Nirukta

Nirukta (Sanskrit: , IPA: [nirukt], "explanation, etymological

interpretation") is one of the six Vednga disciplines of Hinduism,
treating etymology, particularly of obscure words, especially those
occurring in the Vedas. The discipline is traditionally attributed toYska,
an ancient Sanskrit grammarian. Yska's association with the discipline is
so great that he is also referred to as Niruktakra or Niruktakrit ("Maker
of Nirukta"), as well as Niruktavat ("Author of Nirukta"). In practical use,
nirukta consists of brief rules (stras) for deriving word meanings,
supplemented with glossaries of difficult or rare Vedicwords.
Nirukta is also the name given to a celebrated commentary by Yska
on the Nighantu, an even older glossary (dated before 14th Century CE)
which was already traditional in his time. Yska's Nirukta contains a
treatise on etymology, and deals with various attempts to interpret the
many difficult Vedic words in the Nighantu. It is in the form of
explanations of words, and is the basis for later lexicons and dictionaries.
The Nighantu is now traditionally combined with the Nirukta as a unified
text.
A critical edition of the Nighantu and the Nirukta was published by
Lakshman Sarup in the 1920s.
Etymology
Nirukta (Sanskrit) from nir "forth, out" and the verbal root vac- to
speak, utter. Uttered, pronounced, expressed, defined; as a noun, the
etymological interpretation of a word, also the name of such works.



Use in rhetoric
The related Sanskrit noun nirukti means "derivation", or in
rhetoric, an "artificial explanation of a word."
Flourishes of rhetorical skills in the art of nirukta were considered a
mark of commentorial authority. As a result, many Sanskrit
commentaries include elaborate variations on possible word derivations,
sometimes going far afield of obvious meanings in order to show hidden
meanings. The nature of Sanskrit grammar, with its many contractions,
gave rise to ample opportunities to provide alternate parsings for words,
thus creating alternative derivations.
Many examples of the rhetorical use of nirukta occur
in Bhaskararaya's commentaries. Here is an example from the opening
verse of his commentary on the Ganesha Sahasranama.
The opening verse includes Gaantha as a name for Ganesha. The
simple meaning of this name, which would have seemed obvious to his
readers, would be "Protector of the Ganas", parsing the name in a
straightforward way as gaa (group) + ntha (protector). But Bhaskararaya
demonstrates his skill in nirukta by parsing it in an unexpected way as
the Bahuvrhi compound gaana + atha meaning "the one the
enumeration (gaana) of whose qualities brings about auspiciousness.
The word atha is associated with auspiciousness (magalam)." This
rhetorical flourish at the opening of the sahasranama demonstrates
Bhaskaraya's skills in nirukta at the very beginning of his commentary on
a thousand such names, including a clever twist appropriate to the
context of a sahasranama.

The philosophies of Sanathana Dharma, whether Nyaya or
Vaiseshika, whether Sankhya or Yoga or whether Poorva or Uthara
Meemamsa, are higly dependent on the Sanskrit Language. The
philosophies assume an eternal connection between the Sanskrit word
and its meaning. This was mentioned in an earlier lesson in this series
where we quoted from the Mahabhashya, the words "siddhe shabdartha
sambhandhe"
The philosophies assert that just as creation is a cycle, the Sanskrit
words are also created in cycles so that their meanings are essentially
eternal. This is the reason why no origin or root for sanskrit can ever be
found.
How does the language of Sanskrit utilize this concept in its day to day
use?
The language is wholly derived from some fundamental root
syllables which denote basic concepts like the five elements, movement,
energy, space etc.. The five elements are collectively termed as, pancha
maha boothaha and individually as
Prithivi, Aapaha, Analaha, Vaayu, Akaashaha
standing for the earth, water, fire, air and the ether respectively. The
vedanga which deals with the subject matter of root words occurring in
the vedas is termed as Niruktam and is credited (or traced) to the
rendition of sage Yaska. Niruktam is divided into three portions in the
first of which root words each signifying a simple concept are grouped or
classified together. For instance, the words
Aapaha, udakam, jalam, neeram, vaari etc.,
All of which denote water, are put under a group along with other words
not mentioned above, and the group termed udakanaamaani.
In the second branch of Niruktam, Yaska gives a derivation of these
names from their roots. In the third branch of Niruktam, Yaska proceeds
to give the meanings of some specific mantras from the Vedas.
It will be obvious to our readers that this feature of the Sanskrit language
is wholly unique and is not seen in other languages of the world, whether
ancient or modern.
This lends credence to the belief that Sanskrit is the oldest of all the
languages of the world.
At the end of this article, we have appended a figure to highlight this
aspect of the language in which, we trace the names for water in different
languages of the world to their corresponding words in the Sanskrit
language.




Nirukta of sage Yaska, a Vedanga, likened to the nose of Veda Purua,
dealing with epistemological, exegetical, phonological, morphological and
semantic aspects of Vedic literature with a dictionary of 1773 vedic
words, fully derived and explained with examples, giving out criteria for
such an analysis, containing 12 chapters, 49 quarters and 3 major
Sections, in prose order;
Yaska's Nighantu and Nirukta is the earliest available technical
treatise ever in the history of human civilisation after Vedic texts and is
hailed as the best treatment of linguistic and exegetic aspects pertaining
to accented, phonetic forms of Vedic literature. Its study, owing to the
rigorous efforts involved, is almost become extinct, except for a very few
traditional scholars who are past their prime. Even publications of
research in this important field have been very rare, only a couple of
them in this century.
The Computational Study of Nirukta will benefit students of
Sanskrit Etymology in particular and Linguists in general, regarding
various exegetic aspects of systematic, phonetic languages like Sanskrit
from the Vedic texts to current colloquial speech.
Kashyapa was the father of Indra, and a nephew of vasiSTa, the rshi
of the 7th Mandala of the Rg vEda. I believe that his list of synonyms, his
nighantu or his thesaurus if you will, best matches the vedic times (trEtA
yuga) than those of the later authors. So it is my desire to study this
nighantu a bit at a time.

Niruktha :
1. Please note that gouh, aditih and pUSa mean earth, in addition
to the other words in the list.
2. Please note that candrama, loha, amrta also mean gold. We are
used to translating them as moon, iron and nectar respectively. Also
note that the word rukmam could have been the origin of the kannada
word meaning rokka or money. ayah is another word translated,
nowadays as iron, but could have meant as gold in those days.
3. bhUh, barhih,puSkaram, samudram. adhvaram are all given as
synonyms for antahrisksha., which we translate as sky today.




Sri Aurobindo told us that the word gouh means much more than
just cow! In the list below we can see that for ourselves : gouh is a
synonym for sky, height, heaven and also for ray of light. In the
previous post we have seen that it is a synonym for earth.
It is also interesting to see that the Saptarishis can mean the rays of
light! The word aasaah which means hope today meant directions too.


We have an exciting set of words, the vedic sanskrit words with modern
english meanings in brackets so we can see how the words have changed
in meaning.
1. Synonyms for ratrI (night) : doSa (defect), tamah (darkness),
rajah (brightness), ghRtAcI (an apsara, mother of Drona and Suka),
payah (water), himA (ice).
2. Synonyms for uSas (dawn) : vibhAvarI (night), citrAmaghA
(names of stars Chitra and Makha), vAjinI (horse).
3. Synonyms for ahna (day) : dyuh, bhAnu (sun), ghrNA (anger),
divedive (daily)
4. Synonyms for mEghA (cloud) : adri (mountain), gOtra, rouhiNa,
raivata, ahi (snake), odana (cooked rice), vRtra (Indra slayed vRtra),
asura (mighty, enemies of devas)


Synonyms for Vacha and Udaka


Da in yajurvEda becomes La in Rg vEda
My Veda Guru says :
1. Da in yajurvEda becomes La in Rg vEda : for eg iDA in yajurveda
is iLA in Rg Veda
2. In one yajur veda mantram bRhatE becomes mahatE in Rg
vEda.
Also when the ra in saraswati is swarita it is usually prathama vibhakti
and when it is udAta, then it is sambodhana prathamA vibhakti.
Notes :
Source : The worlds first-known and extant thesaurus
is Nighantu, a glossary of 1,800 Vedic words, arranged subject-wise. Its
compiler, Kashyap, was bestowed with the lofty title of Prajapati, the
progenitor. Nirukt, the sage Yaskas treatise on Nighantu, may have been
the worlds first dictionary-encyclopaedia; it gives words and their
meanings which are elaborated upon in great detail.
There were several subsequent compilations of Sanskrit
dictionaries. The Shabdakalpadrum, a Sanskrit dictionary of an unknown
date, lists twenty-nine such works, most of which were arranged subject-
wise and were, in a broad sense, thesauruses.
Amar Kosh is the bible of all the Sanskrit thesauruses. Its
author, Amar Singh (AmarSimha in Roman Devanagari) gave his work the
title of Namalinganushasan (the Discipline of Names and Genders). It was
also called Trikaand, because it was divided in three hierarchical cantos
with twenty-five chapters having a total of 8,000 words in
1,502 shlokas or verses. It is popularly known as Amar Kosh to
acknowledge the achievement of its author.
Yaskas Nirukta is a Vedic commentary on the Nighantus (including
Kasyapas). A Nighantu is a glossary of difficult and rare Rg Vedic terms.
The Naighantuka kanda of the Nighantus consists of 3 lists of synonyms.
The Naigama (Aikapadika) kanda consists of a list of isolated and difficult
words. The Daivata kanda contains a classification of devatas. These lists
are followed by Yaskas rules.

Yaskacharya, the commentator (Source)

Based on the Nighantu, Yaska compiled the Nirukta text. Yaskacharya is
the oldest and pioneer commentator of the Vedas. The commentators who
followed him used his text as the basis. The Nirukta is included in the
ten holy texts that a Brahman (priest) endowed with the title of
Rugvedi Dashagranthi (knower of the ten holy texts) should study.
The Nirukta is a commentary on the Nighantu. But from the very
beginning the Niruktaand Nighantuhave both been termed as
the Nirukta.
In the Nirukta words have been described comprehensively. It is not a
mere explanation of the meaning of words but also elucidates the origin of
the word associated with that particular meaning. In other words every
word is minutely analysed.
They emphatically proclaim that though such a grammatically ruled word
is not proven from a root of similar meaning one should not bother about
it. Ignoring the rules of grammar one should firmly adopt the meaning
suggested by the Name.
Wholeheartedly obeying this directive Yaska and the authors of
the Nirukta before Him, created new words. Vedic words should be
interpreted according to the context and the same origin of the word
should be given when it is used with the same meaning; however when it
is used with a variety of meanings different origins may certainly be
given.
means that which imparts true
knowledge about the existing objects is the ultimate truth.
Through various ideas Yaska has clearly proclaimed that all names are
derived from a root. The present day linguistics too has accepted this
doctrine. (Paninis era came later than 700 B.C. From this it appears
that Yaskas era must have been from 800 to 1000 B.C. these dates are
given by the source and not yet verified by me Satya)
One who simply recites the Vedas without understanding their meaning is
but a pillar (sthanu). The one who has understood their meaning will be
endowed with happiness in this world and the worlds beyond. A word
devoid of meaning and knowledge cannot enlighten a person. No matter
how dry a wooden log is if it is not thrown into the fire then of what use is
it ? This is Yaskas quote. It is from this quote that the evolution of His
spiritual intellect (pradnya) can be realised. He says, :

which means that a meaning is both the blossom as well as the fruit of
speech (1.20). By writing the Nirukta he showed an easily
accomplishable path to the study of the Vedas.
He proved false Kautsas quote that the Vedas are devoid of meaning.
When taunting Kautsa in the (Nirukta 1.16) he says,

:
Meaning: If a blind man cannot see a pillar then it is not the pillars fault,
rather that of the man.
Sayanacharya followed Yaska and compiled commentaries on the Vedas.
Sayanacharya explains the connection of words in the Vedic verses
(rucha); however Yaska does not do so. Hence one does not know how he
would interpret the verses.
Nighantu. Naighantaka. Naigama and Daivata kandas. 1-5 Adhyayas.
This adopts the following division of Nighantu into kandas, Adhyayas
and Khandas:-

I. Naighantuka kanda First Adhyaya 1-17 Khandas.
I. Naighantuka kanda Second Adhyaya 1-22 Khandas.
I. Naighantuka kanda Third Adhyaya 1-30 Khandas.
II.Naigama kanda Fourth Adhyaya 1-3 Khandas.
III.Daivata kanda Fifth Adhyaya 1-6 Khandas.
Nirukta , both a bhasya on the Naighantuka, Naigama and Daivata
Kandas and an independent treatise on Vedic Etymology, by Yaska
himself. It consists of 13 Adhyayas, mainly divided into
Purvasatka and Uttarasatka.
First Adhyaya = 1-20 Khandas.
Second Adhyaya = 1-28 Khandas.
Third Adhyaya = 1-22 Khandas.
Fourth Adhyaya = 1-27 Khandas.
Fifth Adhyaya = 1-28 Khandas.
Sixth Adhyaya = 1-36 Khandas.
Seventh Adhyaya = 1-31 Khandas.
Eighth Adhyaya = 1-22 Khandas.
Ninth Adhyaya = 1-43 Khandas.
Tenth Adhyaya = 1-47 Khandas.
Eleventh Adhyaya = 1-50 Khandas.
Twelfth Adhyaya = 1-46 Khandas.
Thirteenth Adhyaya =1-50 Khandas.