Kashmir, Tamilnadu, Panini, Abhinavagupta, etc.

[DEVARAKONDA VENKATA NARAYANA SARMA]

PARVATA -1

When bhartRhari wrote

                "parvatAdAgamaM labdhvA bhASya bIjAnusAribhiH |
                 sa nitO bahuzAkhAtvaM chandrAchAryAdibhiH punaH ||"

we can assume that he was sure that people at that time would easily
recognise or uniquely locate the place from which the vyAkaraNAgama was
obtained. That means the word "parvata" is a proper noun and the name of
a wellknown place.

The "nallamala" range of hills in the telugu country extend right from
ahObilaM-tirumala to zrizailaM-nAgArjunakoMDa. In dravidian "nalla"
stands for good and "mala" stands for mountain. The word nalla has
been sanskritised as "zrI" which can mean auspicious, mejastic or
lovely. Thus the words "nallamala", "tirumala", "zrIzaila", "zrIgiri"
"zrIparvata" are synonyms.

The Lord Venkateswara of tirumala has the name "malayappa".
According to P.V.Parabrahma Sastry, Retired Deputy Director,
Department of Archeology and Museums, Government of Andhra Pradesh,
he is also called "mallaiperumAL". The Lord Mallikarjuna of zrIzailaM
is also called as "mallayyakarasar"which can be translated as king of
the hill (malai+ku+arasar. This splitting overlooking the double 'l'
and double 'y' is not correct according to linguistis. My reply is
linguistics studies and analyses the usage but cannot control or dictate
the usage. This is because of the unpredicatability of the human element.
prayOgO.aziSyaM. lOkAzrayatvAt pryOgasya.).

It needs no stretch of imagination to assume that, in the early
days of interaction of aryans with the south, nallamala hills could
well have served as the first candidates for "malaya" hills, before
they were identified with the southern most range of India.

The point to be noted here is that "nalla" was an adjuctive only
and the names malayappa, mallaipermAL or mallayyakarasar do not contain it.

The name zrIparvata was used for nAgArjunakoMDa according to ikSvAku
inscriptions. zrIparvata is also used for zrIzailaM the abode of Lord
mallikArjuna. This is because of thei proximity in the same mountain range.
zrizailaM is 60 km west of nAgArjunakoMDa.

Thus the word zrIparvata was used for both zrIzailam and nAgArjunakoMda
for some time.

                                - to be continued

regards,

sarma.