Deivathin Kural # 62 of (Vol 2) of 20 Dec 2007.

Om Namah Sivaya.

Deivathin Kural # 62 of (Vol 2) of 20 Dec 2007.

(Note 1. We are to remind the readers that herein, 'he' as a word stands for 'she' as well. When Tamil or Sanskrit words are transliterated in English, the single vowel will indicate a short utterance and a double vowel will indicate a longer pronounciation. Words in Sanskrit script not being available, the transliteration spellings and thereby the pronounciation, especially of names may be at variance from what it should be! Note 2. It may please be noted that the talk is dated some time in the late 1950's and early 60's.

(Continued from Deivathin Kural # 61 (of Vol 2) of 17 Dec 2007.)

50. I was talking about how 'sa' and 'sha' can change to 'ka' and vice versa. What we call the 'hand' in Tamil is 'kai' and in Telugu, it is 'sei'. But 'sei' in Tamil is to do, which in Telugu is 'chei' and 'kar' in Hindi and Sanskrit. 'I will do', in Sanskrit is, 'karomi'. Samkara or Sankara is the name of the person who is a 'do gooder'. The letters 'sa', 'sha' and 'ksha', being close cousins; could all switch over to 'ka'. So, 'kshanam' becomes 'kanam' and 'aksham-paksham' becomes 'akkam-pakkam' (meaning the near-by areas), in Tamil.

51. If 'pa' or 'ba' becomes 'va' in Tamil, in the North, the opposite happens. Similarly, 'ja' becomes 'ya' and 'sha' becomes 'ka', in Tamil, while the exact opposite happens in the North. So, it is but natural that, "...yat purushena havisha...", could be propnounced as, "...jat purushena havika...". All these changes are with the approval of the Siksha rules of the Veda Angam. Now, this change occurs in all written and spoken expressions. For example, the 'Yamuna' river becomes 'Jamuna' and the 'Yogi' becomes a 'Jogi'. 'Yuga Yuga' becomes 'JugJug'; 'Yathra' becomes 'Jatra'; 'Rishi' becomes 'Riki'; 'Lakshmi' becomes 'lakkumi'; 'ksheeram' becomes 'kheer'. We can go on with these examples endlessly!

52. Now let us move to the Inter National level. Let us go to the Semetic land of Palestine and Israel, where the Christian Veda of Bible was born! The Old Testament of the Bible, is the basis for the Muslim Quran too. Names of people who populate the 'Old Testament' are to be found in 'Quran' too. Only the pronunciation and in turn the spelling will change. 'Joseph' will become 'Yusuf' and 'Jehova' will become 'Yehova'. Not only between Christianity and Muslim religions, but within Christian States, somewhere it is 'Ja' and some where else it is 'ya'. Nearer Greece there is more of the 'ja' sound. It has been researched that, the root for this is in the Vedas, they say. A Deity mentioned in the Veda, 'Yahvan' is 'Yehova' / 'Jehowa'. 'Dhyaava- prithvee' has become 'dhyow-bidar' to, 'Jupiter'! It is said that, if there is a half-letter in a word to start with in Sanskrit, when it is said in other languages, the half-letter may get dropped. In 'dh+yowbidar', only 'yowbidar' remains and that becomes 'Jupiter'!

53. Thus from the fact that, what was originally 'Yahvan' and 'dyowbidar' were to become, 'Jehova and Jupiter'; it can be discerned that the world over the Veda was equally prevalent. In the past when the Vedas were spread in the entire Earth, in Europe it was the 'Madhyantina' branch of Yajur Veda that was in practice. These facts have been discussed in detail in an earlier talk titled, 'Ulagam Paraviya Madam' (or ' The Religion that was spread the world over', that occurs in the first volume of Deivathin Kural). (KTSV adds:- There have been a lot of parallels between the Mythology surrounding the birth of Krishna and Jesus Christ; between the lifes of KARNA and MOSES, in being abandoned by their mothers in a basket and floated in the river, while still a baby and being picked up and brought up by a charioteer; In Moses parting the ocean to give way of passage and Vasudeva's crossing of the Yamuna in spate; in the leadership provided to Yadavas/Jews against the tyranny of Kamsa/Roman Emporer! Then there are a lot of parallels, in the ennobling thought contents of the Bible and the Bhaghawat Gita. The whole thing is begging to be researched and analysed and investigated. This could be the greatest Christmas present one could give to the whole world!)

Sounds of Veda vis-a-vis-Sounds of Regional Languages.

54. For long I have been talking about the sounds of the Vedas, as to how they affect the local language, within South India, in the whole of India and in the whole world. There are and have been no place in India where the Veda has not been thriving. There is and has been no time when Tamil Nadu has been without the Vedas! This sound of 'zha' sitting in the very word 'Tamizh' and bringing name and fame to the language, has been a sound from Talavakaara Brhmam only. (Here Brhmam has been used to mean 'Vedam'.)

55. You could raise a doubt as to the veracity and correctness of my this statement. In the Tamil Nadu there has been the sound of 'zha'. In the North Indian languages there has been 'ja' and in the East India, there has been 'ba'. How in the world can this mean that, it is all due to the Veda Sounds? Could it be true that, because they were the predominant sounds of the local languages, those sounds were accommodated in Vedas too. Am I twisting the whole thing around and saying that, the sounds of 'zha' and 'ja' and 'ba', became famous in the regional languages of South, North and East India respectively? Am I arriving at the deduction from a consideration of propositions logically or doing a reverse analysis illogically? What is correct?

56. The fact is that, it is the rule of the Veda Siksha, which became the predominant sound in each of the local regional language. Because, 'Prathisakhya' rules were not region specific. They were meant to be followed wherever that branch of the Veda was in vogue. For example, if there was a Talavakara Adhyaayi in Kashmir or Kamarup(Assam), he would have used the 'zha' where 'da' or 'lla' occurs. Instead of loyalty to the territorial area, if there was a practitioner of Krishna Yajus in Gujarat, he would have had to use the 'da' and if it was Rik Veda in Timbaktoo, there would have been more of the letter sound of 'lla' there. Whatever the predominant Veda Adhyayana Sound, that influenced the local language there.

57. Take the name of the Star, 'Margaseersham'. The month in which the full moon occurs on the day of that star gets the same name too. We call it, 'Margazhi'. The sound of 'shi' became 'di', and then changed over to 'zhi'. That is, 'Margaseershi' ---> Maargaseerdi --->('seer' dropped) ---> Maargadi ---> Maargazhi! As we say, 'Purusha' ---> Purudan; 'Nahusha' ---> Nahudan. Kambar in his Ramayanam, calls 'Vibhishana' as 'Vibidanan'. In Andhra Pradesh, wherever there is a Perumal Temple of Vishnu Avatara, like Venkateshwara or Narasimha or such, the Tamil 'Pallayiram' paduvathu and chanting of Thiruppavai is quite popular. There they can not chant the Tamil words so easily, especially, the first song of Thiruppavai, starting with the words, 'Margazhi thingal...'. Invariably, it is pronounced as 'Margadi...'.

Month Names.

58. Let us look at how the names of the months have evolved out of the names of the Star on which the full moon of that month occurs. Normally, that day will also be a day of celebration. In the month of 'Chithrai', the full moon occurs generally in the star of 'Chitra'. Not much of a change here, in the name of the star and the month. The next month is called 'Vaikasi'. This is from the name of the star, 'Visakam'. The Sanskrit Visaki, changes into 'Baisakhi' in North, 'Baishaki' in Bengal. It is the Nammazhvar Thirunakshatram and Buddha Poornima too. Connected to the star 'Anushi' is the month of 'Aani'. In Tamil, the 'sha' drops off. In 'Ashad', there are two stars, 'Poorva Aashadam and Uttara Aashadam'. The joint letter of, 'rva' is corrupted and 'sha' drops off, for 'Poorvaashad' to become 'Pooradam' in Tamil and 'Uttara Aashad', the 'Uttaradam'. The full moon occurs in one of these stars, and so amongst these two 'Aashadi's, the Tamil month becomes 'Aadi', with a lot of shake!

59. The next star is the 'Sravan'. The initial joint letter of 'sra' drops off and the balance 'vana' becomes 'onam'. Since it is the star of Mahavishnu, it becomes, 'Thiruvonam', a festival in Kerala and the Tamil month of 'Aavani'. (Similarly the Arudra star gets added respect as it is the star of Siva and so becomes, 'Thiruvaadirai'. It is interesting to note that, only these two stars of Siva and Vishnu, Thiruvaadirai and Thiruvonam, which get the special prefix of 'Thiru'. This fact of only two stars having special prefix of 'Thiru' is besides the point to our subject under discussion. But it's relavance is in relation to the fictitious point that 'all these are allegedly only Aryan Gods!) So from 'Sravani', the joint letter of 'sra' gets dropped and the month gets the name of 'Aavani'.

60. Another example for the dropping of letters, is the 'Simhalam' becoming 'eezham' and 'seesam' becoming 'eeyam'. 'Sahasram' in Sanskrit is 'sasiram' in Kannada and 'Aayiram' for a thousand in Tamil, by dropping both the 'sa's! Amongst the numbers, one, two, three; in Sanskrit, it is 'Ekam, Dve, Tri' and 'Onnu, Rendu, Moonu' in Tamil, the Sanskrit numbers seem to be nearer the English numerals! For 'Five', it is 'Panj' and 'Anju', are quite close. Similarly, for Eight, it is 'Ashta' and 'Ettu'. Sexta, hepta, octo, nove, deca, seem to have all come from the same origin such as 'Aaru, Ezhu, Ettu, Ombadu and Paththu' and 'shashta, ashta, nava and dasa'. Now, let us come back to the names of the months.

61. Like 'Ashadam', Proshtapadam also have the earlier and later versions of Poorva and Uttara. You work-out the contortions the words must have gone through, when I say that, it is the 'Poorva-Proshta pada' which became 'Poorattaadi' and the 'Uttara-Proshta pada' which became 'Uttarattaadi'. The month in which one of these two stars get the full moon is the month of 'Poorattasi'. 'Asvayujam' is the Aswini star and the month in Tamil is 'Aippasi'. I started this discussion from 'Mrugaseersham' becoming the month of Margazhi, in which the full moon may happen in the next star of 'Thiruvadirai'. Pushyam is the Poosam in Tamil. We get so used to this change, that we call the 'Punar Vasu' star also as 'Punar Poosam'. This change is as though the original name in Sanskrit is 'Punar Pushyam'. No-body can explain this change of 'Punar Vasu' to 'Punarpoosam'! The month is 'Thaishyam' in which only 'Thai' remains.

62. The Masi Magam celebration comes on a Full Moon. On the name of Star of 'Maham', the month gets the name of 'Maasi'. The next month is the 'Palguni', called the 'Panguni' in Tamil. The stars are two again as Poorva and Uttara Palguni. The stars in Tamil are called as Pooram and Uttiram. The full moon in this month once again is a festival in all Temples, known as Panguni Uttiram! Thus if you look at the names of the twelve months, you would know as to what changes these Sanskrit words undergo in becoming Tamil names for the months!

Some More Points on Seeksha Saastram.

63. Veda words, letters and sounds should not be changed. However, Seeksha Saastram does permit some changes, depending on the branches as moderated by the rules of the Seeksha Saastram. It also permits some changes in the 'Swaras' too. Some of the 'aa's and 'oo's and 'ee's get elongated. Some places, the ending 'mmm' become, 'gmm', called 'Anuswaaram'. These are some of the 'Swara' bhedas. The Prathisaakhyas of the branches of the Vedas, thus enable the 'Pada' and 'Krama' methods of Adhyayana.

64. We cannot afford to be careless about these slight permitted changes of the Seeksha Saastras. If Vedas themselves are considered as the breath of God, the Seeksha Saastras are the nostrils of the Veda Purusha. The 50 letters of the Sanskrit language are from the Veda sounds. If you take, 'gnya' as a seperate sound, it becomes the 51st sound! These 'Aksharas' or letters are called 'Matruka'. Mother like or Mothers themselves! These letters are the form of Mother Parasakthi. All the worlds came in to being from the sounds and She is of the form of these letter sounds! She is the 'Akshara Roopini'. Saktha Tantra describes the body parts of the Prime Ordial Power, with one Letter Sound each for each body part! In our country, each one of these have become the Temples of Mother Goddess called the Sakthi Peetams. If Seeksha Saastram is called the 'Nose' of the Veda Purusha, that these 'Aksharas' are representing each body part of Mother, adds further greatness, to the subject of the Saastra!

Sambhomahadeva.