Avatar 9.5

Narada, the celestial sage was restless. It has been ages that he had done any "kalaha" in devaloka. I don't think that there is any better word than "kalaham" to describe Narada's acts. The closest I can come to translate is "mischief" though that word carries more connotations to it than just "mischief". If you know of any such word in English, let me know. But I bet there isn't.

Sage Narada is a composer and singer. Just as Lord Kartikeya got a favorite raga Shanmukhapriya, just as Goddess Lakshmi has a favorite raga Ramapriya, just as Nandi has a favorite raga Rishabhapriya, just as Lord Shiva has a favorite raga Rudrapriya, and Vishnu has a favorite raga Shri, Narada too has a favorite raga - "Kalahapriya". I dont know its arohana or avarohana - but I can take a guess to say that it has too much of vakra sancharas in it. He probably is the creator of this raga and therefore he is sometimes called as "Kalahapriya Narada".

When was the last kalaham he did? He couldnt even remember it. It was probably in Thiruvilayadal. But now he was determined. But the most difficult part is: "Where shall I start?".

"Ah! By the way Indra is throwing a party tonight. They had won a cricket match against the Asuras. In Krita yuga, devas and asuras fought over each other by churning the milky way. Now that those galaxies are already much dispersed and left with reduced density, there is nothing much to churn. As far as Kali yuga is concerned, a simple one day match could decide who won. Yugas have really changed. Whoa! That was a really exciting and gripping match. The Asuras fought really well, I should admit. Their coach Kripacharya is really shrewd one. And their tail-end is really good. The last pair of tail-enders, Rahu and Ketu batted out the final five overs. For the Devas, Agni was the best pick of the bowlers. His fiery first few overs stands a class apart. And Varuna's spell is worth mentioning.

"The devas chase really interesting. The physiotherapist Danvantri was around to heal the wounds if any caused by asura bowling. Anyway the devas have won and have a reason to celebrate. It would only be proper to imagine that they are all getting drunk over the victory". Thinking thus Narada reached the hermit of Tumburu.

Tumburu wasn't home. What happened to this guy? Has he gone to party out? He too has changed a lot in recent yugas. Earlier he used to be a lonely singer roaming in Himalayas. Now he has got a band! Imagine the nerve of him to form a band! It has a funny name too - "The Band Harvas".

The sound from the Indrasabha hall was loud and garrulous. Chanting the mantra "Narayana! Narayana!!" Narada reached the party. He stood in a corner and started observing the dancing devas and devis. Thumburu was on a podium with his Thambura, joined with a couple of Gandharvas from Chitrakoota. One had a veena attached with a strap hanging around his shoulders. Another was carrying a dholak on one hand, a WinZipped version of dumru on the other hand and some flute like instrument was in front of his mouth. Don't ask me how he was holding it. It is a gandharva magic. Chitrakoota, the capital of Gandharvas has now got a new sobriquet - "The Gandharva Motown". The people born there are prenatally skilled in music. When the citizens rise in music, take bath in music, go to bed in music and give birth in music, it is no surprise that everyone is skilled in music. "The Band Harvas" were singing a song that was hardly legible. Is the song really in Sanskrita? wondered Narada.

The devis were dancing in the center of the hall. Fresh faces were seen apart from the traditional Ramba, Urvasi and Thilothama. The Devas were also dancing scattered around the hall, some with devis and some alone. There in the corner is Indra, seated in a table, all alone. He had a large pitcher in his hand and seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the soma rasa. Well, his enjoyment is going to be short-lived, as Narada approached him.

"Narayana, Narayana, Congratulations on your win O Indra", Narada began in his inimitable style.

"Oh! Is it Sage Narada I see? Pranam O venerable sage! What is a sage doing in a party for Devas?" Indra too wasn't less political in his reply.

"Just checking on you, in case I have anything to report to Shiva, the God of Gods". Narada said in his inimitable sarcastic tone. Indra now realized that he was talking to Narada, the unbeatable in creating kalaham-s and is a favorite of Lord Vishnu. He thought to himself "If this guy reports to Lord Vishnu about the fun the other devas are having in this party, I could be in trouble. I better not mess with him". What he didn't realize was he had already fell for the sage's plot.

"What can I do for O veritable Sage" asked Indra.

"Nothing Indra, I just came to congratulate you. Your captain's knock helped the team win the trophy! I could not have imagined what would happen if the Asuras had won..."

"You are right! It is because of your support we won..."

Narada hadnt yet finished his previous sentence: "...especially when the stakes are high !"

Indra willing to change subject said: "Victory is all that matters! O Narada"

"You are right O Indra! But aren't you getting a little selfish?"

"Wh... what .. what? Can you explain me O Celestial Singer?" Indra stumbled a bit.

"Your bhaktas in Bharatavarsha are getting humiliated with defeats. The weakest teams, when they meet the Indian team on the field, emerge the strongest with greater self-confidence. Is it enough if you win against the Asuras? Should you not help the Indian Cricket team? They pray you and Agni for helping them. They even pray Varuna to bring rains when they are on the edge of defeat! But nothing seems to happen. If I may say so, Lord Vishnu is a bit upset that bhaktas are ignored..."

Indra was frightened. He remembered how Vishnu protects his bhaktas at anybodys cost. If this guy complains to Vishnu that he is ignoring the bhaktas and partying out, he may find himself in trouble. He quickly wanted to amend for that.

"O Narada, the giver of generous boons! It is due to my ignorance that I am in such an ignorance. Could you please advice me on what can I do?"

"I don't really know O the best among Devas! But I think its time for Indian cricket team to have some person who can really win matches. May be you can think something along those lines..."

Indra became cautious. What is this guy getting at? If I send some deva to play in the Indian team and if the team still loses, because of other 10 members, he would yet be blamed. If he didn't send any deva to join the team he would be blamed again for not taking care of bhaktas. A catch 22 situation. This Narada is very clever. But wait a minute, here is an idea...

"O Sage Narada! The Indian team loses consecutively and the commentators are heard saying that 'only Bhagavan can help them'. Why dont we ask Lord Vishnu to take an avataar to play for Indian team?"

Narada was smarter than Indra on any account. "O Indra! That is a fantastic idea! But dharma hasn't really been defeated yet. Vishnu is scheduled to take the Kalki avataar only at the end of the Kali Yuga. Measured in bhuloka-years there are about 427000 years left... But if you along with other devas can convince Vishnu to take a temporary avataar for the protection of his bhaktas, he may concede to your request. After all he is the all merciful Paramatma..."

Indra got the hint. The next morning he summoned all the devas and briefed them about the mission. The devas hadn't recovered from hang-over and so didn't have much to object. And so they all marched to "Kshirasagara" chanting the thousand names of Vishnu.

The dvArapAlakA-s were surprised to see the devas' sudden visit. Indra approached them and offered salutations "Pranam to dvArapAlakA-s"

"Pranam O Indra" they said in unision. "And congratulations on winning the trophy!"

"Why thank you" replied Indra. "I have come to offer my prayers to Lord Vishnu and talk to him about a burning issue."

The dvArapAlakA-s said "You are very welcome O King of the Devas"

Indra followed by other devas reached the sanctum sanctorum. "Namo Narayana" said the devas in unision.

"Welcome O Indra and Devas! I congratulate you on winning the trophy..."

"Its all your mercy O Lord! Without you can a ball swing or reverse-swing? Without you can a bat be wielded? Without you can a wicket be taken? Without you can the umpire raise his finger? Without you can a fielder catch a catch? Salutations to you whom the ball cannot beat, whom the bat cannot miss, for whom there are no boundaries. Salutations to you the effulgent one, who is neither the game played nor the game not played nor both, neither the victory nor the loss nor both! Salutations to you O Existence-Knowledge-Bliss!"

Lord Vishnu smiled and said "What brings you here O Indra?"

Indra said "O Lord! It is said that the wise ones should not lose their head on their victory. Even though we won against the asuras we still are not rejoicing. We are worried very much about how our bhaktas are being defeated day-in and day-out against all the opposition teams. We have come here to request you to help our bhaktas in re-strengthening the team and instilling confidence in them. We would like you to take an avataar to play for Indian cricket team"

Lord Vishnu smiled again and said politely "O Best among Devas! I take avataar only on purpose of defeating adharma and not because of the defeat of Indian cricket team. The Indian team doesn't win because they don't bat well, bowl well or field well. They are paying for their own karma. It is nothing that I can do about!"

Indra didn't relent "But is it not in your realms to take care of the suffering and the anguish of the bhaktas? If not for the Indian team you should at least take an avataar for the cricket fans. It is aching to see the fans spend money and cheer up for the team, but return back from the stadium disappointed. Is it fair? Even poor Indian families buy new TV sets to watch their team play, yet they are disappointed by their team due to lack of application? Is it not disheartening? At least for the sake of the fans you should take an avataar and play in Indian team! Only you can take an avataar so that not only will the Indian fans relish your game, but every cricket fan in the world would love to watch your game. It is possible only by you, O Lord of Lords, O Purushottama, not by us, mere devas!"

The All-merciful Paramatma was moved by the pleading of Indra and other devas. "Your wish will be granted O Indra! Even though I am scheduled to take Kalki avataar only by the end of the Kali Yuga, for the protection of the Indian cricket, and the defeat of other teams, and to establish the Cricket Dharma, I concede to take an avataar".

The Devas were pleased. They showered flowers on the Lord. They chanted mantras to please Lord Vishnu and shouted "Om Peace be with all Om".

As always, Narada's kalaham has ended in a good note. For Vishnu now has a job to do. For the Indians the Lord himself has arrived to save Indian Cricket.

And for the rest of the audience in the world - well, they simply have to watch Sachin Tendulkar bat.

(Note: I wrote this article almost 12 years ago when Sachin made a superlative century against Australia in Sharjah. I think the article still holds true and is a tribute to him for his 200 in ODI).

Fonetiks

Recently when I was driving my kid to school, I thought of playing on phonetics with him. With my increasing frustration and disillusionment with the amount of effort one has to put to spell English and remember the alphabet-sequence and my increasing understanding of Sanskrita, I wanted to see how kids react to phonetics of something they have not heard so-far.

The experiment contained of pronouncing a letter and finding out the origination of the letter in the position of the mouth. It also helped he was not seeing my face and just hearing the sounds. The SikSha SaStra (lit. science of phonetics) goes very deep into the subject and literature has been written around it over the span of 2500+ years.

The conversation went like this (all his responses were after some thought).

Me: Tell me where does the sound 'a' come from?
He: (after some thought) throat.
Me: Tell me where does the sound 'ka' come from?
He: throat
Me: Whats the difference?
He: the tongue touching.
Me: Tell me what happens with 'ca' ?
He: the tongue goes and touches up.
Me: Now repeat after me ka kha ga gha ~nga (like the ng in sing)
He: (repeats)
Me: Where does the sound ~nga come from?
He: throat
Me: where else?
He: (does not catch on first, then very doubtfully) nose?
Me: Tell me what happens with Ta (like T in Patrick)
He: tongue rolls up.
Me: Whats the difference? Stop the tongue at T and tell me
He: (thinks a bit more) tongue rolls back
Me: Now repeat ca, cha, ja, jha, nya, Ta, Tha, Da, Dha (I stop).. What comes after ?
He: (Repeats, keeps rolling the tongue backwards and pronounces Na) (Like the N in Pundit, Mandala, but not navy, nine)
Me: Now tell me what comes after pa.
He: (catches on to the pattern and says) pa pha ba bha ma.
Me: Finally now just repeat 'ka ca Ta ta pa'
He: (tries it, but does not catch on)
Me: Do you observe that the tongue travels from throat all the way to the lips?
He: (Nods, but i hardly think he understood)

But the point is how natural it is - I only make half the effort for him to understand the 'alphabets', he just latched on to others naturally (or analytically). I was not fully convinced about placement of varNa-s in Sanskrita, but I think I'm slowly beginning to see the originality and superiority. I still have confusions about Ra, La, Sa, zed, zha -- about placement/omission of these in the scheme, but that's only due to my very limited knowledge of phonetics.

The retro-flex is probably the most important and obvious difference between a "desi" pronunciation and a Westerner's pronunciation. Even among the Indians, you can see the Tamilians use the retro-flex a lot more than other South Indians because of the presence of the Ra and Zha, both of which are not present in other Indian languages. In fact there is even a Tamil adage that says the tongue has to roll for proper pronunciation. Sri DJ Vaidya-ji in his audio blog on phonetics mentions that Sanskrita retro-flex is most likely the effect of Dravidian languages on her.

kaalapramaaNa

Much is being made of 2012 as the end of the world. In the Hindu literature, the perception of time is completely different. There are various accounts of time with slightly differing measurements, but here is presented what is probably the most accepted. I also consulted the book Puranic Encyclopedia by Sri Vettam Mani.

Carl Sagan in his hugely successful and influential book/TV Serial Cosmos, mentions about how the early Hindu sages were thinking in terms of billions, when the rest of the world did not yet begin to count numbers. Clearly, the table goes from 1/3600 of a second to several billion years.

For the end of Kali yuga in the current cycle, we have about 427,000 years to go! And we are in the 28th cycle of the 7th manvantara. For this manvantara to end, we have 43 cycles to go. And for this kalpa to end, we have about 7 more manvantaras. The current manu is vivaSvata. We will see the future manu-s in the next post.

At it does not end here. When the lifetime of current Brahma expires, a new Brahma takes over.

count	of this	is 1	equal to this of	in modern units	Comments
30	alpakala	truti	1/3600	second	~ 0.3 milli seconds
30	truti	kalaa	1/120	second	~ 8.3 milli seconds
30	kalaa	nimisha	1/4	second	~ 250 milli seconds
4	nimisha	ganita	1	second
60	ganita	vinadi	1	minute
60	vinadi	ghatika	24	minutes
60	ghatika	ahoratra	24	hours	Day + Night
15	ahoratra	paksha	15	days	1 Moon cycle
2	paksha	chandramasa	1	month	1 Lunar month
12	chandra masa	varsha	12	months	1 Solar year
1	varsha	deva aho ratram	1	Deva day	1 Human year
360	varsha	devavarsha	360	human years
4800	devavarsha	kruta yuga	1,728,000	human years
3600	devavarsha	treta yuga	1,296,000	human years
2400	devavarsha	dvapara yuga	864,000	human years
1200	devavarsha	kali yuga	432,000	human years
12000	devavarsha	catur yuga	4,320,000	human years
71	catur yuga	manu	306,720,000	human years
14	manvantara	kalpa	4,294,080,000	human years	Deluge
1	kalpa	Brahma's night	4,294,080,000	human years	No action
1	kalpa	Brahma's day	4,294,080,000	human years	Creation
2	kalpa	Brahma ahoratra	8,588,160,000	human years	Brahma's day + night
360	Brahma ahoratra	Brahma varsha	3,091,737,600,000	human years	1 Brahma year
100	Brahma varsha	End of Brahma	309,173,760,000,000	human years	100 Brahma years

The intellectual devotee

No matter how much ever one tries to embrace and love it, grammar of any language always remains a dry subject. At some point of time, the mind wants to stop analyzing and start to take things as-is. Panini's grammar rules, no doubt is a great tribute to human intelligence. At the same time, another extra-ordinary intellect, Adi Shankaracharya asks "What is the point of studying grammar, when the real liberation is achieved only by chanting the name of Govinda".
Chanting the names of Vishnu is a sure way to moksha especially in Kali yuga - Vyasa emphasises this in several of his works. The more you call his name the more the chances of liberation. So, of what use is memorizing and repeating the undecipherable technical terms of Panini - most of which does not even sound like a proper word, when the mind can be repeating the thousand names of Paramatma? Do the words like ShtunoShtu:, k~giti ca, ikoyanachi get a person any closer to moksha?
Thus the bhakta is at cross-roads with jnana. Should one study the intricacies of grammar or just chant the names of mAdhava? And why can't he do both?
A variety of literature has followed AshtadhyayI. While the SutrapATha (AshtadhyAyI) remains the ultimate focus of these literature, the literature itself spans several dimensions - vritti (gloss), vArtika (notes), bhAshya (exposition), siddhAnta (theory). Sutra was extremely concise, so vritti was written to supply missing elements. vArtika expanded the sutra, while mahAbhAshya was an extensive treatment, leaving no gaps. Kasika vritti, siddhantakaumudi, laghu siddhanta kaumudi have treated AshtadhyAyI extensively. In between there are novel attempts like BhattikAvya which attempts to teach Paninian grammar via Ramayana.
In the juggernaut of the Bhakti movement started around early 8th century (?) with Azhwars/Nayanmars and gained prominence throughout India by 15th century, someone snaps, why do I have to read all these grammar rules while I can be chanting the name of Hari? Of what use is this grammar when nitya sukham is in repeating the names of Krishna! And thus Jiva Gosvamin creates a brilliant work - 'Harinamamruta vyAkaraNam' - literally "The Grammar of Nectar of Names of Hari". It is based on Panini's grammatical rules, but every technical term is replaced by a meaningful facet of Vishnu.
Let us look at some of the parallels of Panini's technical terms and Harinamamruta vyakarana
vowels/varna/svara (ac) - sarveSvara:
first 10 vowels (ak) - daSAvatAra
each pair of vowel (hRsva and dIrgha) - ekAtmaka
hrsva - vAmana
dIrgha - trivikrama
pluta - mahApurusha
anusvara - vishnuchakra
anunAsika - vishnuchApa
visarga - vishnusarga
ka ca Ta ta pa - hari-kamalam
kha Cha Tha tha pha - hari-khadga:
ga ja da Da ba - hari-gada
Gha Jha dha Dha bha - hari-ghosha:
Adesha - virinci
Agama - vishnu
pumlinga - purushottama
strIlinga - lakshmI
napumsalinga - brahmajna
avyaya - alinga
lopa: - hara:

and so on. All the technical terms are carefully replaced by equivalent meaningful facets of Vishnu! Thus Jiva Gosvamin creates about 3192 sutras - a devotional parallel to Panini's AshtadhyAyI.

The intellectual devotee fulfils two purposes immediately - learn grammar by chanting the names of Vishnu. Talk about direct ascendency to moksha by bhakti through jnana!

From raama to raamaha

In a previous post we saw how a programming language can be written effectively in a natural language using Paninian sutra style.

In this post, let us do the exact opposite: converting a set of Panini-sutras to programming language style syntax to understand the rules of Sanskritam. The aim of the post is to kindle interest in Sanskrita studies for a typical software engineer to see the parallels of concepts of programming in Paninis methods. Statements and researches on Panini's methodology and how it is close to programming can be found plenty googling around. But as the ancient saying goes the proof of code is in the compiling. Of course I wont be delivering a code here, but hopefully a pseudo-code should convince any software engineer. Much of the pseudo-code can be polished and implemented in languages like Groovy/Ruby that supports expando, reflection etc.

Beginner Sanskrita students are often confused between rAma and rAma: (pronounced raamaha). Why do we add a visarga? Does the addition of visarga change the meaning?

The short answer is: Yes, the addition of visarga does add meaning.

In non-inflexional language like English, the prepositions provide the purpose of the noun. For eg by Rama, to Rama, from Rama, in Rama: in these cases "Rama" stays constant, while the prepositions provide the notion. Hindi also exhibits non-inflexional properties (rAm ne, rAm ko, rAm se, rAm par). In inflexional languages, the noun itself is modified to denote the purpose.

So what does this have to do with rAma: ? The word rAma: can be split into rAma + visarga. Here rAma is called the "stem" or "nominal stem". In Sanskrita its called prAtipadikam (प्रातिपदिकम्). prAtipadikam is defined as "arthavat adhAtu apratyaya" (अर्थवत् अधातु अप्रत्यय प्रातिपदिकम्) -- that which has meaning, and not a root, and not a suffix is called prAtipadikam. This stem will undergo modifications (inflexions) to fulfill the purpose of the noun.

Panini provides the methodology of modifying stem "rAma" to "rAma:" in a few sutras.

1. su aujasamauTChasTAbhyAmbhis~gebhyAmbhyas~gasibhyAmbhyas~gasosAm~gyossup
2. upadeSe ajanunAsikA it
3. sa sajuSho ru:
4. kharAvasanayo: visarjanIya:

The same in devanAgarI:

1. सु औजसमौट्छस्टाभ्याम्भिस्ङेभ्याम्भ्यस्ङसिभ्याम्भ्यस्ङसोसाम्ङ्योस्सुप्
2. उपदेशे अजनुनासिका इत्
3. स सजुषो रु:
4. खरावसनयो: विसर्जनीय:

Forget the tongue-wrecking, memory-bending first sutra for now. We will see its utility in the future posts.

Lets do some pseudo-code now.

//purpose of the noun - what do we want? singular/plural, masculine/feminine etc.
def purpose
//the stem to use, based on the purpose, this stem will now change
def stem = "rAma"
//anunAsika vowels for #2 (using single quotes to denote nasalization)
def nasalVowels { a', A', i', I', u', U', R', R.', e', ai', o', au' }

//Requirement: create a nominative-singular-masculine form of rAma -- prathamA vibhakti, ekavachanam, pumlinga from prAtipadikam rAma

def create_nominative_singular_ masculine_noun_from_stem(stem) {

if (purpose.isMasculine()  && purpose.isSingular() && purpose.isNominative()) stem.append("su'") //sutra #1: rAma -> rAmasu'
if (stem.endsWith(nasalVowel)) stem.removeLast(nasalVowel) //sutra #2: rAmasu' -> rAmas
if (stem.endsWith("s")) stem.replace("s", "ru'") //sutra #3: rAmas -> rAmaru'
if (stem.endsWith(nasalVowel)) stem.removeLast(nasalVowel) //sutra #2: rAmaru' -> rAmar
if (stem.endsWithAnyOf(KHAR)) stem.replace(stem.findLast(KHAR), ":")) //sutra #4
return stem //rAma:
}

Following the algorithmic steps, when the intention of one rAma is to be in nominative case (or as a subject), the end result is that a visarga is appended. Just 'rAma' does not denote anybody. "rAma:" denotes one masculine person in nominative/subject form.

Naturally, a question arises - Why dont we just add a visarga at the end instead of going thru all these rules? Note that this visarga is only for a masculine form. For neuter and feminine nouns, a su' will be added, but other rules from prevent them into morphing into a visarga. So Panini adds a common suffix and specifies rules on how it is applied in various situations.

In the next post, let us look at making the above method efficient.

Sutra based Programming

Haven't software engineers had enough of programming languages? C and C++ were there for a while unchallenged. Then Java took over C/C++ pretty quickly. Even though you could create complex applications using Java and run on any platform, there is no dearth of new languages. Scala, Groovy, Ruby and very recently Go from Google.

All high-level programming languages do 4 basic things:

1. Assignment
2. Condition
3. Loop
4. Function/Procedure.

Loop and Function/Procedure/Subroutine are essentially glorified Goto.

Everything else is syntactic sugar.

Galileo has influenced us heavily to think math in terms of symbols. A mathematical symbol expresses an idea very concisely and effectively. Much more than a language could do.

So

x = 1

is more concise than saying "let x equal to 1".

Let me rephrase the above bereft of assumptions --

The mathematical expression "x = 1" is more concise than saying it in English "let x equal to 1".

But what if we could express "x = 1" much more concise in a natural language?

For e.g., let me just say

x 1

I just dropped the symbol "=". One symbol less! Whohoo! I also established a convention that whatever on left side is receiver and on the right side is provider. In a language like Sanskrit, for e.g., the "is/happens" is implicit (asti/bhavati). So no other verb is required. (There are other languages that exhibit this property too).

People think that just because ancient Sanskrit mathematicians did not use symbols, the works are not scientific. Symbol is just a convenience; if language could be more powerful than symbols, who needs them? As a side note, Sanskrita almost does not use punctuations (except for end of sentence - the pipeline character |). In contrast, English just can't be "communicated" without appropriate punctuations' usage.

To demonstrate the power of the language, let us look at a simple program using a pseudo-language.

//Pseudo-code to produce a random number and determine if its odd or even
s = 100;
r = (int) rand(s);
if (r % 2 == 0)
return "even";
else
return "odd";

The question is, can this program be expressed using natural language? Of course, we can write the whole program in plain English, but it wont be concise. (COBOL anyone, hello?)

Now lets apply the Sanskrit grammarian Paninian rules. I am going to keep the function names as is (in bold), but conjugate the variable names per Sanskrit rules (taking them to be consonant ending variables).

1: aSeSha: SUnyam  // No remainder 0 (No remainder equals 0)
2: s Satam         // s Satam asti (s is 100)
3: sa: rand r      // of s random is r (r is random of s)
4: int ca          // int also (r is also int of random of s)
5: even ra: aSeshe dvibhAjane  // "even" is of r during division of 2 when no reminder happens (on division by 2 of r has no reminder, it is even)
6: odd SeShe       // "odd" when there is a reminder

Here are the sutras in proper Sanskrit:

अशेष: शून्यम् |
स् शतम् |
स: वृथा र् |
अभिन्न: च |
समं र: अशेषे द्विभाजने |
विषमं शेषे ||

As you can see there are absolutely no mathematical symbols! A program is written purely by the expressive power of language. So what happened? How are they equal?

Using nominative case and the implicit "is", Panini eliminated the need for equals sign. Functions are defined via genetive case. Using the locative case, Panini provides the if-else condition. In effect, mathematical expressions are substituted by simply conjugating the variables.

That is the genius contribution of Panini to Sanskrita! Now a skilled poet could come and rearrange the above 6 sutras into a sloka format, and lo! there is sloka that tells us how to determine an even/odd number!

Let me attempt a half-baked sloka (May Sanskrita enthusiasts forgive me for such a blasphemy).

अशेषो शून्यं भूयात् सेकशतं वृथा रेफ: स: ।
अभिन्नश्च द्विभाजने विषमं समं शेषोऽशेषे ॥

Due to the occurrence of words like SeSha, SUnyam, aSeSha, dvibhAjane, abhinna the above can be mis-interpreted to refer Adisesha, SUnyavAda, Vishnu, Dvaita, Advaita etc. Now we have an example of a sloka referring to the gods and a mathematical algorithm encoded in it!

The Panini Certificate

Ever since Panini has written his monumental ashtadhyAyI, there have been plenty of commentaries on it and still continues to follow. Katyayana's Vartika, Patanjali's Mahabhashya, Kasika Vritti, Siddhanta kaumudi, Laghu kaumudi, Laghu siddhanta kaumudi are a few Sanskrit commentaries. When the West discovered Sanskrit, more commentaries sprang up.

For some reason, whosoever has tasted a little bit of Panini (not the Italian sandwich) feels so compelled to write a commentary on it. In modern days blogs have replaced commentaries. Whosoever even just heard about Panini, is compelled to write a blog about him. Just like me.

Kalidasa describes this feeling in a beautiful poem:

मन्द: अपि अमन्दताम् एति संसर्गेन विपश्चित: । (मालविकाग्निमित्रम् 2.7)

The company of the intelligent brings respect even to the dumbwitted. (Malavikagnimitram - Ch 2, verse 7)

The human mind tends to super-impose the characteristics of an associative object with the associating subject. So whoever reads Homer is a literat. Whoever likes Homer Simpson is dumb. Whoever loves Bambi is cute, whoever appreciates legumes are nuts. During a Panini study, a student undergoes one or more, usually all, emotions of bewilderment, amazement, overwhelmingness, stunning and finally dumbfounded, in any order. By this time he/she figured out that he/she got smarter just knowing Panini.

Ignorance shadows smartness. Ankle deep into ashtadhyAyI, the student now questions Panini's sutras and methodology. 'This sutra does not make sense', 'This sutra could have been avoided and put elsewhere', 'This is an unfortunate sequence of sutras' etc - so the student passes judgement like my wife's hand distributes neighbor's ghee to everybody.

When does this feeling stop? When does the student hear the inner-voice 'Oh, shut up'? The post-Panini period was a cauldron of grammatical activities. It has been told that several grammarians attempted modifications, additions of sutras to ashtadhyAyI. In midst of all this, one great intellectual, one that the human mind has since not surpassed, stood up and proclaims "ashtadhyAyI is perfect beyond your pea-brained comprehension faculties".

And that brings this quote from that Great Rishi Patanjali himself, who drank ashtadhyAyI as easily as soda from a can and gives an 'Outstanding' certificate to Panini.

tatra aSakyam varNena api anarthakena bhavitum, kim punariyatA sUtreNa |

तत्र अशक्यम् वर्णेन अपि अनर्थकेन भवितुम्, किम् पुनरियता सूत्रेण ।

Even by a single letter (varNena api) is not possible (tatra aSakyam) to exist (bhavitum) meaningless (anarthakena), what to say about a whole sutra!