Spoken Sanskrit and Spoken Sanskrit

[Mahadevan, Thennilapuram]

I concur with Professor Hart.  I was at Kanchipuram about ten days ago to attend a sadas (214 particpants from allover South India, mostly from the Tamil country and none from Kerala) of the RV reciters.  The sadas lasted three days, the samhita recitation on the first day, the krama the second day and the gana the third day.  Part of the aim was for the professional vaidikans to raise questions regarding the minutiae of recitation: the questions would be handed overto an MC-like figure who would put it to the sadas and he would invite a known specialist to come forth an answer.  The discussion was all but in Sanskrit with Tamil funcioning to provide a rough syntax.  A Brahmanical coine.
Best wishes,
T. P.  Mahadevan

________________________________________
From: Indology [INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk] On Behalf Of George Hart [glhart at BERKELEY.EDU]
Sent: Wednesday, August 13, 2008 11:06 AM
To: INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk
Subject: Re: Spoken Sanskrit and Spoken Sanskrit

Sorry for so many posts, but I think this may be useful to someone.

Years ago, when I was reading from Ramanuja's Sribhasya, I noticed
that his usages often mirror the Sanskrit that is still spoken by the
pandits in Chennai.  For example, the word "samiiciina" for "fine,"
"good," "excellent" is used by that writer.  On the other hand,
Sankara's Sanskrit does not seem to be connected with the Sanskrit I
heard in Chennai -- its style and word usage is quite different.  This
suggests that there is a continuous tradition of spoken Sanskrit that
developed in Tamil Nadu 1000 years ago and still continues today.  The
Sanskrit used in Kerala was probably rather different (something also
suggested by my very superficial acquaintance with the Manipravala
works of 4 or 500 years ago).  Certainly, in many parts of India and
Nepal, Sanskrit has been used as a spoken language for a long time.
It would seem that each area has developed its own style and word
usage.  As we know, the pandits of one area often look down at the
Sanskrit (esp. pronunciation) of pandits from other areas.

There is a wonderful sloka that can be used when teaching beginning
Sanskrit -- but I have forgotten the details of the story that goes
along with it.  Perhaps someone can recall it.  Someone, wanting to
show off to Kalidasa how much Sanskrit he knew, said, "bhojanam dehi
raajendra ghrtasuupasamanvitam."  Kalidasa is supposed to have replied
"maahiSam ca zaraccandracandrikaadhavalam dadhi."  Of course, the
first utterance is ungainly and awkward, while the second flows like
moonlight.  The dhvani, according to my pandit, is that Kalidasa is
implying that the would-be Sanskrit speaker is stupid and slow, as
buffalo yogurt is supposed to dull the mind.

George Hart