The Power of Expression

Sanskrit is immensely capable of expressing every kind of human experience, spiritual, aesthetic and intellectual. It has an unambiguous linguistic structure. Its grammar is perfect. It is unimaginably rich in its vocabulary. It provides various alternatives and possibilities from which the speaker can choose just the right word and the right structure. Here comes the significance of synonyms in Sanskrit. This is a language where synonyms are plenty. What is a synonym? Synonyms are equivalent words that can be interchanged in a context. In most languages, synonyms are different names for the same object. They are words that grow out of a convention and do not often have any inherent significance. One could have used the same word to denote a completely different object and, if the convention was sufficiently strong, the word would become a synonym for that object. But this is not so in Sanskrit. Firstly, the name is not just a convention but grows out of a root with the addition of specific suffixes. Therefore, its meaning too is not a convention but is very specific and determined. The synonyms of a word are not just alternate names, where one can replace one by another. Each synonym grows out of and reveals a special quality or attribute of that object. One has to choose from the many possibilities the one that conveys best the exact property in mind.

For example the word fire has as many as thirty-four equivalents in Sanskrit. The dictionary called Amarakosha prepared by Amarasimha is a dictionary of equivalent words in Sanskrit. Here we find all the thirty-four words for fire. They are:

अग्निः agniḥ वैश्वानरः vaiśvānaraḥ वह्निः vahniḥ वीतहोत्रः vītahotraḥ धनञ्जयः dhanañjayaḥ कृपीटयोनिः kṛpīṭayoniḥ ज्वलनः jvalanaḥ जातवेदस् jātavedas तनूनपात् tanūnapāt बर्हिः barhiḥ शुष्मा śuṣmā कृष्णवर्त्मा kṛṣṇavartmā शोचिष्केशः śociṣkeśaḥ उषर्बुधः uṣarbudhaḥ आश्रयाशः āśrayāśaḥ बृहद्भानुः bṛhadbhānuḥ कृशानुः kṛśānuḥ पावकः pāvakaḥ अनलः analaḥ रोहिताश्वः rohitāśvaḥ वायुसखः vāyusakhaḥ शिखावान् śikhāvān आशुशुक्षणिः āśuśukṣaṇiḥ हिरण्यरेतस् hiraṇyaretas हुतभुक् hutabhuk दहनः dahanaḥ हव्यवाहनः havyavāhanaḥ सप्तार्चिः saptārciḥ दमुनाः damunāḥ शुक्रः śukraḥ चित्रभानुः citrabhānuḥ विभावसुः vibhāvasuḥ शुचिः śuciḥ अप्पित्तम् appittam

Each word here has a specific and different connotation and leads to a particular experience with fire, represents a particular quality of fire. For example वह्नि vahni comes from the root vah ‘to carry’, and means that which carries (the offerings to the gods); while ज्वलन jvalana comes from the root jval ‘to burn’, and means that which is burning; similarly पावक pāvaka comes from the root puu ‘to purify’, and means that which purifies; and शुष्मा śuṣmā comes from the root shush ‘to dry’, and means that which dries up. The word अनल anala means ‘not enough’ na alam, it conveys that nothing is enough for the fire. It is the all devourer, ever dissatisfied one. The entire creation can go into the mouth of the fire still it is not enough. So, it is for the writer or the speaker to decide the most appropriate word for ‘fire’ in a given context. This adds to the expressiveness of Sanskrit.

Due to its vast creative possibilities it is also capable of expressing precisely and minutely abstract thoughts as well as the most profound and sublime ideas. The supreme experiences and unusual conceptions which are a part of yogic experience are “difficult to represent accurately in any other language than the ancient Sanskrit tongue in which alone they have been to some extent systematised.” [Sri Aurobindo: ‘The Synthesis of Yoga’, SABCL Vol.20, pp. 11-12]

Look at the texts of various Upanishads. Do you know what the Upanishads are? The word Upanishad literally means ‘to sit near’ (the Guru). While writing about the Upanishads in his book, The Foundations of Indian Culture, Sri Aurobindo says: “The Upanishads are at once profound religious scriptures (for they are a record of the deepest spiritual experiences), documents of revelatory and intuitive philosophy of an inexhaustible light, power and largeness and, whether written in verse or cadenced prose, spiritual poems of an absolute, an unfailing inspiration inevitable in phrase, wonderful in rhythm and expression. It is the expression of a mind in which philosophy and religion does not end with a cult nor is limited to a religio-ethical aspiration, but rises to an infinite discovery of God, of Self, of our highest and whole reality of spirit and being… Here the intuitive mind and intimate psychological experience of the Vedic seers pass into a supreme culmination in which the Spirit reveals the very word of its self-expression and discovers to the mind the vibration of rhythms which repeating themselves within in the spiritual hearing seem to build up the soul and set it satisfied and complete on the heights of self-knowledge...” (Sri Aurobindo, SABCL, Vol. 14, p.269) One can find in the language of the Upanishads the utmost brevity of expression. Take, for example, the invocatory verse of the Isha Upanishad, one of the ten principal Upanishads. It says:

pūrṇamadaḥ pūrṇamidaṃ pūrṇātpūrṇamudacyate।
pūrṇasya pūrṇamādāya pūrṇamevāvaśiṣyate।।

All this is full. All that is full.
From fullness, fullness comes.
When fullness is taken from fullness,
Fullness still remains.
This brief utterance is immensely rich in its thought contents. I am not going to explain the verse in detail, that is not my purpose, what I am trying is to give you a feel of the intensity of the power of expression that is there in the verse. In the Upanishads we find a clear expression of the thoughts with minimum use of words. Upanishads are short but one can spend one’s whole life time to understand even one out of the hundreds of Upanishads.

Further, the concept of sutra is simply amazing. A sutra is like an apothegmatic expression which is short, pithy and a versatile sentence presenting a concept in the most efficient, compact and thorough manner. This is very peculiar to Sanskrit. The Yogasutras of Patanjali, the Brahmasutra of Badarayana, Kamasutra of Vatsyayana are few popular scriptures written in sutra form. It is said in some ancient scripture that a sutra must have the minimum number of syllables – alpaksharam. Not even one syllable should be extra or superfluous. There should be no scope for doubts or ambiguities – asandigdham. It should have something worth-while and of value to express – saaravat. It should have a wide applicability in diverse situations and should not be confined to a few particular instances – vishvatomukham. It should be free from errors, inadequacies and fillers – astobham. It should stand on its own strength. It should present a truth that is irrefutable – anavadyam.

Panini, who is regarded as the father of Sanskrit grammar, has presented the grammar of Sanskrit in the form sutras in his book Ashtadhyayi. There are approximately four thousand sutras in eight chapters in which Panini has presented the whole Sanskrit language. This is considered to be the greatest monument of the world that the human genius has brought forth. I am quoting here a few sutras from Ashtadhyayi for showing the utmost brevity that Panini has achieved in composing his text on grammar.

1. ध्रुवमपायेƧपादानम् dhruvamapāyeƧpādānam 1.4.24
   When there is a movement away, the fixed part from which the movement takes palce is known as apadana (ablative).
2. कर्मणा यमभिप्रैति स सम्प्रदानम् karmaṇā yamabhipraiti sa sampradānam 1.4.32
   That which the agent wishes to reach through the object is known as sampradana (dative).
3. साधकतमं करणम् sādhakatamaṃ karaṇam 1.4.42
   That which is most instrumental in bringing an action to accomplishment is known as karana (instrumental).
4. आधारोƧधिकरणम् ādhāroƧdhikaraṇam 1.4. 44
   That which serves as locus is known as adhikarana (locative).
5. कर्तुरीप्सिततमं कर्म karturīpsitatamaṃ karma 1.4.49
   That which the agent wishes the most is known as karma (accusative).
6. स्वतन्त्रः कर्ता svatantraḥ kartā 1.4.54
   That which is independent of everything is known as karta (Nominative).

These are sutras related to the karaka section of Ashtadhyayi which deals with the syntax of Sanskrit. You cannot really believe how much information that the sutras have within themselves.

Now I will give you a few examples of different types of compositions in Sanskrit where you will experience something truly amazing. Here you can see the utmost flexibility of Sanskrit language and the high connotative power of the words in Sanskrit.

Have you ever heard this famous sentence in English which says, “Able was I ere I saw Elba”? Do you know who said this? It was great Napoleon who said this when he was imprisoned in the island of Elba. What is so special about this sentence? Just read it once more. And try to read it once more from right to left. What do you find? It reads the same. This is called Palindrome. There are, in English, words like peep, noon, did, dad, madam etc. which when read from both left to right or right to left give you the same sounds and same meanings. I will show you here one example from a Sanskrit text in which you will not only see what is called Palindrome but also you will be amazed to see the genius of the poet and the utmost flexibility of Sanskrit language. Here is the verse:

Here you can see that the second half of the verse is formed by reversing the first half. Then the entire verse from left to right and right to left is the same. Another important thing about this verse is that the first half is a description of Lord Rama, and the second half, which is the reverse of the first half, describes Lord Krishna. Is it not amazing? Is it not outstanding? How can a poet do this? Also you can observe that by reversing the first line or by reading it from right to left, the arrangement of syllables by short and long remains intact, there is no loss in the rhythmic pattern. It follows perfectly the rules of metrics, rules of grammar, and rules of poetry. Everything is perfectly maintained. What will you call this? Is it Arts or Science or Mathematics or poetry or a formula or a Mantra? I can see everything here integrated into a single whole. This is what I call the perfection of Sanskrit. Only a perfect language can express things in this manner. This particular verse is taken from a text called Ramakrishna-viloma-kavya written by Suryakavi. There are fifty such verses where the first half is about Lord Rama and the same line in reverse manner forms the second half describing Lord Krishna.

Likewise it is possible in Sanskrit to compose poetry using only a few consonants, or by dropping a group of letters. Or sometimes you can see verses in which there is only one vowel with the other consonants. It is also possible in Sanskrit to compose a verse in which all the consonants of Sanskrit appear in the same order as they are in the alphabet. There is a whole gamut of poetry which has such wonderful and unimaginable compositions. What exactly I like to convey to you is that the language is immensely capable of facilitating such expressions. Unless and until a language attains certain perfection cannot have such power of expression.

Let me tell you about another type of composition in Sanskrit which is known as sandhanakavya. In this type of poetry one can find, sometimes, one verse describing two or five or seven different topics. The poet when makes a composition of this type has several topics in his mind and the words he uses have the ability to express all the different topics in a single verse. For example in the Raghava-pandviya poem composed by a poet named Dhananjaya we find the story of Ramayana and the Mahabharata in each of its verse. Saptasandhanakavya of Meghavijaya describes the story of seven great men. Each of its verses tells seven different stories simultaneously. I present here a very interesting story which illustrates one such verse. I hope you know the story of Nala and Damayanti. This is a story in the Mahabharata, one of the two great epics of India. Sriharsha, a master poet in Sanskrit took this episode of the Mahabharata as the topic of his epic poetry called Naishadhiya-chcaritam. In the thirteenth canto of this poem Sriharsha gives the description of svayamvara (choosing of bride-groom) ceremony of Damayanti. Damayanti has decided to choose Nala as her consort, whom she loves. But in order to test the fidelity of her love she has been put to a test. In the ceremony there are Indra, Agni, Varuna, Yama and Nala, but the four gods have assumed the form of Nala. Now, from the five, Damayanti has to choose her beloved Nala. Goddess Saraswati is there to introduce each of them to Damayanti. Being the goddess of speech she cannot tell a lie, and if she speaks the truth then there is no point in having the trick. What is to be done in this situation? Now poet Sriharsha composes just one verse. And this single verse is capable of conveying five different meanings. Goddess Saraswati introduces each of them by reciting the same verse. And each time she knows what she means. To explain the verse in detail will take a few pages. So instead of explaining it I am just quoting the verse below.

(Naishadhiyacharitam of Sriharsha, 13.34)
What do we gather from this? Is this that the mind of the poet that was capable of presenting this and that alone is important? Is this that the language had the power to enable the poet to do in that manner? Who created that mind and that language? I am not going to answer these questions. But what I feel that we need to concentrate on these questions and I am sure that the answers will come to each one in its own way.