sanskrit

Why is the anusvaara never written as the homorganic nasal consonant before a sibilant (श, ष, and स)? Is the it not pronounced the way I think ( ञ्श, ण्ष, and न्स respectively) or is there another reason I am unaware of? Ex: कंस is never written as कन्स अंश is never written as अञ्श and...

Hello, everybody! I am trying to translate a passage from the लाट्यायनश्रौतसूत्रम् (4, 2), and in its first sentence I read वक्राकपिशीर्ष्ट्यौ, which at first sight seems to me to be the nominative or accusative dual of a compound noun. I can separate वक्रा (name of a musical instrument), कपि...

The anusvaara before a 'य' is apparently pronounced as 'ञ'. However, I wonder why there are a lot of words where the 'य' is associated with other nasals (न्याय, अन्यथा, पुण्य, वरेण्य, रम्या). The only words I can think of that use the anusvaara before the 'य' is 'संयुक्त', 'संयोग', etc, and I...

Hello, everybody: I am trying to translate the 17th chapter of the शाङ्खायनश्रौतसूत्रम्, and I am struggling with a the word स्यान्द्याभिर्, which I cannot find in the dictionaries or interpret as a compound. It seems obvious to me that it is the instrumental plural of स्यान्द्या, which I...

Hello, everybody: I am trying to translate a passage from the शांखायनश्रौतसू्त्रम् । १७ । ५, the ninth sentence of which reads: तमेतस्योपालम्भ्यस्य ऋषभस्य चर्नणा प्राचीनग्रीवेणोत्तरतोलोम्नाभिषीव्यन्ति । ९ । I quote from p. 152 of the "Vedic Reserve" edition, which corresponds to pp. 219-20 (=...

I want to know the Sanskrit words that use the letter ॠ, since the only one I could find is the word for 'theta': ॠकार. Are there others? Also, this arises the question: does this letter have any matra? Or is it the same as the matra of ऋ?

Hello, I am trying to transate a passage from Kālidāsa's Raghuvaṃśa (3, 57). In the text that is available online at Kālidāsa: Raghuvaṃśa (GRETIL) (April 28th 2023), I find what seems to be a compound, गरुत्मदाशीविशभीमदर्शनैः, which I have not managed to transate yet. It seems to me that it is...

Hello everybody, can anyone tell me, what language that is and what it means?

Hi, The other day I heard someone say "kaleshaNR" in East Punjabi. What does the feminine noun ਕਲੇਸ਼ਣ /kaleshaNR/ (کلیشݨ) actually mean? In Sanskrit there is a similar word which could be related but the Punjabi meaning could be somewhat different. Imagine a typical situation of mother-in-law...

Hello, everybody! I am trying to translate a passage of the शङ्खायनश्त्रैतसूत्रम्, 17, 14. Its sixth sentence begins with the sequence यत्तैवोद्गातामन्दीमधिरोहत्यथ, which we think it can be analyzed as follows: यत्र एव उद्गाता अमन्दीम् (or आमन्दीम्) अधिरोहति अथ. Our problem lies in the word...

Hello everybody! I am struggling with the form संशिष्यामि, which I think that can be degaged from the sequence संशिष्याम्यविहृतम् in शाङ्खायनश्रौतसूत्रम् , 17, 14 (on p. 155 of the PDF of the edition that can be downloaded from the "Vedic Reserve" website), At first, it seems the first person...

Friends, This is from the beginning verse of Kalidasa’s Meghadutam: कश्चित् कान्ताविरहगुरुणा स्वाधिकारात् प्रमत्तः शापेनास्तंगमितमहिमा वर्षभोग्येण भर्तुः। यक्षश्चक्रे जनकतनयास्नानपुण्योदकेषु स्निग्धच्छायातरुषु वसतिं रामगिर्याश्रमेषु॥ In M R Kale’s edition this annotation is given: वसतिम् =...

Hello, everybody! I am trying to translate a passage of the तैत्तिरीयसंहिता (2, 1, 2, 6), where I am struggling with a word that I cannot find, although I can identify its root. In that passage, which can be read, for example, in https://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_veda/taittirIyasamhitA.html, I...

I was on YouTube the other day and a video of Doordarshan's Sanskrit news programme caught my eye. I watched a few, and it got me thinking a bit about modern spoken Sanskrit. What I'm essentially interested in getting people's opinions on is this: how close do you think Sanskrit like this is to...

Hello, everybody! I am trying to translate a passage from the शतपथब्राह्मणम् (14, 8, 12), and I am struggling with the words शश्वतीः समाः, at the end of the passage. According to the edition by Weber. Albrecht, 1855: "The White Yajurveda", Berlin-London, pp. 1096-7, the passage reads: यदा वै...

The forms of 'jan' as recorded in the Monier-Williams dictionary are as follows: It seems to say that Class 1 Present Active and Middle of the verb are 'janati' and 'janate' respectively; Present Subjunctive Active 'janat', Present Subjunctive Middle 'janata', Imperfect Active 'ajanat'. My...

Hello, everybody: I am writing because I cannot find or parse the word वतपम् in the वाजसनेयिसंहिता, 30, 19, at least in the text as it appears in https://www.titus.uni-frankfurt.de/texte/etcd/one/aind/ved/yvw/vs/vs.htm. Judging from Griffith's translation, available in...

Hello everyone, I would like to know which is (or were, in case there were several of them) the ancient, classic Sanskrit word for cross, as in a symbol were two lines converge, no matter the shape of its design. I am especially interested if there is one or several words that have a really...

Hi! I found a thread on this forum where a couple of users mention how 'dh' in Sanskrit/Prakrit was often changed to 'd_h' in Persian, with the blank being a vowel. What other examples of this are there (apart from dhilli --> dehli)? And why was 'dh' changed to 'd_h' instead of 'z' like the...

Hello all, This has been touched upon in some threads but there was no thread dedicated to this topic. There seems to be a lot of words that both mean salt and beauty... I've put a list at the end of this post. Does anyone have any ideas why this might be the case? Is this present in other...

Hello, everybody! I am translating a passage of the विष्णुपुराणम् (6, 1), and the 14th couplet contains a construction that I cannot understand (moreover, when I check the translations by Wilson and Taylor, against the original, I cannot ser how the translators obtained the sense that they...

Hello, everybody! I have a doubt concerning a passage of the विष्णुपुराणम् (1, 3, 12), which, in the text available on line at the GRETIL website, reads: चत्वारि त्रीणि द्वे चैकं कृतादिषु यथाक्रमम् | दिव्याब्दानां सहस्राणि युगेष्वाहुः पुराविदः || My problem concerns the sequence यथाक्रमम्...

I'm quite familiar with the word गणिका (gaNikaa) in the sense of prostitute, dancing-girl, courtesan etc. But it is also the name of a Jasmin-type of flower and as such a female first name; but I have not come across the name often. My question is: For a native Hindi speaker, what would your...

Hello, everybody! Please ser my question in the attached file. Thank you very much in advance! Best regards.

Hello, Sanskrit jyotiṣa can mean both astronomy and astrology. As far as I know, in Vedic usage it referred to a basic form of astronomy in which the position of the stars were used to determine time. But in Classical Sanskrit it came to predominantly mean astrology, which was either derived...

Hello, everybody, I am translating a fragment of the विष्णुपुराणम् । ४ । २४ । १७, and there I have found a word, the meaning of which may be just guessed from the context, but which I cannot find in the dictionaries. The sentence, as I can read it in...

I have recently noticed this phenomenon in reading about the Kurukshetra War. For instance, at the time of the events of the Mahabharata, the descendants of Kuru were named Kauravas, and the daughter of the king Drupada was called Draupadi. Can anyone explain this morphological convention to me...

Hello everybody, I came across a term in Sanskrit : SARVABHUTA DHARANA, and it is pretty difficult to have a sense of what it means really in english as the combination of translation are immense. It came as a noun to a meditative practice. Will be happy if anybody could help. Stay Safe Be...

Hello, everybody! I am translating भागवतपुराणम् । १२ । २, and I have some doubts about the श्लोकास् २७ – २८, especially about the last verse of the śloka no. 28. In http://gretil.sub.uni-goettingen.de/gretil/corpustei/transformations/html/sa_bhAgavatapurANa.htm, I read: सप्तर्षीणां तु यौ पूर्वौ...

Hello, everybody: I am translating भागवतपुराणम् । १२ । २ , and I am struggling with the śloka no. 41. According to the text available at http://gretil.sub.uni-goettingen.de/gretil/corpustei/transformations/html/sa_bhAgavatapurANa.htm (last access, June 19th 2021), there we read...

I've been looking at a verse from the Atharva-Veda, specifically it's 20.18.3 and it goes like this: इ॒छन्ति॑ दे॒वाः सु॒न्वन्त॒ं न स्वप्ना॑य स्पृहयन्ति । यन्ति॑ प्र॒माद॒मत॑न्द्राः ॥३॥ Ichánti devā́ḥ sunvántaṃ ná svápnāya spṛhayanti; Yánti pramā́dam átandrāḥ. I found one translation which...

Hi. Hello. What do the words "SALA GRAMA" mean? I have read it in the "Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna" and I do not know what it means. Searching on YouTube "SALA GRAMA IN TELUGU" videos of a few small black stones appear but I do not understand what they say. Can someone explain the meaning...

Hello, everybody, I am translating भगवतपुराणम् । १२ । २ , and I have found a word (or a sequence where I have not figured out how to separate words) that I cannot find in the dictionaries I usually consult. I am following the edition available at...

Hello everybody! I am translating महाभारतम् । ३ । १८८, and I have a problem in the śloka 84, more specifically with its second half: विक्रोशमानश्चान्योन्यं जनो गां पर्यटिष्यति || "Crying to each other, people will travel over a cow," which makes no sense to me. Can anybody explain this? Thank...

Hello, I am translating महाभारतम् । ३ । १८८, and in the second verse of the śloka no. 80, I find the word शेरते, which I cannot find it in the dictionaries that I usually consult (Monier-Williams and Böhtlingk-Roth). The śloka no. 80 reads (I follow the text of...

Hello, everybody, I am trying to translate a passage from the Mahābhārata (3, 188), and I am struggling with the distichon 23. I am not sure as to whether I am understanding it properly. I am following the text available at https://bombay.indology.info/mahabharata/text/UD/MBh03.txt: सरित्तीरेषु...

Hiya! The Prajñāpārmitāhṛdayasūtra ("Heart Sutra") contains the following line: iha, śāriputra, rūpaṁ śūnyatā śūnyataiva rūpam, rūpān na pṛthak śūnyatā, śūnyatāyā na pṛthag rūpam, evam eva vedanā saṃjñā saṃskāro vijñānaṃ. Here, Śariputra, form is emptiness and emptiness is form. Emptiness is...

Hello everybody! I am struggling to translate some passages of the लघुकालचक्रतन्त्रम्. In 1, 153 (on page 338 of the edition by Vira, Raghu, & Chandra, Lokesh, 1966: Kālacakra Tantra and Other Texts. Part I, New Delhi, International Academy of Indian Culture), I read अद्रो ऽमोघोरनादी, where, if...

Hello everyone, I'm doing a research in Indo-European study. I know that Proto Indo-European consonant l usually became consonant r in Sanskrit, such as: *ḱléwos (fame) in Sanskrit śrávas; *kʷékʷlos (wheel) in Sanskrit cakrá; *ǵʰelh₃- (yellow) in Sanskrit हरि ; *lewk- (light) in Sanskrit...

This is about the arrangement of Sanskrit phonemes in Panini’s Astadhyayi. The legend of the revelation to Panini of the ‘Maheswara sutras’ that organise Sanskrit phonemes Is described in the following verse: "नृत्तावसाने नटराजराजो ननाद ढक्कां नवपञ्चवारम्। उद्धर्तुकामः सनकादिसिद्धान् एतद्विमर्शे...

Friends, "Ghoom Tana" is a song, written by Salman Ahmad, from the Pakistani Sufi-pop band Junoon. Ghoom Taana - Wikipedia Apparently is a semi-autobiographical song because it narrates the migration of his family from Patiala to Lahore. I translation sites, the song's title is left...

The Spoken Sanskrit website gives वङ्गालय bungalow but no other dicts. have that. Hindi "bangala" is bungalow and H. वङ्गालय is given as school. Is the Skt word a mistake ? Is school the correct H. वङ्गालय ? As Vanga became Bengal in 1200s , is वङ्गालय an ancient H. form originally...

Hi there! What is the meaning of the word Jalastambhanam? EIGHT MAJOR SIDDHIS. An accomplished, Purnayogi in the path of Kundalini Yoga is in possession of eight major Siddhis, viz., Anima, Mahima, Laghima, Garima, Prapti, Prakamya, Vasitvam and Ishitvam. 1. Anima: The Yogi can become as...

And it's on to chapter 2 of the story of Sāvitrī and Satyavān in the Mahābhārata. I must admit, I'm finding the grammar of these verses quite difficult to sort out. What's really got me scratching my head is कथायोगेन - why is it in the instrumental singular? But we'll get to that in a minute...

Hello, I read an article that was written by a Greek writer in the 1890s. The article praises the Sanskrit language. Here's a short excerpt he cites, but there's no translation of it. I'd be grateful, if anyone could translate it! Sarvapapavyakaram kuçalosyôpasampradam Svatchittaparidasmanam...

What I hope will be a fairly interesting grammatical question. I'm still on the Story of Sāvitrī and Satyavān in the Mahābhārata and I reached this verse, which I found quite complex grammatically: अन्तर्हितायां सावित्र्यां जगाम स्वगृहं नृपः । स्वराज्ये चावसत्प्रीतः प्रजा धर्मेण पालयन् ॥ १-२०...

Another slightly perplexing construction from the Mahābhārata has got me hitting my head against a wall a little bit. The line in question is, in my edition, the third of three: However, in other editions it may appear as the first of three: The word that interests me is दर्शयामास. This is...

So I was reading a bit of the Mahābhārata and I got stuck on this verse from the Sāvitryupākhyāna or the Story of Sāvitrī and Satyavān: हुत्वा शतसहस्रं स सावित्र्या राजसत्तम। षष्ठे षष्ठे तदा काले बभूव मितभोजनः ॥ १-९ ॥ I'll be honest, I don't know how to parse the second half of this verse...

Hello everyone, I came across a sentence in Rohinton Mistry's novel "A Fine Balance", in which some villagers of lower caste were insulting a Brahmin behind his back. I'm not sure what language this is, but judging by the story it should be mock Sanskrit using Hindi words concerning buggery...

Hi there. I am sure that this question may have been posited before, but I cannot find any information on it. Does ॐ, the "sacred syllable" of the Upanishads have any etymological meaning going back to the PIE roots? I have read that it connotes the concept of "beginning" or "a beginning", but...