Misplaced Pages

#993006

148-586: Tripura Sundari ( Sanskrit : त्रिपुरसुन्दरी, IAST : Tripura Sundarī), also known as Rajarajeshvari , Shodashi , Kamakshi , and Lalita , is a Hindu goddess, revered primarily within the Shaktism tradition and recognized as one of the ten Mahavidyas. She embodies the essence of the supreme goddess Mahadevi . Central to the Shakta texts, she is widely praised in the Lalita Sahasranama and Saundarya Lahari . In

296-541: A 16-year-old girl (hence the appellation "Shodashi") seated on a lotus that rests on the supine body of Sadashiva, which in turn lies on a throne whose legs are the gods Brahma, Vishnu, Isvara, and Rudra. In some cases, the lotus is growing out of Shiva's navel. In other more common cases, the lotus is grown directly from the Sri Chakra. In the Jnana Khanda of Tripura Rahasya, goddess herself describes her eternal form. In

444-620: A Shakta scripture popular in Shri Vidya tradition. The Tripura Rahasya is traditionally divided into three volumes: the Mahatmya Khanda , which extols the greatness of Tripura Sundari and her cosmic power; the Jnana Khanda , which focuses on the nature of ultimate knowledge and self-realization through the teachings of the sage Dattatreya to Parashurama ; and the Charya Khanda , which

592-435: A boon from Shiva that makes him nearly invincible. With his newfound powers, Bhandasura wreaks havoc and establishes his own kingdom, challenging the divine order. In response to the growing threat posed by Bhandasura, the gods, led by Shiva and Vishnu , approach Lalita Tripura Sundari for help. Lalita Tripura Sundari is a manifestation of the divine feminine energy and is considered the ultimate form of Adi Parashakti . She

740-613: A central point called the bindu. This configuration is sometimes termed the Navayoni Chakra . The Sri Yantra holds great significance in the Shri Vidya school, central to its worship. It symbolizes the union of masculine and feminine divine energies. The triangles, varying in size, form 43 smaller triangles in concentric levels, mirroring the cosmos. The power point (bindu) stands as the cosmic center, encompassed by concentric circles with lotus petal patterns denoting creation and life force. These elements, set within an earth square, depict

888-762: A coherent ritual system in the 8th century in central India, and its most revered theorist is the 18th-century philosopher Bhaskararaya , widely considered "the best exponent of Shakta philosophy". The Samaya or Samayachara finds its roots in the work of the 16th-century commentator Lakshmidhara, and is "fiercely puritanical [in its] attempts to reform Tantric practice in ways that bring it in line with high-caste brahmanical norms." Many Samaya practitioners explicitly deny being either Shakta or Tantric, though scholars argue that their cult remains technically both. The Samaya–Kaula division marks "an old dispute within Hindu Tantrism". The battle between Lalita Tripura Sundari and

1036-459: A color of the rising sun. Who has eyes which are waves of mercy, who has bow made of sweet cane, arrows made of soft flowers, and Pasha, Ankusha in her hands, and who is surrounded, by her devotees with powers great, as personification of the concept of “I”. Also details of her appearance are found in the famous hymn in her praise, the Lalita Sahasranama , where she is said to be, seated on

1184-534: A dead language in the most common usage of the term. Pollock's notion of the "death of Sanskrit" remains in this unclear realm between academia and public opinion when he says that "most observers would agree that, in some crucial way, Sanskrit is dead." The Sanskrit language scholar Moriz Winternitz states, Sanskrit was never a dead language and it is still alive though its prevalence is lesser than ancient and medieval times. Sanskrit remains an integral part of Hindu journals, festivals, Ramlila plays, drama, rituals and

1332-435: A fierce battle with Bhandasura and his army of demons. With her extraordinary prowess and the assistance of her divine companions and manifestations, Lalita defeats Bhandasura and restores cosmic harmony. The Lalita Sahasranama not only describes the battle itself but also delves into the divine qualities and aspects of Lalita, highlighting her significance as the embodiment of divine love , grace, power, and wisdom. The text

1480-596: A guru will assert that he or she is capable of leading a shishya directly to the highest possible state of spirituality or consciousness, sometimes referred to within Hinduism as moksha . In the bhakti guru–shishya relationship the guru is often believed to have supernatural powers, leading to the deification of the guru. In the Pali Buddhist tradition, magae the Bhikkus are also known as Sekhas (SN XLVIII.53 Sekha Sutta). In

1628-581: 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

SECTION 10

#1733107131994

1776-522: 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 a focus on Indian philosophies and Sanskrit. Though written in a number of different scripts,

1924-439: A more Western psychological perspective. He writes, "In its simplest sense transference occurs when unconsciously a person endows another with an attribute that actually is projected from within themselves" . Preece further states that when we transfer an inner quality onto another person we may be giving that person a power over us as a consequence of the projection, carrying the potential for great insight and inspiration, but also

2072-454: 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

2220-479: 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

2368-596: 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

2516-573: 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

2664-534: 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

2812-439: 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

2960-571: A spiritual teacher to receive instruction. The relationship between Krishna and Arjuna in the Mahabharata , and between Rama and Hanuman in the Ramayana , are examples of Bhakti. In the Upanishads, gurus and disciples appear in a variety of settings (e.g. a husband answering questions about immortality; a teenage boy being taught by Yama , Hinduism's Lord of Death). Sometimes the sages are women, and

3108-615: A temple with doors to different regions of the universe. Sanskrit 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 the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages . It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from

SECTION 20

#1733107131994

3256-422: A throne like a queen (names 2 and 3), to wear jewels (names 13 and 14), to have the auspicious marks of a married woman (names 16–25), and to have heavy breasts and a thin waist (name 36); the crescent moon adorns her forehead, and her smile overwhelms Kameshwara, the lord of desire (name 28). She has as her throne with its legs being Pancha Brahmas (five Brahmas) (name 249). She is often depicted iconographically as

3404-508: 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

3552-434: Is an incarnation of Vishnu with the head of a horse and is held to be the storehouse of knowledge. Agastya is one of the sages of yore and one of the stars of the constellation Saptarishi . At the request of Agastya, Hayagriva is said to have taught him the thousand holiest names of Lalita. The temple at Thirumeyachur , near Kumbakonam , is said to be where Agastya was initiated into this sahasranama . An alternative origin

3700-487: Is believed to be always entrusted to the ācāryas . An established parampara is often called sampradāya , or school of thought. For example, in Vaishnavism a number of sampradayas are developed following a single teacher, or an acharya . While some argue for freedom of interpretation others maintain that "Although an ācārya speaks according to the time and circumstance in which he appears, he upholds

3848-471: Is believed to contain instructions on rituals and practices, though the last part is largely considered lost or unavailable today. Each volume progressively guides seekers from devotion to spiritual wisdom and liberation. The Power called Tripura is Pure Consciousness. It is beyond speech, senses and mind. She, the Parameshvari exists as Atma in everything. She is beyond codes of conduct, free from conduct and

3996-498: Is considered that this relationship, based on the genuineness of the guru and the respect, commitment, devotion and obedience of the student , is the best way for subtle or advanced knowledge to be conveyed. The student eventually masters the knowledge that the guru embodies. Guru–shishya means "succession from guru to disciple". Paramparā ( Sanskrit : परम्परा, paramparā ) literally means an uninterrupted row or series, order, succession, continuation, mediation, tradition . In

4144-499: Is considered the ultimate form of Shakti , representing the highest aspect of the divine feminine. Tripura Sundari is often worshipped as the deity presiding over the Sri Yantra (Sri Chakra) which serves as a central focus of meditation and ritual in Shri Vidya . The tradition emphasizes the worship of the goddess through mantras, yantras, and elaborate rituals designed to awaken the practitioner’s inner divine potential. Key texts in

4292-482: Is equated with that of a child in the womb of mother. Rob Preece, in The Wisdom of Imperfection, writes that while the teacher/disciple relationship can be an invaluable and fruitful experience, the process of relating to spiritual teachers also has its hazards. As other authors had done before him, Preece mentions the notion of transference to explain the manner in which the guru/disciple relationship develops from

4440-452: 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

4588-497: Is illuminated by the jewels of the crowns of Brahma and Visnu, which fell at her feet when they bowed down to worship her. Kinsley also says that "In Saundarya Lahari and Tantrasara she is not associated with Shiva in any obvious way as she is in other depictions". Vaishnavism traditions have a similar set of complementary parallels between Vishnu and Lakshmi . The Tantric Vaishnava Pancharatra texts associates Lalita with Lakshmi. Author Douglas Renfrew Brooks says, "Lalita, like

Tripura Sundari - Misplaced Pages Continue

4736-528: Is known as Tripura as her mantra has three clusters of letters. She is also called Tripura because she is manifested in Brahma , Vishnu and Shiva as the creator, preserver and destroyer of the universe. The Srikula (family of Sri ) tradition ( sampradaya ) focuses worship on Devi in the form of the goddess Lalita-Tripura Sundari . Rooted in first-millennium. Srikula became a force in South India no later than

4884-515: Is no disputing that this is the highest form of Devi and that some of the practice can be done openly. But what you see in the temples is not the srichakra worship you see when it is done privately." The Srividya paramparas can be further broadly subdivided into two streams, the Kaula (a vamamarga practice) and the Samaya (a dakshinamarga practice). The Kaula or Kaulachara , first appeared as

5032-540: Is often depicted as a beautiful and benevolent goddess, but when faced with the need to restore cosmic balance and protect the universe, she transforms into a fierce and powerful warrior. She is widely known as Parvati or Kamakshi. The battle between Lalita and Bhandasura is described in the Lalita Sahasranama as a cosmic confrontation that symbolizes the triumph of good over evil, righteousness over tyranny, and divine intervention over malevolent forces. The goddess, adorned with various weapons and symbols of power, engages in

5180-438: Is perhaps more systematic than that of any other Shakta sect. Srividya largely views the goddess as "benign [ saumya ] and beautiful [ saundarya ]" (in contrast to Kalikula's focus on "terrifying [ ugra ] and horrifying [ ghora ]" Goddess forms such as Kali or Durga). In Srikula practice, moreover, every aspect of the goddess – whether malignant or gentle – is identified with Lalita. Srikula adepts most often worship Lalita using

5328-411: Is placed upon praising the virtues of the guru. Tantric teachings include generating visualisations of the guru and making offerings praising the guru. The guru becomes known as the vajra (figuratively "diamond") guru, the one who is the source of initiation into the tantric deity. The disciple is asked to enter into a series of vows and commitments that ensure the maintenance of the spiritual link with

5476-524: 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

5624-574: Is revered by devotees of the goddess and is recited as a form of worship and meditation to invoke her blessings and protection. According to the Tripura Rahasya, only goddess Tripura Sundari existed before the beginning of the universe. She created the Trimurti and began the creation of the universe. Long ago, at the time of creation, Tripura the Universal Consciousness was all alone. There

5772-564: Is said to have been composed by the eight vaag devis ( Vasini , Kameshvari , Aruna , Vimala , Jayani , Modini , Sarveshvari , and Kaulini ) upon the command of the goddess Lalita herself. The Sahasranama says that "One can worship Lalita only if she wishes us to do so." This stotra occurs in the Brahmanda Purana (history of the universe) in the chapter of discussion between Hayagriva and Sage Agastya in Kanchipuram. Hayagriva

5920-479: 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,

6068-585: Is that the Upanishad Bramham Mutt at Kanchipuram is where this initiation happened. In Carnatic Music, the composer Shyama Sastry composed many Swarajathis and lovely compositions in praise of the goddess. Most popular being the three swarajathis called as Ratnatrayam and the Navaratnamalika on goddess Meenakshi of Madurai. Tripura Sundari occupies a very special place in the Tripura Rahasya ,

Tripura Sundari - Misplaced Pages Continue

6216-485: Is the foremost of the Mahavidyas, the supreme divinity of Hinduism and also the primary goddess of Sri Vidya . The Tripura Upanishad places her as the ultimate Shakti (energy, power) of the universe. She is described as the supreme consciousness, ruling from above Brahma , Vishnu , and Shiva . The Lalita Sahasranama narrates the cosmic battle between Lalita Tripura Sundari and the demon Bhandasura , symbolizing

6364-432: Is the only sahasranama that does not repeat a single name. Further, in order to maintain the meter, other sahasranamas use the artifice of adding suffixes like tu, api, ca, and hi, which are conjunctions that do not necessarily add to the meaning of the name except in cases of interpretation. The Lalita sahasranama does not use any such auxiliary conjunctions and is unique in being an enumeration of holy names that meet

6512-437: 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 the role of language, the ontological status of painting word-images through sound, and the need for rules so that it can serve as

6660-526: 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

6808-568: 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

6956-613: 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

7104-744: 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

7252-526: 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

7400-634: The Shri Vidya tradition, such as the Parashurama Kalpasutra and the Lalita Sahasranama , provide detailed guidance on the worship of Tripura Sundari. The Parashurama Kalpasutra outlines rituals and practices, including the construction and worship of the Sri Yantra, while the Lalita Sahasranama lists her thousand names, each reflecting an aspect of her divine nature. Devotees in this tradition aim to attain spiritual liberation (moksha) through

7548-542: The Theravada Buddhist tradition, the teacher is a valued and honoured mentor worthy of great respect and a source of inspiration on the path to Enlightenment . In the Tibetan tradition , however, the teacher is viewed as the very root of spiritual realization and the basis of the entire path. Without the teacher, it is asserted, there can be no experience or insight. The guru is seen as Buddha . In Tibetan texts, emphasis

SECTION 50

#1733107131994

7696-567: The Vedas and Vedangas . The pupil is also taught the Prayoga to perform yajnas . The term of stay varies ( Manu Smriti says the term may be 12 years, 36 years or 48 years). After the stay at the Gurukul the brahmachari returns home after performing a ceremony called samavartana . The word Śrauta is derived from the word Śruti meaning that which is heard. The Śrauta tradition is a purely oral handing down of

7844-406: 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

7992-500: 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

8140-414: 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

8288-560: 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 the Classical Sanskrit language launched ancient Indian speculations about "the nature and function of language", what

8436-521: 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

8584-521: 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

8732-513: 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

8880-480: 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

9028-469: 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

SECTION 60

#1733107131994

9176-507: 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

9324-589: The Lalitopakhyana of the Brahmanda Purana , she is referred to as Adi Parashakti . The term "Tripura" conveys the concept of three cities or worlds, while "Sundari" translates to "beautiful woman." She signifies the most beautiful woman across the three realms, with associations to the yoni symbol and the powers of creation, preservation, and destruction. According to the Srikula tradition in Shaktism, Tripura Sundari

9472-521: 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

9620-489: 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

9768-462: The Pancharatra conception of Lakshmi, acts independently by taking over the cosmic functions of the male deity; yet she does not defy the god's wishes". Brooks also says, "In contrast to most Vaishnava conceptions of Lakshmi, however, Lalita destabilizes temporarily for the purpose of reasserting order". Scholar and professor Thomas B. Coburn says, Sri Vidya , then, can be understood as one of

9916-496: The Sankara Saranam movement. Between these two there are many variations in degree and form of authority. Advaita Vedānta requires anyone seeking to study Advaita Vedānta to do so from a guru ( teacher ). The guru must have the following qualities: The seeker must serve the guru and submit his questions with all humility so that doubt may be removed. According to Advaita, the seeker will be able to attain liberation from

10064-488: 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

10212-463: The Shakta tradition describe that goddess Lalita assumed a male form as Krishna. Krishna has six forms namely Siddha-gopala, Kamaraja-gopala, Manmatha-gopala, Kandarpa-gopala, Makaraketana-gopala and Manobhava-gopaila and goddess Lalita created the last five forms from it. Lalita Sahasranama contains a thousand names of the Hindu mother goddess Lalita . The names are organized in a hymn ( stotras ). It

10360-562: 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

10508-462: The Vedas, but many modern Vedic scholars make use of books as a teaching tool. The guru passes his knowledge to his disciples by virtue of the fact that his purified consciousness enters into the selves of his disciples and communicates its particular characteristic. In this process the disciple is made part of the spiritual family ( kula ) - a family which is not based on blood relations but on people of

10656-447: 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

10804-451: 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

10952-556: The abstract Sri Chakra yantra , which is regarded as her subtle form. The Sri Chakra can be visually rendered either as a two-dimensional diagram (whether drawn temporarily as part of the worship ritual, or permanently engraved in metal) or in the three-dimensional, pyramidal form known as the Sri Meru . It is not uncommon to find a Sri Chakra or Sri Meru installed in South Indian temples, because – as modern practitioners assert – "there

11100-455: 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

11248-440: 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

11396-517: 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

11544-460: The conductor. She is merely Pure Consciousness supporting all and beyond speech. She is just the soul and consciousness. By virtue of Her freedom She is termed as Maya (illusion). Her glory that encompasses all is beyond logic and questioning. The being gets deluded in many ways by Her who is the pure soul. The creation is said to be the sport of the Devi. She rules over three cities, three paths children of

11692-559: 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

11840-639: 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

11988-497: The cycle of births and deaths ( moksha ). The guru–shishya tradition plays an important part in the Shruti tradition of Vaidika dharma . The Hindus believe that the Vedas have been handed down through the ages from guru to shishya . The Vedas themselves prescribe for a young brahmachari to be sent to a Gurukul where the Guru (referred to also as acharya ) teaches the pupil

12136-509: The demon Bhandasura is primarily described in the Lalita Sahasranama , a sacred text from Hinduism that consists of a thousand names of Goddess Lalita. The Lalita Sahasranama is a part of the larger scripture called the Brahmanda Purana , specifically in the Uttara Khanda (the concluding section) of the Purana. In this narrative, Bhandasura is depicted as a powerful demon who has obtained

12284-406: The desired fruit. Other than me, there is none who is to be worshipped or who grants the fruits. The most important text of Tripura Sundari is the Lalita Sahasranama (from the Brahmanda Purana ). Tripura Sundari is most often mentioned in the Lalitopakhyana (the fourth book of the Brahmanda Purana ) and Tripura Rahasya . The Lalitopakhyana tells of the epic battle between her forces and

12432-467: 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

12580-467: 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

12728-456: 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

12876-451: 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 a limited role in the Theravada tradition (formerly known as

13024-543: 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

13172-445: The forces of the arch-demon Bhandasura . The Tripura Rahasya is a key Sanskrit text that explores the greatness of Tripura Sundari and the philosophy of nondualism . It emphasizes the goddess as the supreme consciousness and the ultimate reality behind the universe. The text highlights her role in guiding seekers toward spiritual liberation through self-realization and knowledge of the highest truth. The Tripura Upanishad places

13320-412: 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

13468-645: The goddess Tripura Sundari as the ultimate Shakti (energy, power) of the universe. She is described as the supreme consciousness, above Brahma , Vishnu and Shiva . The Tripura Upanishad is historically the most complete introduction to Shakta Tantrism, distilling into its 16 verses almost every important topic in Shakta Tantra tradition. Along with the Tripura Upanishad , the Tripuratapini Upanishad has attracted scholarly bhasya (commentary) in

13616-468: The goddess and her embodiment of the divine feminine energy. The word Tripura (त्रिपुर ) means three cities or three worlds, Sundari (सुन्दरी) means beautiful woman. Tripura Sundari means the most beautiful woman in the three worlds. Tripura could also mean the three cities crafted by Mayasura and destroyed by Tripurantaka , thus meaning "She who is beautiful to the destroyer of the Three Cities". She

13764-476: 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. The Vedic Sanskrit found in

13912-431: 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

14060-609: The instructions may be sought by kings. In the Vedas , the knowledge of Brahman ( brahmavidya ) is communicated from guru to shishya by oral lore . Traditionally the word used for a succession of teachers and disciples in ancient Indian culture is parampara ( paramparā in IAST ). In the parampara system, knowledge (in any field) is believed to be passed down through successive generations. The Sanskrit word figuratively means "an uninterrupted series or succession". Sometimes defined as "the passing down of Vedic knowledge", it

14208-478: 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

14356-478: The island of jewels, encircled by the ocean of nectar, beyond the universe, there is a mansion made of Chintamani (wish giving jewel) in the grove Kadamba (Burflower) trees. There is a platform with four legs representing Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesha and Ishwara, and the platform itself represent the back Sadashiva. On it, is installed my non-transcendent form as Tripura Sundari in the form of eternal consciousness. The Vamakeshvara tantra says that Tripura-sundari dwells on

14504-459: The largest cultural heritage that any civilization has produced prior to the invention of the printing press. 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 is the predominant language of one of the largest collection of historic manuscripts. The earliest known inscriptions in Sanskrit are from

14652-418: The level of the submission of the will of the shishya to the will of God or the guru is sometimes extreme, and is often coupled with an attitude of personal helplessness, self-effacement and resignation. This doctrine is perhaps best expressed in the teachings of the four Samayacharya saints, who shared a profound and mystical love of Siva expressed by: In its most extreme form it sometimes includes: Often

14800-412: 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

14948-503: 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 ,

15096-459: The metrical, poetical and mystic requirements of a sahasranama by their order throughout the text. Lalita Sahasranama begins by calling the goddess Shri Mata (the great mother), Shri Maharajni (the great queen) and Shrimat Simhasaneshwari (the queen sitting on the lion-throne). In verses 2 and 3 of the Sahasranama she is described as a Udayatbhanu Sahasrabha (the one who is as bright as

15244-501: 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

15392-429: 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

15540-401: 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

15688-593: 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

15836-409: 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 ,

15984-435: 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 the early medieval era, it became a language of religion and high culture , and of

16132-535: 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,

16280-403: 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

16428-489: The original conclusion, or siddhānta , of the Vedic literature." This parampara ensures continuity of sampradaya , transmission of dharma , knowledge and skills. Akhara is a place of practice with facilities for boarding, lodging and training, both in the context of Indian martial artists or a Sampradaya monastery for religious renunciates. For example, in the context of the Dashanami Sampradaya sect,

16576-431: 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

16724-541: The peaks of the Himalayas ; is worshipped by sages and heavenly nymphs; has a body like pure crystal; wears a tiger skin, a snake as a garland around her neck, and her hair tied in a jata; holds a trident and drum; is decorated with jewels, flowers, and ashes; and has a large bull as a vehicle. The Saundarya Lahari and the Tantrasara describe her in detail from her hair to her feet. The Tantrasara dhyana mantra says that she

16872-522: 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 the Rigveda , a collection of 1,028 hymns composed between 1500 BCE and 1200 BCE by Indo-Aryan tribes migrating east from

17020-414: 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

17168-411: The potential for great danger. "In giving this power over to someone else they have a certain hold and influence over us it is hard to resist, while we become enthralled or spellbound by the power of the archetype " . There is a variation in the level of authority that may be granted to the guru. The highest is that found in bhakti yoga , and the lowest is in the pranayama forms of yoga, such as

17316-483: The premier instances of Hindu Shakta Tantrism. Specifically, it is the tradition (sampradaya) which deals with worship of Tripurasundari, "the most beautiful Tantric form of Sri/Lakshmi, [who is]... the most benign, beautiful and youthful yet motherly manifestation of the Supreme Shakti. In the Shri Vidya tradition, Tripura Sundari is revered as the supreme goddess, embodying the union of wisdom, beauty, and power. She

17464-439: 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

17612-480: 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

17760-439: The qualities of a Bodhisattva . A guru is regarded as one which has not only mastered the words of the tradition, but one that with which the student has an intense personal relationship; thus, devotion is seen as the proper attitude toward the guru. The Dalai Lama , speaking of the importance of the guru, said: "Rely on the teachings to evaluate a guru: Do not have blind faith, but also no blind criticism." He also observed that

17908-416: The rays of thousand rising suns), Chaturbahu Samanvita (the one who has four hands) and Ragasvarupa Pashadhya (the one who is holding the rope). Chidagnikunda Sambhuta (one who was born from the altar of the fire of consciousness) and Devakarya samudyata (one who manifested Herself for fulfilling the objects of the devas ) are among other names mentioned in the sahasranama . The Lalita Sahasranama

18056-596: 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

18204-490: 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,

18352-439: The rites-of-passage. Similarly, Brian Hatcher states that the "metaphors of historical rupture" by Pollock are not valid, that there is ample proof that Sanskrit was very much alive in the narrow confines of surviving Hindu kingdoms between the 13th and 18th centuries, and its reverence and tradition continues. Hanneder states that modern works in Sanskrit are either ignored or their "modernity" contested. Parampara It

18500-428: The same guruparamaparya (lineage), while other paramparas might allow multiple simultaneous gurus at a time. Gurunath is a form of salutation to revere the guru as god. In paramapara, not only is the immediate guru revered, the three preceding gurus are also worshipped or revered. These are known variously as the kala-guru or as the "four gurus" and are designated as follows: The relation of Guru and Shishya

18648-474: The same knowledge. The best known form of the guru–shishya relationship is that of bhakti . Bhakti (devotion) means surrender to God or guru. Bhakti extends from the simplest expression of devotion to the ego-destroying principle of prapatti , which is total surrender. The bhakti form of the guru–shishya relationship generally incorporates three primary beliefs or practices: In the ego-destroying principle of prapatti (Sanskrit, "Throwing oneself down"),

18796-491: 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

18944-505: The second half of 2nd-millennium, such as the work of Bhaskararaya , and Ramanand. The Bahvricha Upanishad is notable for asserting that the Self (soul, Atman) is a Goddess who alone existed before the creation of the universe. According to the "Patala Khanda" of Padma Purana and the Narada Purana , the god Krishna is the male form of the goddess Lalita. The Tantraraja Tantra of

19092-551: 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

19240-544: The seventh century, and is today the prevalent form of Shaktism practised in South Indian regions such as the Kerala , Tamil Nadu and Tamil areas of Sri Lanka . The Srikula's best-known school is Srividya , "one of Shakta Tantrism's most influential and theologically sophisticated movements." Its central symbol, the Sri Chakra , is probably the most famous visual image in all of Hindu Tantric tradition. Its literature and practice

19388-594: 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

19536-469: The term 'living Buddha' is a translation of the Chinese words huo fuo . In Indic religions namely Jainism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism selfless service to Guru, accepting and following all his/her orders carries very significant and valued part of relationship of Shishya (disciple) with his/her Guru. Orders of Guru are referred as Guru Agya/Adnya/Hukam, Service of Guru is referred as Guru Seva. In Sikhism ,

19684-477: The traditional residential form of education, the shishya remains with his or her guru as a family member and gets the education as a true learner. In the early oral traditions of the Upanishads , the guru–shishya relationship had evolved into a fundamental component of Hinduism. The term "Upanishad" derives from the Sanskrit words "upa" (near), "ni" (down) and "ṣad" (to sit) — so it means "sitting down near"

19832-470: The triumph of good over evil. This sacred text offers a detailed portrayal of her divine attributes and qualities. Temples dedicated to her exist across India, with prominent ones in Tripura , West Bengal , Tamil Nadu , Andhra Pradesh , Telangana , Jharkhand , and Karnataka . Her festivals, including Lalita Jayanti and Lalita Panchami, are celebrated fervently, reflecting devotees' deep spiritual connection to

19980-641: 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

20128-403: The understanding that to break this link is a serious downfall. In Vajrayana ( tantric Buddhism) as the guru is perceived as the way itself. The guru is not an individual who initiates a person, but the person's own Buddha-nature reflected in the personality of the guru. In return, the disciple is expected to show great devotion to his or her guru, who he or she regards as one who possesses

20276-420: The universe. a, ka, and tha, fully present. She is present in these letters. She is ageless, birth less, the greatest and she is the glory of all gods. Her form is described in her Dhyana Stotra as follows. Arunam Karuna thrangitakshim dhrutha    pasankusa-pushpabana-chapam Animadhibhi-ravrutham mayukai    raha mityeva vibhavaye Bhavanim . I imagine of my goddess Bhavani, who has

20424-408: 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

20572-564: 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

20720-412: The word denotes both martial arts and religious monastic aspects of the trident wielding martial regiment of renunciate sadhus . Within the broad spectrum of the Indian religions, the guru–shishya relationship can be found in numerous variant forms including tantra . Some common elements in this relationship include: In some paramparas there is never more than one active master at the same time in

20868-412: The worship of Tripura Sundari, who is believed to grant both material and spiritual blessings. The Sri Yantra is a form of mystical diagram ( yantra ) used in the Shri Vidya school of Hinduism . Comprising nine interlocking triangles, it embodies complex symbolism. Four upward triangles signify Shiva , while five downward triangles represent Shakti , encompassing the cosmic and human realms around

21016-497: 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

21164-408: 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

21312-427: 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

21460-472: 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

21608-722: 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

21756-459: Was nothing other than Her. She, the embodiment of Power, who is Self independent wanted to create; the desire developed. From desire, knowledge was born and then action. From Her three glances the three gods were born. Pashupati represented desire, Hari knowledge and Brahma action. They were looked at by Sankari and became naturally powerful and Truth abiding. Those who are deluded by my maya, don’t know me completely. I alone, worshipped by all, give

21904-442: 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

#993006