THE SANSKRIT ALPHABET SEQUENCE - MAHESHWARA SUTRAS

Maheshvara Sutra

The sound of the ancient most Sanskrit alphabet sequence. 

It belongs to the pre-Panini era. 

This Sanskrit alphabet sequence is also a 'healing mantra.' 

Starts at 00.40

Encyclopedia Britannica states that the Sanskrit language (from Sanskrit saṃskṛta, 'adorned, cultivated, purified') is an Old Indo-Aryan language in which the most ancient texts are the Vedas, more prominently, the Rig Veda, and the Upanishads, which came into existence on the banks of the Sapta Sindu rivers. It also states that scholars generally ascribe the Vedas to 1500 BCE. There is much room for debate about the Aryan invasion and the dating of the Vedas, but that is not the subject of the post here.

In the Indic tradition, it is said that Sanskrit was introduced to human civilisation by the sages of Sanatana Dharma. Sanatana Dharma entails a universal code of conduct, a description of the duties applicable to all humanity. Santana Dharma, later came to be known as Hinduism, which is its exonym; it is what the outsiders called Sanatana Dharma, which was the philosophy, the way of life, the code of conduct and path to god, practised in India. There are many theories why the name Hindu emerged, but none of those is relevant to the origin of Sanatana Dharma. India, like Hindustan, is an exonym; the endonym is Bharatavarsha or Jambhudwipa. 

A famous verse in Sage Panini’s Ashtadhyayi says that Panini's grammar, which is in current use, in its original form, was graced by Lord Shiva himself. 

Rig Vedic literature states that it is Shiva himself who created language and passed on its 'sounds' to humankind. Hence, the first known organised sounds of Sanskrit are known and presented as the Maheshvara Sutra - Maheshvara being another name of Lord Shiva. Here is the verse from Panini's Ashta-Dhyayi which states the same:

"At the end of His Cosmic Dance,
Shiva, the Lord of Dance,
with a view to bless the sages Sanaka and so on,
played on His Damaru fourteen times,
from which emerged the following fourteen Sutras,

popularly known as Shiva Sutras or Maheshvara Sutras"

The fourteen sounds of the Maheshwara Sutra, also known as the 'akshara-samamnaya', or the 'recitation of phonemes', is also the most ancient known Sanskrit alphabet sequence. Interestingly, this sutra is at the same time a powerful Mantra; the vibrations of its sound are known to have healing powers, and hence this sutra has also been used by sages for healing. It was used in Kashmir Tantric practices for curing diseases, waking up the unconscious and is known to have sometimes revived the dead. Here is the sequence of the 14-sounds:

1. अ इ उ ण् |
2. ऋ ऌ क् |
3. ए ओ ङ् |
4. ऐ औ च् |
5. ह य व र ट् |
6. ल ण् |
7. ञ म ङ ण न म् |
8. झ भ ञ् |
9. घ ढ ध ष् |
10. ज ब ग ड द श् |
11. ख फ छ ठ थ च ट त व् |
12. क प य् |
13.श ष स र् |
14. ह ल् |

The fourteen sutras contain all the letters of the Sanskrit varnamala- the svaras (vowels) and all the vyanjanas (consonants). The sounds of the alphabet originated from Lord Shiva's 'damru', which in this context appears to be a sophisticated sound device.

The Sanskrit alphabet sequence is known as the 'Varna-mala'. The word 'varna' (वर्ण) means a 'syllable' and all the energies related to that syllable - colour, presiding force, the mouth part used to pronounce each syllable, the related body part, etc. 

Sanskrit is known as the language of the gods. Its fundamentals are scientific, and most of its theory is way beyond the cognition of an average learner. In his paper 'Mantra & Initiation', Pandit Rajmani Tignuit states, "....on a more subtle level, the Sanskrit phonemes relate to the energy currents which lie deep within the interior of the human body. Each of the 72,000 currents has a distinct sound, although they are too diffuse and vague to be enunciated distinctly. Moreover, the yogis have identified places in the body where two or more energy currents cross. In mantra shastra, the point where two energy currents intersect is called a sandhi, the point where three energy currents cross is called marma shthana, and the point where more than three energy currents converge is called a chakra. Here at the chakras, the vibratory patterns of energy are strong and vibrant. At the centre of each chakra, a distinct sound predominates, and other distinct sounds are centred around it. That is why, in kundalini yoga, each chakra is represented as having a particular letter at its centre, as well as a letter on each petal........ ".

It is for this reason alone that Sanskrit cannot be regarded as a derived language. Its source is cosmic, like that of mathematics. Each alphabet is generated in the form of sound energy, conjunct with its meaning. If the sound shifts, the meaning dissolves. In other words, any distortion renders both the meaning of the word and the vibration generated out of sync and therefore erroneous.

In kundalini yoga, each chakra is represented
as having a particular letter at its centre.

In a mantra, a different part of the body is invoked and healed by reciting a different alphabet of the 'varnamala'. The power lies in the vibration caused by the mantra. Hence, the sound has to be perfect, for it is also in tandem with its meaning.  If the vibration changes, it is no longer effective. The Maheshwara Sutra is a healing mantra too, as mentioned above, its sounds are arranged in a sequence, designed to create vibrations which it is said have the power to revive the sick or dying. 

No script is known to have ever been formulated for the Vedic mantras or alphabets in the earliest times. The requirement for a script, in the context of Sanatana Dharma, was considered irrelevant. The scriptures were passed on through smriti (memory) and shruti (hearing). The emphasis was on 'uccharana' or correct pronunciation. The belief was that the script could emerge or dissolve at any time. 

In the context of Hindu philosophy, therefore, where the emphasis was on the study of the power of sound, on the primordial sound of the omnipresent Om, on meditation, on the unity of supreme consciousness, on sutras, on mantras and on telepathy, a script was considered redundant for it did not serve any function.

Suggested Links:

1. The Origin of Sanskrit

THE SUSQUEHANNA RIVER AND THE SANSKRIT ROOT WORD 'VAH'!

The Susquehanna River that flows through New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland, was called the 'Ga-wa-no-wa-neh Gehunda' by the Onondaga Tribe of Native Americans. It has been translated as the 'Great Island River'. The Lenape called it the Siskewahane,  which in the Lenape language means 'Oyster River'.

In his book, 'The Composition of Indian Geographical Names, ' the author Hammond Trumbull states, "... many Indian (Native American) geographical names, after their adoption by Anglo-American colonists, became meaningless sounds. Their original character was lost by their transfer to a foreign tongue. Nearly all have suffered some mutilation or change of form. In many instances, hardly a trace of the true original can be detected in the modern name. Some have been separated from the localities to which they belonged and assigned to others to which they are etymologically inappropriate. A mountain receives the name of a river; a bay, that of a cape or a peninsula; a tract of land, that of a rock or a waterfall".

Of the Native American names, he says, "Every name described the locality to which it was affixed. The description was sometimes topographical; sometimes historical, preserving the memory of a battle, a feast, the dwelling-place of a great sachem, or the like; sometimes it indicated one of the natural products of the place, or the animals which resorted to it; occasionally, its position or direction from a place previously known, or from the territory of the nation by which the name was given,—as for example, 'the land on the other side of the river,' 'behind the mountain,' 'the east land,' 'the half-way place,' etc.".

Native American river names have very often one of the following three suffixes: -hanne, tuk or sepy. Examples include the original native names of the rivers Susquehanna, Connecticut and the Mississippi River. Their original names were Siskewahana, Quinni-tuk-ut and Missi Sipi. A blog post on the name Mississippi is coming up next. This post is about the Susquehanna and the suffix -hanne.

The name Susquehanna, or the Siskewahana as it was called by the Natives, translates as Oyster River. In its Native name, we see an example of the 'hanne' suffix as mentioned above. But what is the source of this Lenape word 'hanne'?

In the 'Lenape Talking Dictionary', at a site run by the 'Delaware Tribe of Indians', Susquehanna is written as Siskewahane and split as Siskew-a-hane with the meaning 'muddy river'. Click here for the Lenape Dictionary.

Photo by Nicholas A. Tonelli from Northeast Pennsylvania, USA - https://www.flickr.com/photos/nicholas_t/3594274494/, CC BY 2.0
 Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons

However, if one were to split Siskewahane as Siske + Wahane, we have the suffix 'wahana' or the Sanskrit 'vahana' (वहन), which means 'to flow'. Hanne may be the Sanskrit 'vahana' with the first syllable dropped. The root word 'vah' has two meanings: 'to flow' and 'to go'.

There are other examples. The English word “swing” translates into Mohawk (Kanien’kéha) as ahserí:yo when referring to a playground swing, and as ionkwahón:tsi when used in the sense of “to swing/move back and forth. Here too, we see the appendage -hanne in the form wahon. Linguists translate the root verb ahón:tsi as meaning “to move back and forth, to rock, to swing.”

Says Trumbull," It would be surprising if some of the translations which have been hazarded in this paper do not prove to be wide off their mark. Even English etymology is not reckoned among the exact sciences yet, and in Algonkin, there is the additional disadvantage of having no Sanskrit verbs 'to go', to fall back on as a last resort." That may not be entirely true! For in this very instance, we discern the Sanskrit root vah-, “to carry, to flow,” operating as a structural analogue to the Algonquian forms, suggesting that the supposed absence of such verbs is less a deficiency than a missed recognition of deeper Indo‑Algonquian resonances.

Suggested Links:

1. The Old New York Frontier by Francis Whiting Halsey
2. Indian Geographical Names by Hammond Trumbull
3. Native American Place Names of the United States
4. American Indian Languages

5. The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Composition of Indian Geographical Names, by J. Hammond Trumbull