Name	Sanskrit
Nativename	''''
Pronunciation
Region	Greater India
Speakers	14,000
Date	2001
Familycolor	Indo-European
Fam2	Indo-Iranian
Fam3	Indo-Aryan
Script	No native script.Written in Devanāgarī, various Brāhmī-based alphabets, and Latin script
Nation	, Uttarakhandone of the 22 scheduled languages of India
Iso1	sa
Iso2	san
Iso3	san
Imagealt	The word Sanskrit (संस्कृतम्) written in Sanskrit. Displayed in the Sarai font for Devanagari.
Imagecaption	The word Sanskrit (संस्कृतम्) written in Devanagari.
Notice	Indic
Notice2	IPA }}

Sanskrit ( '''' , originally '''', "refined speech"), is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism. Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand. Sanskrit holds a prominent position in Indo-European studies.

Classical Sanskrit is the standard register as laid out in the grammar of , around the 4th century BCE. Its position in the cultures of Greater India is akin to that of Latin and Greek in Europe and it has significantly influenced most modern languages of the Indian subcontinent, particularly in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal.

The pre-Classical form of Sanskrit is known as Vedic Sanskrit, with the language of the Rigveda being the oldest and most archaic stage preserved, its oldest core dating back to as early as 1500 BCE. This qualifies Rigvedic Sanskrit as one of the oldest attestations of any Indo-Iranian language, and one of the earliest attested members of the Indo-European language family, the family which includes English and most European languages.

The corpus of Sanskrit literature encompasses a rich tradition of poetry and drama as well as scientific, technical, philosophical and dharma texts. Sanskrit continues to be widely used as a ceremonial language in Hindu religious rituals and Buddhist practice in the forms of hymns and mantras. Spoken Sanskrit is still in use in a few traditional institutions in India and there are many attempts at revival.

Name

The Sanskrit verbal adjective '''' may be translated as "put together, constructed, well or completely formed; refined, adorned, highly elaborated". It is derived from the root '''' "to put together, compose, arrange, prepare", where '''' "together" (as English ''same'') and '''' "do, make".

The term in the generic meaning of "made ready, prepared, completed, finished" is found in the Rigveda. Also in Vedic Sanskrit, as nominalized neuter '''', it means "preparation, prepared place" and thus "ritual enclosure, place for a sacrifice".

As a term for "refined or elaborated speech" the adjective appears only in Epic and Classical Sanskrit, in the Manusmriti and in the Mahabharata. The language referred to as '''' "the cultured language" has by definition always been a "sacred" and "sophisticated" language, used for religious and learned discourse in ancient India, and contrasted with the languages spoken by the people, '''' "natural, artless, normal, ordinary".

History

Sanskrit is a member of the Indo-Iranian sub-family of the Indo-European family of languages. Its closest ancient relatives are the Iranian languages Old Persian and Avestan.

In order to explain the common features shared by Sanskrit and other Indo-European languages, many scholars have proposed migration hypotheses asserting that the original speakers of what became Sanskrit arrived in what is now India and Pakistan from the north-west some time during the early second millennium BCE. Evidence for such a theory includes the close relationship of the Indo-Iranian tongues with 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 earliest attested Sanskrit texts are Brahmanical texts of the Rigveda, which date to the mid-to-late second millennium BCE. No written records from such an early period survive. However, scholars are confident that the oral transmission of the texts is reliable: they were ceremonial literature whose correct pronunciation was considered crucial to its religious efficacy.

From the Rigveda until the time of (fl. 4th century BCE) the development of the early Vedic language may be observed in other Vedic texts: the Samaveda, Yajurveda, Atharvaveda, Brahmanas, and Upanishads. During this time, the prestige of the language, its use for sacred purposes, and the importance attached to its correct enunciation all served as powerful conservative forces resisting the normal processes of linguistic change. However, there is a clear, five-level linguistic development of Vedic from the Rigveda to the language of the Upanishads and the earliest Sutras (such as Baudhayana).

The oldest surviving Sanskrit grammar is 's '''' ("Eight-Chapter Grammar"). It is essentially a prescriptive grammar, i.e., an authority that defines correct Sanskrit, although it contains descriptive parts, mostly to account for some Vedic forms that had become rare in 's time.

The term "Sanskrit" was not thought of as a specific language set apart from other languages, but rather as a particularly refined or perfected manner of speaking. Knowledge of Sanskrit was a marker of social class and educational attainment in ancient India and the language was taught mainly to members of the higher castes, through close analysis of Sanskrit grammarians such as . Sanskrit, as the learned language of Ancient India, thus existed alongside the Prakrits (vernaculars), also called Middle Indic dialects, and eventually into the contemporary modern Indo-Aryan languages.

Vedic Sanskrit

Sanskrit, as defined by , had evolved out of the earlier "Vedic" form. The beginning of Vedic Sanskrit can be traced as early as 1500–1200 BCE (for Rg-vedic and Indo-Aryan superstrate in Mitanni). Scholars often distinguish Vedic Sanskrit and Classical or "Pāṇinian" Sanskrit as separate 'dialects'. Though they are quite similar, they differ in a number of essential points of phonology, vocabulary, grammar and syntax. Vedic Sanskrit is the language of the Vedas, a large collection of hymns, incantations (Samhitas), theological and religio-philosophical discussions in the Brahmanas and Upanishads. Modern linguists consider the metrical hymns of the Rigveda Samhita to be the earliest, composed by many authors over several centuries of oral tradition. The end of the Vedic period is marked by the composition of the Upanishads, which form the concluding part of the Vedic corpus in the traditional view; however the early Sutras are Vedic, too, both in language and content. Around the mid-1st millennium BCE, Vedic Sanskrit began the transition from a first language to a second language of religion and learning.

Classical Sanskrit

For nearly 2,000 years, a cultural order existed that exerted influence across South Asia, Inner Asia, Southeast Asia, and to a certain extent, East Asia. A significant form of post-Vedic Sanskrit is found in the Sanskrit of the Hindu Epics—the Ramayana and Mahabharata. The deviations from in the epics are generally considered to be on account of interference from Prakrits, or "innovations" and not because they are pre-Paninean. Traditional Sanskrit scholars call such deviations ''ārṣa'' (आर्ष), meaning 'of the ṛṣis', the traditional title for the ancient authors. In some contexts, there are also more "prakritisms" (borrowings from common speech) than in Classical Sanskrit proper. Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit is a literary language heavily influenced by Middle Indic, based on early Buddhist prakrit texts which subsequently assimilated to the Classical Sanskrit standard in varying degrees.

According to , there were four principal dialects of classical Sanskrit: '''' (Northwestern, also called Northern or Western), '''' (lit., middle country), '''' (Eastern) and '''' (Southern, arose in the Classical period). The predecessors of the first three dialects are even attested in Vedic '''', of which the first one was regarded as the purest ('').

Decline

There are a number of sociolinguistic studies of spoken Sanskrit which strongly suggest that oral use of Sanskrit is limited, with its development having ceased sometime in the past. Accordingly, says , "most observers would agree that, in some crucial way, Sanskrit is dead". He describes it in comparison with the "dead" language of Latin:

Both died slowly, and earliest as a vehicle of literary expression, while much longer retaining significance for learned discourse with its universalist claims. Both were subject to periodic renewals or forced rebirths, sometimes in connection with a politics of translocal aspiration… At the same time… both came to be ever more exclusively associated with narrow forms of religion and priestcraft, despite centuries of a secular aesthetic.

The decline of Sanskrit use in literary and political circles was likely due to a weakening of the political institutions that supported it, and to heightened competition with vernacular languages seeking literary-cultural dignity. There was regional variation in the forcefulness of these vernacular movements and Sanskrit declined in different ways across the Indian subcontinent. For example, in Kashmir, Kashmiri was used alongside Sanskrit as the language of literature after the 13th century. Sanskrit works from the Vijayanagara Empire failed to circulate outside their place and time of composition. By contrast, works in Kannada and Telugu flourished.

Despite this presumed "death" of Sanskrit and the literary use of vernacular languages, Sanskrit continued to be used in literary cultures in India, and those who could read vernacular languages could also read Sanskrit. It did mean that Sanskrit was not used to express changing forms of subjectivity and sociality embodied and conceptualized in the modern age. Instead, it was reduced to "reinscription and restatements" of ideas already explored, and any creativity in Sanskrit was restricted to religious hymns and verses. When the British imposed a Western-style education system in India in the nineteenth century, knowledge of Sanskrit and ancient literature continued to flourish as the study of Sanskrit changed from a more traditional style into a form of analytical and comparative scholarship mirroring that of Europe.

and contest Pollock's characterization, pointing out that modern works continue to be produced in Sanskrit: }} argues that modern works in Sanskrit are either ignored or their "modernity" contested. The Sahitya Akademi has had, since 1967, an award for the best creative work written that year in Sanskrit. In 2009, Satyavrat Shastri became the first Sanskrit author to win the Jnanpith Award, India's highest literary award.

European scholarship

European scholarship in Sanskrit, begun by Heinrich Roth (1620–1668) and Johann Ernst Hanxleden (1681–1731), is regarded as responsible for the discovery of the Indo-European language family by Sir William Jones. This scholarship played an important role in the development of Western philology, or historical linguistics.

Sir William Jones, speaking to the Asiatic Society in Calcutta (now Kolkata) on February 2, 1786, said:

The Sanskrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure; more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either, yet bearing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs and in the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident; so strong, indeed, that no philologer could examine them all three, without believing them to have sprung from some common source, which, perhaps, no longer exists.

British hostility to Sanskrit

Traufmann considers that British hostility to Sanskrit was based on British Indophobia, which he calls a developmentalist, progressivist, liberal, and non-racial-essentialist critique of Hindu civilization and race science. The later was a theorisation of the English "''common-sense view''" that Indian's were "separate, inferior and unimprovable race", this was manifest by a neglect of Sanskrit in British academia.

Phonology

Classical Sanskrit distinguishes about 36 phonemes. There is, however, some allophony and the writing systems used for Sanskrit generally indicate this, thus distinguishing 48 sounds.

The sounds are traditionally listed in the order vowels (''Ach''), diphthongs (''Hal''), anusvara and visarga, plosives (Sparśa) and nasals (starting in the back of the mouth and moving forward), and finally the liquids and fricatives, written in IAST as follows (see the tables below for details):

:; : : :; An alternate traditional ordering is that of the Shiva Sutra of .

Vowels

The vowels of Classical Sanskrit written in Devanagari, as a syllable-initial letter and as a diacritic mark on the consonant (), pronunciation transcribed in IPA, IAST, and approximate equivalent in English:

{|class="wikitable" |- ! Letter !! !! IPA !! IAST !! English equivalent (GA unless stated otherwise) |- | |||| or ||a|| short near-open central vowel or schwa: ''u'' in bunny |- | ||||||ā||long open back unrounded vowel: ''a'' in father (RP) |- | ||||||i||short close front unrounded vowel: ''e'' in england |- | ||||||ī||long close front unrounded vowel: ''ee'' in feet |- | ||||||u||short close back rounded vowel: ''oo'' in foot |- | ||||||ū|| long close back rounded vowel: ''oo'' in cool |- | |||||||| syllabic alveolar trill: closest to ''er'' in butter in rhotic accents |- | |||||||| syllabic alveolar trill: closest to ''ir'' in bird in rhotic accents |- | |||||||| syllabic dental lateral approximant: ''le'' in turtle |- | |||||||| syllabic dental lateral approximant: longer ''le'' |- | ||||||e|| long close-mid front unrounded vowel: ''a'' in bane (some speakers) |- | ||||||ai|| a long diphthong: ''i'' in ice, ''i'' in kite (US, Canadian, and Scottish English) |- | ||||||o|| long close-mid back rounded vowel: ''o'' in bone (Scottish English) |- | ||||||au|| a long diphthong: ''ou'' in h''ou''se (Canadian English) |}

The long vowels are pronounced twice as long as their short counterparts. Also, there exists a third, extra-long length for most vowels, called pluti, which is used in various cases, but particularly in the vocative. The ''pluti'' is not accepted by all grammarians.

The vowels and continue as allophonic variants of Proto-Indo-Iranian , and are categorized as diphthongs by Sanskrit grammarians even though they are realized phonetically as simple long vowels. (See above).

Additional points:

There are some additional signs traditionally listed in tables of the Devanagari script:

The diacritic called ''anusvāra'', (IAST: ). It is used both to indicate the nasalization of the vowel in the syllable ( and to represent the sound of a syllabic or ; e.g. .

The diacritic called ''visarga'', represents (IAST: ); e.g. .

The diacritic called ''chandrabindu'', not traditionally included in Devanagari charts for Sanskrit, is used interchangeably with the ''anusvāra'' to indicate nasalization of the vowel, primarily in Vedic notation; e.g. .

If a lone consonant needs to be written without any following vowel, it is given a ''halanta/virāma'' diacritic below (). The vowel in Sanskrit is realized as being more central and less back than the closest English approximation, which is . But the grammarians have classified it as a back vowel. The ancient Sanskrit grammarians classified the vowel system as velars, retroflexes, palatals and plosives rather than as back, central and front vowels. Hence and are classified respectively as palato-velar (a+i) and labio-velar (a+u) vowels respectively. But the grammarians have classified them as diphthongs and in prosody, each is given two ''mātrās''. This does not necessarily mean that they are proper diphthongs, but neither excludes the possibility that they could have been proper diphthongs at a very ancient stage (see above). These vowels ''are'' pronounced as long and respectively by learned Sanskrit Brahmans and priests of today. Other than the "four" diphthongs, Sanskrit usually disallows any other diphthong—vowels in succession, where they occur, are converted to semivowels according to sandhi rules.

Consonants

IAST and Devanagari notations are given, with approximate IPA values in square brackets.

{|class="wikitable" |- !colspan="2"| !colspan="2"| Labialओष्ठ्यoṣṭhya ! Labiodentalदन्त्योष्ठ्यdantyoṣṭhya !colspan="2"| Dentalदन्त्यdantya !colspan="2"| Retroflexमूर्धन्यmūrdhanya !colspan="2"| Palatalतालव्यtālavya !colspan="2"| Velarकण्ठ्यkaṇṭhya !colspan="2"| Glottal |- !rowspan="2"| Stopस्पर्शsparśa ! Unaspiratedअल्पप्राण alpaprāṇa | || || || || || || || || || || |colspan="2"| |- ! Aspiratedमहाप्राणmahāprāṇa | || || || || || || || || || || |colspan="2"| |- !colspan="2"| Nasalअनुनासिकanunāsika |colspan="2" style="font-weight: normal"| m | |colspan="2" style="font-weight: normal"| |colspan="2" style="font-weight: normal"| |colspan="2" style="font-weight: normal"| ( ) |colspan="2" style="font-weight: normal"| |colspan="2"| |- !colspan="2"| Semivowelअन्तस्थantastha |colspan="2"| |style="font-weight: normal"| v |colspan="2"| |colspan="2"| |colspan="2" style="font-weight: normal"| y |colspan="2"| |colspan="2"| |- !colspan="2"| Liquidढ्रवdrava |colspan="2"| | |colspan="2" style="font-weight: normal"| l |colspan="2" style="font-weight: normal"| r |colspan="2"| |colspan="2"| |colspan="2"| |- !colspan="2"| Fricativeऊष्मन्ūṣman |colspan="2"| | |colspan="2" style="font-weight: normal"| |colspan="2" style="font-weight: normal"| |colspan="2" style="font-weight: normal"| |colspan="2"| |style="font-weight: normal"| |style="font-weight: normal"| |}

The table below shows the traditional listing of the Sanskrit consonants with the (nearest) equivalents in English (as pronounced in General American and Received Pronunciation) and Spanish. Each consonant shown below is deemed to be followed by the neutral vowel schwa (), and is named in the table as such.

{|class="wikitable" |+ Stops—sparśa |- ! !UnaspiratedVoiceless alpaprāṇa śvāsa !AspiratedVoicelessmahāprāna śvāsa !UnaspiratedVoiced alpaprāṇa nāda !AspiratedVoiced mahāprāna nāda !Nasal anunāsika nāda |- style="text-align:center;" !Velarkaṇṭhya | ; English: skip | ; English: cat | ; English: game | ; similar to English: doghouse | ; English: ring |- style="text-align:center;" !Palataltālavya | ; English: exchange | ; English: church | ; English: jam | ; similar to English: hedgehog | ; English: bench |- style="text-align:center;" !Retroflexmūrdhanya | ; English: stop | ; English: top | ; English: door | ; similar to English: adhere | ; English: name |- style="text-align:center;" !apico-Dentaldantya | ; Spanish: tomate | ; Aspirated | ; Spanish: donde | ; Aspirated | ; Spanish: nombre |- style="text-align:center;" !Labial oṣṭhya | ; English: spin | ; English: pit | ; English: bone | ; similar to English: clubhouse | ; English: mine |}

{|class="wikitable" |+ Non-Plosives/Sonorants |- ! !Palataltālavya !Retroflexmūrdhanya !Dentaldantya !Labial/Glottal oṣṭhya |- style="text-align:center;" !Approximantantastha | ; English: you | ; American English: butter | ; Spanish: la | (labio-dental); English: vase |- style="text-align:center;" !Sibilant/Fricative ūṣmang | ; English: ship | ; Retroflex form of | ; English: same | (glottal); English ahead |}

Accent

Vedic Sanskrit had pitch accent: Some syllables had a high tone, and the following syllable a falling tone, though through ellipsis a falling tone may occur elsewhere.

Classical Sanskrit ...

Phonology and sandhi

The Sanskrit vowels are as discussed in the section above. The long syllabic l () is not attested, and is only discussed by grammarians for systematic reasons. Its short counterpart occurs in a single root only, "to order, array". Long syllabic r () is also quite marginal, occurring in the genitive plural of r-stems (e.g. '''' "mother" and '''' "father" have gen.pl. '''' and ''''). are vocalic allophones of consonantal . There are thus only 5 invariably vocalic phonemes, :.

Visarga is an allophone of and , and anusvara , Devanagari of any nasal, both in pausa (i.e., the nasalized vowel). The exact pronunciation of the three sibilants may vary, but they are distinct phonemes. An aspirated voiced sibilant was inherited by Indo-Aryan from Proto-Indo-Iranian but lost shortly before the time of the Rigveda (aspirated fricatives are exceedingly rare in any language). The retroflex consonants are somewhat marginal phonemes, often being conditioned by their phonetic environment; they do not continue a PIE series and are often ascribed by some linguists to the substratal influence of Dravidian or other substrate languages. The nasal is a conditioned allophone of ( and are distinct phonemes— 'minute', 'atomic' [nom. sg. neutr. of an adjective] is distinctive from 'after', 'along'; phonologically independent occurs only marginally, e.g. in 'directed forwards/towards' [nom. sg. masc. of an adjective]). There are thus 31 consonantal or semi-vocalic phonemes, consisting of four/five kinds of stops realized both with or without aspiration and both voiced and voiceless, three nasals, four semi-vowels or liquids, and four fricatives, written in IAST transliteration as follows: : or a total of 36 unique Sanskrit phonemes altogether.

The phonological rules which are applied when combining morphemes to a word, and when combining words to a sentence, are collectively called ''sandhi'' "composition". Texts are written phonetically, with sandhi applied (except for the so-called '''').

Writing system

Sanskrit was spoken in an oral society, and the oral tradition was maintained through the development of early classical Sanskrit literature. Writing was not introduced to India until after Sanskrit had evolved into the Prakrits; when it was written, the choice of writing system was influenced by the regional scripts of the scribes. Therefore, Sanskrit has no native script of its own. As such, virtually all of the major writing systems of South Asia have been used for the production of Sanskrit manuscripts. Since the late 19th century, ''devanāgari'' has become the ''de facto'' standard writing system for Sanskrit publication, quite possibly because of the European practice of printing Sanskritic texts in this script. Devanāgari is written from left to right, lacks distinct letter cases, and is recognizable by a distinctive horizontal line running along the tops of the letters that links them together.

The earliest known inscriptions in Sanskrit date to the 1st century BCE. They are in the Brahmi script, which was originally used for Prakrit, not Sanskrit. It has been described as a "paradox" that the first evidence of written Sanskrit occurs centuries later than that of the Prakrit languages which are its linguistic descendants. When Sanskrit was written down, it was first used for texts of an administrative, literary or scientific nature. The sacred texts were preserved orally, and were set down in writing, "reluctantly" (according to one commentator), and at a comparatively late date.

Brahmi evolved into a multiplicity of scripts of the Brahmic family, many of which were used to write Sanskrit. Roughly contemporary with the Brahmi, the Kharosthi script was used in the northwest of the subcontinent. Later (around the 4th to 8th centuries CE) the Gupta script, derived from Brahmi, became prevalent. From ca. the 8th century, the Sharada script evolved out of the Gupta script. The latter was displaced in its turn by Devanagari from ca. the 11/12th century, with intermediary stages such as the Siddham script. In Eastern India, the Bengali script and, later, the Oriya script, were used. In the south where Dravidian languages predominate, scripts used for Sanskrit include Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Grantha.

thumb|300px|Sanskrit in modern Indian and other Brahmi scripts. ''May [[Shiva|Śiva bless those who take delight in the language of the gods.'' (Kalidasa)]]

Romanization

Since the late 18th century, Sanskrit has been transliterated using the Latin alphabet. The system most commonly used today is the IAST (International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration), which has been the academic standard since 1888/1912. ASCII-based transliteration schemes have evolved due to difficulties representing Sanskrit characters in computer systems. These include Harvard-Kyoto and ITRANS, a transliteration scheme that is used widely on the Internet, especially in Usenet and in email, for considerations of speed of entry as well as rendering issues. With the wide availability of Unicode aware web browsers, IAST has become common online.

It is also possible to type using an alphanumeric keyboard and transliterate to devanagari using software like Mac OS X's international support.

European scholars in the 19th century generally preferred Devanagari for the transcription and reproduction of whole texts and lengthy excerpts. However, references to individual words and names in texts composed in European languages were usually represented with Roman transliteration. From the 20th century onwards, due to production costs, textual editions edited by Western scholars have mostly been in Romanized transliteration.

Grammar

Grammatical tradition

Sanskrit grammatical tradition (, one of the six Vedanga disciplines) began in late Vedic India and culminated in the of , which consists of 3990 sutras (ca. 5th century BCE). About a century after (around 400 BCE) Kātyāyana composed Vārtikas on Pāṇinian sũtras. Patañjali, who lived three centuries after Pāṇini, wrote the '''', the "Great Commentary" on the and Vārtikas. Because of these three ancient Sanskrit grammarians this grammar is called Trimuni Vyākarana. To understand the meaning of sutras Jayaditya and Vāmana wrote the commentary named Kāsikā 600 CE. Pāṇinian grammar is based on 14 Shiva sutras (aphorisms). Here whole Mātrika (alphabet) is abbreviated. This abbreviation is called Pratyāhara.

Verbs

Sanskrit has ten classes of verbs divided into in two broad groups: athematic and thematic. The thematic verbs are so called because an ''a'', called the theme vowel, is inserted between the stem and the ending. This serves to make the thematic verbs generally more regular. Exponents used in verb conjugation include prefixes, suffixes, infixes, and reduplication. Every root has (not necessarily all distinct) zero, , and grades. If V is the vowel of the zero grade, the -grade vowel is traditionally thought of as a + V, and the -grade vowel as ā + V.

The verb tenses (a very inexact application of the word, since more distinctions than simply tense are expressed) are organized into four 'systems' (as well as gerunds and infinitives, and such creatures as intensives/frequentatives, desideratives, causatives, and benedictives derived from more basic forms) based on the different stem forms (derived from verbal roots) used in conjugation. There are four tense systems: Present (Present, Imperfect, Imperative, Optative)

Perfect

Aorist

Future (Future, Conditional)

Nouns

Sanskrit is a highly inflected language with three grammatical genders (masculine, feminine, neuter) and three numbers (singular, plural, dual). It has eight cases: nominative, vocative, accusative, instrumental, dative, ablative, genitive, and locative.

The number of actual declensions is debatable. Pāṇini identifies six ''karakas'' corresponding to the nominative, accusative, dative, instrumental, locative, and ablative cases. Pāṇini defines them as follows (Ashtadhyayi, I.4.24–54):

# ''Apadana'' (lit. 'take off'): "(that which is) firm when departure (takes place)." This is the equivalent of the ablative case, which signifies a stationary object from which movement proceeds. # ''Sampradana'' ('bestowal'): "he whom one aims at with the object". This is equivalent to the dative case, which signifies a recipient in an act of giving or similar acts. # ''Karana'' ("instrument") "that which effects most." This is equivalent to the instrumental case. # ''Adhikarana'' ('location'): or "substratum." This is equivalent to the locative case. # ''Karman'' ('deed'/'object'): "what the agent seeks most to attain". This is equivalent to the accusative case. # ''Karta'' ('agent'): "he/that which is independent in action". This is equivalent to the nominative case. (On the basis of Scharfe, 1977: 94)

Personal pronouns and determiners

Sanskrit pronouns are declined for case, number, and gender. The pronominal declension applies to a few adjectives as well. Many pronouns have alternative enclitic forms.

The first and second person pronouns are declined for the most part alike, having by analogy assimilated themselves with one another. Where two forms are given, the second is enclitic and an alternative form. Ablatives in singular and plural may be extended by the syllable -''tas''; thus ''mat'' or ''mattas'', ''asmat'' or ''asmattas''. Sanskrit does not have true third person pronouns, but its demonstratives fulfill this function instead by standing independently without a modified substantive.

There are four different demonstratives in Sanskrit: ''tat'', ''etat'', ''idam'', and ''adas''. ''etat'' indicates greater proximity than ''tat''. While ''idam'' is similar to ''etat'', ''adas'' refers to objects that are more remote than ''tat''. ''eta'', is declined almost identically to ''ta''. Its paradigm is obtained by prefixing ''e-'' to all the forms of ''ta''. As a result of ''sandhi'', the masculine and feminine singular forms transform into '''' and ''''.

The enclitic pronoun ''ena'' is found only in a few oblique cases and numbers. Interrogative pronouns all begin with ''k-'', and decline just as ''tat'' does, with the initial ''t-'' being replaced by ''k-''. The only exception to this are the singular neuter nominative and accusative forms, which are both ''kim'' and not the expected ''*kat''. For example, the singular feminine genitive interrogative pronoun, "of whom?", is ''''. Indefinite pronouns are formed by adding the participles ''api'', ''cid'', or ''cana'' after the appropriate interrogative pronouns. All relative pronouns begin with ''y-'', and decline just as ''tat'' does. The correlative pronouns are identical to the ''tat'' series.

In addition to the pronouns described above, some adjectives follow the pronominal declension. Unless otherwise noted, their declension is identical to ''tat''.

''eka'': "one", "a certain". (singular neuter nominative and accusative forms are both ''ekam'')

''anya'': "another".

''sarva'': "all", "every". (singular neuter nominative and accusative forms are both ''sarvam'')

''para'': "the other". (singular neuter nominative and accusative forms are both ''param'')

''sva'': "self" (a reflexive adjective). (singular neuter nominative and accusative forms are both ''svam'')

Compounds

One other notable feature of the nominal system is the very common use of nominal compounds, which may be huge (10+ words) as in some modern languages such as German and Finnish. Nominal compounds occur with various structures, however morphologically speaking they are essentially the same. Each noun (or adjective) is in its (weak) stem form, with only the final element receiving case inflection. The four principle categories of nominal compounds are:

; (co-ordinative) : These consist of two or more noun stems, connected in sense with 'and'. Examples are ''rāma-lakşmaņau''—Rama and Lakshmana, ''rāma-lakşmaņa-bharata-śatrughnāh''—Rama, Lakshmana, Bharata and Satrughna, and ''pāņipādam''—limbs, literally hands and feet, from pāņi = hand and pāda = foot. ; (determinative) : There are many ; in a the first component is in a case relationship with another. For example, a doghouse is a dative compound, a house ''for'' a dog; other examples include instrumental relationships ("thunderstruck") and locative relationships ("towndwelling"). ; (descriptive) : A compound where the relation of the first member to the last is appositional, attributive or adverbial; e.g., uluka-yatu (owl+demon) is a demon in the shape of an owl. are considered by some to be . ; (possessive/exocentric) : Bahuvrīhi compounds refer to a compound noun that refers to a thing which is itself not part of the compound. For example the word bahuvrīhi itself, from bahu = much and vrīhi = rice, denotes a rich person—one who has much rice.

Syntax

Because of Sanskrit's complex declension system the word order is free. In usage, there is a strong tendency toward subject–object–verb (SOV), which was the original system in place in Vedic prose. However, there are exceptions when word pairs cannot be transposed.

Numerals

The numbers from one to ten:

# # # # # # # # # #

The numbers one through four are declined. Éka is declined like a pronominal adjective, though the dual form does not occur. Dvá appears only in the dual. Trí and catúr are declined irregularly:

tisrás tisrás

	Three	Four
Masculine !! Neuter !! Feminine !! Masculine !! Neuter !! Feminine
! Nominative	tráyas		|	catvā́ras	catvā́ri	cátasras
Accusative	trīn		|	catúras	catvā́ri	cátasras
! Instrumental
! Dative
! Ablative
! Genitive
! Locative

Influence

Modern-day India

Influence on vernaculars

Sanskrit's greatest influence, presumably, is that which it exerted on languages of India that grew from its vocabulary and grammatical base; for instance, Hindi is a "Sanskritized register" of the Khariboli dialect. However, all modern Indo-Aryan languages, as well as Munda and Dravidian languages, have borrowed many words either directly from Sanskrit (''tatsama'' words), or indirectly via middle Indo-Aryan languages (''tadbhava'' words). Words originating in Sanskrit are estimated to constitute roughly fifty percent of the vocabulary of modern Indo-Aryan languages, and the literary forms of (Dravidian) Malayalam and Kannada. Literary texts in Telugu are lexically Sanskrit or Sanskritized to an enormous extent, perhaps seventy percent or more.

Sanskrit is prized as a storehouse of scripture and as the language of prayers in Hinduism. Like Latin's influence on European languages and Classical Chinese's influence on East Asian languages, Sanskrit has influenced most Indian languages. While vernacular prayer is common, Sanskrit mantras are recited by millions of Hindus, and most temple functions are conducted entirely in Sanskrit, often Vedic in form. Of modern day Indian languages, Nepali, Bengali, Assamese, Konkani and Marathi still retain a largely Sanskrit and Prakrit vocabulary base, while Hindi and Urdu tend to be more heavily weighted with Arabic and Persian influence. The Indian national anthem, Jana Gana Mana, is written in a literary form of Bengali (known as ''sadhu bhasha''); it is Sanskritized to be recognizable but is still archaic to the modern ear. The national song of India, Vande Mataram, which was originally a poem composed by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay and taken from his book called 'Anandamath', is in a similarly highly Sanskritized Bengali. Malayalam, Telugu and Kannada also combine a great deal of Sanskrit vocabulary. Sanskrit also has influence on Chinese through Buddhist Sutras. Chinese words like 剎那 ''chànà'' (Devanāgarī: क्षण '''' 'instantaneous period of time') were borrowed from Sanskrit.

Revival attempts

The 1991 and 2001, census of India recorded 49,736 and 14,135 persons, respectively, with Sanskrit as their native language. Since the 1990s, efforts to revive spoken Sanskrit have been increasing. Many organizations like the ''Samskrta Bharati'' are conducting Speak Sanskrit workshops to popularize the language. The state of Uttarakhand in India has ruled Sanskrit as its second official language. The ''CBSE'' (Central Board of Secondary Education) of India has made Sanskrit a third language (though it is an option for the school to adopt it or not, the other choice being the state's own official language) in the schools it governs. In such schools, learning Sanskrit is an option for grades 5 to 8 (Classes V to VIII). This is true of most schools affiliated to the ICSE board too, especially in those states where the official language is Hindi. Sudharma, the only daily newspaper in Sanskrit has been published out of Mysore in India since the year 1970. Since 1974, there has been a short daily news broadcast on state-run All India Radio.

In these Indian villages, inhabitants of all castes speak Sanskrit natively since childhood: #Mattur in Karnataka #Mohad, District: Narasinhpur, Madhya Pradesh #Jhiri, District: Rajgadh, Madhya Pradesh #Kaperan, District: Bundi, Rajasthan #Khada, District: Banswada, Rajasthan #Ganoda, District: Banswada, Rajasthan #Bawali, District: Bagapat, Uttar Pradesh #Shyamsundarpur, District: Kendujhar, Orissa

Symbolic usage

In the Republic of India, in Nepal and Indonesia, Sanskrit phrases are widely used as mottoes for various educational and social organizations (much as Latin is used by some institutions in the West). The motto of the Republic is also in Sanskrit.

; Republic of India: '' ''Satyameva Jayate'' "Truth alone triumphs" ; Nepal: '' ''Janani Janmabhūmisca Svargādapi garīyasi'' "Mother and motherland are greater than heaven" ; Goa: '' ''Sarve Bhadrāni Paśyantu Mā Kaścid Duhkhabhāg bhavet'' "May all perceive good, may not anyone attain unhappiness" ; Life Insurance Corporation of India: '', ''Yogakshemam Vahāmyaham'' "I shall take care of welfare" (taken from the Bhagavad Gita) ; Indian Navy: '' ''Shanno Varuna'' "May Varuna be peaceful to us" ; Indian Air Force: '' '''' "Touching the Sky with Glory" (from Bhagavad Gita: XI, Verse 24) ; Mumbai Police: '' ''Sadrakshanaaya Khalanigrahanaaya'' "For protection of the good and control of the wicked" ; Indian Coast Guard: '' ''Vayam Rakshāmaha'' "We protect" ; All India Radio: '' ''Bahujana-hitāya bahujana-sukhāya'' "For the benefit of all, for the comfort of all" ; Indonesian Navy: '' ''Jalesveva Jayamahe'' "On the Sea We Are Glorious" ; Rajputana Rifles: '' ''Veerabhogya Vasundhara'' "The earth is fit to be ruled by the brave" ; Aceh Province: '' ''Pancacita'' "Five Goals"

Many of the post–Independence educational institutions of national importance in India and Sri Lanka have Sanskrit mottoes. For a fuller list of such educational institutions, see List of educational institutions which have Sanskrit phrases as their mottoes.

Interaction with other languages

Sanskrit and related languages have also influenced their Sino-Tibetan-speaking neighbors to the north through the spread of Buddhist texts in translation. Buddhism was spread to China by Mahayanist missionaries sent by Emperor Ashoka mostly through translations of Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit and Classical Sanskrit texts, and many terms were transliterated directly and added to the Chinese vocabulary. (Although Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit is not Sanskrit, properly speaking, its grammar and vocabulary are substantially the same, both because of genetic relationship, and because of conscious implementation of Pāṇinian standardizations on the part of composers. Buddhist texts composed in Sanskrit proper were primarily found in philosophical schools like the Madhyamaka.) The situation in Tibet is similar; many Sanskrit texts survive only in Tibetan translation (in the Tanjur).

In Southeast Asia, languages such as Thai and Lao contain many loan words from Sanskrit, as do Khmer, Vietnamese to a lesser extent, through Sinified hybrid Sanskrit. For example, in Thai, the Rāvana—the emperor of Sri Lanka is called 'Thosakanth' which is a derivation of his Sanskrit name 'Dashakanth' ("of ten necks").

Many Sanskrit loanwords are also found in Austronesian languages, such as Javanese particularly the old form from which nearly half the vocabulary is derived from the language. Other Austronesian languages, such as traditional Malay, modern Indonesian, also derive much of their vocabulary from Sanskrit, albeit to a lesser extent, with a large proportion of words being derived from Arabic. Similarly, Philippine languages such as Tagalog have many Sanskrit loanwords, although more are derived from Spanish.

A Sanskrit loanword encountered in many Southeast Asian languages is the word ''bhāṣā'', or spoken language, which is used to mean language in general, for example ''bahasa'' in Malay, Indonesian and Tausug, ''basa'' in Javanese, Sundanese, and Balinese'', ''phasa'' in Thai and Lao, ''bhasa'' in Burmese, and 'phiesa'' in Khmer.

Usage in modern times

Many of India's and Nepal's scientific and administrative terms are named in Sanskrit, as a counterpart of the western practice of naming scientific developments in Latin or Greek. The Indian guided missile program that was commenced in 1983 by DRDO has named the five missiles (ballistic and others) that it has developed as Prithvi, Agni, Akash, Nag and Trishul. India's first modern fighter aircraft is named HAL Tejas.

Recital of Sanskrit shlokas as background chorus in films, television advertisements and as slogans for corporate organizations has become a trend. The opera ''Satyagraha'' by Philip Glass uses texts from the ''Bhagavad Gita'', sung in the original Sanskrit.

Recently, Sanskrit also made an appearance in Western pop music in two recordings by Madonna. One, "Shanti/Ashtangi", from the 1998 album ''Ray of Light'', is the traditional Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga chant referenced above set to music. The second, "Cyber-raga", released in 2000 as a B-side to Madonna's album ''Music'', is a Sanskrit-language ode of devotion to a higher power and a wish for peace on earth. The climactic battle theme of ''The Matrix Revolutions'' features a choir singing a Sanskrit prayer from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad in the closing titles of the movie. Composer John Williams featured choirs singing in Sanskrit for ''Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom'' and in ''Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace''.

The Sky1 version of the title sequence in season one of ''Battlestar Galactica 2004'' features the Gayatri Mantra, taken from the Rig Veda (3.62.10). The composition was written by miniseries composer Richard Gibbs.

Sanskrit has also seen a significant revival in China. Musicians such as Sa Dingding have written pop songs in Sanskrit.

Computational linguistics

There have been suggestions to use Sanskrit as a metalanguage for knowledge representation in e.g. machine translation, and other areas of natural language processing because of its relatively high regular structure. This is due to Classical Sanskrit being a regularized, prescriptivist form abstracted from the much more complex and richer Vedic Sanskrit. This leveling of the grammar of Classical Sanskrit began during the Brahmana phase, and had not yet completed by the time of Pāṇini, when the language had fallen out of popular use.

See also

Notes

Footnotes

Citations

References

Further reading

Introductions

Grammars

Whitney, William Dwight ''The Roots, Verb-Forms and Primary Derivatives of the Sanskrit Language: (A Supplement to His Sanskrit Grammar)''

Wackernagel, Debrunner, ''Altindische Grammatik'', Göttingen.

*vol. I. Phonology Jacob Wackernagel (1896)

*vol. II.1. Introduction to morphology, nominal composition, Wackernagel (1905)

*vol. II.2. nominal suffixes, J. Wackernagel and Albert Debrunner (1954)

*vol. III. nominal inflection, numerals, pronouns, Wackernagel and Debrunner (1930)

Delbrück, B. ''Altindische Tempuslehre'' (1876)

Dictionaries

Otto Böhtlingk, Rudolph Roth, ''Petersburger Wörterbuch'', 7 vols., 1855–75

Otto Böhtlingk, ''Sanskrit Wörterbuch in kürzerer Fassung'' 1883–86 (1998 reprint, Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi)

Manfred Mayrhofer, ''Kurzgefasstes etymologisches Wörterbuch des Altindischen'', 1956–76

Manfred Mayrhofer, ''Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Altindoarischen'', 3 vols., 2742 pages, 2001, ISBN 3-8253-1477-4

External links

Sanskrit Central is where you can read Sanskrit Blogs, do discussions about Sanskrit, watch Sanskrit Videos, look at Sanskrit Dictionary and do many more things.

Academic Courses on Sanskrit Around The World

Samskrita Bharati, organization promoting Sanskrit

Sanskrit Alphabet in Devanagari, Gujarati, Bengali, and Thai scripts with an extensive list of Devanagari, Gujarati, and Bengali conjuncts

snskrit.blogspot.com, more about the Sanskrit Language

Free Sanskrit Books, Sanskrit PDF books collection for download

Software

Romanized Nepali Unicode Keyboard developed by OOPSLite Technologies

Sanskrit transliteration software with font conversion to Latin and other Indian Languages

Sanskrit documents

Sanskrit Documents — Documents in ITX format of Upanishads, Stotras etc. and a metasite with links to translations, dictionaries, tutorials, tools and other Sanskrit resources.

Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon

Gretil: Göttingen Register of Electronic Texts in Indian Languages — a cumulative register of the numerous download sites for electronic texts in Indian languages.

Gaudiya Grantha Mandira — A Sanskrit Text Repository. This site also provides encoding converter.

Sanskrit texts at Sacred Text Archive

Digital Library of India at Ernet.in and IIIT.in — scanned/OCRed copies of public-domain books

Primers

A Practical Sanskrit Introductory by Charles Wikner

Sanskrit Self Study by Chitrapur Math

An Analytical Cross Referenced Sanskrit Grammar By Lennart Warnemyr

Category:Ancient languages Category:Classical languages of India Category:Indo-Aryan languages Category:Subject–object–verb languages Category:Languages written in Devanagari

kbd:Санскрит af:Sanskrit als:Sanskrit am:ሳንስክሪት ar:لغة سنسكريتية an:Sanscrito as:সংস্কৃত ast:Sánscritu az:Sanskrit bn:সংস্কৃত ভাষা zh-min-nan:Hoân-gí be:Санскрыт be-x-old:Санскрыт bh:संस्कृत bcl:Sanskrito bg:Санскрит bar:Sanskrit bo:ལེགས་སྦྱར་སྐད། bs:Sanskrit br:Sañskriteg ca:Sànscrit ceb:Pinulongang Sanskrito cs:Sanskrt cy:Sansgrit da:Sanskrit de:Sanskrit dv:ސަންސްކްރިއްތް et:Sanskriti keel el:Σανσκριτική γλώσσα es:Sánscrito eo:Sanskrito eu:Sanskrito fa:زبان سانسکریت hif:Sanskrit fr:Sanskrit fy:Sanskryt ga:An tSanscrait gl:Lingua sánscrita gan:梵語 gu:સંસ્કૃત ભાષા hak:Fan-vun xal:Эндкгин келн ko:산스크리트어 hy:Սանսկրիտ hi:संस्कृत भाषा hr:Sanskrt io:Sanskrita linguo bpy:সংস্কৃত id:Bahasa Sanskerta ia:Sanscrito is:Sanskrít it:Lingua sanscrita he:סנסקריט jv:Basa Sangskreta kn:ಸಂಸ್ಕೃತ ka:სანსკრიტი kk:Санскрит kw:Sanskrytek rw:Igisansikiriti sw:Kisanskrit kv:Санскрит ku:Sanskrît la:Lingua Sanscrita lv:Sanskrits lt:Sanskritas lij:Lengua sànscrïa li:Sanskriet lmo:Sanscrit hu:Szanszkrit nyelv mk:Санскритски јазик mg:Sanskrity ml:സംസ്കൃതം mr:संस्‍कृत भाषा arz:سانسكريتى ms:Sanskrit mn:Санскрит хэл my:သင်္သကရိုက်ဘာသာ nah:Sanscritotlahtōlli nl:Sanskriet ne:संस्कृत new:संस्कृत ja:サンスクリット no:Sanskrit nn:Sanskrit oc:Sanscrit or:ସଂସ୍କୃତ ଭାଷା pnb:سنسکرت ps:سانسګریت ژبه pms:Sànscrit nds:Sanskrit pl:Sanskryt pt:Sânscrito ro:Limba sanscrită qu:Sanskrit simi rue:Санскріт ru:Санскрит sah:Санскрит sa:संस्कृतम् sco:Sanskrit scn:Lingua sanscrita simple:Sanskrit sk:Sanskrit sl:Sanskrt ckb:زمانی سانسکریت sr:Санскрит sh:Sanskrit su:Basa Sangsakerta fi:Sanskrit sv:Sanskrit tl:Wikang Sanskrito ta:சமசுகிருதம் roa-tara:Lènga sanscrite tt:Санскрит te:సంస్కృతము th:ภาษาสันสกฤต tr:Sanskritçe uk:Санскрит ur:سنسکرت vi:Tiếng Phạn war:Sinanskrit yi:סאנסקריט zh-yue:梵文 bat-smg:Sanskrita kalba zh:梵语

Imee Ooi (pronounce as English "E-ME WOO --E" (connected) - Ch: 黃慧音, pinyin: Huáng Huìyīn, which means HUANG-Yellow - HUI-Wisdom - YIN-Sound/Music, being her original name by birth) is a Malaysian music producer, composer, arranger and vocalist who brings traditional Buddhist chants, mantras and dharanis (typically from the Sanskrit, Pali, Tibetan or Mandarin languages) into sung versions with accompanying musical scores. She also is a classical pianist by training.

Ooi is the musical director and composer of two highly-acclaimed stage musicals; ''Siddhartha'' and ''Above Full Moon'', and is currently working on a musical entitled ''Jewel of Tibet''. The musical is set during the Tang Dynasty and is about a Tang princess who marries a Tibetan king and how she brings Buddhism to Tibet.

Imee Ooi established I.M.M Musicworks in 1997, and to date has released over 20 albums.

Discography

''Jayamangalagatha Mantra''

''The Chant of Metta''

''Great Compassionate Mantra''

''Mantra of Guanyin''

''Mantras of the Sanskrit''

''Namo Amitabha (Mandarin)''

''Diamond Sutra (Mandarin)''

''Arya Ekdasa-Mukha Dharani''

''Medicine Buddha Dharani''

''Amitabha (Mandarin)''

''Usnisa Vijaya Dharani Sutra''

''Karaniya Metta Sutta''

''Ratana Sutta, Discourse of the Jewels''

''The Wisdom of Manjusri Bodhisattva''

''Series of 10 Short Mantras, Volume 1''

''Series of 10 Short Mantras, Volume 2''

''Series of 10 Short Mantras, Volume 3''

''Series of 10 Short Mantras, Volume 4''

''Tisarana''

''Heart Sutra''

''Om Mani Padme Hum''

''Green Tara Mantra''

''The Mantra of Guru Rinpoche''

''Chants from Heart to Heart''

''Message in Music Vol.1''

''Message in Music Vol.2''

''Message in Music Vol.3''

''Heart Of Repentance''

''Hymns Of The Pureland''

''The Shore Beyond Prajna Paramita Hrdaya Sutram (Sanskrit)''

''Universal Door Chapter (The Lotus Sutra)''

''The Mantra Of Vajrasattva ~ Om Benza Sato Hum''

''World In One Heart : Voices Of The Heart Sutra''

''Shurangama Mantra''

References

Meet Imee the mantra musician

I.M.M. Music Works

An interview by 劉潔芬 in Chinese: 俗世慧音

Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Living people Category:Malaysian Buddhists Category:Malaysian Chinese people Category:Malaysian female singers Category:Malaysian musicians Category:Performers of Buddhist music

es:Imee Ooi

{{infobox person | name	Dr. Vagish Shastri | image Vagish_Shastri.jpg | image_size 170px | caption | birth_date July 24, 1934 | birth_place Khurai, India | occupation Sanskrit grammarian, linguist, yogi. | spouse Late Rekha Tripathi }}

Vagish Shastri (also known as B P T Vagish Shastri) is an international Sanskrit grammarian, eminent linguist, Tantric and yogi. He was born in the city of Khurai, in Madhya Pradesh in 1934. His primary education was in Khurai, followed by his education in Vrindavan and Benaras. He started his teaching career as a lecturer of Sanskrit at Tikmani Sanskrit College, Varanasi in 1959 and soon he became the Director and Professor of the Research Institute at Sampurnanand Sanskrit University, Varanasi in the year 1970. He served this prestigious academic post for about three decades. He received his Master degree Vyākaraņa Āchārya (1959); Ph.D. Vidyāvāridhi in Grammar and Historical Linguistics (1964), German Diploma (1966) and D.Litt. Vāchaspati (1969) from Sampurnanand Sanskrit University.

Contribution

Dr. Vagish Shastri started to write essays at the age of 19. His more than 200 essays and Research papers were published in different journals nationally and internationally. He was Secretary President of one section in fifth world Sanskrit conferences. He has been chief editor of many series such as Sarasvati Bhavana Granthamala he edited more than 300 manuscripts which took form of books. He also was chief editor of famous Sanskrit journal Sarasvati Susama. He has written books on different subjects which includes grammatical and philological research work, drama, history, poetry, satire, historical research work and metaphysical writings.

Honors and awards

Senior Research fellowship, University Grants Commission, 1964-67.

Kālidasa Award, Highest literary Award, Uttar Pradesh, 1966-67.

Honored 6 times by Uttar Pradesh Sanskrit Academy, 1968, 1971, 1981, 1985, 1995, 1996.

Mahāmahopādhyāya, Śri Kashi Pandit Parishad, 1982.

Bāņa Bhatţţ Award, Uttar Pradesh Sanskrit Academy, 1990.

Veda-Vedānga Award, Rajasthan Sanskrit Academy, 1994.

Anusansdhan Puraskāra (Research Award), Utkal Pāti trust, 1995

Swami Vishnu Tirth Sammāna (Spiritual writing Award), Indore, 2002

Special Award, Govt. of Uttar Pradesh Sanskrit Sansthan, 2005.

Books authored

Whitney's principal target in accusing Pāṇini and Pāṇiniyas of unreliability was the Dhatupatha. He set forth his views that of nearly 2000 roots of Dhatupatha published by Westergaard and Bohtlingk more than half of these are not attested in literature. The most ambitious work in the direction noted is ''Pāniniya Dhātupātha Samikşhā''(1965) wherein the author gives an alphabetically arranged catalogue of roots found in different Dhatupathas together with attestation - verbal and nominal forms - in Sanskrit, Pali, Apabhramsa and other Prakrits. BPT Vagish Shastri professed aim is to refute Whitney's Claim.

The radio drama ''Krişakānām Nāgpāshah'' is a symbolic play with the tone and tenor of patriotism which aims at common harmony, pride in one's own nation, and sacrifice for one's motherland which is highly relevant. This is a creative work from the vibrant pen of BPT Vagish Shastri.

Grammatical and philological research work

# ''Pāniniya Dhātupātha Samikşhā'', Sampurnanand Sanskrit University, 1965 # ''Taddhitantah Kechana Sabdah'', Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1967. # ''Anusandhana Paddhatih'', Sampurnanand Sanskrit University, 1969 (Presently this book is being translated into Telugu, by Sanskrit Department, Waltair University) # ''Dhātvartha-Vijnanam'', Sampurnanand Sanskrit University, 1980, This is the most ambitious work in the semantics of verbal roots # ''Sabda Nirvachana aur Sabdartha'', Yogic Voice Consciousness Institute, Varanasi, 2004. # ''Gypsy language and Grammar'', Yogic Voice Consciousness Institute, Varanasi, 2005. # ''Upsahityam'', Yogic Voice Consciousness Institute, Varanasi, 2007.

Creative writing in Sanskrit, Hindi and English

His creative writing of drama, story, poetry, satire is present in his books # ''Krişakānām Nāgpāshah'': A drama concerned with National Awakening, Chaukhamba Vidya Bhavan, Varanasi, 1958. # ''Katha Samvartika'', (Original Sanskrit Stories), Chaukhamba Vidya Bhavan, Varanasi, 1959. # ''Tolstoy Kathasaptakam'', (Translation in Sanskrit), Chaukhamba Vidya Bhavan, Varanasi, 1970. (In Sampurnanand Sanskrit University curriculum). # ''Bharat Mein Sanskrit ki Anivaryata Kyon'', Choukhamba Vidya Bhavan, Varanasi, 1977. # ''Sri Ganga Stavana Chayanika'', Yogic Voice Consciousness Institute, Varanasi, 1987. # ''Sri Siva Stavana Chayanika'', Yogic Voice Consciousness Institute, Varanasi, 1989. # ''Narma-Saptasati'' : verse-satires, Education ministry, Uttar Pradesh Sanskrit Academy, 1994. # ''Sanskrit Vangmaya Manthanam'', Financial support by Ministry of Education, Govt of India, 1990. # ''Atankavada Satakam'' : Verse critique on Terrorism, Yogic Voice Consciousness Institute, Varanasi, 1992. # ''Sasvata Kavya ki Atma'', Yogic Voice Consciousness Institute, Varanasi, 2000. # ''Jagatika Prema aur Sasvta Ananda'', Yogic Voice Consciousness Institute, Varanasi, 2004. # ''Humour in Ancient India'', Yogic Voice Consciousness Institute, Varanasi, 2004. # ''Shabd Nirvachan Aur Shabdarth, Yogic Voice Consciousness Institute, Varanasi, 2007. # ''Sanskrit Enhanced Knowledge of West", Vagyoga Chetna Peetham, Varanasi, 2009. # ''Sri Vagyoga Tantram'', Yogic Voice Consciousness Institute, Varanasi, 2010.

Historical research work

# ''Bundelkhand Ki Prachinata (Antiquity of (Bundelkand)'', Self Publication, 1965. Here refused claim of Archealogist A. Cunningham who suggested native place of Bundelas inMaharastra. This book describes an etymological identification of the mystries 'pulindas' mentioned in later Vedic, Epic, pauranika and inscriptional literature. # ''Gypsy Bhasha'' : An historical and grammatical study, Yogic Voice Consciousness Institute, Varanasi, 1986. # ''Mahakunmbh evam Sangama Snanana'' : Ek Vaijnanika Vivechana, Yogic Voice Consciousness Institute, Varanasi, 1988. # ''Nadiya Ek Ghat Bahutere'', Yogic Voice Consciousness Institute, Varanasi, 2001. # Autobiography of the Vagyogi, Yogic Voice Consciousness Institute, Varanasi, 2003. # ''Migration of Aryans from India'', Yogic Voice Consciousness Institute, Varanasi, 2007. # ''Bundelkhand Ki Prachinata'', Enlarged Edition, Vag Yog Chetna Granthmala, Varanasi, 2011.

Metaphysical writing

# 'Parachetana ki Yatra'' (Journey to Superconsciousness), Yogic Voice Consciousness Institute, Varanasi, 2000. He trained more than 1000 students from all over the world in Kundalini Meditation, Tantra, Yoga and Philosophy. # ''Shakti, Shiva and Yoga'', Yogic Voice Consciousness Institute, Varanasi, 2000. # ''Yogachudamani Upnishad'', Yogic Voice Consciousness Institute, Varanasi, 2004. # ''Samvit Prakasha (Vaishnav Tantra)'', Yogic Voice Consciousness Institute, Varanasi, 2006 # ''Trayambakam Yajamahe'', Yogic Voice Consciousness Institute, Varanasi, 2006.

New Sanskrit grammar

Dr. B P T Vagish Shastri has published three books on his invented Sanskrit Grammar "Vagyoga Technique". # ''Sanskrit Sikahne ki Saral aur Vaijnanika Vidhi'', Yogic Voice Consciousness Institute, Varanasi, 1990. # ''Vagyoga : Mnemonic Sasnkrit Technique'', Yogic Voice Consciousness Institute, Varanasi, 2000. # ''Vagyoga : Conversational Sanskrit'', Yogic Voice Consciousness Institute, Varanasi, 2001. (In 2009 this book is translated in Russian language) # ''Sanskrit Made Easy : Part - I'', Yogic Voice Consciousness Institute, Varanasi, 2011.

Dictionary

# ''Vamana-Purana Visayanukrama Sabdakosa'', Sampurnanand Sanskrit University, 1996. # ''Etymological Bundeli Dictionary'', Yogic Voice Consciousness Institute, Varanasi, (In Press).

Research papers

More than 200 research papers are published # Rakshnadyastadasharthakah: Root Av, All India Oriental Conference, Vol. XXVII, Kurukshetra University, 1975 # The Science of Abbreviation in Ancient India, Third World Sanskrit Conference, Paris, 1977. # Some Pāṇinian roots used only in Persian and European languages, V world Sanskrit Conference, Weimar, 1979. # Padma Purana and Raghuvamsa, Ganganath Jha Research Journal, Vol. XXXViii, January 1982, Allahabad.

Supervision

Being Director, Research Institute, Sampurnanand Sanskrit University he has guided students for Ph.D. And D.Litt degree in different subjects.

! S.No.	! Subject	! Degree	! No. of Students
1.		Ph.D.	20
2.	Poetics & Poetry	Ph.D.	20
3.	Philosophy & Tantra	Ph.D.	06
4.	Veda	Ph.D.	02
5.	Purana	Ph.D.	02
6.		Ph.D.	01
7.	Ayurveda	Ph.D.	02
8.		D.Litt	01
9.	Poetics & Poetry	D.Litt	03
10.	Philosophy & Tantra	D.Litt	01
11.	Purana	D.Litt	01

Vagyoga: Natural law and Mnemonic technique

Dr. Vagish Shastri has invented a unique technique of teaching Sanskrit grammar called 'Vagyoga'. This is a mnemonic method to enter in the soul of words, it is based upon natural law, which does not requires learning by heart any sutras. This is a mathematical way of learning Sanskrit Grammar. Many scholars from all over the world learned Sanskrit in very short time and they made translation of Sanskrit texts in their own language and many of them appointed as Professors.

Taught pronunciation to Madonna

Pop singer Madonna sang Yoga Taravali; Dr. Vagish Shastri found mistakes in her singing. Madonna came in touch of Dr. Shastri through BBC radio and learned pronunciation.

External links

Official Site

Video

Photos of Vagish Shastri in Banares, February 1996

Autobiography of the VagYogi: The Life of Kundalini Experiences

"Vagyoga: Kundalini Meditation: Spiritual Experiences of Meditators" by Vagish Shastri (in English)

"Shakti, Shiva and Yoga" by Vagish Shastri (in English)

Vagyoga Association Europe

References

Category:Indian educators Category:Sanskrit grammarians Category:Indian writers Category:People from Madhya Pradesh Category:People from Sagar, Madhya Pradesh Category:1934 births Category:Living people Category:Sanskrit scholars

hi:वागीश शास्त्री ka:ვაგიშ შასტრი

Name	Adi Shankara
Birth date	788 CE
Birth place	Kalady, present day Kerala, India
Birth name	Shankara
Death date	820 CE
Death place	Kedarnath, Pala Empirepresent day Uttarakhand, India
Guru	Govinda Bhagavatpada
Philosophy	Advaita Vedanta
Honors	Expounded Advaita Vedanta, Hindu Revivalism, Founded Dashanami Sampradaya, Shanmata
Footnotes	}}

Adi Shankara ( , pronounced ) (788 CE - 820 CE), also known as and was an Indian sage from Kalady in present day Kerala who consolidated the doctrine of ''advaita vedānta''. His teachings are based on the unity of the ''ātman'' and ''brahman''— non-dual brahman, in which brahman is viewed as ''nirguna brahman'', ''brahman'' without attributes.

Shankara travelled across the Indian subcontinent to propagate his philosophy through discourses and debates with other thinkers. He is reputed to have founded four ''mathas'' ("monasteries"), which helped in the historical development, revival and spread of Advaita Vedanta of which he is known as the greatest revivalist. Adi Shankara is believed to be the organizer of the Dashanami monastic order and the founder of the Shanmata tradition of worship.

His works in Sanskrit concern themselves with establishing the doctrine of ''advaita'' (nondualism). He also established the importance of monastic life as sanctioned in the Upanishads and Brahma Sutra, in a time when the Mimamsa school established strict ritualism and ridiculed monasticism. Shankara represented his works as elaborating on ideas found in the ''Upanishads'', and he wrote copious commentaries on the Vedic canon (''Brahma Sutra'', principal ''upanishads'' and ''Bhagavad Gita'') in support of his thesis. The main opponent in his work is the Mimamsa school of thought, though he also offers arguments against the views of some other schools like Samkhya and certain schools of Buddhism.

Life

Traditional accounts of Adi Shankara's life can be found in the Shankara Vijayams, which are poetic works that contain a mix of biographical and legendary material, written in the epic style. The most important among these biographies are the '''' (of Mādhava, c. 14th century), the '''' (of Cidvilāsa, c. between 15th century and 17th century), and the '''' (of the Kerala region, extant from c. 17th century).

Birth and childhood

Shankara was born to Sivaguru [VISWAKARMA] and Aryamba Antharjanam in Kaladi in central present day Kerala,4 km from Nedumbassery airport, Kochi. According to lore, it was after his parents, who had been childless for many years, prayed at the Vadakkunnathan temple, Thrissur that Sankara was born under the star Thiruvathira.

His father died while Shankara was very young. Shankara's '''', the initiation into student-life, had to be delayed due to the death of his father, and was then performed by his mother. As a child, Shankara showed remarkable scholarship, mastering the four Vedas by the age of eight.

Sannyasa

At the tender age of 7, Shankara was inclined towards sannyasa, but it was only after much persuasion that his mother finally gave her consent. He only received her consent in a very interesting manner. While bathing in the river Poorna one day, a crocodile caught hold of his leg. Shankara appealed to his mother, who had arrived at Poorna, asking for permission to become a sanyasi. His mother finally gave consent, only to have the crocodile let go of young Shankara. A crocodile had never been found in Poorna ever or since Shankara then left Kerala and travelled towards North India in search of a guru. On the banks of the Narmada River, he met Govinda Bhagavatpada the disciple of Gaudapada at Omkareshwar. When Govinda Bhagavatpada asked Shankara's identity, he replied with an extempore verse that brought out the Advaita Vedanta philosophy. Govinda Bhagavatapada was impressed and took Shankara as his disciple.

The guru instructed Shankara to write a commentary on the Brahma Sutras and propagate the Advaita philosophy. Shankara travelled to Kashi, where a young man named Sanandana, hailing from Chola territory in South India, became his first disciple. According to legend, while on his way to the Vishwanath Temple, Sankara came upon an untouchable accompanied by four dogs. When asked to move aside by Shankara's disciples, the untouchable replied: "Do you wish that I move my ever lasting Ātman ("the Self"), or this body made of flesh?" Realizing that the untouchable was none other than god Shiva himself, and his dogs the four Vedas, Shankara prostrated himself before him, composing five ''shlokas'' known as ''Manisha Panchakam''.

At Badari he wrote his famous ''Bhashyas'' ("commentaries") and ''Prakarana granthas'' ("philosophical treatises").

Meeting with Mandana Mishra

One of the most famous debates of Adi Shankara was with the ritualist . held the view that the life of a householder was far superior to that of a monk. This view was widely shared and respected throughout India at that time. Thus it would have been important for Adi Shankara to debate with him. Madana Mishra's guru was the famous Mimamsa philosopher, . Shankara sought a debate with and met him in Prayag where he had buried himself in a slow burning pyre to repent for sins committed against his guru: had learned Buddhist philosophy from his Buddhist guru under false pretenses, in order to be able to refute it. Learning anything without the knowledge of one's guru while still under his authority constitutes a sin according to the Vedas. thus asked Adi Shankara to proceed to and debate with him instead.(Mahishmati is on the banks of the holy river - Narmada, in Madhya Pradesh. Mahishmati is now known as Mandala. . Mandala finds mention in Pauranic literature as the capital of Sahasrabahu Kartyaveer Arjun who had obstructed the river by his thousand arms by his frolicking, at his capital Mahishmati),

After debating for over fifteen days, with 's wife acting as referee, accepted defeat. then challenged Adi Shankara to have a debate with her in order to 'complete' the victory. She asked him questions related to sexual congress between man and woman - a subject in which Shankaracharya had no knowledge, since he was a true celibate and sannyasi. Sri Shankracharya asked for a "recess" of 15 days. As per legend, he used the art of "para-kaya pravesa" (the spirit leaving its own body and entering another's) and exited his own body, which he asked his disciples to look after, and psychically entered the dead body of a king. The story goes that from the King's two wives, he acquired all knowledge of "art of love". The queens, thrilled at the keen intellect and robust love-making of the "revived" King, deduced that he was not their husband, as of old. The story continues that they sent their factotums to "look for the lifeless body of a young sadhu and to cremate it immediately" so that their "king" (Shankracharya in the king's body) would continue to live with them. Just as the retainers piled Shankracharaya's lifeless corpse upon a pyre and were about to set fire to it, Shankara entered his own body and regained consciousness. Finally, he answered all questions put to him by ; and she allowed to accept ''sannyasa'' with the monastic name , as per the agreed-upon rules of the debate.

Philosophical tour

Adi Shankara then travelled with his disciples to Maharashtra and Srisailam. In Srisailam, he composed ''Shivanandalahari'', a devotional hymn in praise of Shiva. The ''Madhaviya Shankaravijayam'' says that when Shankara was about to be sacrificed by a Kapalika, the god Narasimha appeared to save Shankara in response to Padmapadacharya's prayer to him. As a result, Adi Shankara composed the Laksmi-Narasimha stotra.

He then travelled to , the temple of Hari-Shankara and the temple at Kollur. At Kollur, he accepted as his disciple a boy believed to be dumb by his parents. He gave him the name, ("one with the amalaka fruit on his palm", i.e., one who has clearly realised the Self). Next, he visited to establish the and made his disciple.

After this, Adi Shankara began a ''Dig-vijaya'' "tour of conquest" for the propagation of the Advaita philosophy by controverting all philosophies opposed to it. He travelled throughout India, from South India to Kashmir and Nepal, preaching to the local populace and debating philosophy with Hindu, Buddhist and other scholars and monks along the way.

With the Malayali King Sudhanva as companion, Shankara passed through Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Vidarbha. He then started towards Karnataka where he encountered a band of armed Kapalikas. King Sudhanva, with his Nairs, resisted and defeated the Kapalikas. They safely reached Gokarna where Shankara defeated in debate the Shaiva scholar, Neelakanta.

Proceeding to Saurashtra (the ancient Kambhoja) and having visited the shrines of Girnar, Somnath and Prabhasa and explaining the superiority of Vedanta in all these places, he arrived at Dwarka. of Ujjayini, the proponent of Bhedābeda philosophy, was humbled. All the scholars of Ujjayini (also known as Avanti) accepted Adi Shankara's philosophy.

He then defeated the Jainas in philosophical debates at a place called Bahlika. Thereafter, the Acharya established his victory over several philosophers and ascetics in Kamboja (region of North Kashmir), Darada and many regions situated in the desert and crossing mighty peaks, entered Kashmir. Later, he had an encounter with a tantrik, Navagupta at Kamarupa.

Accession to Sarvajnapitha

Adi Shankara visited '''' (Sharada Peeth) in Kashmir (now in POK, Pakistan). The ''Madhaviya Shankaravijayam'' states this temple had four doors for scholars from the four cardinal directions. The southern door (representing South India) had never been opened, indicating that no scholar from South India had entered the Sarvajna Pitha. Adi Shankara opened the southern door by defeating in debate all the scholars there in all the various scholastic disciplines such as Mimamsa, Vedanta and other branches of Hindu philosophy; he ascended the throne of Transcendent wisdom of that temple.

Towards the end of his life, Adi Shankara travelled to the Himalayan area of Kedarnath-Badrinath and attained ''videha mukti'' ("freedom from embodiment"). There is a ''samadhi mandir'' dedicated to Adi Shankara behind the Kedarnath temple. However, there are variant traditions on the location of his last days. One tradition, expounded by ''Keraliya Shankaravijaya'', places his place of mahasamadhi (leaving the body) as Vadakkunnathan temple in Thrissur, Kerala. The followers of the Kanchi kamakoti pitha claim that he ascended the '''' and attained ''videha mukti'' in Kanchipuram (Tamil Nadu).

Dates

Several different dates have been proposed for Shankara: 788–820 CE: This is the mainstream scholarly opinion, placing Shankara in mid to late 8th century CE. These dates are based on records at the , which is the only matha to have maintained a relatively unbroken record of its Acharyas; starting with the third Acharya, one can with reasonable confidence date the others from the 8th century to the present. The Sringeri records state that Shankara was born in the 14th year of the reign of "VikramAditya", but it is unclear as to which king this name refers. Though some researchers identify the name with Chandragupta II (4th. c. CE), modern scholarship accepts the VikramAditya as being from the Chalukya dynasty of Badami, most likely Vikramaditya II (733–746 CE), which would place him in the middle of the 8th c. Max Muller, Macdonnel, Pathok, Deussen and Radhakrishnan all accept the dates 788-820 CE. The date 788–820 is also among those considered acceptable by Swami Tapasyananda, though he raises a number of questions. 509–477 BCE: This dating, more than a millennium ahead of all others, is based on records of the heads of the Shankara s at Dvaraka Pitha and Govardhana matha and the fifth Peetham at Kanchi. However, such an early date is not consistent with the fact that Shankara quotes the Buddhist logician Dharmakirti, who finds mention in Xuanzang (7th c.). Also, his near-contemporary Kumārila Bhaṭṭa is usually dated ca. 8th c. CE. Most scholars feel that due to invasions and other discontinuities, the records of the Dwaraka and Govardhana mathas are not as reliable as those of Sringeri. Thus, while considerable debate exists, the pre-Christian Era dates are usually discounted, and the most likely period for Shankara is during the 8th c. CE.

44-12 BCE: Anandagiri believed he was born at Chidambaram in 44 BCE and died in 12 BCE.

6th Century CE: Telang placed him in this century. Sir R G Bandarkar believed he was born in 680 CE.

805-897 CE: A D Venkiteswara not only places Adishankara later than most, but also had the opinion that it would not have been possible for him to have achieved all the works apportioned to him, and has him live ninety two years.

Mathas

Adi Shankara founded four (Sanskrit: ) to guide the Hindu religion. These are at Sringeri in Karnataka in the south, Dwaraka in Gujarat in the west, Puri in Orissa in the east, and Jyotirmath (Joshimath) in Uttarakhand in the north. Hindu tradition states that he put in charge of these mathas his four main disciples: Sureśvara, Hastamalakacharya, Padmapāda, and Totakacharya respectively. The heads of the mathas trace their authority back to these figures. Each of the heads of these four mathas takes the title of Shankaracharya ("the learned Shankara") after the first Shankaracharya. The table below gives an overview of the four ''Amnaya Mathas'' founded by Adi Shankara and their details.

Guru-shishya tradition>Shishya	Relative direction>Direction	Matha>	!	!Veda	!
	!East			Rig Veda	Bhogavala
	!South			Yajur Veda
	!West			Sama Veda	Kitavala
	!North			Atharva Veda	Nandavala

According to the tradition in Kerala, after Sankara's samadhi at Vadakkunnathan Temple his disciples founded four mathas in Thrissur, namely Naduvil Madhom, Thekke Madhom, Idayil Madhom and Vadakke Madhom.

Philosophy and religious thought

''Advaita'' ("non-dualism") is often called a monistic system of thought. The word "Advaita" essentially refers to the identity of the Self (Atman) and the Whole (Brahman). Advaita Vedanta says the one unchanging entity (Brahman) alone exists, and that changing entities do not have absolute existence, much as the ocean's waves have no existence in separation from the ocean. The key source texts for all schools of are the Prasthanatrayi–the canonical texts consisting of the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita and the Brahma Sutras.

Adi Shankara was the first in the tradition to consolidate the ("doctrine") of Advaita Vedanta. He wrote commentaries on the Prasthana Trayi. A famous quote from , one of his ''prakarana granthas'' that succinctly summarises his philosophy is:

''''

Brahman is the only truth, the spatio-temporal world is an illusion, and there is ultimately no difference between Brahman and individual self.

Advaita Vedanta is based on '''' ("scriptures"), ''yukti'' ("reason") and ''anubhava'' ("experience"), and aided by ''karmas'' ("spiritual practices"). This philosophy provides a clear-cut way of life to be followed. Starting from childhood, when learning has to start, the philosophy has to be realised in practice throughout one's life, even up to death. This is the reason why this philosophy is called an experiential philosophy-the underlying tenet being "That thou art", meaning that ultimately there is no difference between the experiencer and the experienced (the world) as well as the universal spirit (Brahman). Among the followers of Advaita, as well those of other doctrines, there are believed to have appeared ''Jivanmuktas'', ones liberated while alive. These individuals (commonly called ''Mahatmas'', great souls, among Hindus) are those who realised the oneness of their self and the universal spirit called Brahman.

Adi Shankara's Bhashyas (commentaries) on the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita and the Brahma Sutras are his principal works. Although he mostly adhered to traditional means of commenting on the Brahma Sutra, there are a number of original ideas and arguments to establish that the essence of Upanishads is Advaita. He taught that it was only through direct knowledge that one could realize Brahman. "A perception of the fact that the object seen is a rope will remove the fear and sorrow which result from the illusory idea that it is a serpent". Cited from Shankara's "Vivekachuudaamani"/ verse #12/translated by Mohini M Chatterji. This metaphor was borrowed from Yogacara Buddhist thinkers, who used it in a different context.

Adi Shankara's opponents accused him of teaching Buddhism in the garb of Hinduism, because his non-dualistic ideals seemed rather radical to contemporary Hindu philosophy, and so he earned the title "pracchannabauddha". However, although Advaita proposes the theory of Maya, explaining the universe as a "trick of a magician", Adi Shankara and his followers see this as a consequence of their basic premise that Brahman alone is real. Their idea of Maya emerges from their belief in the reality of Brahman, as opposed to Buddhist doctrines of emptiness, which emerge from the empirical Buddhist approach of observing the nature of reality.

Historical and cultural impact

Because of his unification of two seemingly disparate philosophical doctrines, Atman and Brahman, Westerners who know about him perceive him as the "St. Thomas Aquinas of Indian thought" and "the most brilliant personality in the history of Indian thought."

At the time of Adi Shankara's life, Hinduism was increasing in influence in India at the expense of Buddhism and Jainism. Hinduism was divided into innumerable sects, each quarreling with the others. The followers of Mimamsa and Sankhya philosophy were atheists, insomuch that they did not believe in God as a unified being. Besides these atheists there were numerous theistic sects. There were also those who rejected the Vedas, like the Charvakas.

Adi Shankara held discourses and debates with the leading scholars of all these sects and schools of philosophy to controvert their doctrines. He unified the theistic sects into a common framework of Shanmata system. In his works, Adi Shankara stressed the importance of the Vedas, and his efforts helped Hinduism regain strength and popularity. Many trace the present worldwide prominence of Vedanta to his works. He travelled on foot to various parts of India to restore the study of the Vedas.

Even though he lived for only thirty-two years his impact on India and on Hinduism was striking. He reintroduced a purer form of Vedic thought. His teachings and tradition form the basis of Smartism and have influenced Sant Mat lineages. He is the main figure in the tradition of Advaita Vedanta. He was the founder of the '''' of Hindu monasticism and '''' of Smarta tradition. He introduced the '''' form of worship.

Adi Shankara, along with Madhva and Ramanuja, was instrumental in the revival of Hinduism. These three teachers formed the doctrines that are followed by their respective sects even today. They have been the most important figures in the recent history of Hindu philosophy. In their writings and debates, they provided polemics against the non-Vedantic schools of Sankhya, Vaisheshika etc. Thus they paved the way for Vedanta to be the dominant and most widely followed tradition among the schools of Hindu philosophy. The Vedanta school stresses most on the Upanishads (which are themselves called Vedanta, ''End or culmination of the Vedas''), unlike the other schools that gave importance to the ritualistic Brahmanas, or to texts authored by their founders. The Vedanta schools hold that the Vedas (which include the Upanishads) are unauthored, forming a continuous tradition of wisdom transmitted orally. Thus the concept of ''apaurusheyatva'' ("being unauthored") came to be the guiding force behind the Vedanta schools. However, along with stressing the importance of Vedic tradition, Adi Shankara gave equal importance to the personal experience of the student. Logic, grammar, Mimamsa and allied subjects form main areas of study in all the Vedanta schools.

Regarding meditation, Shankara refuted the system of Yoga and its disciplines as a direct means to attain moksha, rebutting the argument that it can be obtained through concentration of the mind. His position is that the mental states discovered through the practices of Yoga can be indirect aids to the gain of knowledge, but cannot themselves give rise to it. According to his philosophy, knowledge of Brahman springs from inquiry into the words of the Upanishads, and the knowledge of Brahman that shruti provides cannot be obtained in any other way. It has to be noted that it is generally considered that for Shankara the Absolute Reality is attributeless and impersonal, while for Madhava and Ramanuja, the Absolute Truth is Vishnu. This has been a subject of debate, interpretation, and controversy since Shankara himself is attributed to composing the popular 8th century Hindu devotional composition Bhaja Govindam (literal meaning, "Worship Govinda"). This work of Adi Shankara is considered as a good summary of Advaita Vedanta and underscores the view that devotion to God, Govinda, is not only an important part of general spirituality, but the concluding verse drives through the message of Shankara: "Worship Govinda, worship Govinda, worship Govinda, Oh fool! Other than chanting the Lord's names, there is no other way to cross the life's ocean". Bhaja Govindam invokes the almighty in the aspect of Vishnu; it is therefore very popular not only with Sri Adi Shankaracharya's immediate followers, the Smarthas, but also with Vaishnavas and others.

A well known verse, recited in the Smarta tradition, in praise of Adi Shankara is:

| || ''''| ''''|| I salute the compassionate abode of the Vedas, Smritis and Puranas known as Shankara Bhagavatpada, who makes the world auspicious.

Adi Shankara begins his Gurustotram or Verses to the Guru with the following Sanskrit Sloka, that has become a widely sung Bhajan:

The great Indian Muslim Philosopher Muhammad Iqbal considered him to be one of the greatest thinkers of medieval India and acknowledged influence by him.

Works

Adi Shankara's works deal with logically establishing the doctrine of Advaita Vedanta as he saw it in the Upanishads. He formulates the doctrine of Advaita Vedanta by validating his arguments on the basis of quotations from the Vedas and other Hindu scriptures. He gives a high priority to ''svānubhava'' ("personal experience") of the student. His works are largely polemical in nature. He directs his polemics mostly against the Sankhya, Buddha, Jaina, Vaisheshika and other non-vedantic Hindu philosophies.

Traditionally, his works are classified under ("commentary"), ("philosophical treatise") and Stotra ("devotional hymn"). The commentaries serve to provide a consistent interpretation of the scriptural texts from the perspective of Advaita Vedanta. The philosophical treatises provide various methodologies to the student to understand the doctrine. The devotional hymns are rich in poetry and piety, serving to highlight the relationship between the devotee and the deity.

Adi Shankara wrote ''Bhashyas'' on the ten major Upanishads, the Brahma Sutras and the Bhagavad Gita. In his works, he quotes from Shveshvatara, Kaushitakai, Mahanarayana and Jabala Upanishads, among others. ''Bhashyas'' on Kaushitaki, Nrisimhatapani and Shveshvatara Upanishads are extant but the authenticity is doubtful. Adi Shankara's is the earliest extant commentary on the Brahma Sutras. However, he mentions older commentaries like those of Dravida, Bhartrprapancha and others.

In his Brahma Sutra Bhashya, Adi Shankara cites the examples of Dharmavyadha, Vidura and others, who were born with the knowledge of Brahman acquired in previous births. He mentions that the effects cannot be prevented from working on account of their present birth. He states that the knowledge that arises out of the study of the Vedas could be had through the Puranas and the Itihasas. In the Taittiriya Upanishad Bhashya 2.2, he says:

''''

It has been established that everyone has the right to the knowledge (of Brahman) and that the supreme goal is attained by that knowledge alone.

Some western academics consider only Upadeśasāhasrī among independent philosophical works as authentic. Many other such texts exist, among which there is a difference of opinion among scholars on the authorship of Viveka Chudamani. The former pontiff of Sringeri Math, Shri Shri Chandrashekhara Bharati III has written a voluminous commentary on the Viveka Chudamani.

Adi Shankara also wrote commentaries on other scriptural works, such as the Vishnu sahasranāma and the Sānatsujātiya. Like the Bhagavad Gita, both of these are contained in the Mahabhārata.

Film

In 1983 a film directed by G. V. Iyer named ''Adi Shankaracharya'' was premiered, the first film ever made entirely in Sanskrit language in which all of Adi Shankaracharya's works were compiled. The movie received the National Film Awards for Best Film, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography and Best Audiography and has been known as a master piece.

See also

Adi Shri Gauḍapādāchārya

Advaita

Brahman

Jnana Yoga

Mandukya Upanishad

Sannyasa

Shri Gaudapadacharya Mutt

Shri Govinda Bhagavatpadacharya

Vairagya

Vivekachudamani

Notes

References

Further reading

Mishra, Parameshwar Nath (2003), "Era of Adi Shankaracharya 507 B.C.-475 B.C.", Howrah Samskriti Rakshak Parishad, West Bengal.

Mishra, Parameshwar Nath, "Amit Kalrekha", 3 vols. (in Hindi), Howrah Samskriti Rakshak Parishad, West Bengal.

Reigle, David, "Original Sankaracarya", www.easterntradition.org/original%20sankaracarya.pdf

External links

Complete works of Adi Shankara

Information on Sri Adi Shankara

Category:Advaitin philosophers Category:Hindu monks Category:Hindu gurus Category:Hindu philosophers Category:Ontologists Category:9th-century philosophers Category:Hindu reformers Category:Sanskrit writers Category:History of Kerala Category:People from Ernakulam district Category:788 births Category:820 deaths

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