WRITTEN BY LONDON SWAMINATHAN
Post No. 8388
Date uploaded in London – 23 July 2020
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THEODOR GOLDSTUCKER was a great scholar in Sanskrit grammar, an authority on Panini . He showed how confused was Max Muller and how he contradicted himself in every statement he made.
Theodor Goldstucker 1821 to 1872
Max Muller – 1823 to 1900
Max Muller said that Hindus did not know writing before 4th century BCE.
But Goldstucker showed that Hindus knew writing even during Vedic days.
Both of them were Germans ,but lived in Britain holding high posts in Universities.
Sekkilzar, a great Tamil Saivite saint, praises Lord Shiva as one who knows writing but gave the Unwritten Vedas (Ref.Periya Purana of Sekkilzar, verse 160
5). This is confirmed by Maheswara Sutras of Panini. Lord Shiva’s kettle drum made different sounds and from one side came Sanskrit and from another side came Tamil (Ref.Paranjothi Munivar’s Tiru Vilaiyadal Purana).
Lord Shiva deputed Rishi Agastya from the Himalayas to write a grammar for Tamil Language. This is sung by all Tamil poets until Bharati of modern day. This again confirms that Tamil and Sanskrit came from the same source. Though Shiva knew writing he made that Veda should be taught only orally. 2000 year old Tamil Sangam poet Pandyan Enati Nedun Kannan also described the Veda as the Unwritten Learning (Ezuthaa Karpu) in Sangam Book Kuruntokai verse 156.
Max Muller and Gold Stucker lived before the Indus- Sarasvati Civilization seals were excavated. But yet Goldstucker knew that Vedic Hindus wrote other things but not the Vedas. And the biggest proof lies in teaching Vedas orally until this day, in spite of thousands of printed books.
Max Muller wrote in the History of Sanskrit Literature that Panini of Fourth Century BCE (MM’s Date for Panini) never mentioned book or writing, pen or paper. Later he said that his contemporary Katyayana rightly interpreted Yavanani as Greek writing. Not only that, he over looked Panini’s word Lipi and Lipikara (Writing and Writer).
Goldstucker also showed that ‘Sutra’ (thread connecting palm leaves/strong), ‘Patalam’ (covering with bark), ‘Kanda’/trunk of tree, ‘Patra’/palm leaf all point out to the existence of books and Texts during Vedic times.
(Until this day Westerners are making the biggest blunder by interpreting Yavanas as Greeks.. Tamil literature called the Romans as Yavanas; Kalidasa called the Honey Comb Bearded Persians as Yavans. Later Sanskrit writers called the Greeks as Yavanas; 15th century onwards Muslims were called Yonas, Jonas and Yavanas. Earliest Mahabharata and Ramayana referred to Yavanas as the products of Divine Cow Kamadenu along with Chinese and Dravidians. In short whoever lived in North West but not the followers of Vedas were called Yavanas. So Persian, Karoshti and Greek writings were Yavanani scripts)
H H Wilson (1786-1860) recommended Goldstucker to a post in University College London. He was working there until his last day. Goldstucker died 18 years before Max Muller. That was a great loss for Sanskrit lovers.
Goldstucker dated Panini in Seventh Century BCE and dated Katyayana several centuries after Panini. G oldstucker showed that thousands of corrections and additions he made to Panini’s original book is the proof for it’. He told that this was not due to Panini’s mistakes, but due to the changes in the use of the language over several centuries. (We see such changes in Tamil grammar books as well)
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Emperor Ashoka’s Brahmi
Asoka spread the Buddhist message from Afghanistan to the southernmost part of Sri Lanka.. The Brahmi writings found in different parts of the Indian Sub Continent showed Max Muller was an wrong. More over Indus – Sarasvati writing showed that Hindus knew writing. But there is a mysterious gap between the Indus seals and Brahmi or Karoshti or X Y Z.
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Writing in the Vedas
Egbert Richter Ushanas gives another important point about writing in his book ‘The Indus Script and the Rig Ved’a.
“There were also words for ‘to writ’e and ‘writer’ in Vedic times. Buhler mentions ‘lipi’ for script and ‘lipikara’ for writer in Panini’s grammar 3-2-21, but several words denoting ‘to write’ and ‘writer can’ be found in the Rg Veda itself. They have only not been recognised as such on account of deficient entries in dictionaries.
A Vedic word for writer is ‘rbhu’.. its root is related to rhaptein in Greek. Its derivatives are ‘rhapsody’ and the name of the famous singer ‘Orpheus’. Synonymous and homophonous with ‘rabh’ in Sanskrit root ‘grabh’ corresponding to Greek ‘graphein’ for to write. ‘Grabh is not used in this sense in Veda, but we come across the roots ‘gah’, to dive – pencil in the clay- ‘ri’ , to let flow, — the line of writing – and ‘r’ to move. This root is related to ‘rg’, the verse,’ rsi’, seer/singer and ‘rta’, order/truth, time of sacrifice. That means the seers were also writers. The word for writing in classical Sanskrit , ‘lipi’, is also derived from ‘rabh’. Another root that is used for to write is ‘pis’, to carve in stone.
My comments
We can easily see the connection of lipi- glyph- graph- write etc.
Also Persians pronounced Lipi as Dipi in Behitsun Inscription of (520 BCE).
Tamil also got Ezuthu for letter/lipi from WRITE
W = e
Ri = lu or Zu
Te = thu.
All point out to one source!!
tags -Goldstucker, writing, Max Muller, lipi, lipikara, Graphine
–subham–
Tamil and Vedas 