered or is created, how individuals learn and relate to the world around them through language, and about the limits of language? They speculated on
6171-521: The Dravidian languages borrowed from Sanskrit vocabulary, but they have also affected Sanskrit on deeper levels of structure, "for instance in the domain of phonology where Indo-Aryan retroflexes have been attributed to Dravidian influence". Similarly, Ferenc Ruzca states that all the major shifts in Indo-Aryan phonetics over two millennia can be attributed to the constant influence of a Dravidian language with
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#17328593306636292-513: The Dravidian words and forms, without modifying the word order; but the same thing is not possible in rendering a Persian or English sentence into a non-Indo-Aryan language. Shulman mentions that "Dravidian nonfinite verbal forms (called vinaiyeccam in Tamil) shaped the usage of the Sanskrit nonfinite verbs (originally derived from inflected forms of action nouns in Vedic). This particularly salient case of
6413-775: The Indian Subcontinental tradition of killing and destroying despots and tyrants who abuse power. Vishnu as Narasimha is mentioned in a variety of Puranas , in 17 Puranas, Vishnu as Narasimha mentioned. The Valmiki Ramayana (7.24), Harivamsa (41 & 3.41-47), Vishnu Purana (1.16-20), Bhagavata Purana (Canto 7), Agni Purana (4.2-3), Brahmanda Purana (2.5.3-29), Vayu Purana (67.61-66), Brahma Purana (213.44-79), Vishnudharmottara Purana (1.54), Kurma Purana (1.15.18-72), Matsya Purana (161-163), Padma Purana (5.42), Shiva Purana (2.5.43 & 3.10-12), Linga Purana (1.95-96) and Skanda Purana (2.18.60-130) all mention Vishnu as Narasimha. In all these Puranas, Narasimha
6534-469: The Indo-Aryan language underwent rapid linguistic change and morphed into the Vedic Sanskrit language. The pre-Classical form of Sanskrit is known as Vedic Sanskrit . The earliest attested Sanskrit text is the Rigveda , a Hindu scripture from the mid- to late-second millennium BCE. No written records from such an early period survive, if any ever existed, but scholars are generally confident that
6655-507: The Indo-European languages are the Nuristani languages found in the remote Hindu Kush region of northeastern Afghanistan and northwestern Himalayas, as well as the extinct Avestan and Old Persian – both are Iranian languages . Sanskrit belongs to the satem group of the Indo-European languages. Colonial era scholars familiar with Latin and Greek were struck by the resemblance of
6776-521: The Muslim rule in the form of Sultanates, and later the Mughal Empire . Sheldon Pollock characterises the decline of Sanskrit as a long-term "cultural, social, and political change". He dismisses the idea that Sanskrit declined due to "struggle with barbarous invaders", and emphasises factors such as the increasing attractiveness of vernacular language for literary expression. With the fall of Kashmir around
6897-489: The Muslim rulers. Hindu rulers such as Shivaji of the Maratha Empire , reversed the process, by re-adopting Sanskrit and re-asserting their socio-linguistic identity. After Islamic rule disintegrated in South Asia and the colonial rule era began, Sanskrit re-emerged but in the form of a "ghostly existence" in regions such as Bengal. This decline was the result of "political institutions and civic ethos" that did not support
7018-488: The Saṃskṛta language, both in its vocabulary and grammar, to the classical languages of Europe. In The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World , Mallory and Adams illustrate the resemblance with the following examples of cognate forms (with the addition of Old English for further comparison): The correspondences suggest some common root, and historical links between some of
7139-616: The South India, such as the great Vijayanagara Empire , so did Sanskrit. There were exceptions and short periods of imperial support for Sanskrit, mostly concentrated during the reign of the tolerant Mughal emperor Akbar . Muslim rulers patronized the Middle Eastern language and scripts found in Persia and Arabia, and the Indians linguistically adapted to this Persianization to gain employment with
7260-447: The Vedic Sanskrit in these books of the Ṛg-veda "hardly presents any dialectical diversity", states Louis Renou – an Indologist known for his scholarship of the Sanskrit literature and the Ṛg-veda in particular. According to Renou, this implies that the Vedic Sanskrit language had a "set linguistic pattern" by the second half of the 2nd millennium BCE. Beyond the Ṛg-veda, the ancient literature in Vedic Sanskrit that has survived into
7381-451: The Vedic Sanskrit's bahulam framework, to respect liberty and creativity so that individual writers separated by geography or time would have the choice to express facts and their views in their own way, where tradition followed competitive forms of the Sanskrit language. The phonetic differences between Vedic Sanskrit and Classical Sanskrit, as discerned from the current state of the surviving literature, are negligible when compared to
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#17328593306637502-583: The Vedic texts Vajaseneyi Samhita 10.34, Pancavimsa Brahmana 12.6.8 and Taittiriya Brahmana 1.7.1.6. Narasimha has the same story as Indra killing Namuci in the Vedas. Indra is the dharmic King of Heaven of the Devas and Devis who commands lightning, thunder, rain and rivers, while Namuci is a deceptive demon Asura in competition for power. Namuci tells peace to Indra, which Indra accepts. He demands Indra to promise that he will neither try to kill him with his "palm of
7623-455: The alphabet, the structure of words, and its exacting grammar into a "collection of sounds, a kind of sublime musical mold" as an integral language they called Saṃskṛta . From the late Vedic period onwards, state Annette Wilke and Oliver Moebus, resonating sound and its musical foundations attracted an "exceptionally large amount of linguistic, philosophical and religious literature" in India. Sound
7744-543: The art of central Java. This includes physiognomy of central Java, an exaggerated volume of garment, and some elaboration of the jewelry. This decorative scheme once formulated became, with very little modification, an accepted norm for sculptures throughout the Central Javanese period (circa 730–930 CE). Despite the iconographic peculiarities, the stylistic antecedents of the Java sculptures can be traced back to Indian carvings as
7865-478: The boon, and Hiranyakashipu gained these powers. Hiranyakashipu, once powerful and invincible with the new boon, began to persecute those who were devotees of Vishnu. Hiranyakashipu had a son, Prahlada , who disagreed and rebelled against his father. Prahlada became a devotee of Vishnu. This angered Hiranyakashipu, who tried to kill the boy but with each attempt, Prahlada was protected by Vishnu's mystical power. When asked, Prahlada refused to acknowledge his father as
7986-440: The capacity to understand the old Prakrit languages such as Ardhamagadhi . A section of European scholars state that Sanskrit was never a spoken language. However, evidences shows that Sanskrit was a spoken language, essential for oral tradition that preserved the vast number of Sanskrit manuscripts from ancient India. The textual evidence in the works of Yaksa, Panini, and Patanajali affirms that Classical Sanskrit in their era
8107-517: The close relationship between the Indo-Iranian tongues and the Baltic and Slavic languages , vocabulary exchange with the non-Indo-European Uralic languages , and the nature of the attested Indo-European words for flora and fauna. The pre-history of Indo-Aryan languages which preceded Vedic Sanskrit is unclear and various hypotheses place it over a fairly wide limit. According to Thomas Burrow, based on
8228-609: The context of a speech or language, is found in verses 5.28.17–19 of the Ramayana . Outside the learned sphere of written Classical Sanskrit, vernacular colloquial dialects ( Prakrits ) continued to evolve. Sanskrit co-existed with numerous other Prakrit languages of ancient India. The Prakrit languages of India also have ancient roots and some Sanskrit scholars have called these Apabhramsa , literally 'spoiled'. The Vedic literature includes words whose phonetic equivalent are not found in other Indo-European languages but which are found in
8349-639: The crystallization of Classical Sanskrit. As in this period the Indo-Aryan tribes had not yet made contact with the inhabitants of the South of the subcontinent, this suggests a significant presence of Dravidian speakers in North India (the central Gangetic plain and the classical Madhyadeśa) who were instrumental in this substratal influence on Sanskrit. Extant manuscripts in Sanskrit number over 30 million, one hundred times those in Greek and Latin combined, constituting
8470-467: The detailed and sophisticated treatise then transmitted it through his students. Modern scholarship generally accepts that he knew of a form of writing, based on references to words such as Lipi ('script') and lipikara ('scribe') in section 3.2 of the Aṣṭādhyāyī . The Classical Sanskrit language formalized by Pāṇini, states Renou, is "not an impoverished language", rather it is "a controlled and
8591-481: The devotees of Vishnu, including his own son Prahlada . Vishnu, cognisant of the asura's boon, creatively assumed a mixed form that was neither human nor animal as a lion in the name of Narasimha, and Narashima disemboweled and killed Hiranyakashipu and at evening, which is neither day nor night, at the threshold of his palace, which was neither inside nor outside, upon his lap, which is neither sky nor land, and with his claws, which are neither weapons nor hands. Narasimha
8712-467: The differences between the Vedic and Classical Sanskrit. Louis Renou published in 1956, in French, a more extensive discussion of the similarities, the differences and the evolution of the Vedic Sanskrit within the Vedic period and then to the Classical Sanskrit along with his views on the history. This work has been translated by Jagbans Balbir. The earliest known use of the word Saṃskṛta (Sanskrit), in
8833-456: The distant major ancient languages of the world. The Indo-Aryan migrations theory explains the common features shared by Sanskrit and other Indo-European languages by proposing that the original speakers of what became Sanskrit arrived in South Asia from a region of common origin, somewhere north-west of the Indus region , during the early 2nd millennium BCE. Evidence for such a theory includes
8954-483: The early medieval era, it became a language of religion and high culture , and of the political elites in some of these regions. As a result, Sanskrit had a lasting impact on the languages of South Asia, Southeast Asia and East Asia, especially in their formal and learned vocabularies. Sanskrit generally connotes several Old Indo-Aryan language varieties. The most archaic of these is the Vedic Sanskrit found in
9075-462: The entire universe at destruction ( Pralaya ). Hence, he is known as Kala (time), Mahakala (great-time), or Parakala (beyond time) in his names. There exists a matha (monastery) dedicated to him by the name of Parakala Matha at Mysuru in the Sri Vaishnava tradition. Narasimha is the God of Yoga, as Yoga-Narasimha. Narasimha has a human torso and lower body, with a lion face and claws, with
9196-469: The evil king, fought with his son Prahlada for singing your praises, causing on him great shock. Prahlada was not worried about Hiranyakashipu who deserved disrespect. You placed Prahlada’s away because of your love for him. You attacked and caught Hiranyakashipu with your great strength, catching his mountain-like chest as drums of deities roared like thunder. You disemboweled and killed Hiranyakashipu alive with your claws and wore Hiranyakashipu's organs as
9317-616: The fifth of the Eight Anthologies ( Ettutokai ) in Sangam literature . Kamil Zvelebil states that the hymns dedicated to Vishnu and Murugan has branded the Paripatal as a Sanskrit plagiat within the so-called Sangam texts. The Story of Narasimha in Paripadal O Lord with faultless red eyes! With burning hatred in his mind and drying up the sandal paste on his chest, Hiranyakashipu ,
9438-543: The first language of the respective speakers. The Sanskrit language brought Indo-Aryan speaking people together, particularly its elite scholars. Some of these scholars of Indian history regionally produced vernacularized Sanskrit to reach wider audiences, as evidenced by texts discovered in Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Maharashtra. Once the audience became familiar with the easier to understand vernacularized version of Sanskrit, those interested could graduate from colloquial Sanskrit to
9559-412: The foundation of Vyākaraṇa, a Vedānga . The Aṣṭādhyāyī was not the first description of Sanskrit grammar, but it is the earliest that has survived in full, and the culmination of a long grammatical tradition that Fortson says, is "one of the intellectual wonders of the ancient world". Pāṇini cites ten scholars on the phonological and grammatical aspects of the Sanskrit language before him, as well as
9680-537: The gods Varuna, Mitra, Indra, and Nasatya found in the earliest layers of the Vedic literature. O Bṛhaspati, when in giving names they first set forth the beginning of Language, Their most excellent and spotless secret was laid bare through love, When the wise ones formed Language with their mind, purifying it like grain with a winnowing fan, Then friends knew friendships – an auspicious mark placed on their language. — Rigveda 10.71.1–4 Translated by Roger Woodard The Vedic Sanskrit found in
9801-442: The hand nor with the fist", neither in day nor in night, neither with "anything that is dry" nor with "anything that is wet". Indra agrees. After the deal is done, Namuci carries away all that nourishes the gods and goddesses: the Soma drink, the essence of food and the strength of Indra. The leader of the gods and goddesses finds himself conflicted and feels bound by his promise. Indra then meets Sarasvati (goddess of knowledge) and
9922-431: The historic Sanskrit literary culture and the failure of new Sanskrit literature to assimilate into the changing cultural and political environment. Sheldon Pollock states that in some crucial way, "Sanskrit is dead ". After the 12th century, the Sanskrit literary works were reduced to "reinscription and restatements" of ideas already explored, and any creativity was restricted to hymns and verses. This contrasted with
10043-1041: The iconography is more extensive, and includes nine other icons of Narasimha: The earliest known iconography of Narasimha is variously dated to between the 2nd and the 4th-century CE, and these have been found in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. Most images and temples of Narasimha are found in the peninsular region of India, but important ancient and medieval archeological sites containing Narasimha icons are also found as Vaikuntha Chaturmurti in Kashmir and Khajuraho temples , while single face versions are found in Garhwa and Mathura (Uttar Pradesh) and in Ellora Caves (Maharashtra). Other major temples with notable icons of Narasimha are found in Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and
10164-478: The intense change that must have occurred in the pre-Vedic period between the Proto-Indo-Aryan language and Vedic Sanskrit. The noticeable differences between the Vedic and the Classical Sanskrit include the much-expanded grammar and grammatical categories as well as the differences in the accent, the semantics and the syntax. There are also some differences between how some of the nouns and verbs end, as well as
10285-432: The largest cultural heritage that any civilization has produced prior to the invention of the printing press. — Foreword of Sanskrit Computational Linguistics (2009), Gérard Huet, Amba Kulkarni and Peter Scharf Sanskrit has been the predominant language of Hindu texts encompassing a rich tradition of philosophical and religious texts, as well as poetry, music, drama , scientific , technical and others. It
10406-412: The linguistic expression and sets the standard for the Sanskrit language. Pāṇini made use of a technical metalanguage consisting of a syntax, morphology and lexicon. This metalanguage is organised according to a series of meta-rules, some of which are explicitly stated while others can be deduced. Despite differences in the analysis from that of modern linguistics, Pāṇini's work has been found valuable and
10527-503: The literary works. The Indian tradition, states Winternitz , has favored the learning and the usage of multiple languages from the ancient times. Sanskrit was a spoken language in the educated and the elite classes, but it was also a language that must have been understood in a wider circle of society because the widely popular folk epics and stories such as the Ramayana , the Mahabharata ,
10648-501: The modern age include the Samaveda , Yajurveda , Atharvaveda , along with the embedded and layered Vedic texts such as the Brahmanas , Aranyakas , and the early Upanishads . These Vedic documents reflect the dialects of Sanskrit found in the various parts of the northwestern, northern, and eastern Indian subcontinent. According to Michael Witzel, Vedic Sanskrit was a spoken language of
10769-429: The more advanced Classical Sanskrit. Rituals and the rites-of-passage ceremonies have been and continue to be the other occasions where a wide spectrum of people hear Sanskrit, and occasionally join in to speak some Sanskrit words such as namah . Classical Sanskrit is the standard register as laid out in the grammar of Pāṇini , around the fourth century BCE. Its position in the cultures of Greater India
10890-401: The most advanced analysis of linguistics until the twentieth century. Pāṇini's comprehensive and scientific theory of grammar is conventionally taken to mark the start of Classical Sanskrit. His systematic treatise inspired and made Sanskrit the preeminent Indian language of learning and literature for two millennia. It is unclear whether Pāṇini himself wrote his treatise or he orally created
11011-593: The most archaic poems of the Iranian and Greek language families, the Gathas of old Avestan and Iliad of Homer . As the Rigveda was orally transmitted by methods of memorisation of exceptional complexity, rigour and fidelity, as a single text without variant readings, its preserved archaic syntax and morphology are of vital importance in the reconstruction of the common ancestor language Proto-Indo-European . Sanskrit does not have an attested native script: from around
11132-535: The numbers are thought to signify a wish to be aligned with the prestige of the language. Sanskrit has been taught in traditional gurukulas since ancient times; it is widely taught today at the secondary school level. The oldest Sanskrit college is the Benares Sanskrit College founded in 1791 during East India Company rule . Sanskrit continues to be widely used as a ceremonial and ritual language in Hindu and Buddhist hymns and chants . In Sanskrit,
11253-465: The one who has a wide mouth and projecting teeth, Hiranyakashipumardana ( हिरण्यकषिपुमर्दान ) – the one who killed Hiranyakashipu, Nakhastra ( नखास्त्र ) – the one for whom nails are his weapons, Simhavadana ( सिंहवदन ) – the one who has a lion face and Simha ( सिंह ) – the one who is a lion. The Vishnu hymn 1.154 of the Rigveda (1700-1200 BCE) contains a verse which shows Vishnu as Narasimha as
11374-403: The oral transmission of the texts is reliable: they are ceremonial literature, where the exact phonetic expression and its preservation were a part of the historic tradition. However some scholars have suggested that the original Ṛg-veda differed in some fundamental ways in phonology compared to the sole surviving version available to us. In particular that retroflex consonants did not exist as
11495-431: The other." Reinöhl further states that there is a symmetric relationship between Dravidian languages like Kannada or Tamil, with Indo-Aryan languages like Bengali or Hindi, whereas the same relationship is not found for non-Indo-Aryan languages, for example, Persian or English: A sentence in a Dravidian language like Tamil or Kannada becomes ordinarily good Bengali or Hindi by substituting Bengali or Hindi equivalents for
11616-414: The possible influence of Dravidian on Sanskrit is only one of many items of syntactic assimilation, not least among them the large repertoire of morphological modality and aspect that, once one knows to look for it, can be found everywhere in classical and postclassical Sanskrit". The main influence of Dravidian on Sanskrit is found to have been concentrated in the timespan between the late Vedic period and
11737-416: The powers back, but discover that Namuci had drunk the Soma already. The good was thus now mixed with his evil of his blood, which they did not want to drink. So, they extract the good out from the evil. Thus, good returns to the gods and goddesses, the evil is destroyed. According to Deborah Soifer, this story is the same as the story of Narasimha, it has the same plot, the same "neither-nor" constraints, and
11858-439: The previous 1,500 years when "great experiments in moral and aesthetic imagination" marked the Indian scholarship using Classical Sanskrit, states Pollock. Scholars maintain that the Sanskrit language did not die, but rather only declined. Jurgen Hanneder disagrees with Pollock, finding his arguments elegant but "often arbitrary". According to Hanneder, a decline or regional absence of creative and innovative literature constitutes
11979-480: The problems of interpretation and misunderstanding. The purifying structure of the Sanskrit language removes these imperfections. The early Sanskrit grammarian Daṇḍin states, for example, that much in the Prakrit languages is etymologically rooted in Sanskrit, but involves "loss of sounds" and corruptions that result from a "disregard of the grammar". Daṇḍin acknowledged that there are words and confusing structures in Prakrit that thrive independent of Sanskrit. This view
12100-596: The regional Prakrit languages, which makes it likely that the interaction, the sharing of words and ideas began early in the Indian history. As the Indian thought diversified and challenged earlier beliefs of Hinduism, particularly in the form of Buddhism and Jainism , the Prakrit languages such as Pali in Theravada Buddhism and Ardhamagadhi in Jainism competed with Sanskrit in the ancient times. However, states Paul Dundas , these ancient Prakrit languages had "roughly
12221-490: The relationship between various Indo-European languages, the origin of all these languages may possibly be in what is now Central or Eastern Europe, while the Indo-Iranian group possibly arose in Central Russia. The Iranian and Indo-Aryan branches separated quite early. It is the Indo-Aryan branch that moved into eastern Iran and then south into South Asia in the first half of the 2nd millennium BCE. Once in ancient India,
12342-558: The role of language, the ontological status of painting word-images through sound, and the need for rules so that it can serve as a means for a community of speakers, separated by geography or time, to share and understand profound ideas from each other. These speculations became particularly important to the Mīmāṃsā and the Nyaya schools of Hindu philosophy, and later to Vedanta and Mahayana Buddhism, states Frits Staal —a scholar of Linguistics with
12463-537: The same creative powers of the good kills and destroys the evil. Further, the Sanskrit words and phrasing such as "neither palm nor fist" and "neither day nor night" in the later Hindu texts is the same as in the Vedic texts. This suggests a link and continuity between the Vedic story of Indra killing Namuci and the story of Narasimha killing Hiranyakashipu in the Puranas. According to Walter Ruben, both stories along with several other stories in ancient and medieval texts reflect
12584-491: The same relationship to Sanskrit as medieval Italian does to Latin". The Indian tradition states that the Buddha and the Mahavira preferred the Prakrit language so that everyone could understand it. However, scholars such as Dundas have questioned this hypothesis. They state that there is no evidence for this and whatever evidence is available suggests that by the start of the common era, hardly anybody other than learned monks had
12705-551: The semi-nomadic Aryans . The Vedic Sanskrit language or a closely related Indo-European variant was recognized beyond ancient India as evidenced by the " Mitanni Treaty" between the ancient Hittite and Mitanni people, carved into a rock, in a region that now includes parts of Syria and Turkey. Parts of this treaty, such as the names of the Mitanni princes and technical terms related to horse training, for reasons not understood, are in early forms of Vedic Sanskrit. The treaty also invokes
12826-594: The social structures such as the role of the poet and the priests, the patronage economy, the phrasal equations, and some of the poetic metres. While there are similarities, state Jamison and Brereton, there are also differences between Vedic Sanskrit, the Old Avestan, and the Mycenaean Greek literature. For example, unlike the Sanskrit similes in the Ṛg-veda, the Old Avestan Gathas lack simile entirely, and it
12947-503: The story of Narasimha disemboweling and killing Hiranyakashipu in battle, and performances of Prahlada Charitam with Narasimha has been one of the popular performances in Kerala . Similarly, the Bhagavata Mela dance-drama performance arts of Tamil Nadu traditionally celebrate the annual Narasimha Jayanti festival by performing the story within regional Narasimha temples. In Nepal, a dance
13068-416: The supreme lord of the universe and said that Vishnu is omnipresent . Hiranyakashipu pointed to a nearby pillar and asked if 'his Vishnu' is in it and said to his son Prahlada, "O most unfortunate Prahlada, you have always described a supreme being other than me, a supreme being who is above everything, who is the controller of everyone, and who is all-pervading. But where is He? If He is everywhere, then why
13189-641: The turn of the 1st-millennium CE, it has been written in various Brahmic scripts , and in the modern era most commonly in Devanagari . Sanskrit's status, function, and place in India's cultural heritage are recognized by its inclusion in the Constitution of India 's Eighth Schedule languages . However, despite attempts at revival, there are no first-language speakers of Sanskrit in India. In each of India's recent decennial censuses, several thousand citizens have reported Sanskrit to be their mother tongue, but
13310-465: The universe. After disemboweling and killing Hiranyakashipu, Narasimha's power was wrongly thought to threaten the world by the deities. At the behest of the gods and goddesses, Shiva sent his form of Virabhadra to defeat Narasimha. When Narasimha defeated and drove Virabhadra away, Vishnu and Shiva manifested as Gandaberunda as Narasimha and Sharabha. Narasimha as Gandabherunda and Sharabha fought for 18 days. Gandaberunda disemboweled and killed Sarabha on
13431-523: The valley of death by the man-lion who was Vishnu as Narasimha and are all killed. The same episode occurs in the Matsya Purana , several chapters after Narasimha disemboweled and killed Hiranyakashipu. In a story of this incident, the Vaishnava and Shaiva scriptures say that gods Vishnu and Shiva assumed the avataras of Gandaberunda as Narasimha and Sharabha to destroy the chaos that happened in
13552-408: The variants in the usage of Sanskrit in different regions of India. The ten Vedic scholars he quotes are Āpiśali, Kaśyapa , Gārgya, Gālava, Cakravarmaṇa, Bhāradvāja , Śākaṭāyana, Śākalya, Senaka and Sphoṭāyana. In the Aṣṭādhyāyī , language is observed in a manner that has no parallel among Greek or Latin grammarians. Pāṇini's grammar, according to Renou and Filliozat, is a classic that defines
13673-564: The vernacular Prakrits. Many Sanskrit dramas indicate that the language coexisted with the vernacular Prakrits. The cities of Varanasi , Paithan , Pune and Kanchipuram were centers of classical Sanskrit learning and public debates until the arrival of the colonial era. According to Lamotte , Sanskrit became the dominant literary and inscriptional language because of its precision in communication. It was, states Lamotte, an ideal instrument for presenting ideas, and as knowledge in Sanskrit multiplied, so did its spread and influence. Sanskrit
13794-497: The Ṛg-veda is distinctly more archaic than other Vedic texts, and in many respects, the Rigvedic language is notably more similar to those found in the archaic texts of Old Avestan Zoroastrian Gathas and Homer's Iliad and Odyssey . According to Stephanie W. Jamison and Joel P. Brereton – Indologists known for their translation of the Ṛg-veda – the Vedic Sanskrit literature "clearly inherited" from Indo-Iranian and Indo-European times
13915-408: Was a spoken language ( bhasha ) used by the cultured and educated. Some sutras expound upon the variant forms of spoken Sanskrit versus written Sanskrit. Chinese Buddhist pilgrim Xuanzang mentioned in his memoir that official philosophical debates in India were held in Sanskrit, not in the vernacular language of that region. According to Sanskrit linguist professor Madhav Deshpande, Sanskrit
14036-427: Was a spoken language in a colloquial form by the mid-1st millennium BCE which coexisted with a more formal, grammatically correct form of literary Sanskrit. This, states Deshpande, is true for modern languages where colloquial incorrect approximations and dialects of a language are spoken and understood, along with more "refined, sophisticated and grammatically accurate" forms of the same language being found in
14157-472: Was adopted voluntarily as a vehicle of high culture, arts, and profound ideas. Pollock disagrees with Lamotte, but concurs that Sanskrit's influence grew into what he terms a "Sanskrit Cosmopolis" over a region that included all of South Asia and much of southeast Asia. The Sanskrit language cosmopolis thrived beyond India between 300 and 1300 CE. Today, it is believed that Kashmiri is the closest language to Sanskrit. Reinöhl mentions that not only have
14278-722: Was also the language of some of the oldest surviving, authoritative and much followed philosophical works of Jainism such as the Tattvartha Sutra by Umaswati . The Sanskrit language has been one of the major means for the transmission of knowledge and ideas in Asian history. Indian texts in Sanskrit were already in China by 402 CE, carried by the influential Buddhist pilgrim Faxian who translated them into Chinese by 418 CE. Xuanzang , another Chinese Buddhist pilgrim, learnt Sanskrit in India and carried 657 Sanskrit texts to China in
14399-502: Was chosen. Hiranyakashipu could not be killed by human, deity or animal. Narasimha was none of these, as he is a form of Vishnu incarnated raa as a part-human, part-lion. He came upon Hiranyakashipu at twilight (when it is neither day nor night) on the threshold of a courtyard (neither indoors nor out), and put the demon on his thighs (neither earth nor space). Using his sharp fingernails (neither animate nor inanimate ) as weapons, he disemboweled and killed Hiranyakashipu alive. Narasimha
14520-561: Was in rage and seeing this, Brahma, Shiva and all Hindu gods and goddesses sent Prahlada to pacify him. Prahlada prayed to Narasimha and Ugra Narasimha now became peaceful Soumya Narasimha. The Kurma Purana describes the preceding battle between the Vishnu and demonic forces in which he destroys powerful weapons of Asuras and Asuris and Vishnu killed all asuras and asuris. According to Soifer, it describes how Prahlada's brothers and sisters headed by Anuhrada and thousands of other demons were led to
14641-442: Was visualized as "pervading all creation", another representation of the world itself; the "mysterious magnum" of Hindu thought. The search for perfection in thought and the goal of liberation were among the dimensions of sacred sound, and the common thread that wove all ideas and inspirations together became the quest for what the ancient Indians believed to be a perfect language, the "phonocentric episteme" of Sanskrit. Sanskrit as
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