Grammar and Siva

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Namaskar, You can read the full article at

 

http://www.kamakoti.org/hindudharma/part7/chap2.htm

 

I have copied the last portion about NAtaraj and grammar below.

Om Namah Sivaya

 

The Tamil name of Nataraja is "Tiruvambala Kuttaduvan". I wanted to

speak about Nataraja and his connection with grammar. Let us go back

to the stanza with the first word, "Nrttavasane. . . " Nataraja

performs an awe- inspiring dance. It seems to bring together all the

dance that all of us have to perform, the rhythms of all our lives.

The head of the Nataraja idol has something that seems spread over

it, something falling down on both sides. What is it? It is the

god's mass of matted locks. I am reminded of the snapshot

photographs taken nowadays. A snapshot is a rapid photograph that

captures an object in one of its fleeting moments. It is not a study

that is static but one suggestive of motion. Nataraja dances fast,

but momentarily seems to stop dancing. His matted locks give the

impression of fanning out over the two sides of his face. The

sculptor of those times seems to have taken a mental snapshot of

that moment to create the image of Nataraja.

 

Nataraja has a drum in one hand, called the dhakka or damaruka. The

tala of this drum (the time kept by it) is in keeping with

the "footwork" of the dancing god, the movement of his feet. The

beat of his drum is referred to in the words, "nanada dhakkam".

 

There are chiefly three types of musical instruments. Those made of

skin like the dhakka, the tavil (drum accompaniment to nagasvaram

music), the kanjira (a kind of hand drum), the mrdanga; stringed

instruments like the vina, the violin; wind instruments like

nagasvaram, the flute. The final beat of the drum is called cappu.

Similarly at the end of Nataraja's dance (" nrttavasane ") the

damaruka produced the cappu sound.

 

When Nataraja dances, Sanaka and his brother sages, Patanjali

Vyaghrapada and so on stand round him. They are great ascetics, so

they are able to see the dance. Nataraja's dance can be seen only by

those who have the inner vision of jnana. The Lord himself bestowed

on Arjuna the divine eye with which the pandava could see his cosmic

form. Vyasa imparted the same power to Sanjaya so that he could

describe this wondrous form to Dhrtarastra. Only they (Arjuna and

Sanjaya) could see Krsna's universal form. Others on the battlefield

of Kuruksetra could not. Because of the great efforts made by them,

the celestials, the sages and yogins obtained the divine eye to see

the dance of Nataraja. In the Gita such sight is called "divya-

caksus" (divine eye).

 

Sanaka and others saw the dance with their real eyes. Visnu played

the drum called the maddala, while Brahma kept time. At the close of

the dance, the concluding beats(cappu) produced fourteen sounds. It

is these fourteen that are referred to in the stanza ("Nrttavasane",

etc) as "navapancavaram"; "nava" is nine and "panca" is five, so

fourteen in all. "Nanada dhakkam navapancavaram. " If the number of

sounds produced by Nataraja's dhakka is fourteen, the branches of

Vedic learning are also the same number (caturdasavidya). If the

foundation of Hindu dharma is made up of these fourteen vidyas,

Nataraja'a cappu produced fourteen sounds which, according to the

verse, were meant for the [Atmic] uplift of Sanaka and others. You

must have seen in the sculptural representations of Daksinamurti in

temples four aged figures by his side. They are the Sanaka sages. It

is not Saiva works like the Tevaram and the Tiruvacakam alone that

mention how instruction was given to the four but also the Vaisnava

songs of the Azhvars.

 

The fourteen sounds produced by Nataraja's drum are the means by

which the reality of Siva is to be known and experienced within us

in all its plenitude. Nandikesvara has commented upon the fourteen

sounds in his Sivabhaktisutra.

 

Among those present at Nataraja's dance was Panini. His story is

told in the Brhatkatha which was written by Gunadhya in the Prakrt

called Paisaci. Ksemendra produced a summary of it in Sanskrit and,

based on it, Somadeva Bhatta wrote the Katha-sarat-sagara. It is the

source of some of the stories of The Arabian Nights, Pancatantra and

Aesop's Fables. Perunkathai is a Tamil version, the title being

Tamil for Brhatkatha.

 

The story of Panini is told in the Katha-sarit-sagara. In

Pataliputra (modern Patna), in Magadha, there were two men called

Varsopadhyaya and Upavarsopadhyaya - the second was the younger of

the two. Upakosala was Upavarsopadhyaya's daughter. Panini and

Vararuci were Varsopadhyaya's students. Panini made little progress

in his lessons. So his teacher asked him to go to the Himalaya and

practise austerities. The student did so and through the grace of

Isvara received the power to witness the tandava dance of Nataraja.

With this divine gift of the Lord, Panini indeed saw the tandava and

heard the fourteen sounds at its conclusion. For him these sounds

meant the fourteen cardinal sutras of grammar and on them he based

his Astadhyayi. As its very name suggests, this work, which is the

source book of Sanskrit grammar, has eight chapters.

 

The fourteen sounds are recited at the upakarma ceremony. Since they

emanated from the drum of Mahesvara(Nataraja), they are

called "Mahesvarasutras". Human beings can produce only inarticulate

sounds on the musical instruments played by them. The hand of

Paramesvara is verily the Nadabrahman and Sabdabrahaman incarnate,

so his cappu on the damaruka at the conclusion of his tandava

sounded as a series(garland) of fourteen letters:

 

1. a i un; 2. rlk; 3. e on; 4. ai auc; 5. hayavarat; 6. lan; 7. nama

nana nam; 8. jha bha n; 9. gha da dha s; 10. ja ba ga da da s; 11.

kha pha cha tha tha catatav; 12. kapay; 13. sa sa sar; 14. hal-iti

Mahesvarani sutrani.

 

When you listen to these sutras at the upakarma ceremony, you are

amused. You repeat them after the priest without knowing what they

are all about. They are the concluding strokes Siva made on his drum

as he stopped dancing, stopped whirling round and round.

 

We say, don't we, that the anklets sound "jal-jal", that the damaru

sounds "timu-timu", that the tavil sounds "dhum-dhum"? These are not

of course the sounds actually produced by the respective drums. Even

so the words give us some idea of the beats. We don't say "pi-pi" to

describe the sound of a drum or "dhum-dhum" to describe the sound of

the pipe. The sound produced by plucking the strings of the

instruments like the veena is usually described as "toyn-toyng".

>From this it follows that, thought the musical instruments do not

produce articulate sounds, they create the impression of producing

the phonemes of human speech. If this be so in the case of

instruments played by humans, why should not the drum beaten by

Nataraja during his pancakrtya dance produce articulate sounds?

 

How did Panini make use of the fourteen sounds? He created an index

from the sutras to vocalise the letters or syllables together.

According to the arrangement made by him, the first letter or

syllable of a sutra voiced with the last letter or syllable of

another sutra will indicate the letters or syllables in between. For

example, the first syllable of "hayavarat", "ha", and the last

letter of "hal", "l", together make "hal". This embraces all the

consonants in between. Similarly, the first letter of the first

sutra, "a", and the last letter of the fourth sutra together

form "ac"-this includes all the vowels. The first letter of the

first sutra and the last letter of the fourteenth sutra together

form "al" - it includes all letters.

 

"Halantasya" is one of the sutras of Astadhyayi. "Al" itself has

come to mean writing.

 

"A-kara" is the first letter in all languages. In Urdu it is alif;

in Greek it is alpha. Both are to be derived from "al". So

too "alphabet" in English. Here is another fact to support the view

that, once upon a time, the Vedic religion was prevalent all over

the world.

 

We know thus that the prime source of grammar is constituted by the

Mahesvara-sutras emanating from the drum of Nataraja. Since

Paramesvara was the cause of the sabda-sastras (all sciences

relating to sound, speech), "grammar-pavilions" have been built in

Siva temples, but not in Visnu shrines.

 

By the side of Nataraja are Patanjali and Vyaghrapada. I had been to

a temple near Sirkazhi(in Tamil Nadu). There, beside Nataraja, were

Patanjali and Vyaghrapada. Beneath their images were inscribed their

names. Patanjali's name was seen here as "Padamcolli" - the error

must be attributed to the ignorance of the man who had inscribed the

names. I was however happy that ironically enough, this name

benefited the sage and that even ignorance was the cause of

something appropriate. "Padam" has the meaning of grammar[as

in] "padavakya pramana". Here "pada" means grammar. So "Padamcolli"

[the second half of the name in Tamil] means one who "says" grammar.

 

When I saw this inscription I was reminded of another thing. We

speak of "gunaksara-nyaya". "Guna" here means an insect like the

white ants which eats into wood and palm-leaves. Sometimes in this

process letters are formed accidentally. If something meaningful

results from an act committed unconsciously or unwittingly it is

said to be according to the "gunaksara-nyaya". This term is thus

applicable to Patanjali being written as "Padamcolli"

 

Some years ago I happened to see the Sahitya-Ratnakara. The author

of this poetical work is Yajnanarayana Diksita who composed it 400

hundred years ago during the reign of Raghunatha Nayaka of Tanjavur.

Diksita was a great devotee of Siva and in one of his hymns there is

a reference to grammar.

 

Adau pani-ninadato' ksara-samamnayopadesena yah

 

Sabdanamanusasananyakalayat sastrena sutratmana

 

Bhasyam tasya ca padahamsakaravaih praudhasayam tam gurum

 

Sabdarthapratipatti-hetumanisam Candravatamsam bhaje

 

--- Sahitya-Ratnakara, 11. 124

 

"Aksara-samamnayam" in this stanza means grammar, a grouping

together of letters. Isvara's breath constitutes the Vedas. The wind

produced by his hand [as he beats the drum] is "Aksara-Veda", the

Mahesvara-sutras. It is called "sabdanusasanam". "Pani-ninadatah"

means "produced sounds with your hands" or "the sounds came by to

Panini". Thus the words have two meanings. The idea is that Panini

created his grammar with the sounds produced by Isvara with his

hand.

 

The stanza goes on to say: "With the movement of your hand the

sutras of grammar were created and with the movement of your feet

its commentary has been produced. " Patanjali, author of the

Mahabhasya, was an incarnation of the primordial serpent Adisesa.

Adisesa is now the anklet of Parameshvara. It is in keeping with

this that the poet says that Siva created the bhasya with the

movement of his feet. He concludes by remarking that sound and

meaning originate in Siva.

 

In this way, Siva is the prime source of grammar. That is why there

are mandapas in his temples where vyakarana is to be taught.