17    Sansrit Literature and Grammar

Agni Purana has dealt in detail with the Literature and Grammar of Sanskrit, the language of Gods. The alphabet has sixty four ‘Varnas’including twenty four vowels (Swar Varnas). There are three Tones (swaras) in which the letters of the alphabet are uttered. The vovels are pronounced in three tones viz. Udatta, Anudatta and Svaritha. The Letters are pronounced from the throat, tongue, chest, teeth, nose, lips, head and palate.The language is either in the form of Gadya (prose) or Poetry or misra (mixture). Prose has three types viz. ‘churnaka’ plain without compound sentences, ‘Utkalika’ full of compounded sentences and ‘Vrattagandhi’ (complex sentences with the combinations of the earlier type). Poetry has to have a poetic sense, rules of poem writing, knowledge of ‘Chandass’ ( meter- framing)  and keen arareness of rhetoric (alankaras) and a spread of ‘Nava Rasas’( nine sentiments) viz. Hasya ( comical), Sringar ( romantic), Shanta            ( serenity), Karuna (Kindness), Veera (valour), Bhayankara ( frightening), roudra (awe- inspiring), Adbhuta ( exraordinary) and Bhibhatsa ( offensive). Good literature is also enriched by various ‘kalas’(arts or skills))- some sixty of them-including dance, designing, music, painting, instrumentals, architecture, singing, acting, and so on. [Note: In fact, the specialised disciplines of date are innumerable and highly specialised in nature. Many of these are ramifications of Art and Literature as also modern off shoots of technological progress and each specialisation has its own distinct grammar.]


Agni Purana describes Sanskrit Grammar in great details :‘Sandhis’ (word conjunctions) and ‘Samasas’(qualified words or group of words); ‘vachanas’(numbers like ‘eka’or single vachana, ‘bahu’ or multiple vachanas) and genders ( male, female or neutral) or ‘karakas’ (cases) and ‘vibhaktis’( case- endings).There are six ‘karakas’, viz. Karthri        ( Nominative Case), Karma (objective case), Karana ( instrumental case), Sampradana           ( Dative case), Apadana or source of something (ablative case), when there is a relation of a possession is involved, then the person who has the possession is the ‘Karaka’ in the sixth case.In the final case, the Karaka is adhikarana ( locative case).The vibhakties are to be added to the respective counterpart cases of ‘Karakas’, to arrive at the appropriate Karakas (Cases) and vibhakties ( case endings).Thus the details of Sanskrit Literature and Grammar as covered in Agni Purana are fairly exhaustive and extensive. 


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