[INDOLOGY] Divine origin of Sanskrit

[Ananya Vajpeyi]

I was waiting for Prof. Deshpande to weigh in! Thanks!
Yours,
AV.


On Thu, Jul 28, 2022 at 4:04 AM Madhav Deshpande via INDOLOGY <
indology at list.indology.info> wrote:

> Ideas of divine origin of speech go back to the R̥gveda:
>
> देवीं वाचमजनयन्त देवास्तां विश्वरूपाः पशवो वदन्ति |
> सा नो मन्द्रेषमूर्जं दुहाना धेनुर्वागस्मानुप सुष्टुतैतु || ऋग्वेद
> 08.100.11.
>
> I am attaching an old article of mine surveying the Vedic ideas and ideas
> about the Vedas. Best,
>
> Madhav
>
> Madhav M. Deshpande
> Professor Emeritus, Sanskrit and Linguistics
> University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
> Senior Fellow, Oxford Center for Hindu Studies
> Adjunct Professor, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, India
>
> [Residence: Campbell, California, USA]
>
>
> On Wed, Jul 27, 2022 at 1:57 PM Matthew Kapstein via INDOLOGY <
> indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
>
>> I am now traveling and cannot look up references, but as I recall, one of
>> the arguments that emerged in Nyāya theology held that the existence of the
>> Lord is proven because language requires a divine originator to stipulate
>> the original conventions.
>>
>> Matthew Kapstein
>> EPHE, Paris
>> ------------------------------
>> *From:* INDOLOGY <indology-bounces at list.indology.info> on behalf of
>> Buchta, David via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info>
>> *Sent:* Wednesday, July 27, 2022 5:52:15 PM
>> *To:* Gruenendahl, Reinhold <gruenen at sub.uni-goettingen.de>; Indology <
>> indology at list.indology.info>
>> *Subject:* Re: [INDOLOGY] Divine origin of Sanskrit
>>
>> Hi again,
>>
>> A further thought: Jīva Gosvāmin (16th c), at the opening of his
>> Harināmāmṛtavyākaraṇa, says "nārāyaṇād udbhūto'yaṃ varṇakramaḥ." I have
>> long suspected that he intended to imply a contrast between the "ordinary"
>> sequence of sounds, which he says comes from Nārāyaṇa, and the sequence
>> presented by Pāṇini, which of course gets attributed to Śiva. Again, I can
>> dig up PDFs of a few editions of Jīva's work if needed.
>> --
>> David Buchta, PhD
>> Senior Lecturer in Sanskrit
>> Department of Classics
>> Brown University
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Jul 27, 2022 at 10:26 AM Johannes Bronkhorst <
>> johannes.bronkhorst at unil.ch> wrote:
>>
>> I also would be happy (and surprised) to see references to a divine
>> origin of Sanskrit. It is true that Sanskrit is *daivī vāk* (Bhartṛhari)
>> “divine language” or “language of the gods”, but this does not mean that is
>> has a divine origin. In Brahmanical circles, at least since Kātyāyana and
>> Patañjali, Sanskrit is eternal and has no origin at all.
>>
>>  Johannes Bronkhorst
>>
>>
>>
>> On 27 Jul 2022, at 13:36, Buchta, David via INDOLOGY <
>> indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> George Cardona has a 1990 paper, "On Attitudes Towards Language in
>> Ancient India" that might be helpful. It was published as #15 of the
>> Sino-Platonic Papers from the Department of Oriental Studies at UPenn. I
>> can dig up a PDF as needed.
>>
>> Best,
>> Dave
>> --
>> David Buchta, PhD
>> Senior Lecturer in Sanskrit
>> Department of Classics
>> Brown University
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Jul 27, 2022 at 6:08 AM Gruenendahl, Reinhold <
>> gruenen at sub.uni-goettingen.de> wrote:
>>
>> Dear list members,
>>
>> I would be very grateful for any references to the concept of a divine
>> origin of Sanskrit in primary and/or secondary literature.
>>
>>
>> With thanks in advance
>>
>> and best wishes
>>
>> Reinhold Grünendahl
>>
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>
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-- 
*Ananya Vajpeyi*
https://www.csds.in/ananya_vajpeyi
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