I know Devanagari but I never noticed this typo., never until I dug this story. Its a zig saw puzzle , with “wi” written all over its block with different languages Wikipedia supporting in their own script. NYTimes said “this time, however, they are not examples of vandalism at the user-created site but typographical errors in Wikipedia’s own logo.”. They noticed Sanskrit “wi” in Devanagari script. Someone else complained its Japaneses Katakana script is wrong too.

Some Errors Defy Fixes: A Typo in Wikipedia’s Logo Fractures the Sanskrit

The symbolism is not exactly ideal. Those on the lookout for errors at Wikipedia have flagged a few more — this time, however, they are not examples of vandalism at the user-created site but typographical errors in Wikipedia’s own logo.

read more | digg story

Well well well , its Kannada script is wrong too. They have written some similar “wi” symbol (yet strange ) in kannada. In Sanskrit logo symbol reads “rwa” (as in Nirwana ), but in Kannada it does not make sence at all.

I dont have much of complaint, when they screwed Kannada’s mother Sanskrit itself- Kannada is what big deal.

Dear Wikipedia , in case you planned to repair your globe , change Kannada “Wi” too. Also just turn your zig saw puzzle , you might get more
Technorati Tags: wikipedia, typo, Kannada, Sanskrit, Devanagari, wi, Japaneses,

Keep your words sweet – you may have to eat them sometime.

There is one very similar subhashita in Sanskrit, which always been my favorite.

प्रियवाक्यप्रदानेन सर्वे तुश्यंति जंतवः | तस्मात्तदेव वक्तव्यं वचने का दरीद्रता ||

(To read: priyavAkyapradAnEna sarvE tushanti jantavah tasmattadEva vaktavyam vachanE ka darIdratA )

All living creatures love listening to you, if you talk sweet. So why poverty of sweet words ?

No, i don’t have any Sanskrit quotes on blogging.There are couple of Subhashita ( Sanskrit quotes ), which can be applied to blogging also.

घटं भित्त्वा पटं छित्वा कुर्याद्वा गार्धभसवनं
एनकेनापि उपायेन प्रसिद्दः पुरुशो भव

Can be read as : ghaTam bhittvaa paTam chittvaa kuryAd vA gArdhabhahsvanam yena kenApi upAyena prasiddhah-purusho bhava.

Translation : if it needs to “break pots in public” or “tear off your clothes” or “bray like a donkey” to get attention, just do it. These or any other way , but Do become Famous!

This a tip for new blogger. I read it everywhere , be unique , different , and “controversial “ to be seen in blogosphear. Being controversial is very effective way to get attention , finally freedom of speech. My tip on this is Don’t create so much contovercy that it will effect your life expectancy.

The second one I don’t remember completely, please update it if you happen to know it.

उष्ट्रानां विवाहेशु गीतो गायंति गार्धभानि
परस्परं प्रशंसयंते , अहो रूपं अहो ध्वनि

(updated by kaushik’s comment )

Can be read as : Ushtranam vivaheshu gito gayanti gardhabani. Parasparam prashansayante, aho rupam, aho dhvani !!!!

Translation : Its Camel’s wedding ceremony and Donkeys are singing. They appreciate each other ” wow.. how melodious!!!!! ” and “wow… how beautiful !!!!” !!

Read one more nice post to make fun of us ( bloggers )

via pradeep

Technorati Tags: blogging, bloggers, tips, sanskrit, quotes, charvaka

ನಮಸ್ಕಾರ,

ತುಂಬಾ ದಿನ ಆಯ್ತು, ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲಿ ಬರೆದು (ಟೈಪಿಸಿ). ಒಂದು ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆ. ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ಅಧಿಕ ಪ್ರಸಂಗದ್ದು, ಎನ್ಮಾಡ್ಲಿ blog ಹೆಸರೇ “ನಾನು, ನನ್ ಗೀಚಾಟ ಮತ್ತು ನನ್ನ ಅಧಿಕ ಪ್ರಸಂಗ”. ಹೆ ಹೆ ..

ಕನ್ನದ ಸ್ವರಮಾಲೆಯಲ್ಲಿ “ಕ್ಷ” “ತ್ರ” ಮತ್ತು “ಜ್ಞ” ಯಾಕಿದೆ ?

ಇದೊಂದು ಹತ್ತು ಹದ್ನೆಂಟು ವರ್ಶದ ಹಿಂದೆ ಬಾಲಾವಡಿ , ಅಂಗನವಾಡಿ ಅಕ್ಷರಮಾಲೆಯ chart ನೋಡಿದಾಗ ತಲೇಲಿ ಬಂತು. ಆಗ ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ಸಂಸ್ಕೃತ ಕಲ್ತಿದ್ದೆ… ರಾಮ: ರಾಮೇ ರಾಮೈ .. ಗೊತ್ತಲ್ಲ ಹೈ ಸ್ಕೂಲ್ ಪಾಟಗಳು.

ದೇವನಾಗರಿ ಲಿಪಿಯಲ್ಲಿ, “ಕ್ಷ” “ತ್ರ” ಮತ್ತು “ಜ್ಞ” ಗಳಿಗೆ ಬೇರೆ ಬೇರೆ ಚಿಹ್ನೆಗಳಿವೆ . So.. ಅದರ ಅಕ್ಷರಮಾಲೆಯಲ್ಲಿ specific ಆಗಿ ಬರೆಯದಿದ್ರೆ ಒದುಗರು confuse ಮಾಡಿಕೊಳ್ತಾರೆ ಅಂತ ಅಲ್ಲಿ ಬರೆದಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಆದ್ರೆ ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲಿ “ಕ್ಷ” “ತ್ರ” ಮತ್ತು “ಜ್ಞ” ಒನ್ದೇ ತರ ಬರೆಯುವುದು ತಾನೇ. “ಕ್ಷ” – ಯಕ್ಷ, ತ್ರ – ನಕ್ಷತ್ರ , ಙ್ – ಯಜ್ಞ ಅಂತ

ಎಲ್ಲಾ ಓ. ಕೆ. … “ಕ್ಷ” “ತ್ರ” ಮತ್ತು “ಜ್ನ” ಯಾಕೆ ?

ಸಂಪದದಲ್ಲೂ ಇದನ್ನೇ ಪೊಸ್ಟ್ ಮಾಡಿದ್ದೆ, ನೂರು ಜನ ಓದಿದ್ರು ಯಾರೂ ಉತ್ತರ ಮಾತ್ರ ಕೊಟ್ಟಿಲ್ಲ. ಕನ್ನಡ ಅಕ್ಷರ ಮಾಲೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಈ ಮೂರು ಅಕ್ಷರಗಳನ್ನು ತೆಗೆದು ಹಕಿದ್ದರೇನು ?

privious posts : ಹುಚ್ಚು ಮನಸ್ಸಿನ ಹತ್ತು confusion..!! , ನನ್ನ ಓದುವ ಹುಚ್ಚು, ಕನ್ನಡಿಗರೇ ನಮಸ್ಕಾರ !!

Free advertising.: If you recognize this font, please try to reply in the same. Use typepad or quillpad for the typing

Disclaimer: I have not seen Kannada text books from long. If they have removed those symbols from alphabet list, I have no questions to ask. I heard they did for a vowel “Ruu”, which was not getting used at all.

Technorati Tags: kannada, fonts, alphabet, sanskrit, hindi, devanagari, ksha, tra, jnya, quillpad, translitrator,

To agree with Amitabh Bachchan English is very Phunny (or funny) language. A language which has greatest number of literature works happening (or happened) has serious scarcity of generalized language rules, e.g. how to spell a sound or how to pronounce a word. There can half a dozen different ways to pronounce one sound. Similarly it has half a dozen different spellings for a word which is pronounced uniquely.

Trouble comes when one needs to write on Indian word in English (karma, nirvana, guru, pundit etc) and otherwise also. I have encountered three names written in three different spellings but pronounced the same. Sandhya , Sandya , Santhya, Santhiya.. Which one is correct? Technically going, none of them. No combination of English alphabet can accommodate these kinds of thousand words (except otherwise UNICODE). Its English, you can spell your name the way you want, where is the problem? Problem is the attitude of “you way of spelling is not correct”.

In one way these differences are very useful, to guess where that is person is from. If a girl writes her name as Sandhya, she is south Indian. If Sandya , she is north Indian. Any “th” ( like “Santhya” or “Santhiya” ) is either from Tamilnadu or Kerala and north-east people don’t name their name daughter as “sandya”. Cool isn’t it ?

Anyways come to the point. To go technically, South Indians pick letters as exactly it sounds in alphabetical chart, north Indians pick it from English words where they are used. For example letter “t” sounds retroflex in alphabetical chart , in English words it can be dental , or retroflex.

So “Bindhu” in south is “Bindu” in north, “Prashanth” in south is “Prashant” in north. ( What is dental what is retroflex , please refer the chart below ). So who is right ? No one. None of these are not following any standards, then where is the question of who is correct ?

Copy paste from wikipedia

To those friends who argued with me on mail, phone or personally: please spell my name as I asked you to do.

To those who still dint understand what I was talking about:

English do have these have rules, but with around million exceptional cases. Sarcastically no one has any trouble memorizing all those exceptional cases. During school education I remember we students had a discussion among us to use “phonetic symbols “write English.

Indian languages are of course not flawless, but surly free from above two problems. In other words (to repeat) if a person knows all (around 52) symbols of an Indian languages (any of them which has a script), he can read whatever written (exactly the way it suppose to sound) without even knowing what is written. Basically this is the feature of every one’s grandmother Sanskrit.

Technorati Tags: names, spelling, indian, languages, pronounciations, phonetic, UNICODE

There is a beautiful quote on “qualities of life”, my favorite from since childhood. I did not see any internet presence for the same. So, I thought lets give it. Completely ….

(Thanks to my high school Sanskrit teacher).

एकोहमसहायोहं              कृशोहमपरिच्छदः |

स्वन्पेप्येववंविदा चिंता मृगेंग्रस्य न जायते ||

 ( EkOhamasahAyohaM  krishOhamaparichchadah |

svapnEpyEvaMvidaa chintA mrigEndrasya na jaayate || )

Translation.

“I am alone, helpless, weak and un-accompanied “King of all animals (lion) does not get these kind of

ideas even in his dreams. (Somebody help me out here, for better translation.)

Huh…

It is written in simple Sanskrit, but looks complex since words are compounded. If broken into sentences, (According to Sanskrit poetic laws this is a crime. One can change the words, spelling words or even meaning of words, but not suppose to change the Chanda (take it as rhythm).

एकः अहं असहायः अहं कृशः अहं अपरिच्छ्दः
स्वप्ने अपि एवं विदा चिंता मृगेंद्रस्य न जयते

Ekah ahaM asahAyah ahaM krishah ahaM aparichchadah. swapnW api evaM vidA chiMta mrigendrasya na jayatE.

( Word by word : single I am , helpless I am , weak I am un-accompanied. dreams (even ) this kind of worries, Lion doesn’t get )

purAnamityeva na sAdhu sarvam , na chApi kAvyam navamityavadyam
santaha parikshatart bhajante, muDhah parapratyayena buddhihi

पुरणमित्येव न साधु सर्वं न चापि काव्यं नवमित्यवद्यं |
सनः परीक्श्तरत भजन्ते मूढः परप्रत्ययेन बुद्दिः ||

- Unknown

Can be interpreted as :

Concepts need not be valid just because they are told in books (holy books especially )), mythologies etc. Nor things are right if they are modern. Gentlemen test and then trust, fools believe what is told and written.

I don’t remember who wrote it, guess it is Brutruharai. This is the best spelling I can give for the quote here. If anyone finds better please comment. And also if you find a similar one.

Quote is quite relevant. People when can not justify what they are practicing and what they believe, just hold some outdated books responsible. “Since it is written in…”

Related Posts : The weak, the god and sacrifice

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ashvam naiva gajam naiva vyaghram naivacha naivacha |

ajaaputram balim dadyaat devo durbala ghatakaha ||

अश्वं नैव गजं नैव व्यघ्रं नैव च नैव च
अजापुरत्रं बलिं दद्यात देवो दुर्बल घतकः

It translates something like this: They don’t sacrifice a horse, neither an elephant. Never ever a tiger. A poor lamb is sacrificed. God hurts only weak

Ever since God/protector was created, people wanted a way to “give back” in return to all the protection, mercy and other things he is offering. It is natural to think that god, who exists need to take something from us, when he doing so may miracles (like birth, death etc.). Now having created god, what one can naturally think about him, is “he is like us”. He eats what we eat. He likes ornaments like we do. And he likes to eat goat/buffalos like we do. This can be one answer.

The other what I can think about is. Relaxing the rules! So many religious rules, so much less time to follow. Or life is so advanced that, either one can not afford to or not allowed practice. So what the best solution is follow the rules which are convenient, comfortable. Or Change them according to your convenience and say this is actually the way.

Now in this context rule (bloody rule) was sacrifice is blood. There is always a concept that almighty asked them blood, but never mention when, how and where he asked. Initially there were people who were getting sacrificed. A fighting fit person will always show resistance, so women and kids. If the tribe has a feeling that they are their own, take someone from neighboring tribe. All these are about satisfying god.

As days passed, we became more civilized. We chucked human beings and started sacrifice what we tame. If it useful animal like a horse or a camel, again No. Find something where sacrifice is also some and we can eat it also later. Now what vegetarians do? Don’t laugh, they sacrifice a pumpkin!! and there is no blood in it, so put some “kumkum” (red powder) and make it look like flesh. Ultimately what people do if what is very convenient to them, and justify it.

One more point to say which is not highly relevant to the context. There is a practice that “shave off” head in some pilgrimage places. They keep justifying it as sacrificing something that belongs to them, to god. Alright why don’t you give something important… like a finger? Or at least peel off a finger nail and come back. It hurts, isn’t it? Shaving has no pain. I actually asked someone this question. He said “god doesn’t need blood”. Well he doesn’t want hair either.

All social and religious rules are written based on the rule maker’s conveniences, his beliefs and his place of living. Ultimately what followers do if what is very convenient to them, and justify it.

Technorati Tags: God, atheism, india, sanskrit, hymn, weak

I was searching the roots of all famous Sanskrit quotes. But this one “Ahimsa paramo dharmaha“( अहिंसा परमो धर्मः ) did not yield any results in internet. More than 500 results and just “Ahimsa paramo dharmaha”. Every one is happy mentioning only up to there. The meaning is Non-violence is Ultimate religion (or duty). The sentence is repeatedly gets mentioned whenever Indian philosophy and tolerance is explained, especially context of explaining ancient Hindu (sanatan dharma), Buddhism, Jainism and Gandhian philosophy.       

   One result gave the latter part of it. धर्म हिंसा तथीव च  – “Dharma himsa tathaiva cha “. Now that means Violence is also religion (duty). I am getting different meanings out of them.

  1.      Non-violence is the ultimate duty of life, and in some contexts violence is also. Here what is the extremity of the context?

2.      Try to follow Non-violence and given no choice follow violence (for protect your self). This is most optimistic meaning I have taken  

         Anyway the sentence is frequently mentioned, but forgetting the second part of it. It’s something like Ashvathamaha hato kunjarah, telling half truth. If some one has a better explanation, or complete hymn please leave a comment.     

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This is one of the hymns, much quoted on women freedom. It says:

पिता रक्शति कौमरे भर्ता रक्शति यव्वना |
पुत्रः रक्शति वार्धक्ये नस्त्री स्वतन्त्र्यमर्हति ||

Pita rakshati kaumare, bharta raskshati youvana,

putrah rakshati varddhakye, na stree swatantryam arhati.

I don’t know where it is written, may be rule book “manusmriti”. If translated to English. “A woman is protected by father in childhood, her husband protects her in youth, and in old age she should be protected by her son. At no stage in life should a woman be left alone and destitute. She deserves protection by man at every stage in her life.”

It was commonly defended: Rakshati means protects (he will protect) and she deserves protection from dad, son and hubby at all point of time. Don’t take the literal meaning of the last sentence. It is highly misinterpreted. Ya ya… I heard that. If he wanted to tell “women deserve protection”, he could have told “stree rakshanmarhati” or any thing he likes. After all Sanskrit does not have lack of vocabulary. How does the word “swatantraym” come here..?? also a negative sentence. Rules and regulations are written to everyone. And it is meant to follow by everyone. So, everyone has to understand it, the way it is supposed to be understood. If you leave a room to confusion stronger people will pick up a meaning most comfortable for them.

• Blank noise project
• Mann Ke Manjeere – An Album of Women’s Dreams
• Dignity, sure…!! It’s for women.
• Don’t abort the girl child

Technorati Tags: Women, , freedom, , india, , sanskrit, , hymn, oppression

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There was always confusion in me how to spell most of the Indian names in English. You’ll get to see lot of versions of spelling, but pronounced the same. The same issue I recalled when I read this article in my friend’s blog kaushik : My mother tongue isn’t perfect.

We have heard of people telling Sanskrit is perfect. Some of us might also have received forwarded mails telling that Kannada or Telugu is 99.99% perfect. Or what is that tells a language is perfect and or imperfect? There are many criteria. One of which everyone can easily see and comprehend is “what we write should be what we spell. English, as we all know doesn’t come into this group. But what about our own mother tongues?

Here is a question again, what do you call a perfect language. And how this percentage is calculated. There has to be a measure to do it isn’t it..?? Let’s take according to me these are the rules for a perfect language.

1. You shall be able to pronounce all the things you have written. And you shall be able to write whatever you pronounce. Also, there has to be only one way to write a sound and there has to be only one way to pronounce a symbol written. : In this case we can’t nominate English at all. And most of the Indian languages are perfect Sanskrit, Telugu and Kannada (even German) for example. All these nominees are completely capable to read and write all the words of its own languages (there will be a problem if you bring a foreign language, there will be some other sounds).
2. If you give a person the singular and plural has to be defined, not more not less. Kannada and Telugu are good. Sanskrit is troublesome here. (It has Dvi-Vachana…, why not thrivachana, chaturvachana etc.??)
3. Given a verb you should have a defined way of conjugate it. No language has a problem except English.
4. Gender. Why do you ask a learner to have gender for entities..?? (For example: I am a masculine, and my mind is neutral in Sanskrit. Very similar with Hindi, and German) Kannada, Telugu… even English pass the test here.
   Etc… Etc… According to my definition no language is perfect, where I define the perfect language as easiest for a person to learn for read and write. But about English. it is very true ..It is far from perfection

When a language likes Kannada or Telugu which is derived from a perfect language, why isn’t it perfect?Kannada and Telugu are not derived from Sanskrit. It’s just that there is high penetration of Sanskrit words in those two. I don’t know Telugu, but Kannada can be spoken without Sanskrit works in it (or may be with minimum usages), it does have its own Sandi and its own Samasa. But only that will look poetic. As for as the grammar yes, it is complete Sanskrit as it is.Many have a wrong presumption that Sanskrit doesn’t have a script. Actually Hindi doesn’t have one. Hindi uses Devanagari script which was used for Sanskrit. Oh! Our National Language has no script of its own?Yes this is very much true. There are many languages which lend things to Sanskrit, then argue it’s their own… I never had a problem with the script argument, but chances are there to some one argue that. But see this one is interesting… many a times I got a preaching that “MANN” is heart. I say its “mind”. I get a strong opposition; I prefer to keep my mouth shut.Got any inkling? How come ‘gum’ becomes ‘gun’? Ideally it should have been ‘gumga’ isn’t it? Isn’t there something fishy? Now check this out too…

This is a nice example. But there is a grammatically correct answer for this. For the answer let’s take alphabetical system. Indian languages have beautiful arrangement of classified consonants. There are tabulated in five rows and five columns. Starting from sound “k” to “m”. The columns are “unaspirated voiceless” “unaspirated voiceless” “unaspirated voiced” “aspirated voiced” and “nasal”. the rows are velar ( k kh a gh gn) palatal ( ch Ch j Jh jn) retroflex( T Th D Dh Nh) apcio dental (t th d dh n) and labial ( p ph b bh m). This is most scientifically organized according to sounds and pronunciations .note that this is my own convention of software, not UNICODE stationer.

Now come to the point. I don’t know Telugu, and I never learned Hindi grammar as coerce. But I can tell the rules of Kannada and Sanskrit. The rule says ” you can always (while writing) replace an “O”(symbol in Kannada, Telugu, in Devanagari it is just a dot) i.e. answer symbol by the last corresponding column of the consonants table, of the preceding consonant” did you get it. ..?? Let’s take the very example. “Ganga” is officially allowed to write using both the forms it is presented in Devanagari. An “O”(in Kannada and Telugu, Devanagari it is just a dot) has to be replaced now, you can replace it by a symbol “gn”, refer consonant table. What is Nasal sound for sound ‘g’ … replaces it with the answer? As for as I remember using the nasal is the correct form of writing. And “O” is the short cut. But I am sorry I am not sure about this information, which came first. But both are very much valid in Kannada, Kannada words and all the languages which use Devanagari script. There is no problem at all!!And by the way, I forgot to write my original topic… the problem in spelling my name in English… I will post it some other time.

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