Elementary, my dear Vidushaka!

In the small corner of the very busy North Usman road in T Nagar, there is a library called Raviraj library. To me, my brothers and cousins it was one of the favorite haunts during school days in the mid 80s. In less than 500 sqft, it carried a variety of books and introduced us to the best of literature: comics like Tintin, Asterix, Archies; Tamil novels of Kalki, Sandilyan, Akhilan, La Sa Ramamrutham, Balakumaran, Na Parthasarathy; and a large number of modern English novelists like Sheldon, Ludlum, Eric Segal, Harold Robinson, Leon Uris, Mario Puzo, Forsythe and so on. It was a matter of pride to discuss them and outright shame to even not know them. Around this time, the Sunday morning national TV shows were becoming popular - Star Trek, Cosmos, Famous Five, Old Fox, and the unforgettable Sherlock Holmes played by Jeremy Brett. Funny enough, though we mostly did not follow the highly-accented(?!) stylized dialogs of Holmes, the library books filled the accent-gap.

In the vast unimaginable compendium of Sanskrit Literature, it almost feels like every topic has been dealt with conceptually. The Mahabharata concludes

यत् इह अस्ति तत् सर्वत्र यत् न इह अस्ति तत् न कुत्र चित् ।
Whatever is here is everywhere, whatever is not here, is not found anywhere else.

Sometimes I am assured that any story or plot of the movies can be traced to a plot or a concept in Mahabharata, Ramayana or the Purana-s. Brothers fighting each other? Yes, Pandavas vs Kauravas; Best brothers? Rama and Lakshmana; Coveting others wife? Ravana. Unconditional Friendship? Can't beat Duryodhana and Karna; A very just hero exhibhiting selfishness? Yudhishtra hesitates sending Bhima to Bakasura; Transgender character? Shikhandi; Partial love to son by father? Think Dhruva; A boy taking revenge on his father's humilation (of knowledge) - Ashtavakra; And any type of revenge stories would easily fit the various sub-plots of Mahabharata. In the non-itihasa, non-puranic literature too, there is plenty to refer. Flashback stories? Kadambari would pale them in comparison; Multiple sub plots meeting at a common take-off? Kathasaritsagara; Man married woman and forgot about her? Sure there is Shakuntala (though it is part of Mahabharata itself);

Given all these, there seems to be one type of story which I feel has not been dealt exclusively in Sanskrit literature: Murder mysteries. May be there is one and I have not read. But no doubt, the landscape of the modern mystery stories is heavily influenced by Sherlock Holmes. His science of deduction spectacularly captured everyone's imagination.

In one of the famous works of Bhasa - Svapna Vasavadatta ("Vasavadatta, who appeared in dreams"), there is a remarkable scene. The context is this: King Udayana is in deep love with his wife Vasavadatta. But in order to defeat his rival king, he is compelled to make friends with a Magadha king by marrying the latter's sister Padmavati. But since Udayana would not forget Vasavadatta, his minister YaugandharAyana (what a name!), along with her approval sets up that both himself and Vasavadatta are dead. So the King is now forced to marry Padmavati. Once when he hears that Padmavathi is having a severe headache, he goes to meet her along with his companion Vidushaka (court jester). Upon entering the anta:pura (queen's chamber), they don't find Padmavathi there. What follows is a very enthralling Sherlock Holmes-esque dialog.

विदूषक: : तत्र भवती पद्मावती इह आगत्य निर्गता भवेत् । (Padmavati must have come and went away)
उदयन    : वयस्य! अनागतया भवितव्यम् । (Friend, She has not even come to this room)
विदूषक: : कथम् भवान् जानाति ? (How do you know?)
उदयन    : किमत्र ज्नेयम्? पश्य (What is there to know? Look -- )

शय्या नावनता तथास्तृतसमा न व्याकुलप्रच्छदा न क्लिष्टम् हि शिरोपधानममलम् शीर्षाभिघातौषधै: ।
रोगे दृष्टिविलोभनम् जनयितुम् शोभा न काचित् कृता प्राणी प्राप्य रुजा पुन: न शयनम् शीघ्रम् स्वयम् मुञ्चति ॥

• The bed is not pressed down and evenly spread; (शय्य न अवनाता, तथास्तृत समा)
• its cover is not ruffled; (न व्याकुल प्रच्छदा)
• the clean pillow is not soiled with the medicines applied for allying headache; (न क्लिष्टम् शिर उपधानम् अमलम् शीर्ष अभिघात औषधै:)
• nothing charming is arranged that would engage the eye where is illness; (रोगे दृष्टिविलोभनम् जनयितुम् शोभा न काचित् कृता)
• a person having gone to bed through pain does not leave it again quickly (प्राणी प्राप्य रुजा पुन: शयनम् शीघ्रम् स्वयम् मुञ्चति)

The parallels are extremely striking. Watson is the vidUShaka:, Holmes is udayana. Lets imagine this in Watson's own terminology.

Holmes and I entered the Queen's quiet chamber. I looked around and observed "Well, well. Padmavati seems to have come and left". Holmes replied nonchalantly "My dear Watson, I'm afraid the lady has not even been here!". I turned to him with a quizzical look "How can you possibly know that?". Inspecting the bed closely, he reeled off, "Elementary my dear Watson! The bed is even and there is no dent with the weight of the body. The bedsheet appears not ruffled. And if you recall, we are here on the account of Padmavati having a severe headache, and since you know of my exceptional olfactory abilities, I do not smell the applied headache ointment on the pillows. The room is singularly devoid of aesthetics to please of a sick person. Anyone with a headache would not lie down and get out quickly. Hence the facts present to me that Padmavati did not even enter the room".

Also observe that the approach to sickness is holistic - that the aesthetics must be pleasant to evoke positive feeling during a depressed state. We also conclude that "kimatra jneyam" is the Sanskrit-speak for "Elementary".

Like Spock would say, "Fascinating...".

Text and translation taken from MR Kale's Svapnavasavadatta.
Bhasa is estimated to have lived before 500 BC. Kalidasa and others have paid tributes to him.

यमुनोत्री २०११ - संस्कृत भारती शिबिरम्

Click here for English version.

बृहत् वृक्ष: एकेन अङ्कुरेन । महती ज्वाला एकया विस्फुलिङ्गया । कार्य सफलम् एकया साधु चिन्तया । अपि च अनुरागेन ॥

वर्ष पूर्वम् वसुवज् महोदयेन सूचितम् Austin नगरे संस्कृत शिबिरम् करणीयम् इति । तदा मम किञ्चिदपि विश्वासः नासीत् यत् तत् साफल्यते इति । Austin नगरे तु एक: एव वर्गः प्रचलन् अस्ति । यथा अन्येषु क्षेत्रेषु वर्गाः प्रचलन्ति तथा अत्र कदापि न अभवत् । अहम् "आम्" इत्युक्तवान् अपि कथम् एतत् साधयेत् इति स्वप्ने अपि न चिन्तितम् ।

जनवरी मासे पुनः यमुनोत्री शिबिर-विषये चर्चा उत्पतिता । Austin, Dallas, Houston, New Orleans, College Station, Arkansas संस्कृत भारती केन्द्र कार्यकर्तृभिः बर्साना धाम् मध्ये शिबिरम् चालयेत् इति निर्माणम् कृतम् । बर्साना धाम् मध्य Texas राज्ये Hill Country प्रदेशे न अनति सुन्दरे क्षेत्रे अस्ति ।

मया इतः पूर्वम् कोऽपि शिबिरं न गतम् । अत: मया किम् अपेक्षितव्यम् इत्यपि न ज्ञातम् । मधु पिल्लै महोदयस्य साहाय्यकेन यमुनोत्री पञ्चीकरण-जालपुटः निर्माणः कृतः । पौनपुन्य-परीक्षानन्तरम् जालपुट: पञ्चीकरणाय सिद्ध: अभवत् । न अहम् पञ्चीकरणाय प्रथम: परन्तु अजय: Raleigh नगरत: ।

तत: परम् नि:स्वप्नरात्रय: आरब्धा: । ५० जनेभ्य: न्यूनम् भवति चेत् किम्? किमु १५० जनेभ्य: अधिकोऽस्ति चेत्? किमु व्यवस्था न रोचते जनेभ्य:? किमु शिक्षक-छात्राणाम् अनुपातम् न समीचीनम्? किमु Austin नगरत: एव न अधिकाः जनाः आगमिष्यन्ति? किमु तस्मिन् सप्ताहन्ते वर्षम् भविष्यति? किमु अत्युष्णम्? वर्श चतुष्टय पूर्वम् एवम् एव April मासे १०२ गतम् खलु । किमु भोजनस्य अपर्याप्तम्? किमु भोजनस्य अरुचिकरम्? केवलम् प्रश्ना: न तु उत्तराः ।

हरिहर महोदयेन युक्तम् उक्तम् यत् यद्यपि जनाः संस्कृतम् न पठेयु: सम्यक् भोजनम् खादित्वा गच्छेयु: इति । रामकृष्ण परमहंसस्य सुभाषितम् स्मारयति एतत् ’ज्ञानम् न शुष्कोदराय’ । अपि भोजनार्थम् अनेके नियमा: । ननु केवलम् शाकभोजनालयत: आनेतव्यम् । न पलाण्डु, न च लशुनम्, सात्त्विक-भोजनरूपम्, रुचिकरमपि, ततो न बहु मूल्यमपि । हरिहर महोदय: अहम् च उभौ किञ्चित् चर्चयित्वा रोटिकाः, पराठाः, ढोक्लाः, गुलाब् जाम्बोलनानि, मिश्र रुचिप्रदानि, जहाङ्गिरानि, अन्यानि पदार्थानि च आदिशतवन्तौ । दक्षिण-भारत भोजन पदार्थानि न लब्धानि, ततापि भानुवासरे उप्मा (लवण पिष्टम्) आदिशतम् । वसुधा भगिनी भक्षणानाम् संस्कृत अनुवादम् कृतवती ।

शिक्षक विषये अपि अस्माकम् सौभाग्यम् एव प्रतीक्ष्यते । शारदा वरदराज: महोदया, सौम्या भगिनी, विद्या भगिनी, गोविन्द, मुरली, अविनाश महोदयाः आगमिष्यन्ति इति निर्माणम् कृतम् । अन्ते तु नरेश महोदयः अपि आगमिष्यति इति श्रुत्वा हार्ष्यमेव अनुभूतम् । यदा अहम् श्रीकान्तम् उक्तवान् यत् एते शिक्षका: आगाच्छन्ति इति स: प्रत्यवदत्  ’गच्छतु रे । न मयि विश्वास: यत् ते सर्वे शिबिराय’ इति ।

शिबिर दिने आगच्छन्तान् जनान् सुधी महोदय: स्वकीयम् प्रकोष्टम् प्रति अनुप्रेषितवान् । बालकाः अधुना एव क्रीडामग्नाः अभवन् । स्थले सुन्दराः मयूराः अपि आसन् । रात्रिभोजनानन्तरम् (शिबिरे तु सर्वाणि कार्याणि भोजनानन्तरम् एव), सौम्या भगिन्याया: सप्रार्थनम् शिबिरम् आरब्धम् । गोविन्द महोदय: संस्कृत-भारती विषये उक्तवन् । अपि मया सर्वे जनाः यमुनोत्रीम् शिबिरम् प्रति स्वागतीकृताः ।

तस्मिन् समये एव केनापि बालकेन कोऽपि सर्पः दृष्टः। छात्राणाम् मध्ये काचित् भीति: दृष्टा । अथ किम् करवाणि? सर्प वा, नाग वा, सर्प-महोदय वा - यद्किमपि आह्वयतु - सर्पात् सर्वदा भीतिरेव ननु । यत्र मयुराः सन्ति तत्र सर्पाः सन्ति एव । तथैव जीवनम् । तदनन्तरम् भोजनकोष्टे एका स्थूला गोधिका दृष्टा । अनन्तरे दिने अपि श्रीकान्तेन त्रय: वृश्चिका: मारिता: । नानाविधा: गोधिका: पक्षिण: अपि दृष्टा: । वन्य प्रदेशम् एतत् खलु ।

शनिवासरे छात्रा: ५:४५ वादने एव उत्थितवन्त: । योगाभ्यासम्, स्नानम् च कृत्वा आगतवन्तान् भोजनालये काफी च continental breakfast अपेक्षितम् । तत्परमुन्मत्तमेव । वर्गाः, कथम् अस्ति भवान्, विराम:, काफी, भवान् कुत्र वसति, वर्गाः, माध्याह्न भोजनम्, काफी, छायम्, वर्गाः, अहम् कुशलिनी अस्मि, वर्गाः, अन्यच्च अन्यच्च । दिनान्तरे केनचित् उक्तम् श्रुतम् "मम नाम किम्?" इति ।

शिबिरस्य MVP - अन्मोल् महोदयेन भोजनालयत: भोजनम् आनीतम् । नरेन्द्र महोदयेन अपि साहाय्यम् कृतम् । पुस्तक-भाण्डारिक-रुपेन शर्मा महोदय: कार्यम् कृतवान् । श्रुति: बालकान् पालितवती । एतस्मिन् समये मया अपि एक: वर्गः गतः ।

सायङ्काले सर्वैः छात्रै: मनोरञ्जन-कार्यक्रमम् अतीव उत्साहेन कृतम् । बालकाः मृगान् अनुकारितवन्तः । का अङ्गुली श्रेष्टा इति एकम् लघुनाटकम् । "दोसा धाम्" इत्यपि एकम् लघुनाटकम् । हितोपदेशस्य "लुब्ध-ब्राह्मण-कथा" आधारीकृत्य नाटकम् अपि अस्माभि: कृतम् ।

भानुवासरे अपि तथैव । योगाभ्यासम्, उप्प्मा (लवण पिष्टम्), उपसेचनम्, क्वथितम्, काफी च । बर्साना धाम: मध्याह्न भोजनम् संस्कृत-भारत्या प्रायोजकम् कृतम् । समारोपन-कार्यक्रमे शारदा महोदयाया: संस्कृतसेवा आराधिता । सर्वेभ्यः वन्दनार्पणम् मया कृतम् । तदनन्तरम् group-photo कृत्वा, भोजनम् समाप्य सर्वे स्वगृहम् प्रति प्रस्थानम् कृतवन्त: ।

शिबिरस्य अन्ते ८ वर्षीया: मनीषा माम् प्रति आगत्य उक्तवती "कदा भविष्यति अग्रिमम् शिबिरम्? अहम् आगन्तुम् इच्छामि" इति । शिबिरस्य सफलम् तदेव इति मम अभिप्राय: । भगवदनुग्रहेन सर्वम् सम्यक् अप्रचलत् । परन्तु मम पुन: रात्रौ नष्टनिद्रा एव । इदानीम् तु अन्यविचारात् । मनसि अविरतम् गीतम् एकम् श्रूयते ।

अविनतलम् पुनरवतीर्णा स्यात् संस्कृत गङ्गाधारा ।
धीर भगीरथ वंशोऽस्माकम् वयम् तु कृत निर्धारा: । वयम् तु कृत निर्धारा: ।

संस्कृताय अस्माकम् आवश्यकता, यथा स्वयं ज्ञातुम् संस्कृतस्य  ।

Yamunotrii 2011, Austin, Samskrita Bharati Residential Camp

One seed is all that is required for a tree. One spark is all that is required for a raging wild fire. One thought is all that is required for success. Yeah, plus ofcourse that thing called passion.

Almost an year ago, Apr 2010, when Vasuvaj-ji mentioned about holding a Samskrita residential camp at Austin during summer that year, I was very skeptical. We do not have a big group here, we have so far been conducting only beginners classes and we do not have a solid presence compared to other Samskrita Bharati centers like Dallas, Houston, East coast or West coast. Personal life improvements and other commitments took over and the July camp did not happen. The yet-to-be-fire remained a pilot.

Around January 2011, the spark came again and this time, time was ready. The Yamunotrii team was formed with the kartyakarta-s of Austin, Dallas, Houston, New Orleans and College Station. The place was decided to be Austin. There wasn't much choice except Barsana Dham, a picturesque setting in the Hill Country of Central Texas. We decided to check that place out. One unknown question among the Austinites was what to expect in a camp? Despite his extremely busy schedule, Dr. Venkat Raju from College Station came over and helped us set the expectations of rooms, classes, food etc. We were able to now somewhat visualize how the camp could be conducted there.

I had not been to any camps before and I just did not know what to expect. The Yamunotrii registration page was setup soon with several hours of work from Sri Madhu Pillai and his team of Sreyo. Yamunotrii was the first camp on the new version of Jhoomla. After several rounds of testing, the page went live on March 8th. I wasn't even the first to register, but it was Ajay from Raleigh. The registration started ticking on with a very slow progress.

Sleepless nights started with that. What if there are less than 50 people? What if there are 150+ people and there is no place for some to stay? What if we could not get enough teacher-to-student ratio? What if not many people from Austin itself come to the camp? What if it rains on that weekend? What if it is too hot? What if food is not enough? I had only questions and no answers.

One of the practical points that Hariharan brought up was even if people don't come to "learn" Sanskrita, they should atleast go back home saying that the food was good. Reminds me of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa's saying - education is not for empty stomach. There were several rules: Food should be from a vegetarian-only restaurant, no onion, no garlic (mainly sattvic), tasty, a lot of variety and most important of all - not expensive. Curry n Hurry was the only restaurant that met all the requirements and its owner Jinesh Gandhi did everything what we wanted. Though we could not get a sumptuous South Indian food -- I would have wished for a finger-licking rasam -- but we compensated with Uppma for Sunday morning breakfast. We set a few rules ourselves - alternate with appetizers and sweets, ensure coffee was available always, juice, cookies and ice-cream for kids. Thus came dhokla, spring rolls, gulab jamoons, mixtures and jahangirs. Vasudha bhaginI helped with Sanskrit-izing some of the food names to be displayed next to each food item.

We were lucky to have the best teachers visit the camp even though it was for only two days. Starting with Smt Shaaradaa Varadaraajan, Sowmya bhaginI, Vidya bhagini and then Govinda, Avinash and Murali mahodayaa: - we had an impressive list of teachers. And finally we roped in Naresh too (vaak.wordpress.com). When I mentioned this to Srikanth, he was like "Get outta here! I don't believe we are getting all those for the camp..."

The checkins went fine, most people arrived on time with Sudhee guiding them to rooms. After the dinner (everything starts after some food in the camp), the camp commenced with a prayer by Sowmya bhaginI. Govinda mahodaya gave the initial speech and later I welcomed everyone to Austin on behalf of Samskrita Bharati.

And then the first trouble started. Someone spotted a snake near the rooms. It was a bit of a flutter, but later it turned out to be a non-poisonous rat snake, but a snake is still a snake, whether you are going to call it sarpaH, nAgaH or even snake-mahodaya, it still scares you. But where there are peacocks, there are snakes. Such is life. And then we saw a huge lizard in the dining room. Later Srikanth killed 3 scorpions near the rooms. I did spot a few colorful lizards and birds. This place is wild!

On Saturday morning, students were up at 5:45 am, greeted by a very pleasant weather and a cool breeze. Morning Yoga with some recitation of Yoga sutras of Patanjali followed. After the bath, the smell of fresh coffee and a continental breakfast was awaiting in the dining room. And then it was just frenzy. Classes, breaks, vargaaH, katham asti bhavaan, bhojanam, classes, viraamaH, bhavaan kutra vasati, mixture, kakshyaa, jaangiri, aham kushalinI asmi, tea, more classes and finally at the end of the evening I could hear someone ask - "mama naama kim?". Whew.. what a crazy day it was!

The MVP (most-valued-person) of the camp, Anmol brought both the lunch and dinner for Saturday and Narendra helped with the arrangements. Meanwhile the bookstall was setup. Sarma became the official bookstore owner and with Sruti taking care of toddlers, I was finally able to sneak into one of the classes. Avinash mahodaya was teaching about chandas and gaNa. Binominal stuff, I mean, phenomenal stuff.

The evening manoranjana kaaryakramaM was presented by both kids and adults with several creative skits. Kids mimicking animals, a skit about which finger is the best finger, another called Dosa Dham, a dumb-charade in Sanskritam and finally an almost extempore skit adapting the Brahmin and The Tiger hitopadesha story to modern setting of Austin to Dallas, Rest Area, Google stocks, Chronicles of Narnia and Nigerian scam. That was total fun.

The next day began with a similar note, morning yoga followed by Uppma with chutney and sambar. The Barsana Dham lunch was sponsored by Samskrita Bharati for Sunday and quite a few volunteers came out and helped prepare the food. A couple of more classes and finally the closing ceremony honoring Smt Shaaradaa Varadaraajan for her years of service. She gave a wonderful speech ending with Samskritam rakShitam rakshati. It was already 12:45 and I could see the long queue for the lunch and I hurried a bit thanking every one. One final group photo, lunch and the camp was already over.

Just a few minutes before everyone were leaving, 8 year old Manisha came and asked me "When is the next camp? I would love to come again". And that I define as the success of the camp. Everything had went fine, well, except one thing. I spent yet another sleepless night after the camp, but this time it was due to a tune that was ringing in the background of my mind all night long --

avanitalam punaravatIrNa syaat samskrita gangaa-dhaaraa | dheera bhagIratha vamshosmaakam vayam tu kRuta nirdhaaraaH | vayam tu kRuta nirdhaaraaH |

Samskritam needs us, as much as we need her to know ourselves.

Lie to me O Vibhishana

Recently I have started to watch an interesting TV serial called Lie to Me by Fox network. (yeah, I hear you, how ironic!). Its about a detective agency, Lightman Group, led by Dr. Carl Lightman, finding truth via applied psychology predominantly studying facial expressions. The facial expressions, or microexpressions to be precise, of protoganists are butted with the help of similar expressions exhibited by celebrities and politicians, which are pretty convincing at times, not to mention the good humor. The script is really sharp as well as the apt references to the celebrities and politicians capturing the moment of rubbing their noses or twitching their ears. Obviously there are espisodes with unnecessary elements that feels like "filling up" the one-hour episode, but most of the time the script manages to keep one's attention.

"A demon kidnaps a Queen. The King and his army destroy him. If only Ramayana were that simple."

This is how Amar Chitra Katha advertises its illustrated story book Ramayana. What a lovely one-liner! Of course the book has to cut several corners to make the story simple and to confine in 60 pages, but the original Ramayana (in whatever form we have now, I am not getting into the debate of what was the original-original version by Valmiki) contains fascinating descriptions of human tendencies.

Growing up, no kid can be not awed by Hanuman's superhuman strength, bravery and exploits. Be it the ever-entrenched image of Hanuman carrying the mountain in the APT parcel trucks, leaping to Sun thinking of it as a mango, or setting Lanka to fire with his tail - his exploits form a fertile core of any child's imagination. But after a while, the "Santa Claus" reality sets in, and one starts to look beyond the superhuman strengths. Only now, a more powerful picture begins to emerge as one reads through the original slokas, oozing with juicy details - that of Hanuman's supreme intelligence. Time and again, even in the smallest of incidents, his intelligence sparkles like a diamond and uplifts the story to a new level.

One such relatively minor, but very important incident is the surrendering of vibhIShaNa to rAma. Various accounts simplify this incident so much that it appears like vibhIShaNa came and begged Rama and the latter just accepted him. ACK for eg, devotes 3 pictures for this incident. But in the original story, this incident runs upto 149 slokas, with various monkey counsellors offering different insights and advices to Rama. Rama listens patiently to everybody and makes his own decision, justified by his own dharma. Reminds me of the Hindi proverb, "suno sab ki karo man ki".

After all the monkeys give their opinions and tell Rama "do this, do that", finally speaks Hanuman and gives a brilliant analysis of vibhIShaNa. His thought process is so unobtrusive with striking clarity, it makes me wonder why this is story is not part of MBA courses. If I were a tenured MBA professor, I would ask the students to do a comparitive psycho-beneficial analysis of a merger with a rebel following a breakout in a familial company. Just kidding. No, I was serious.

But our main focus is the beauty of Sanskritam, so I'm going to present a few beautiful sloka-s. While the original sloka is provided, I have rewritten a few of them into prose format, to show that Ramayana, as they say, is indeed atIva saralaa and madhura manjulaa.

न वादान् न अपि संघर्षान् न आधिक्यान् न च कामतः ।
वक्ष्यामि वचनम् राजन् यथा अर्थम् राम गौरवात् ॥

हे राजन्, हे राम, न वादान् न अपि संघर्षान् न आधिक्यान् न च कामतः वचनम् वदामि । गौरवात् यथा अर्थम् (वचनम्) (अहम्) वक्ष्यामि ।
O king! O Rama! I am not talking for arguments sake, nor for competition, nor for superiority, nor out of passion but on account of importance of this matter.

अर्थ अनर्थ निमित्तम् हि यद् उक्तम् सचिवैस्तव ।
तत्र दोषम् प्रपश्यामि क्रिया न हि उपपद्यते ॥

तव सचिवै: यद् उक्तम् अर्थम् अनर्थ निमित्तम्, तत्र दोषम् पश्यामि । अत: न क्रिया उपपद्यते ॥
I am perceiving an error in what was advised by your counselors assigned to look into advantages and disadvantages. It is not possible to judge his character that way.

ऋते नियोगात् सामर्थ्यम् अवबोद्धुम् न शक्यते ।
सहसा विनियोगो हि दोषवान् प्रतिभाति मे ॥

नियोगात् ऋते सामर्थ्यम् अवबोद्धुम् न शक्यते, (परन्तु) सहसा विनियोग: दोषवान् इति मे प्रतिभाति ।
Without entrusting any work, it is not possible to understand his ability. Also one cannot entrust a work sooner to a stranger.

अशक्यः सहसा राजन् भावो वेत्तुम् परस्य वै ।
अन्तः स्वभावैर् गीतै: तै: नैपुण्यम् पश्यता भृशम् ॥
O king! Without possessing a high skill of reading his diversified tones, it is not possible to understand his intentions.

न त्वस्य ब्रुवतो जातु लक्ष्यते दुष्ट भावता ।
प्रसन्नम् वदनम् च अपि तस्मान् मे न अस्ति सम्शयः ॥
I am not seeing any bad intention at all in his talk. His face is bright. A deceitful person does not approach so fearlessly and confidently. His expression too is not bad. Hence, I have no doubt in him.

आकारः चाद्यमानो अपि न शक्यो विनिगूहितुम् ।
बलाद् हि विवृणोति एव भावम् अन्तर्गतम् नृणाम् ॥
It is not possible to hide the facial expressions, even if it is concealed. The internal intent of the person certainly gets revealed by itself.

One interesting word here is bhaavam. From the root bhU - being, bhAvam means "the state of being". Hanuman observes that it is not possible for one to hide one's own internalized state of being.

Thus Hanuman studies two important details - voice modulation and facial expression, which no other monkeys observe. He does not go by words of vibhIShaNa, but goes right into his heart. Finally he concludes his speech in style, second to none of modern software consultants:

"O Rama the best among the wise! I have told this to the best of my ability about vibhIShaNa. After hearing my words, you are indeed the final judge of the issue."

Hanuman's approach is very clinical - first he states the purpose of his own speech, points out the logical errors of others, digs vibhIShaNa's presence, throws in a few quotes, examines his real purpose (ie to become King of Lanka), studies his body language, presents the facts to his manager and finally allows him to make a decision!


Citations:

Source materials have been taken from the valmikiramayan.net website and the Gita Press edition of Valmiki Ramayana.

Oru oorile oru raja

Kids throw tantrums. There are a few ways to handle it - shout them down, calm them down in nice words, bribe them with iPhone or Wii games or divert their attention. The last is probably the most effective because kids' attention span is so less but comes with boundless energy, it is just easier to deflect that energy than to confront it. I have one effective way of diverting a kid's attention - say "Once upon a time...". The tantrum stops and I get back the question: "Are you going to tell me a story now?..."

Whom doesn't a fairy-tale delight when begun with "Once upon a time there was a princess..."? But have we ever been tired of listening to "Once upon a time there was ..."? Upanishads recourse to hilite very powerful concepts of Brahman, Atman using stories like that of Nachiketas and Shvetaketu. Some stories like Panchatantra and Hitopadesha are very simple. Some stories, like modern soaps and mega-serials just try too hard to impress. All the wealth of the showtime industry is based on just one thing: people's willingness to give an ear to hear a story, isn't it? Whatever be the case, its hard to resist the tagline "Once upon a time...".

Once upon a time in India lived a poet called Bana Bhatta. He probably must have listened to "Once upon a time..." a thousand times and got tired of the same gag. So he starts his Kadambari with a stylish introduction:


आसीत् अशेष नरपति-शिर: समभ्यच्चित्त शासन: पाकशासन: इवापर: चतुरुदधि माला मेखलया भुवो भर्त्ता प्रताप अनुरागवानत समस्त सामन्तचक्र: चक्रवत्तिलक्षणोपेत: चक्रधर इव करकमलोपलक्ष्यमान शंखचक्र लाञ्छन: हर इव जितमन्मथ: गुह इवाप्रतिहतशक्ति: कमलयोनिरिव विमानीकृतराजहंसमण्डल: जलधिरिव लक्ष्मीप्रसूति: गङ्गाप्रवाह इव भगीरथपथप्रवृत्त: रविरिव प्रतिदिवसोपजायमानोदय: मेरुरिव सकलोपजीव्यमानपादच्छाय: दिग्गज इवानवरतप्रवृत्तदानाद्रीकृतकर: कर्त्ता महाश्चर्य्याणाम् आहर्त्ता क्रतूनाम् आदर्श: सर्वशास्त्राणाम् उत्पत्ति: कलानाम् कुलभवनम् गुणनाम् आगम:काव्यामृतरसानाम् उदयशैलो मित्रमण्डलस्य उत्पातकेतुरहितजनस्य प्रवर्त्तयिता गोष्ठीबन्धानाम् प्रत्यादेशो धनुष्मताम् धौरेय: साहसिकानाम् अग्रणीर्विदग्धानाम् वैनतेय इव विनतानन्दजनन: वैन्य इव चापकोटिसमुत्सारितसकलारातिकुलाचलो राजा शूद्रको नाम ।

आसीत् there was
अशेष नरपति-शिर: समभ्यच्चित्त शासन: bowed by all the kings without any exception
पाकशासन: इवापर: like a second Indra (Indra killed an asura named paaka, so he is called paakashaasana)
चतुरुदधि माला मेखलया भुवो भर्त्ता husband of the earth who is encircled by four oceans as a garland
प्रताप अनुरागवानत समस्त सामन्तचक्र: always in the company of warm-friendship of neighboring princes
चक्रवत्तिलक्षणोपेत: with the lakShaNa of a cakravarttI
चक्रधर इव करकमलोपलक्ष्यमान शंखचक्र लाञ्छन: like Vishnu, with a comparable lakShaNa of cakra and shaMkha(discus & conch) in the hands
हर इव जितमन्मथ: like Siva, the conquerer of manmatha
गुह इवाप्रतिहतशक्ति: like kaarttikeya, undefeated in might
कमलयोनिरिव विमानीकृतराजहंसमण्डल: like Brahma,
जलधिरिव लक्ष्मीप्रसूति: like the Ocean, who is the source of lakshmI
गङ्गाप्रवाह इव भगीरथपथप्रवृत्त: like Ganga, who followed Bhagiratha
रविरिव प्रतिदिवसोपजायमानोदय: like Sun, who rises freshly everyday
मेरुरिव सकलोपजीव्यमानपादच्छाय: like the Meru mountain, his foot honored by all living beings
दिग्गज इवानवरतप्रवृत्तदानाद्रीकृतकर: like the elephants, always a stream of generosity
कर्त्ता महाश्चर्य्याणाम् one who offers sacrifices
आहर्त्ता क्रतूनाम्
आदर्श: सर्वशास्त्राणाम् a mirror of all the Sastras (ie one who follows Sastras)
उत्पत्ति: कलानाम् a creator of all arts
कुलभवनम् गुणनाम् abode of virtue amongst his scion
आगम:काव्यामृतरसानाम् a spring of nectar of poetry
उदयशैलो मित्रमण्डलस्य the brightest sun among all the suns
उत्पातकेतुरहितजनस्य a comet to his enemies
प्रवर्त्तयिता गोष्ठीबन्धानाम् founder of poetic or literary societies
प्रत्यादेशो धनुष्मताम् a terror to archers
धौरेय: साहसिकानाम् chief among the brave men
अग्रणीर्विदग्धानाम् prominent among the wise
वैनतेय इव विनतानन्दजनन: like the Garuda who brought happiness to his mother
वैन्य इव चापकोटिसमुत्सारितसकलारातिकुलाचलो
राजा शूद्रको नाम a king called shUdraka.

The main point constitutes the beginning and end of the sentence -

"aasIt raajaa shUdrako naama - Once there was a king called Sudraka".

The rest forms the attributes of the king in complex samasa-s and beautiful alankara-s. This is a free translation and is bound to be inaccurate. I have even given up translating a few as the metaphors are just not translatable.

Thus goes Kadambari, a fascinating story, with multi-hierarchical-flashbacks, delightful puns and plot-twists and a fairy-tale ending with some of the longest sentences written in Sanskrita literature.

Notes:

I tried not naming this blog in Tamil, but I could not feel the effectiveness in any other language. "Oru oorile oru raja" roughly translates to "Once upon a time there was a King", "Ek gaon mein ek raaja thaa", "Ondu oorinalli ondu raja idda" etc. - Pick the one of your mother tongue that delights you the most!

Trivikrama Panditacharya

Anyone who scouts the streets of India to buy cheap reprint books, be it Mumbai Churchpark, Bangalore Jayanagar, Connaught Place in Delhi or Mount Road in Chennai, would surely have come across the hugely popular "A brief history of time" by Stephen Hawking. Although it contains several interesting theories, it had one dampening remark: "in modern times, to do something in Physics, one has to be already at the top". In other words, if one wants to make a name in Physics, one has to thoroughly know pretty much all fields - mechanics, thermodynamics, electricity, magnetism, optics, relativity, astronomy, cosmology, plus the word 'quantum' randomly prefixed to any of the above. If you create a new theory, there is just too much scrutiny from fellow Physicists waiting to fire-drill it.

Rewind to the period of 7th to 14th centuries in India. Europe may have been in dark ages, but not India. She was a cauldron of richness in physical, financial and intellectual wealth. Sanskrita literature was fluorishing with some of the greatest minds ever, each with their own sobriquets. On one hand were the dramatists and poets - be it Captain of similies Kalidasa, Word-player Dandin, Master-blaster of meanings Bhaaravi, All-rounder Magha, Word-machine Bana bhatta and more. On other hand were great aachaarya-s like Shankara, Ramanuja, Madhva and a host of others who are known more for their philosophies than for the  mastery of Sanskrita, that is taken for granted. If we look at only the religious meaning and not understand the beauty of the language handled by them, we will be missing something very important. The carrier is as compellingly fascinating as the content.

During these times, to be declared as a Pandita, one had to be knowledgeable in several fields - the four veda-s, all the six angas of veda (siksha, kalpa, nirukta, vyakarana, jyotisha, chandas) vedanta, nyaya, mimamsa, kavya, alankara and what-not. Just like the difficulty to be recognized in field of Physics these days, it would have been hard for one to be recognized as a kavi, let alone be called maha-kavi, vara-kavi, kavi-ratna, kavi-raja, kavi-sekhara, kavi-kesari and not the least kavi-kula-tilaka "the foremost among the society of poets".

One such luminary was Sri Trivikrama Panditacharya. You wont find his name mentioned among "Classical Sanskrita literature", but poets like him made significant contributions to the language. He was born near Mangalore to Subrahmanya Suri, around 13th century. His elder brother was Shankara Panditacharya. His son Narayana Panditacharya wrote the grantha sumadhva-vijaya, of which we saw one spectacular sloka earlier. Not for no reason Trivikrama Panditacharya holds the distinction of being called as kavi-kula-tilaka. Even as a young man he had written a maha-kavya called "Usha-haraNa". His mastery of Sanskrita seems to be inborn as can be seen from the following story:

Once a bhikshuka (beggar) came to his house for alms. As a boy, Trivikrama replied with the following sloka:

एक क्षपणक शाक कर्ता बहव: क्षपणक शाक दादा: ।
यत्र क्षपणक बहु शाकादा: तत्र क्षपणक शाक शाक ॥

eka kShapaNaka shaaka kartaa bahava: kShapaNaka shaaka daadaa: |
yatra kShapaNaka bahu shaakaadaa: tatra kShapaNaka shaaka shaaka ||

Meaning: Only one mendicant (his father) is the money-maker; Other mendicants (relatives) are there just to eat. Where there is one money-maker and many to eat, in that place what food are you really expecting?

In other words, we ourselves are like beggars, what are you begging us for?

Trivikrima Panditacharya became a disciple of Sri Madhvacharya following a 15-day debate in which the former accepted the superiority of Madhva's tattva-vada. His famous work is Harivayu stuti (a stuti on Sri Madhvacharya) which consits of spontaneously composed 41 slokas. It is in a fascinating meter (vritti) called sragdharaa (srak = garland, dharaa = wearing/moving). It has 21 syllables per quarter, with a pause after every 7th syllable, making it 84 syllables per sloka! Sri Vedanta Desikan has also handled this meter in his Tatva mukta kalaapam and Nyaya Vimsati. Kalidasa (abhijnana shaakuntalam) and Bhartrhari (trishataka) also have handled this meter.

Notes:

Source of the quoted sloka: Vayustuti Pravachana by Sri Vyasanakare Prabhanjanachar,

a

अ

If you observe the Sanskritized words in regional Indian languages, you can see specific modifications to word endings, which can usually identify the speaker's state orientation. Tamilians say rAman or kriShNA with a "an"-ending or elongation of a. In Telugu it becomes rAmudu. North Indians say it as rAm, with the last "a" disappearing altogether. Bengalis prounounce "a" with a tendency towards "o", so pArtha becomes pArtho, ajay becomes ajoy. But what is the correct pronounciation of अ itself in Sanskrita? What is the effort put to say अ ?

अथ शब्दानुशासनम् । This is how Panini begins his aShTaadhyaayI. His work revolves around word formations. Panini's work relies on earlier literature of Vedanga called शिक्ष or प्रतिशाख्य that deals with phonetics. Two factors influence production of each varNa: aasya (place of sound) आस्य and prayatna प्रयत्न (effort). Prayatna in-turn is classified into aabhyantara-prayatna आभ्यन्तर-प्रयत्न  (effort during origination of sound) and baahya-prayatna (effort during ending of sound). aahbyantara prayatna is of 5 varieties (स्पृष्ट: touched, इषत्-स्पृष्ट: somewhat touched, विवृत: open, इषत्-विवृत: somewhat open and संवृत). baahya prayatna is of 11 varieties, we will see those some other time.

Consonants are classified as "touched", because the toungue touches other parts of the mouth during pronunciation. All vowels are classified as vivRuta - "open" because the mouth is open during pronunciation. That is, all vowels except "a". "a" should be pronounced with the same time taken to prounounce the a in "cut", "but", but not as in "fast", "mask". This effort is called saMvRuta. It singularly belongs to the varNa अ.

If you have the Vaman Shivaram Apte's Sanskrit-English dictionary, check out the very first meaning of "a", which itself is the very first entry.

Meanwhile let us look at a sloka.

याम: श्रयति याम् धत्ते यैन यात्याय याच्च या ।
याऽस्य मानाय यै वान्या सा मामवतु पादुका ॥
That which viShNu takes up, that which bears viShNu on itself, that which moves about because of viShNu, that which is for viShNu, that which originated from viShNu for his purpose, that which secures respectability for viShNu, that which is attainable to us at viShNu, may that pAduka protect me.

Notice in the sloka that there is not a single mention of the word viShNu or even any other name of the Lord, yet the sloka seems to refer the Lord continuously. Is the word viShNu hidden? Really? Hmm...

The key to any sloka is in splitting the sandhi-s correctly. Slokas like this need commentaries. Let's first split the sloka and then analyse.


याम् अ: श्रयति या अम् धत्ते या एन याति आय या आत् च या ।
या अस्य मानाय या-ए वान्या सा माम् अवतु पादुका ॥

Once we split the sandhi, the sloka is pretty straight-forward in meaning. All the yaa's refer to "that which" which is qualified later by "saa paaduka". Sri Vedanta Desikan, the creator of this sloka, plays on the letter, actually a shabda in this context, अ  and conjugates different vibhakti-s on it. Sanskrita students may remember the vibhakti-s of अकारान्त पुंलिङ्ग एकवचन राम शब्द:  as राम:, रामम्, रामेन, रमाय, रामात्, रामस्य, रामे etc. Now instead of राम शब्द, conjugate just for ’अ’ शब्द. The vibhakti-s are अ:, अं, एन, आय, आत्, अस्य, ऐ ! Since we know that अ means viShNu, the conjugations simply mean viShNu (subject), viShNu (object), by viShNu, for viShNu, from viShNu, of viShNu, in viShNu respectively.


Meanwhile, vishnu sahasranama mentions a thousand names of Vishnu. So is अ one of the names there? You betcha! The 25th sloka says:

आवर्तनो निवृत्तात्मा संवृत: संप्रमर्दन: ।
अह: संवर्तको वह्नि: अनिलो धरणीधर: ॥
From this we can extrapolate the meaning of saMvRuta: as one whose prounounciation is that of अ who is viShNu !

So much for a simple अ ! Those who are interested, may pursue why paaNini ends his ashtaadhyaayI with a mind-blowing sUtra with just two characters:

अ अ ।

Sources:

• Meaning of Sri Vedanta Desikan's sloka is sourced from Paduka sahasram.
• More information on pronounciation of a and other varNa-s can be heard in Sri DJ Vaidya's audio blog.