Post No. 8775
Date uploaded in London – –5 OCTOBER 2020
Contact – swami_48@yahoo.com
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tamilandvedas.com, swamiindology.blogspot.com
Years ago, I wrote in my two blogs that Brahmins of India are “LIVING FOSSILS” of the world and they deserve an entry into Guinness Book of Records. I gave umpteen reasons including ‘thrice a day Sandhyavandana water ritual’ shows they are sons of the soil and they did not come from outside India. I also showed that they worship Sun, God of Death, Water, Directions, Prosody, Goddess Gayatri, Sapta Rishis/ Seven Stars in Ursa Major constellation, 100 year full life, River Narmada and all Vedic deities. There is a rare combination of Nature and God in their three times worship every day (Sorry to say that I do only two times a day in London on the banks of River Thamasa called Thames. Guinness Book on Names says that it is similar to River Thamasaa of Valmiki)
Now I have got one more point to prove my case. Brahmin’s daily ceremony includes Gayatri worship. It is the second and most important part. Before the actual recitation of Gayatri Mantra, they invocate Goddess Gayatri from the hilltop in to their hearts/mind. While inviting Goddess to enter his mind/heart he worships seven seers (Sapta Rishis in Northern Great Bear/ Ursa Major constellation), Sanskrit Grammar (Vedic Prosody with seven main meters) and All Vedic Gods.
The wonder of wonders is that a Panini Sutra gives the names of Rishis in the same order as I say it in London. What does it mean?
At least for 2700 years Brahmins are doing this recitation. I was surprised to find the same order in a grammar book where he explained only to teach grammar and not religion or ritual.
A brahmin who does Sandhya Vandana (Sun Worship) every day, touching his forehead, says the names of Seven Seers:-
Atri, Brhu, Kutsa, Vasistha, Gautama, Kashyapa, Angirasa.
Some Brahmins use one or two different names but they belong to the same clan (Gotra). So it is not considered a deviation.
And the referred sutra is in Ashtadhyayi of Panini:-
2-4-65 atribrhukutsavasistha gotamaangirasobhyas ca
Here he explains the rules about elision .
We are not concerned about the grammatical rules here.
What I want to show is that the same order is in grammatical rule and Brahmin’s say it in day to day ritual!
So we know that it has been there from Panini’s time or even before that.
Xxx
NUMBER NAMES FOR TAMIL BOOKS
Tamils followed Panini in naming women and in forming feminine names from masculine ones. (Please read my article posted here yesterday ).
Tamils also named books after numbers . Some of the Sangam Age Tamil books are ‘Five short hundreds’ (Ainkurunuru), ‘Ten tens ‘(Pathitrupathu); Post Sangam books have Tirukkural (Holy Couplets=2), Naaladiyaar (Four Lines). Then we see a lot of Ten Verses (Pathikam), 100 verses (Satakam).
All these originated from Sanskrit which are explained in Panini Sutras (aphorism or crispy rules)
The earliest NUMBER books in Sanskrit is Satapata Brahmana (100 chapters). Those who read the first 60 chapters are named students ‘who mastered 60 chapter’s. The book is called Sixty, Shastipathaa in Sanskrit, is the word used for it.
Panini’s own work is called Ashtakam (Eight Chapters) by his followers and the popular name of the book is ASHTA +ADHYAYII (8 chapters).
Tamils also collected the 18 books of Sangam Age into Eight Collections (Ettuthokai) and Ten Long verses (Pathuppaattu) .
The Kaushitaki Brahmana book has 30 chapters and the Aitareya Brahmana book has 40 chapters.
Panini gave them as examples in5-1-62
Trimsach- chatvarimsator brahmane samjnayam
Triamsa- 30
Chatvarimsa-40
This is also followed by the ancient Tamils.
XXX
TAMILS followed Sanskrit grammar in naming the books after authors.
Most famous Tamil book is Tolkaappiyam , the oldest grammar book in Tamil.
Like Panini’s work is called Paaniniiyam after him, Tolkaappiyam is named after its author Tolkaappian.
In Tamil we see many ancient book names such as KaakkaipaatiniiYAM, AvinaYAM etc.
This YA ending is in lot of Sanskrit books which are shown as examples in the commentaries on Panini.
In short, Tamils followed NAMING rules explained in Paniniyam. May be the custom is older than Panini and Tolkappian.
—Subham–
tags – 7 seers, sapta rishis, Paniniyam, Tolkappiam, Tamils,
Tamil and Vedas 