Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Fifth World Sanskrit Conference, Varanasi, 1981 - Special Cover



The words in the Sanskrit phrase वसुधैव कुटुम्बकम् are split as: vasudhā - the earth; ēva - indeed is; and kutumbakam - family; meaning -- "the world is one family". The source of these words is from the Mahopanishad 6.71 which says --

अयं बन्धुरयं नेति गणना लघुचेतसाम् |
उदारचरितानां तु वसुधैव कुटुम्बकम् ||
ayaṁ bandhurayaṁ nēti gaṇanā laghucētasām |
udāracaritānām tu vasudhaiva kuṭumbakam ||

Such a thought like - "this one is a relative; this one is not" - is for the mean-minded. For the magnanimous, the entire world constitutes but a single family. The above verse verbatim or with slight variations occur in texts like Pañcatantra (5.3.37), Hitopadeśa (1.3.71), Vikrama-carita (Āndhra 3.1), etc. The same concept is to be found in the verse of the Tamil Saṅga poetry – Puranānūru - "யாதும் ஊரே யாவரும் கேளிர்" - (yātum ūre yāvarum keḷir) which means -- ‘Every place is my own and all are my kin.’

"योऽनूचानो स नो महान्" which is inscribed on the top of the logo states - "He who is an adept in the Veda with its auxiliaries (अनूचानः) is a great one". This citation is from the Manusmṛti  (2.154). The complete verse is --

न हायनैर्न पलितैः न वित्तेन न बन्धुभिः |
ऋषयः चक्रिरे धर्मं योऽनूचानो स नो महान् ||
na hāyanair na palitaiḥ na vittena na bandhubhiḥ |
ṛṣayaś cakrire dharmaṃ yo'nūcānaḥ sa no mahān  ||
 
It is not the number of years (age) or the number of grey hairs on one’s head or one’s riches and relations that make one great. The rṣis have formulated the ruling that only that one is great for us who is an “anūcānaḥ” -- well-versed in the Vedas with its allied branches of knowledge as the phonetics (śikṣā), rules of ceremonials (kalpa), grammar (vyākaraṇa), prosody (chhandas), astronomy (jyotiṣa) and etymological interpretation of a word and glossary (Nirukta).  

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