Wednesday, February 21, 2024

മാത പനസി ദശായം പാശി ( panasi dashaayam paashi).. मात! पनसि दशायं पाशि



Most of the scholars are unanimous in their view that Sanskrit was always an official and formal language.
.Every householder must have used different languages or dialects for garden use...
If we see the dramas in Sanskrit like Shakuntalam, the dialogues rendered by the Vidhushaka, menials and Lady characters are in Prakrita..( with Sanskrit Transliteration for the bookish persons)..
The adoption of Sanskrit as a completely spoken language in Mathur is to be praised as a pioneering move to further the greatness of that classic language.. but I doubt very much whether they would have used the grammatical Sanskrit at any time to make a statement that one is going to the loo..
I am in love with Sanskrit all my life..The full sixty years or more.
And I would love to be born as a person who can be in unconditional romance with Sanskrit even in every life to come.
This gap between the scholarly and layman's version may apply to other classical languages also. Be it Greek or Latin.
The funny situation that can arise over misplaced use of Sanskrit languageis described by Kottarathil Shankunni in Aithihyamala, (Aitihyamala is a comprehensive compendium of legends and folklore in Kerala..it is a classic on its own rights) while recording the biography of the poet Tholan.. or Tholakavi
Tholan is indeed a great poet in Sanskrit and Manipravalam in Kerala.
He is the Pioneer in penning many chaste Sanskrit dramas and prose works too..And his works have been used in many Aatta kathas on dance dramas and in paadakam, chakyaar koothu etc. He is held in high esteem in Kerala for his literary accomplishment . He must have flourished after Kalidasa and many major classical poets but earlier to Thujathu ezhuthassan and Melpathur Bhattathiri.
Tholan was a Nambuthiri youth... and a great scholar of all times for that matter.....
It was the aacharam among Nambuthiris that after Samavarthanam, the men should only use Sanskrit for conversation.
For tholan, Samavarthanam was over, but he had not picked up much sanskrit...
There was a maid-servant Chakki(ചക്കി) in their illam, and the boy Tholan happened to see that this woman was climbing atop the great granary (പത്തായം) and stealing paddy .
He could not use Malayalm to report this to his mother because he was prohibited from using any other language other than Sanskrit.
So he said, മാത പനസി ദശായം പാശി ( panasi dashaayam paashi).. मात! पनसि दशायं पाशि .His logic is... Matha.... mother ചക്ക chakka or jackfruit is പനസം in malayalam.. so he called chakki as Pansai.. Granarya Pathaayam ,,,പത്തു ആയം ദശ is the sanskrit for ten.. so pathayam is dashaayam.. കയറ് kayaru is paasham in sankrit... Kayari..കയറി kayar is paasham in sanskrit, and kayari means climbed in malayalam so paashi is climed in Sanskrit so Paash for kayarii. So to inform his mother that Chakki had climbed atop the Pathayam.. he had to use the abracadabra..." Panasi Dasaayam Paashi".
Sure it is not necessary to extend our addiction to puritan Sanskrit to this extent.

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