Research Article Written by London Swaminathan

Post No.7649

Date uploaded in London – 4 March 2020   

Contact – swami_48@yahoo.com

Pictures are taken from various sources for spreading knowledge; this is a non- commercial blog.

Jesus Christ said in the Bible,

‘I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last’

Revelation 22-13

Appar alias Tirunavukkarasar (Sixth Century CE)  also said,

‘Aanaththu mun ezuththaai ninraar polum’ (in Tamil)

That is a, the first letter in Tamil alphabet

Tiruvalluvar, author of Tamil Tirukkural also said,

In his very first couplet,

The alphabet begins with A;

So does the Universe with God (Akara mudala Ezuthu ellam….. in Tamil)

All these people echoed what Lord Krishna said in the Bhagavad Gita,

“Of letters I am A” (Krishna in Bhagavad Gita – Aksharaanaam Akaarosmi……in Sanskrit) – B G 10-33

When Krishna explained to Arjuna that God is in all the living beings and non-living things in the world, he mentioned the best in every category. There he mentioned He is A among letters (BG 10-33). This is a very interesting linguistic matter.

God is the origin and sustenance of all universe.

Dr S M Diaz in his commentary on the Tirukkural couplet says,

“In this particular couplet (very first Kural) , there is more in the comparison of god to the first letter of the alphabet, than is obvious in the ordinary context. Linguists would realise that the sound of the letter ‘A’ is that which energises all other letters and is the indispensable origin and source of utterance for all letters of the alphabet of most languages. In this way the letter ‘A’ and its sound not only form the starting point for all the letters of the language, but also give life and integrity to all other sounds and letters. In the same way God is the fountain head and source of all life and activity in this universe. Perhaps that is the reason most invocations to god begin with Om. It is interesting to note also that Thirumanthiram (written by Tiru Mular)  refers to God as

Akara muthalaa yanaithumai nirkum , 1753 1751 (in Tamil)

That is why Spinoza called God the first cause in his philosophic discourse on Ethics.

So does Thomas Aquinas, and from a more rational angle, De Cartes.”

—Tirukkural, Volume 1 Dr SM Diaz

Swami Chinmayananda says in his comment on the Bhagavad Gita sloka/couplet,

“Of the alphabet, I am the letter A” (10-33)

It is very well known that, without the help of the vowels, words cannot be pronounced. Of all languages, Sanskrit is particularly sweet because of the preponderance of the A sound in it. In fact, every letter in its combination is to be pronounced in Sanskrit with the sound of A added to it to lengthen it to its full sweetness. This, as it were, lubricates the words, and consequently the language has no backfiring of disturbances of rattling nuisance or disgusting hoarseness. Because of the smooth run of the A sound in every letter, there is a melody even between words and a lingering echo between sentences.

In fact, after a long chanting of a Sanskrit text in a hall, there is, for the sensitive, a perceptible atmosphere of soothing music in the air that can lull all the agitations of the human mind.

The sound A is not only the essence in each letter of a word— not only does it transcend, or overflow the sentences and flood the very atmosphere — but it has itself the first place among the alphabets in all the languages. Realising these implications, the Upanishads declare that A sound is the essence in all speech. (Karma phalasya vidhata)

MY RESEARCH ON LETTER ‘A’

1.Rig Veda begins with the mantra ‘ agni meele prohitam ‘.i.e with Agni and ends with a verse on Agni. Thus we see ‘ A’ for Agni there. It is said that all Vedic mantras begin with ‘Aum’. Even if we take Aum as the first word in the Vedas, it is the combination of A+U+M according to Hindu commentators. Again we see ‘A’ as the first letter.

2.And there is a rule in Sanskrit and Tamil that a book or any literary work should begin with auspicious words where we can see ‘A’ words.  Several Sanskrit books begin with ‘Atha’. There is a sloka which explains it:-

Here is a simple sloka which gives the rule:-

Omkaarascha atha sabdascha dvaavethau brahmanah puraa

Kandam bitwaa viniyaartau tasmaan maangalikaavubau

-Paatanjala darsanam

 The sounds ‘Om’ and ‘Atha’ came first from the mouth of Brahma. So both these are considered auspicious words.

3.Tamil can be compared only with Sanskrit because both came from the same source i.e Lord Shiva according to Tamil literature.

And Agastya, the Rishi from northern Himalayas, only did a Grammar for Tamil. All these facts are in Tamil literature. If both are completely different from one another, Agastya would not  have agreed for the huge assignment.

Very interestingly, the Agastya’s name also begins with ‘A’.

4.When a five year old boy goes to Sanskrit school, he is taught in the very first class,

‘Akaarantha pullingah Rama Sabdah’

That is the students have to memorise everything when the teacher says it. I myself learnt Sanskrit that way. We begin with Akaara………

5.Then we are asked to memorise the world’s first dictionary cum thesaurus Amara Kosa written by Amara Simha. Though it begins with Yasya……… the name of the book and the name of the author begins with ‘A’.

5.Panini’s Mahesvara Sutra, which came from the kettle drum of Lord Siva begins with ‘A’.

6.My long research over 50 years have shown that Sanskrit and its sister language Tamil have unique structure. Unlike other language dictionaries the Sanskrit and Tamil dictionaries are arranged in the same alphabetical order. Short vowel and Long Vowel will follow one  another (A, aa, E, ee, U, uu………………..). Then the consonants also follow the same order in the dictionary (Ka, Ca, Ta, Tha, Pa, Ra; Ya Ra La, Va etc).

But here I will only talk about letter A.

The wonder of wonders in Tamil and Sanskrit is

‘A’ words will be more than ‘AA’ (long vowel)

‘I’ words will be more than ‘ii’ words

‘U’ words will be more than ‘UU’ words

In short long vowel words will be less than short vowel words.

Strangely diphthongs Ai and Au won’t be there.

In my previous research paper written years ago, I have given the comparative chart. Since this article is about vowel A, I will just show only the vowels from two most famous books of Hindus in Sanskrit and Tamil:-

Bhagavad Gita has 700 slokas

Slokas beginning with letter A in Bhagavad Gita – 97

Slokas beginning with letter Aa in Bhagavad Gita – 17

Slokas beginning with letter ‘ i’ in Bhagavad Gita – 21

Slokas beginning with letter ‘ii’ in Bhagavad Gita – 1

Slokas beginning with letter U in Bhagavad Gita – 9

Slokas beginning with letter Uu in Bhagavad Gita – 2

You can see short vowel sound letter slokas are more than long vowel sound slokas

This amazing structure can be seen in Tamil Veda Tirukkural as well :-

TIRUKKURAL in TAMIL by Tiru Valluvar

Tirukkural has 1330 Kural couplets

Kural couplets beginning with letter A – 157

Kural couplets beginning with letter Aa – 23

Kural couplets beginning with letter i – 114

Kural couplets beginning with letter ii – 8

Kural couplets beginning with letter U– 81

Kural couplets beginning with letter Uu – 21

The pattern is same in both the languages. Even the proportion of all vowel related verses or words is same.

No one can impose a condition on poets that you must compose these many poems with A and these many verses with Aa. And yet we see this amazing feature through out ancient Sanskrit and Tamil literature. These morphological and anatomical (sandhi rules)  features of both these languages explode Aryan-Dravidian language family theories. I have given more information about Sandhi rules in another article.

So, when Krishna said that He is A among letters and when Valluvar said A is the  first letter in alphabet they meant more than what you read superficially.

7.Let us Decipher Indus Script

I have been proposing for long that if at all one cracks the code of Indus- Sarasvati River basin civilization language seals, then you will

See ‘A’ words (or sounds) more than ‘Aa’, I words (or sounds) more than ‘Ii’ and that will prove it is typical Indian language which would be the basis of Sanskrit and Tamil. In short, there will be no Aryan Family of languages or Dravidian Family of languages. There we will see a common root!

—subham—