Samskrtam

Samskritam

The alphabet in Samskritam is well thought out. The order is vowels first, and consonants next. Vowels are stand alone in nature unlike consonants. In Tamizh, vowels are called உயிர் எழுத்து Uyir Ezhutthu – life (giving) letters. Consonants are called மெய் எழுத்து Mey ezhutthu- body letters. Let us look at the system in Samskritam.
The letters are identified with the source in utterance of the letters. The sources are:
Source Letters
कण्ठ Throat) कण्ठ्य guttural
तालु Palate तालव्य palatal
मूर्ध Head मूर्धन्य cerebral
दन्त Tooth दन्तव्य dental
ओष्ठ Lip ओष्ठव्य labial 

The letters are serialized in the above order. Look at how the source is in order from throat to lip. Both the vowels and consonants follow this order.

अ, आ, अः and कवर्ग, ह are guttural.
इ, ई and चवर्ग, श are palatal.
ऋ ruu and टवर्ग, र, ष are cerebral
लृ and तवर्ग, ल, स are dental
उ, ऊ and पवर्ग are labial
व is dental-cum-labial
ए, ऐ are from (अ, ई), (अ, ए) guttural/palatal
ओ, औ are from (अ, उ), (अ, ओ) guttural/labial
The last letters in the five groups (in kavarga etc.) have a nasal overtone also.

There is more to why it is Samskritam (well-made) than just the letters, but letters are the building blocks and the scientific approach to their grouping is amazing

German initiative on Samskrtam dictionary:

“The extent of its indebtedness to the great seven-volumed Sanskrit-German Thesaurus compiled by the two eminent German Sanskritists, Otto Bohtlingk and Rudolf Roth, with the assistance of many distinguished scholars, such as Professor A.Weber of Berlin then only completed as far as the beginning of the letter ^ v was fully acknowledged by me in the Preface.”

The underlying motive of westerners’ interest in Samskrtam:

“I am only the second occupant of the Boden Chair, and that its Founder, Colonel Boden, stated most explicitly in his will (dated August 15, 1811) that the special object of his munificent bequest was to promote the translation of the Scriptures into Sanskrit, so as ' to enable his countrymen to proceed in the conveAthe six European lines :

(A) Keltic, (B) Hellenic, (C) Italic, (D) Teutonic, (E) Slavonic, (F) Lithuanian, each branching into various sub-lines as exhibited in the present languages of Europe.

It is this Asiatic and European ramification of the Aryan languages which has led to their being called Indo-European.”

“The name Semitic or Shemitic is applied to Assyrian, Hebrew, Aramaic (or Aramaean), Arabic, and Himyaritic, because in the tenth chapter of Genesis, Shem is represented as father of the principal nations speaking these languages e.g. in Assur (Assyria), Aram (Syria), and of Arphaxad, grandfather of Eber, from whom came the Hebrews or Trans-Euphratian race, the name Hebrew coming from^-e, and really meaning 'one who lives beyond (a river)' and Joktan, the father of many of the tribes inhabiting South Arabia. It is usual, too, to reckon among Semitic races the people of Abyssinia, whose sacred and literary language is the Ethiopic or Ge'ez, while their spoken dialects are Tigri for the north and north-east, and Amharic for the centre and south, all presenting affinities with the ancient Himyaritic Arabic of South Arabia (Yaman). Hence, speaking generally, we may classify Semitic languages under the two heads of: i. 'North Semitic,' comprising Assyrian, Hebrew, and Aramaic; South Semitic," comprising Arabic, Himyaritic, and Ethiopic.”

(The quotations are from the preface to Monier-William’s Sanskrit-English Dictionary.)

September 01, 2016

Devabhasha

Silence is the only devabhasha. For, one need control mind to communicate with god. Mind is the seat and fountain of thoughts and ideas that only need a language for expression. We tend to ascribe divinity to anyone or anything that is close to perfection. Thus, we have deva purusha and deva bhasha. It should not be taken literally.