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2020-04-13 05:48 AM -0400
Vedic and Sanskrit
VedicSktIntro.htm
Excerpts from A History of Sanskrit Literature, by
by A. A. Macdonell, 1900,
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AAMacdonell-HistSktLit<Ô> /
Bkp<Ô>
(link chk 200314)
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AAMacdonell-HistSktLit<Ô> /
Bkp<Ô>
- not user friendly
Edited, with additions from Pali sources,
by U Kyaw Tun (UKT) (M.S., I.P.S.T.,
USA) and staff of Tun Institute of
Learning (TIL) . Not for sale.
No copyright. Free for everyone.
Prepared for students and
staff of TIL Research Station, Yangon, MYANMAR :
http://www.tuninst.net ,
www.romabama.blogspot.com
index.htm |
Top
MC-indx.htm
01. Introductory
(MacH-001)
Sir William Jones
Savitri - the Sun-god
UKT notes
• Asceticism and Buddha's rejection
• Speculative powers
• Strata of Vedic language
Contents of this page
UKT: 200412: It is sometimes said that History
is a pack of Lies, or at least Half-truths. It
is because each writer, in spite of his endeavour
to present a balanced view, always falls under his
life-long native views. To borrow an analogy from
Linguistics, each and everyone of us, is in some
ways influenced by our mother-tongue, L1.
I must note that A. A. Macdonell (1854-1930), was
born in British India. He was the son of a British
officer in the Indian Army of British-India. Educated
at Göttingen University (Germany), became Deputy
Professor of Sanskrit at Oxford in 1888, and Boden
Professor of Sanskrit in 1899 (a post that
carried with it a fellowship of Balliol
College, Oxford). -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Anthony_Macdonell
200412.
PIx inset: Colonialist curving up the East, alarming
Confucius - the Wisdom of the East. I'm sure Gautama
Buddha would be unperturbed.
Dr. Macdonell, in spite of his understanding of the
Indian culture was a true Euro-centrist, and
a colonialist who looked upon the Indians,
and no doubt, the Burmans with a father-understand-best
attitude. I, on the other hand, is an Asian-centrist,
and as my Canadian friends told me to my face, an
opinionated, if not a biased person. Yet, I have to
thank Dr. Macdonell for his works which have educated
me - I take off my hat to him.
(MacH001)
Since the Renaissance [in Europe, 14th to 17th
century AD] there has been no event
of such world-wide significance in the history of
culture as the discovery of Sanskrit literature in
the latter part of the 18th century. After
Alexander's invasion [327–325 BC], the Greeks became
to some extent acquainted with the learning of the
Indians ; [UKT ¶]
UKT 200412: Though I've learnt History of
England as I was preparing for the
Matriculation Exam in 1950, I hardly knew
anything about Europe. It was when I was
preparing to take the Matriculation Exam of
the Univ. of Rangoon in 1950, taking Chemistry
and Physics. However, Saya Solomon, our private
school principal, insisted that we should also
take History and Geography to improve our
English. While others refused, I took the advice
of my Saya and took History and Geography as
well as Chemistry and Physics. I did improve my
English and with one stroke I passed the
Matriculation Exam. I was only 15 years in age,
and I had to lie that I was already 16 to be
admitted to the University. The result is my
official age is ahead of my actual age by 11
months. Five years later, I graduated with
Honours in Chemistry and was straight away
appointed an Assistant Lecturer in Chemistry, a
gazetted officer in the Union of Burma government
service. Knowing the value of the English-language
presenting History, I kept my interest in History
alive. Then I came across texts prescribed for my
brother, Ko Saw Tun: 1. Ancient Times by
Breastead, and, 2. Medieval and Modern Times
by Robinson, which he had to study for his
Intermediate exam, I borrowed them to read in my
spare hours. I still have the original Ancient
Times, which is now near it's life's end. For old
time's sake, I now have both downloaded and stored
in TIL HD-PDF and SD-PDF libraries:
-
JHBreasted-AnciTimes<Ô> /
Bkp<Ô> (link chk 200412)
-
JHRobinson-MedModTimes<Ô> /
Bkp<Ô> (link 200412)
I know the Medieval Ages as Dark Ages .
From:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Ages 200412
"In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages
(or medieval period) lasted from the 5th to the
15th century. It began with the fall of the Western
Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance
and the Age of Discovery. The Middle Ages is the
middle period of the three traditional divisions of
Western history: classical antiquity, the
medieval period, and the modern period. The
medieval period is itself subdivided into the
Early, High, and Late Middle Ages.
... ... ... The Late Middle Ages [the End of Middle
Ages] was marked by difficulties and calamities
including famine, plague, and war, which significantly
diminished the population of Europe; between 1347 and
1350, the Black Death killed about a third of
Europeans. Controversy, heresy, and the
Western Schism within the Catholic Church
paralleled the interstate conflict, civil strife, and
peasant revolts that occurred in the kingdoms. Cultural
and technological developments transformed European
society, concluding the Late Middle Ages and beginning
the early modern period.
Read about the Black Death that killed about a third of Europeans, in
Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe, 1896, in TIL HD-PDF
and SD-PDF libraries
-
DDefoe-JournalPlagueYr<Ô> / Bkp<Ô> (link chk 200413)
Or, go online and listen to it read in LibriVox recordings which are Public
Domain in the USA: .
the Arabs, in the Middle Ages, introduced
the knowledge of Indian science to the West ; a few
European missionaries, from the sixteenth century
onwards, were not only aware of the existence of,
but also acquired some familiarity with, the ancient
language of India.
UKT 200318: Yet the most in whole world do not
know that Sanskrit and other languages of India
extending into Myanmarpré and South-east Asia use
the Abugida-Akshara system of recording speech in
script. They still think our languages are just
like English, non-phonetic, and write in
Alphabet-Letter system.
(MacH002) ... ... The first impulse to the study of
Sanskrit was given by the practical administrative needs of our Indian
possessions.
Warren Hastings, at that time
Governor-General, clearly seeing the advantage of
ruling the Hindus as far as possible according to
their own laws and customs, caused a number of
Brahmans to prepare a digest based on the best
ancient Indian legal authorities.
UKT 200409: From the above, you'll see that the
British Colonialists' aim was World domination.
This, I feel, is no better than the dreams of
various Western militarists from: Alexander the
Great to Adolph Hitler. The Eastern answer to
these killers, are the great thinkers such as
Confucius and Buddha, and their disciples such
as Asoka the Great, and our own King Bayinnaung
- the emperor without an empire. These men,
started out with wild dreams of conquest but
eventually turned humanists. Who knows if only
Alexander and Hitler had lived long enough and killed enough, they might also become
Humanists in the end - followers of Buddha and Confucius.
Contents of this page
(MacH003) ... ... Sir William
Jones (1746-94) was, however, the pioneer of
Sanskrit studies in the West. It was this brilliant
and many-sided Orientalist who, during his too brief
career of eleven years in India, first aroused a
keen interest in the study of Indian antiquity by
his unwearied literary activity and by the foundation
of the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1784. ... To Sir
William Jones also belongs the credit of having been
the first man who ever printed an edition of a
Sanskrit text. This was a short lyrical poem entitled Ṛitusaṃhāra
ऋतुसंहार , or Cycle of the
Seasons
{iRRi} ऋतु «ṛtu» [Bur:
{U.tu.}], published in 1792.
We next come to the great name of Henry
Thomas Colebrooke (1765-1837), a man of extraordinary
industry, combined with rare clearness of intellect
and sobriety of judgment. The first to handle the
Sanskrit language and literature on scientific
principles, he published many texts, translations,
and essays dealing with almost every branch of Sanskrit
learning, thus laying the solid foundations on which
later scholars have built.
(MacH005) Thus in the
course of a century the whole range of Sanskrit
literature, which in quantity exceeds that of Greece
and Rome put together, has been explored. ... An
encyclopaedia covering the whole domain of Indo-Aryan
antiquity has accordingly been planned on a more
extensive scale than that of any similar undertaking,
and is now being published at Strasburg in parts,
contributed (MacH005end-006begin)
to by about thirty specialists of various
nationalities. By the tragic death [by drowning
during a boat trip*], in April 1898, of its eminent
editor, Professor Buhler of Vienna, Sanskrit
scholarship has sustained an irreparable loss. The
work begun by him is being completed by another very
distinguished Indianist, Professor Kielhorn of
Gottingen.
* Bühler's tragic death in 1898, when he drowned
during a boat trip on Lake Constance.
--
https://stb.univie.ac.at/en/about-us/history-of-the-institute/
200318
(MacH007) The Indians
are the only division of the Indo-European family
which has created a great national religion Brahmanism
and a great world-religion Buddhism ; while all the
rest, far from displaying originality in this sphere,
have long since adopted a foreign faith. [Christianity derived from Judaism] The
intellectual life of the Indians has, in fact, all
along been more dominated by religious thought than
that of any other race. The Indians, moreover,
developed independently several systems of philosophy
which bear evidence of high
speculative powers. (See my note below.) The
great interest, however, which these two subjects must
have for us lies, not so much in the results they
attained, as in the fact that every step in the
evolution of religion and philosophy can be traced
in Sanskrit literature. ... No other country except
(MacH007end-008begin)
China can trace back its language and literature,
its religious beliefs and rites, its domestic and
social customs, through an uninterrupted development
of more than three thousand years. ... The Vedas are
still learnt by heart as they were long before the
invasion of Alexander, and could even now be restored
from the lips of religious teachers if every
manuscript or printed copy of them were destroyed. [UKT ¶]
Contents of this page
UKT 200412: Why should Savitri
सवितृ «savitṛ»
= स व ि त ृ
- an anthropomorphic character - be a male (god -
He)? Why not a female (goddess - She)? Savitri
could even be sexless (It). I would characterize
it as a Mother
{mèý-tau}. It is definitely not the luminary
Sun
{þu-ri.ya.} सूर्य
«sūrya»
= स ू र ् य .
I suspect the mix-up between Savitri
सवितृ «savitṛ»
and Sun
{þu-ri.ya.} सूर्य
«sūrya», is just a deliberate attempt by
the Sun-worshippers - the IE Sanskrit speakers
(the conquerors) - trying to grab the Mother-goddess
Savitri
सवितृ «savitṛ»
of the Tib-Bur speakers (the conquered) as theirs.
I've arrived at the above conclusion based on what
some Christian missionaries had done to confuse the
nominal Buddhists to convert them to their faith.
They use the similarity in the names of the mother
(Mary) of Jesus Christ and the mother (Maya) of
Gautama Buddha.
A Vedic stanza of immemorial antiquity, addressed to
the sun-god Savitri, is still recited in the daily
worship of the Hindus. [UKT ¶]
UKT 200319: The stanza referred to is the Gayatri
Mantra, to which the word Om has been added by
followers of Vishnu to claim it as theirs. There
is no evidence - my opinion - that Savitri is the
Sun god. It is the source of Knowledge: the highest
being the Baudhi knowledge
{bau-Di. ñaaN} .
The god Vishnu
{baiþ~þa.No: nût-mín:}, adored more than 3000 years
ago, has countless votaries in India at the present
day. [UKT ¶]
UKT 200319: The major Vedic gods
{vé-da.hkít nût-Bu.ra:} were the trio: Indra
,
Agni
,
and Soma
.
Vishnu
was a minor god who was promoted by the Brahmins who
worshipped him over Indra-Agni-Soma trio. Only then he is rightly
called
{baiþ~þa.No: nût-mín:}. I base my speculation on the
large number of hymns directed to the trio compared
to those directed to Vishnu. See Wikipedia: -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishnu_Purana
200319
Fire is still produced for sacrificial purposes by
means of two sticks, as it was in ages even more
remote. The wedding ceremony of the modern Hindu,
to single out but one social custom, is essentially
the same as it was long before the Christian era.
The history of ancient Indian literature naturally
falls into two main periods. The first is the Vedic,
which beginning perhaps as early as 1500 B.C.,
extends in its latest phase to about 200 B.C. In the
former half of the Vedic age the character of its
literature was creative and poetical, while the
centre of culture lay in the territory
(MacH008end-009begin) of
the Indus and its tributaries , the modern Panjab ;
[UKT ¶]
UKT 200405: Above, Macdonell mentions the Vedic
Period
{vé-da.hkít}, particularly the early Vedic period. To
see our present understanding of this period, see: -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedic_period
200405
"The Vedic period or Vedic age
(c. 1500 – c. 500 BCE), is the
period in the history of the northern Indian
subcontinent between the end of the urban Indus
Valley Civilisation and a second urbanisation
which began in the central Indo-Gangetic Plain
c. 600 BCE. ... Early Vedic Period (c.1500
- c.1200 BCE) The Rigveda contains accounts
of conflicts between the Aryas and the
Dasas and Dasyus. It describes Dasas and Dasyus
as people who do not perform sacrifices («akratu»
अक्रतु - SpSkt)
or obey the commandments of gods («avrata»
अव्रत - SpSkt).
... Most notable of such conflicts was the
Battle of Ten Kings,
What about the mightiest of all rivers in Rigveda
time? See
Saraswati River in my notes below.
UKT 200319: In the above, Macdonell has stated:
The history of ancient Indian literature naturally
falls into two main periods. The first is the
Vedic, ... as early as 1500 B.C. ... to about
200 B.C." My question now is on the Vedic
itself. How many strata are there in the Vedic
language? See my note on
Strata of Vedic language.
(MacH009cont) in the
latter half, literature was theologically speculative
in matter and prosaic in form, while the centre of
intellectual life had shifted to the valley of the
Ganges. Thus in the course of the Vedic age
Aryan civilisation had overspread the whole of
Hindustan Proper, the vast tract extending from the
mouths of the Indus to those of the Ganges, bounded
on the north by the Himalaya, and on the south by
the Vindhya range. [UKT ¶]
The second period, concurrent with the final
offshoots of Vedic literature and closing with the
Muhammadan conquest after 1000 A.D., is the Sanskrit
period strictly speaking.
In a certain sense, owing to the continued literary
use of Sanskrit, mainly for the composition of
commentaries, this period may be regarded as coming
down to the present day. [UKT ¶]
During this second epoch Brahmanic culture
[Poannar Epoch
{poaN~Na: hkít}] was introduced into and overspread
the southern portion of the continent called the
Dekhan or "the South." In the course of
these two periods taken together, Indian literature
attained noteworthy results in nearly every
department.
UKT 200405: Language-wise, the Poannars are of
two kinds. Those north of the Vindhya range speak
the Hindi dialect and south of Vindhya range speak
the Tamil-Telugu dialect. These two dialects of
Sanskrit may be traced back to the time of Asoka.
Asokan-Brahmi is of two kinds. These two are reflected in Bur-Myan, for example the
"Hermit" is Rishi
{ra.þé.} in the south and
{I.þi.} in the north. Similarly "Weather"
is spelled with two kinds of phonemes /i/ and /u/.
See also Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamil-Brahmi
200405
The Vedic age, which, unlike the earlier epoch of
Greece, produced only religious works, reached a
high standard of merit in lyric poetry, and later
made some advance towards the formation of a prose
style.
UKT 200406: In the paragraph above, and the
paragraph below, we find Macdonell has used the
terms "Vedic age" and "Sanskrit
period". According to English usage, Google
search gives: "period can be
used of any portion of time, no matter how
long or short. We waited a period of five
minutes. A new period of space exploration
has begun. age is used of a longer
period of time that is associated with an
important person or outstanding thing".
It means Sanskrit language is a part of
Vedic age. That means there was a pre-Sanskrit
language or languages which was of Tib-Bur language
group. The word "Prakrit" is not specific.
The Sanskrit period embracing in general secular
subjects, achieved distinction in many branches of
literature, in national as well as court epic, in
lyric and especially didactic poetry, in the drama,
in fairy tales, fables, and romances.
Everywhere we find much true poetry, the beauty of
which is, however, marred by obscurity of style and
the ever-increasing taint of artificiality. But this
period produced few works which, regarded as a whole,
are dominated by a sense of
(MacH009end-010begin)
harmony and proportion. [UKT ¶]
Such considerations have had little influence on the
aesthetic notions of India. The tendency has been
rather towards exaggeration, manifesting
itself in all directions. The almost incredible
development of detail in ritual observance ; the
extraordinary excesses of asceticism [UKT ¶];
"The almost incredible development of detail
in ritual observances" reminds me of what I
had read in the Old Testament of the Bible: See:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altar_(Bible)
200407 "
See my note on
Asceticism and Buddha's rejection
the grotesque representations
of mythology in art ; the frequent employment
of vast numbers in description ; the immense bulk
of the epics ; the unparalleled conciseness of one
of the forms of prose ; the huge compounds
habitually employed in the later style, are among
the more striking manifestations of this defect of
the Indian mind.
In various branches of scientific literature, in
phonetics, grammar, mathematics, astronomy, medicine,
and law, the Indians also achieved notable results.
In some of these subjects their attainments are,
indeed, far in advance of what was accomplished by
the Greeks.
(MacH024) ... ... We
further know that in the sixth century B.C., Buddha
preached his gospel in the language of the people,
as opposed to that of the learned, in order that all
might understand him. [UKT ¶ ]
UKT 200409: Macdonell's choice of word gospel
is misleading.
• gos·pel n. ¹. Often
Gospel . The proclamation of the redemption
preached by Jesus and the Apostles, which
is the central content of Christian revelation.
². a. Gospel Bible One
of the first four books of the New Testament,
describing the life, death, and resurrection of
Jesus and recording his teaching. b. A
similar narrative. ... AHTD
What Gautama Buddha had expounded in his very first
lectures (say sermons , if you prefer) were
on the nature of things in this seeing world. His
theories are scientific theories, not revelation
by any god or man. We accept them because they
cannot be proven to be false - like the Laws of
Thermodynamics.
Thus all the oldest Buddhist literature dating from
the fourth or fifth century B.C. was composed in the
vernacular, originally doubtless in the dialect of
Magadha (the modern Behar), the birthplace of
Bud(MacH024end-025begin)dhism.
Like Italian, as compared with Latin, this early
popular speech is characterised by the avoidance of
conjunct consonants and by fondness for final vowels.
[UKT ¶]
Thus the Sanskrit sūtra "thread,"
and dharma "duty," become sutta
and dhamma respectively, while vidyut
"lightning," is transformed into vijju.
The particular form of the popular language which became
the sacred idiom of Southern Buddhism is known by the
name of Pali. Its original home is still uncertain, but
its existence as early as the third century B.C. is
proved beyond the range of doubt by the numerous rock
and pillar inscriptions of Açoka. ... ... The older
tradition of both the Buddhist and the Jain religion,
in fact, ignored Sanskrit entirely, using only the
popular dialects for all purposes.
Contents of this page
The territory mentioned above was the upper reaches of
the now dried-up Sarasvati River
«sárasvatī nadī́ » . See Wikipedia;
-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarasvati_River 200319
"The Sarasvati is praised lavishly in the
Rigveda as the best of all the rivers. In
RV 2.41.16,
अम्बितमे नदीतमे
देवितमे सरस्वति ।
ambitame nadītame devitame sarasvati ।
अप्रशस्ताइव
स्मसि प्रशस्तिमम्ब
नस्कृधि ॥
apraśastāiva smasi praśastimamba naskṛdhi॥
Oh Mother Saraswati you are the greatest of mothers,
greatest of rivers, greatest of goddesses. Even
though we are not worthy, please grant us
distinction".
From:
https://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dynamic/himalaya.html
200405
"The Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau to the north
have risen very rapidly. In just 50 million years, peaks
such as Mt. Everest have risen to heights of more than
9 km. The impinging of the two landmasses has yet to end.
The Himalayas continue to rise more than 1 cm a year --
a growth rate of 10 km in a million years! If that is so,
why aren't the Himalayas even higher? Scientists believe
that the Eurasian Plate may now be stretching out rather
than thrusting up, and such stretching would result in
some subsidence due to gravity."
UKT: It means that it was the changes in the Himalayas
that had affected the glaciers which have been the
source of water into the Saraswati. If you want to know
more of Himalayas, Tibetan Plateau, and how the present
day Myanmarpré has been formed, and are still changing,
read Understanding plate motion , USGS -
https://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dynamic/understanding.html
200406
Go back
Saraswati-note-b
Contents of this page
UKT 200407:
People tend to believe that Rishi Siddhartha gained
the Baudhi knowledge
{bau-Di. ñaaN} "Ultimate knowledge" because
he had practiced extreme Asceticism. It was not.
Extreme Asceticism in the form of starvation nearly
killed him.
It is true that after he had renounced the world, the
Prince Siddhartha became the Rishi Siddhartha. He then
studied various forms of mind control under two masters,
and he did achieve knowledge and mystical powers.
Yet, he was still troubled by pictures of Old Age and
Infirmity, Disease and Bodily suffering, Death and
Destruction of the Human body, and Rishis seeking
Perfection. These had led him to seek the Baudhi
knowledge
{bau-Di. ñaaN}, and he knew that he had not achieved it.
By this time he had already spent 6 years as a rishi.
I arrived at this mental picture, because he did not
sit for any examination and there was no one or
university that would give him a certificate of his
achievement. He was his own examiner.
Thinking that it was his very physical body that was
the hindrance, he starved it slowly and steadily -
the extreme form of Asceticism. He went into a swoon,
but luckily he recovered, and he realized that it was
the wrong way. He started taking food in the form of
milk gruel. Regaining some bodily strength he made up
his mind to reject every theory and analyze
the physical world from what we might call the First
Principle - a law of nature that is infallible - true
- under any circumstance and time period. Because of
this, I call him the First Scientist.
In this way he found the Principle of Suffering
or the First Noble Truth: that every sentient being -
no unseen being that exist only in imagination - would
have to Suffer mentally. He realized that his Physical
body would have to suffer the ravages of heat and cold
of the weather, the need to eat and drink, the need to
excrete bodily wastes, and anxiety and fear.
From Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asceticism 200406
"Asceticism (Greek:
ἄσκησις
áskesis, "exercise, training") is
a lifestyle characterized by abstinence from
sensual pleasures, often for the purpose of
pursuing spiritual goals. Ascetics may withdraw from
the world for their practices or continue to be part
of their society, but typically adopt a frugal
lifestyle, characterised by the renunciation of
material possessions and physical pleasures, and time
spent fasting while concentrating on the practice of
religion or reflection upon spiritual matters.
[3]
From Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhutanga 200406
"Dhutanga (Pali:
{Du-tïn~ga.} «dhutaṅga» "renunciation",
[1] known as Thai: "Thudong";
Sinhala:
ධුතාඞ්ග
is a group of thirteen austerities or ascetic
practices most commonly observed by the
practitioners of the Thai Forest Tradition of
Theravada Buddhism. While the Buddha did not
require these practices, they were recommended
for those wanting to practice greater
asceticism."
From Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Way 200406
"The Middle Way or Middle Path,
Pali: 
{miz~Zi.mûpûT~Ti.pa.da}
«majjhimāpaṭipadā»;
Skt: «madhyamāpratipada» ;
[1]
[note 1] is the term that Gautama Buddha
used to describe the character of the Noble
Eightfold Path he discovered that leads to
liberation.
The word liberation is a loaded word.
Similarly the words Nirvana and
Moksha are also loaded and interpreted
in various ways according to the interpreter's
affiliations. My interpretation is based on
the first three laws: the Principle of Suffering,
the Principle of Attachment, and the Principle of
Cessation. I'll first explain them in very common
terms:
1. The Principle of Suffering: "Every
sentient being is subject to mental suffering."
Don't ask me to explain what I mean by being.
I don't use the word creature, because I
neither believe in the existence, nor non-existence
of a Creator. Similarly don't pin me down on
Mind. You know that you a Physical Body, and
a Thinking Mind. That is enough.
2. The Principle of Attachment: "Every
sentient being, suffer mentally because of attachment.
Don't ask me to explain Attachment. We are attached
to our families, our names and dignities, to our
religions and beliefs, and above all to our own
selves . "Vanity of vanities" of the
Christian Bible is one of my favourite books. And
we must be honest with ourselves and be willing to
put every belief that we have to scrutiny. And so
my second favourite book is Job .
3. The Principle of Cessation: The End of
Attachment, is the End of Suffering.
By the End of Attachment is not necessarily Zero
Attachment. We are all attached to every imaginable
persons, ideas, and things. The lesser attachments
that we have, the freer we become in mind.
Theoretically, when you are free from all and every
attachment, you are liberated, achieved Moksha, and
you have gained Nivarna,
The Middle Way is to avoid two extremes of
Pleasure of Senses (which Prince Siddhartha
had known), and Extreme Asceticism (which
Rishi Siddhartha had known).
Go back
Asceticism-Buddha-rejection-note-b
Contents of this page
- UKT 200318
It is a historical fact that new ideas are branded as
pure speculations. These have been ridiculed by scholars
in religion, in medicine, in science and in all human
disciplines of knowledge. Those with new ideas have been
burned alive, subjected to physical and mental torture,
and various forms of public abuse.
As a chemist, I remember the Law of Octaves by
J.A.R. Newlands in 1865. He was roundly ridiculed by
his contemporaries, and the Chemical Society
refused to publish his work. In fact Newlands' law is
the predecessor of Dmitri Mendeleev's Periodic
Law which is the foundation of the modern
Periodic Table.
What I, as a budding chemist in the 1950s, have
remembered is the story of the German chemist Kekule
day-dreaming six monkeys who were holding hands and
tails. This dream had lead to his discovery of the
benzene ring structure. Now, this dream story has
been changed to a snake biting his own tail to form
a ring. Then a wet-blanket comes along to prove that
Kekule had never dreamt. However, I cherish the
monkey story because the benzene ring has 6
"hands" to hold 6 hydrogen atoms.
Then I have have come across a story of a Scot who
had proposed a tetrahedral model for carbon atom.
His paper was rejected by the Sorbonne University
where he was studying. The story came to light when
a researcher was going through the archives of the
university. Then, the researcher traced the
whereabouts of the Scot whom he had thought would
have become a famous scientist only to find that
the Scot had returned to Scotland and had become
the town's loonie. I have failed to find the source
again and what I've written here is based on my
memory alone and the story may be false.
What I've tried to present above, is that scientist
do day-dream and speculate. My idea of an Abugida
changing into an Alphabet is based on the
discovery of the Georgian alphabet თ /t/ having
the same structure and sound as Bur-Myan akshara
{ta.} is speculation. I cannot imagine any university
and academic accepting it. I have to present it online
in my website. Now read the article below.
Science and Speculation, by Ruth Frisina in
RANGELANDS 15(1), February 1993, p43. which is in
TIL HD-PDF and SD-PDF libraries
-
RFrisina-ScienceSpeculation<Ô> /
Bkp<Ô> (link chk 200318)
"There is something about the late hours that
clears the mind for contemplation. At least I find
it so. Perhaps it is the reduced impingement of
sensations; the easing of attentional demands. It
was in this quiescent time that, over the past
months, I pondered why I felt torn over the value
of a recently completed thesis."
Go back
Speculative-note-b
Contents of this page
- UKT 200318
Vedic and Sanskrit are two different languages.
Vedic itself is made up of strata (singular:
stratum), and according to Michael Witzel (born
July 18, 1943) is a German-American philologist,
comparative mythologist and Indologist, there are
5 strata.
I postulate that there must be a
pre-Rigveda language, which I presume was
the language (and dialects) of indigenous peoples
who had lived through various Stone Ages
living in the Indian subcontinent as the Himalayan
ranges were rising up. Then, fair-skinned foreigners
speaking IE languages, and dark-skinned foreigners
speaking Aus-Asi languages slowly infiltrated into
the land.
From:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megalith 200406
"Megaliths in South Asia are dated before 3000 BC,
with recent findings dated back to 5000 BC in southern
India.
[49] Megaliths are found in almost all parts of
South Asia. There is also a broad time evolution with
the megaliths in central India and the upper Indus
valley where the oldest megaliths are found, while
those in the east are of much later date.
[50]
[51]
Above, Macdonell has stated: The history of ancient
Indian literature naturally falls into two main
periods. The first is the Vedic, ... as early as
1500 B.C. ... to about 200 B.C." My question
now is on the various strata of the Vedic language.
From Wikipedia:
-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedic_Sanskrit
200309
"According to Michael Witzel, five chronologically
distinct strata can be identified within the Vedic
language:
[15]
[16]
1. Rigvedic language - Many words in the
Vedic Sanskrit of the Rigveda have
cognates or direct correspondences with the
ancient Avestan language
{a.wé-Stan sa.ka:} but these do not appear
in post-Rigvedic Indian texts. The Rigveda
must have been essentially complete by around the
12th century BCE. The pre-1200 BCE layers mark a
gradual change in Vedic Sanskrit, but there is
disappearance of these archaic correspondences
and linguistics in the post-Rigvedic period.
[15]
[16]
UKT 200320: My interest is in the very first stratum
of the Vedic language of Rigveda which have cognates
or direct correspondence with Avestan language
{a.wé-Stan sa.ka:}. Now look into:
-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avestan_alphabet
200411
-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Persian_cuneiform
200411
-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebrew_alphabet
200411
The Avestan language
{a.wé-Stan sa.ka:} is related to the Cuneiform script,
a script like Myanmar script not related in any way
to pictures, such as the Alef "cow" and Bet
"stable", of the Hebrew language. It is
from the "Cow-Stable" script that the word
Alphabet
{al-fa-bak} is derived. Because of these observations
of mine, I've come to conclude that the Myanmar script
is old as the Cuneiform. It is probably the reason why
there is a strong similarity between the Myanmar script,
and the Georgian script.
Is Vedic language Tib-Bur or IE? Even if it were IE,
it would be the link between IE and Tib-Bur. The IE
is an inflexional language, whereas Tib-Bur has no
or very little inflexion. Colloquial Bur-Myan is a
non-flexional language and is a typical Tib-Bur.
I suspect the language of Ari-monks
{a.ri:kri: sa.ka:} of Pagan was
Bur-Myan under a thin layer of language brought in
from India by King Abiraza
{a.Bi.ra-za mín:}. It is what might be
called the PoThuDaw
{hpo:þu-tau sa.ka:} which the regular Burmese-monks
cannot understand. It is Bur-Myan heavily mixed
with Pali-Myan and spoken and written with regular
Pali words and Pali words in reverse such as Muni
{mu.ni.}
(Pali for Buddha) which in reverse would be Minu
(a girl's name)
{mi.nu.}.
Game of vowel change:
{mu.ni.} -->
{mi.nu.}
It is a game which every indigenous Bur-Myan child can
easily learn and play.
The present-day Pal-Myan is the Ari-language
under the influence of Pali-Lanka. Pali-Myan is
a regular language and it is inflexional, whereas
the Ari-language or PoThuDaw
{hpo:þu-tau sa.ka:} is not a regular language and
is non-inflexional.
If Avestan and Rigvedic share many common features,
I must look into Avestan.
From:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avestan 200320
"Avestan also known historically as
Zend, comprises two languages: Old
Avestan (spoken in the 2nd millennium BCE) and
Younger Avestan (spoken in the 1st millennium
BCE). The languages are known only from their use as
the language of Zoroastrian scripture (the Avesta),
from which they derive their name."
UKT 200320: Now my question is: How was Old Avestan
preserved?
From:
http://www.heritageinstitute.com/zoroastrianism/scriptures/history.htm
200320
"Zarathushtra memorized and conveyed his ideas
and teaching through hymns called the Gathas
{ga-hta} गाथा . The verses of
the Gathas were memorized and sung by his followers,
thereby in turn conveying the ideas to others and
subsequent generations."
Though Gathas
{ga-hta} were preserved mostly memorized to be
recited they could also be in written Cuneiform
script. Gathas are also important in Buddhism.
From:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gatha 200405.
"Thus, gatha can mean any Prakrit and
Pali verses in general,
[3] or specifically the
arya meter of Sanskrit, versified portions of
Pali canon (Tipitaka
{ti.pi.Ti.ka.}) of Theravāda Buddhism are
also specifically called gathas.
Above, we are coming across a word - the Arya
Meter - connected to the word Aryan . The
so-called Aryan does not describe a
racial group. It describes a language which
later became Sanskrit. Gautama Buddha describes
the Arya as a person of high morals and
blameless conduct. The son of an Arya does not
automatically becomes an arya. Now, let's see
what Arya Meter means
From:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arya_metre
200411
"Āryā meter is a
meter used in Sanskrit and Prakrit verses. A
verse in āryā metre is in four
metrical lines called pādas {pa-da.}.
Unlike the majority of meters employed in
classical Sanskrit, the āryā
meter is based on the number of
mātrās (morae) per
pāda. A short syllable counts for one
mātrā, and a long syllable (that
is, one containing a long vowel, or a short vowel
followed by two consonants) counts for two
mātrās. It is believed that
arya meter was taken from the
gatha meter of Prakrit.
[1]Arya metre is common in Jain Prakrit
texts and hence considered as favourite metre of
early authors of
Jainism. The earlier form of the arya
metre is called old gati, which occurs in a
some very early Prakrit and Pàli texts.
[2]
Now, let's continue with Wikipedia presentation of
Michael Witzel's work:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedic_Sanskrit
200309
2. Mantra language - This period includes
both the mantra and prose language of the
Atharvaveda (Paippalada and Shaunakiya),
the Rigveda
Khilani, the
Samaveda Samhita, and the mantras of the
Yajurveda. These texts are largely derived from the
Rigveda, but have undergone certain changes, both
by linguistic change and by reinterpretation. For
example, the more ancient injunctive verb system is
no longer in use.
[15]
[16]
3.
Samhita prose - An important linguistic change
is the disappearance of the
injunctive, subjunctive, optative, imperative
(the modi of the
aorist). New innovation in Vedic Sanskrit appear
such as the development of periphrastic aorist forms.
This must have occurred before the time of
Pāṇini
{hsa.ra pa-Ni.ni.} because Panini makes a list of those
from northwestern region of India who knew these older
rules of Vedic Sanskrit.
[15]
[16]
For the injunctive, subjunctive, optative, imperative
(the modi of the
aorist). See -
GramGloss-indx.htm (link chk 200319)
4.
Brahmana prose - In this layer of Vedic
literature, the archaic Vedic Sanskrit verb system
has been abandoned, and a prototype of pre-Panini
Vedic Sanskrit structure emerges. The
Yajñagāthās texts provide a
probable link between Vedic Sanskrit, Classical
Sanskrit and languages of the Epics. Complex
meters such as Anuṣṭubh and
rules of
Sanskrit prosody had been or were being
innovated by this time, but parts of the Brahmana
layers show the language is still close to Vedic
Sanskrit.
[17]
[16]
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End of TIL file.