[Advaita-l] Gayatri mantra

[Sunil Bhattacharjya]

Dear friends,

Vyakarana is very important but even more important probably is to derive the right meaning. I can give you more than one example, where the learned scholars of Sanskrit goofed up the meanings. Kindly permit me to cite one example. 


The Suryasiddhanta (1.12-15) says 30 Ahoratras make one Saura masa and 12 Saura masas make one Divyavarsha. Thus  the Divyavarsha is equal to 360 Ahoratras. One Chaturyuga consists of 12,000 Suryabdas or Divyavarshas and the number of Ahoratras in it are 4320,000. The Puranas, the Manu Smriti and the Mahabhatarata also say that one Chaturyuga is 12,000 Solar years. Vayu purana even says that 2700 Divyavarshas (solar years) is equal to 3030 Lunar (Sidereal) years. Yet due to wrong translation of the Sanskrit verses the Siddhanta scholars are interpreting the Chaturyuga 
to be 4320,000 years and that has been going on for the last two centuries, despite the fact that there were many learned Sanskrit scholars invcolved in the Suryasiddhantic studies. Initially I also wondered as to how can the Siddhanta write something different from what is given in the Fifth Veda (ie. the Puranas and the Itihasas). When I checked the Sanskrit verses myself I found that the Sanskrit verses have been misinterpreted. 


What I mean to say is that the knowledge of the language is complete only when one can interpret the language properly. Panini (followed by Patanjali, Katyana and others) came quite sometime after the Buddhists misused the Sanskrit language and I believe that prompted Panini to do something so that for the future there will be his guidelines for teaching the Sanskrit language free from any distortions and that is the advent of the Classical Sanskrit period. But the million dollar question is did Panini make any retrospective corrections in the Vedic texts to fall in line with his Vyakarana. In my opinion the Vedic Sanskrit was beyond the scope of panini, though Panini derived help from that it formulating his grammar. Now my worry is whether we should or should not apply Panini's grammar very strictly for interpreting the Gayatri mantra. I shall be grateful if the learned and experienced  Sanskrit scholars in the forum throw light on this aspect.

Regards,

Sunil K. Bhattacharjya


________________________________
From: Srikanta Narayanaswami <srikanta.narayanaswami at yahoo.com>
To: "advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org" <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
Sent: Thursday, August 11, 2011 12:33 AM
Subject: [Advaita-l] Gayatri mantra

Namaste,
////The word "Dhiyoyonah"is formed by two words,"Dhi+Yonah.//
With due respects to your age i would like to state that you confuse yourself and confuse others withyour "vyAkaraNa sAstra".Even the meaning of gAyatri mantra is wrong....IMHOregs,sriram

_____________________________________________________________________________________
Mr.sriram,let there be temperance in your speech.Doesnot matter if you state something wrongly.How doyou know my age to give me respect.I donot care for it.What do you know about "vyakarana"?It seems by the way you write, you are unfit to discuss Advaita.The confusion is within you.You accept what others say without verifying yourself.
N.Srikanta.
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