Compiled by London Swaminathan
Post No. 995 Date-22nd April
One of the greatest saints of modern India was Kanchi Jagadguru Sri Chandra Sekara Indra Saraswati known as Kanchi Paramacharya (1894-1994). He was a great scholar in various subjects. Well versed in the Vedas and its branches he could explain anything logically and impress even the scientists. I have culled out some of the important points on the Sanskrit language he made in his lectures from 1930s.
“Goddess Amba is the Mother of all of us, at all times. She is the Mother of all creatures that includes birds and insects. They are all our brothers. If we worship Her as our Mother She will come in that from and bless us. Great men have done this and received Her blessings. Great poet Kalidasa was Her devotee. He got the gift of the gab by Her blessings. Another person was Muka Kavi. He was dumb and prayed to Goddess Kamakshi at Kancheeurama and became a great poet. He had composed 500 beautiful poems. If one does not know Sanskrit, one cannot enjoy it. To enjoy the beauty of words of our Bhagavatpada (Adi Shankara), one needs knowledge of Sanskrit. At least for the sake these three (great poets) all must study Sanskrit.
Madras discourse of Kanchi Paramacharya on 14-10-1932. (This is my rough translation from Tamil), page 101/102 of Sri Jagaguruvin Upadesangal, First Part, published by Sri Kamakoti Kosathanam, Madras-1, Year 1933, 2nd Edition 1957
Sanskrit is the Life of all Languages
Sanskrit belongs to everyone. It hasn’t got its own territory. It does not belong to any country. Languages such Tamil, Telugu, Hindi belong to some regions. Sanskrit has not got any such geographical affiliation. Some people call it a dead language. My mother had another child before me. My mother was an enlightened soul (Jnani). That child died. My mother did not cry. My mother loved me so much. One day I looked at her face and said to her, “ Mum, when my elder brother died you did not cry. If I die will you cry or not?”
“You are also a son to me like him. He died in body. You die in your mind”, she said to me. What she wanted was that I should have a dead mind (non detached). Sanskrit is also like that.
If someone owns something there will always be a fear (of losing it). Sanskrit is found in all places. All the existing languages have Sanskrit words. Most of the languages were born from Sanskrit. In our spoken Tamil lot of Sanskrit words are mixed. What is death? What can die? Only body can die. When the life breath goes out, it dies. Sanskrit is the life of all the languages. Our religion and language were there throughout the world. Vedas are the foundation of our religion. Once again all may join together and become one. If we tell this to everyone with love and without ego, they will listen to us with great interest. They will see eye to eye with us. Then this religion will spread far and wide like it was before.
Madras discourse of Kanchi Paramacharya on 12-10-1932. (This is my rough translation from Tamil), page 79/80 of Sri Jagaguruvin Upadesangal, First Part, published by Sri Kamakoti Kosathanam, Madras-1, Year 1933, 2nd Edition 1957.
Tamil and Sanskrit
After composing Tirukkural, the author (Tiruvalluvar) went to Madurai. Many poets praised the work. In Tiruvalluva Malai, which contains these praises, one poet says, “I thought about the question, which is superior Tamil or Sanskrit? Sanskrit and Tamil are equal in their greatness. We cannot say that one is superior to the other. The reason is that the Vedas are in Sanskrit and now we have this Kural in Tamil”. Why is Sanskrit considered a great language? In his praise of the Tirukkural here the poet gives the answer: It is because the Vedas are in that language.
Page 47 of Hindu Dharma, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Bombay, Year 2000.
Sanskrit is the repository of ‘Atmic’ and religious sastras, a store house of poetry and works on arts. Everyone must learn to regard it as “our own language”.
Page 620 of Hindu Dharma
Sanskrit is the language of all mankind; it is an international language and also the language of the gods. The gods are called ‘Girvanas’; so Sanskrit is called ‘Girvani’. While the emperor of Tamil poetry, Kambar, describes it as the Devabhasa, the Sanskrit poet Dandin calls it ‘davi vak’ (Divine Speech) in his Kavyadarsa ( ‘samskrtam nama daivi vak’).
Page 328 Hindu Dharma
About 800 years ago, Sanskrit was the language of administration not only in india but also in greater india namely, countries of the far east like Siam, Cambodia, Java and Bali (Indonesia). Sanskrit inscriptions in stones and copper plates are found in those places.
Acharya’s Call, Vol. 1, B.G.Paul & Co, Madras (1957 – 1960 Discourses)
Well Constructed
Sanskrit has no syllable that is indistinct or unclear. It has no word that cannot be traced to its root. Whatever the word it can be broken into syllables to elucidate its meaning. Sanskrit is sonorous and auspicious to listen to. You must not be ill disposed towards such a language, taking the narrow view that it belongs to a few people.
Page 328 Hindu Dharma
All Sounds are in Sanskrit
Sanskrit has got all phonemes (sounds). In fact there is no sound vocalised by humans that is not present in that language. It has the f sound. ‘Zha’ is not, as is usually imagined, unique to Tamil. It exists in the Vedic language which is the source of Sanskrit. The ‘da’ in the Yajur Veda has to be pronounced as zha in the corresponding page in the Sama Veda. The three dot symbol ‘Aytam’ is present in Sanskrit also. There is a Panini sutra ‘h kap pauc’. According to it if a visarga comes before a word beginning with ka (Ramah + Karunakarah) , it will not have the h , as mentioned before, but of h as in aytam. Here it is the visarga that is the aytam that becomes the f before pa-kara.
What Tamils call ‘kutriyalukaram’, is present in Sanskrit also. In Sanskrit the vocalic ‘r’ and ‘l’ are not included among the consonants, but regarded as vowels.
There is no short ‘e’ or ‘o’ in Sanskrit. I felt this to be a minus point. On going through Patanjali’s commentary on the sutras of Panini, I discovered that Sanskrit too had these short vowels and it was a comforting discovery. Patanjali says that, in chanting the ‘satyamugri ranayaniya sakhas’ of the Sama Veda, the short e and o are used. Thus Sanskrit embraces all the sounds it has also a script in which the sound of every letter is determined with utmost accuracy.
Page 294/295 Hindu Dharma
As the language of the gods it brings divine grace. The sounds of Sanskrit create beneficial vibrations of the ‘nadis’ and strengthen the nervous system, thereby contributing to our health.
Page 328 Hindu Dharma
Sanskrit knowledge converted a Non Vegetarian
Talking about Vegetarian and Satvic (fruits) food, Paramacharya said,
“One Britisher, who thought that Indians were uncivilised and their food was inferior, was getting meat every day from America and eating. He started learning Sanskrit. One day he heard “sushkai trunaih vanagajaha balino bhavanti” a Sanskrit sloka. After hearing, he changed his mind. He stopped eating meat. Which animal is powerful? Elephant. What does it eat? Grass and leaves. Some of you may question that lion is powerful than elephant. It is not so. Lion cannot pull heavy weights like bull. So the works of non-vegetarians like lions will be useful for destruction. For satvikaharies, entire world looks beautiful.
Lecture in Telugu on 25 January 1968 at Vuyyuru, Andhra Pradesh
The Vedic language is not Sanskrit but “Chandas”. Chandas means not only metre but also the Vedas which are metrically composed as well as the language of the Vedas. The language used in ordinary speech, poetry, the Puranas, the epics, other writings is Sanskrit. The Vedic language alone is Chandas. When Panini makes a reference to the Vedas he says , “Iti Chandasi” and when he refers to any question relating to Sanskrit he says, “Iti Loke”.
Sanskrit, which evolved through a constant process of ‘samskrta’ or refinement contains many words drawn from the Vedic language. But if there is a language that is based entirely on sounds meant for the well being of mankind it is Chandas (the Vedic language).
‘Krtam’ means created, ‘samskrtam’ (Sanskrit) means well created. It would thus mean that the language called Sanskrit was created with great effort and care.
Pages 740 of Hindu Dharma
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Tamil and Vedas 
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