I was trying to write something and was looking for a synonym for the word “dog”.  After a lot of reflection, I thought of cur, pooch and mutt.  All of them sounded derogatory and weren’t very satisfactory.  There are other words, but those are specific to specific types of dogs, including hound.  We may think that English is rich in vocabulary.  It may be rich, but it isn’t as rich as Sanskrit is.  By the way, that was a concocted anecdote, to dramatize the point.  I wasn’t actually trying to write something using the word “dog”.  What’s Sanskrit for “dog”?  All of you have access to excellent dictionaries and will come up with words like कुक्कुरः शुनक: सारमेयः.  Absolutely correct, but that’s not the reason I asked.  Let me give you a shloka.

कौलेयक: सारमेयः कुक्कुरो मृगदंशक:।

शुनको भषक: श्वा स्यादलर्कस् तु स योगित:॥

श्वा विश्वकद्रुर् मृगया-कुशलः सरमा शुनी॥

In this shloka, there is some danger of mixing up the names with the explanations, but I don’t think that is a serious one.  We have quite a few names for dogs.  As straightforward dog names, we have कौलेयक: सारमेयः कुक्कुर: मृगदंशक: शुनक: भषक: श्वा.  With the explanation thrown in, अलर्क: is a mad dog.  विश्वकद्रु: is a dog used for hunting, while सरमा शुनी are words used for bitches.  By the way, सरमा is also the mother of all dogs and the dog of the gods, which is why dogs are called सारमेयः.  By the way, this shloka does not exhaust all possible names for dogs.  For example, रात्रिजागः is another one.

When I am trying to learn a language, in addition to learning grammar, I have to build up my vocabulary.  One of the remarkable resources for this is something called Amarkosha and the shloka I just gave you comes from that.  Amarkosha isn’t what that document is technically called.  Its actual name is नामलिङ्गानुशासनम्, which means that it is about instructions on names (nouns) and gender.  This is a great resource to build up Sanskrit vocabulary on names and nouns.  Amarsimha was the one who authored it.  Therefore, it is known as Amarkosha, Amarsimha’s store or treasure-house.  It hasn’t been that easy to date Amarsimha.  According to legend, and there is no reason to disbelieve it, he was one of the nine gems in King Vikramaditya’s court.  The problem lies in figuring out which Vikramaditya this was and accordingly, Amarsimha can be 4th or 7th century ACE.  Perhaps even later, since there is a story about Adi Shankaracharya having challenged him to a debate, Amarsimha being a Buddhist (some say Jain).  Amarsimha avoided the debate and burnt all his books.  The only one that survived, saved by Adi Shankaracharya, was Amarkosha.  Many people later wrote commentaries on Amarkosha.

The text is in three parts, the first is about matters concerning heaven, the second is about matters concerning earth and the third is about everything else.  What is Amarkosha?  In English, people often describe it as a lexicon.  But I am not sure what that word means. Amarkosha isn’t a dictionary, not quite.  Had it been that, there are better dictionaries floating around now.  It’s more like a thesaurus, with synonyms, rather than antonyms.  It is also a great store of general knowledge.  The text is freely downloadable, such as here.  But it’s difficult to navigate without some kind of English translation, unless you know Sanskrit very well.  However, let’s be clear about what we mean by translation.  It’s a listing of a wide variety of words, so one can’t expect those to be translated into English.  What one really means is that the headings and the explanatory parts should have some kind of English translation.  When it was composed, it was meant to be memorized by heart and Sanskrit scholars probably still do this.  Even if one doesn’t learn it by heart, it is an extremely useful resource.  Let me demonstrate.

First, on the relatively trivial, what is Sanskrit for a cat?  After all, I can’t be partial to dogs.  ओतुर् बिडालो मार्जारो वृषदंशक आखुभुक्.  I am certain the sandhi isn’t going to confuse you and I hope you remember the word for rat/mouse.  I gave it to you once and that explains the last name for cat.

On a more serious note, what Sanskrit word will I use for king?  Actually, there are gradations of king, as per Amarkosha.  मुर्धाभिषक्तो राजन्यो बाहुज: क्षत्रियो विराट्.  That’s the basic level.  I don’t think I have to explain those terms, someone whose head has been sprinkled with water and he has thus been consecrated, or someone who lives by the strength of arms, and so on.  If we move up the ladder, राजा तु प्रणताऽशेष सामन्तः स्यादधीश्वर:.  Some of this is explanation, but you will get the sense.  A king to whom many vassals pay tribute is an अधीश्वर:.  Move up the ladder further.  चक्रवर्ती सार्वभौमो नृपो ऽन्यो मण्डलेश्वर: येनेष्टं राजसुयेन मण्डलस्येश्वरस् च य:.  There is a little bit of explanation again, but you can figure it out.  An universal emperor or sovereign is one who has performed a rajasuya sacrifice, and thus obtained tribute from all the other kings.

What about someone who maintains the treasury or is in charge of the mint?  भौरिक: कनकाध्यक्षो रूप्याघ्यक्षस् तु नैष्किक:.  It shouldn’t be that surprising that in those days, references should be to gold and silver.  Such is the state of ignorance, that I have met people who do not know that the word “rupee” has a Sanskrit origin in the word for silver.  They don’t know that the word “roti” for chapati is based on the Sanskrit word रोटिका, which means the same thing, or that the word “sari” is based on the Sanskrit word शाटिका.    The next time you say “nahi” in Hindi, do remember that you are actually saying “no” in Sanskrit, with an extra emphasis being added. However, let me not digress.  I was on Amarkosha.  Do read and use it.  If I have still not been able to persuade you, wait for next week’s tidbits.

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