Sanskrit Tidbits-3

Some of you may know that I am translating the Mahabharata in unabridged form, from Sanskrit to English.  Some of the action of the Mahabharata takes place in Hastinapura (Hastinaapura), the capital of the Kuru dynasty.  Hastinapura is roughly 40 km away from Meerut.  It is a real place.  There is a belief that the city owed its name to a king named Hasti, but there is another explanation too.  The word “hastin” means elephant.  “Pura” means city.  Therefore, there must have been a lot of elephants in Hastinapura, for the city to have obtained that name.  At the time of the Mahabharata, elephants were used quite a lot, including in the Kurukshetra War.  The word “naga” (naaga) has several meanings and one of these is elephant.  The word “gaja” also means elephant.  “Sahvya” (saahvya) is not a common Sanskrit word. You won’t find it in any of the standard dictionaries.  However, “sahva” means “called” or “named”.  Most people have heard of Hastinapura.  Unless you have read the Mahabharata very carefully, you may not know the Mahabharata also refers to Hastinapura as Nagasahvya and Gajasahvya.  Nagasahvya and Gajasahvya simply meant places named after elephants and the words are synonyms for Hastinapura.  The word “varana” (vaarana) also means elephant and in some rare instances, Hastinapura is also called Varanasahvya.

There is someone named Abhinav Agarwal.  He is a very serious and careful reader of the Mahabharata and that applies to my translation too.  However, he reads it in the English translation, not the Sanskrit.  Abhinav asked me a question.  Why does the Mahabharata refer to Hastinapura as Nagasahvya and Gajasahvya and why does it never refer to the city as Nagapura or Gajapura?  Nagapura and Gajapura are also logical names.  By the way, Abhinav is factually correct.  The words Nagapura and Gajapura are never used.  The question stumped me.  I had never thought about it.  Having thought about it, I got the answer.  Or at least, I think I have.  But before giving you the answer, I need to digress.

रामो राजमणिः सदा विजयते रामं रमेशं भजे ।

रामेणाभिहता निशाचरचमू रामाय तस्मै नमः ॥

रामान्नास्ति परायणं परतरं रामस्य दासोऽस्म्यहम् ।

रामे चित्तलयः सदा भवतु मे भो राम मामुद्धर ॥

What I have given you above is a small part from the “Sri Rama Raksha Stotram”, believed to have been composed by the sage Budha Koushika.  It is a prayer to Rama.  Since you still don’t know sandhi and how to break up words, this may seem difficult to understand.  But you will get the sense.  Let’s take it bit by bit.  Rama, a jewel (mani) among kings, is always victorious.  I worship Rama Ramesha.  Why is Rama also Ramesha?  Rama is an incarnation of Vishnu.  Ramaa is Lakshi, Vishnu’s consort.  Therefore, Ramesha, Ramaa’s lord, is Vishnu, or Rama.  Nishaacharas are those who wander around (chara) in the night (nishaa) and Rama destroyed their army (chamu).  I am bowing down before Rama.  There is no refuge or resort (paraayana) superior (paratara) to Rama.  I am Rama’s servant (daasa).  May my mind (chitta) always (sadaa) be dissolved in Rama.  Oh, Rama!  Save me. Taken bit by bit, it should be clear now.

Sanskrit is deceptive.  Sanskrit poets were clever and there is always something hidden somewhere.  Appearances are deceptive and it’s a bit like an onion with several layers.  Having understood the prayer, let’s take a closer look.  If you want, take out the vibhakti table for the masculine gender (Rama) and focus only on the singular.  Forget the dual and the plural.  Now blank out everything else and look at the terms in the prayer that have Raama.  There is Raamah, Raamam, Raamena, Raamaaya, Raamat, Raamasya, Raame and Raama.  In that prayer, the poet has given you the masculine gender (actually the “a”-kaaraanta type) singular vibhakti table.  Poetry and prayers are easier to remember.  Perhaps this is a way for you to remember the vibhakti table too.

There is a very rich tradition of Sanskrit prosody (cchanda).  In a more advanced blog, we will revisit it and you will find the binomial theorem, Pascal’s triangle and even the Fibonacci series in such texts.  For the moment, there is a notion of syllable (akshara) and syllables are laghu (light) or guru (heavy).  Let’s call these L and G.  There are rules on how syllables are formed.  For example, no syllable should have more than one vowel.  If that vowel is a, i, u, r or l, the syllable is L.  Otherwise, it is G.  A syllable with aa will be G and so on.  You won’t yet be able to break up poetry into syllables.  Be patient and wait for that expertise.  But you should be able to understand what I am doing.  Let me now break up the first line of the prayer into syllables, as shown below.  As G and L, the structure is GGG LLG LGL LLG GGL GGL and G.  (In analysis and discussion of Sankrit prosody, the convention is to cluster the syllables into groups of 3, GGG, LLG and so on.)  There are 19 syllables in this first line.  But the point is this.  If I analyze any of the other lines, even from parts of the Sri Rama Raksha Stotram that I have not reproduced, you will always find 19 syllables.  And the pattern will always be GGG LLG LGL LLG GGL GGL G.  Depending `on how the G-s and L-s are chosen, I have different kinds of metres.  This particular one is called “shardulavikridita” or tiger’s play.  If I am a good poet, once I have picked a metre, I must stick with it throughout the poem, even if I am composing an extremely long poem.

raa mah raa ja ma nih sa daa vi ja ye te raa mam ra me sham bha je

Let’s get back to Hastinapura, Nagasahvya and Nagapura.  Syllable-wise, the structure of Nagapura is GLL-L.  The structure of Hastinapura is GLG-LL and the structure of Nagasahvya GLG-LL.  Nagapura is a synonym for Hastinapura in meaning.  It is not a synonym for Hastinapura in structure of syllables.  Using Nagapura or Gajapura would have broken the metre.  Use of Nagasahvya or Gajasahvya retains the metre.  I am not a great Sanskrit scholar, but I think I have the right answer.  Isn’t there great beauty in this?