केयूराणि न भूषयन्ति पुरुषं हारा न चन्द्रोज्ज्वलाः 

न स्नानं न विलेपनं न कुसुमं नालङ्कृता मूर्धजाः ।

वाण्येका समलङ्करोति पुरुषं या संस्कृता धार्यते 

क्षीयन्ते खलु भूषणानि सततं वाग्भूषणं भूषणम् ॥

keyooraaNi na BhooShayanthi purooSham haaraa na chandhrojjvalaah

na snaanam na vilepanam na kusumam naalankrthaa moorDhajaah ।

vaaNyekaa samalankarothi purooSham yaa samskrthaa Dhaaryathe

kSheeyanthe Khalu BhooShaNaani sathatham vaagBhooShaNam BhooShaNam ॥

Meaning: 

Arm-bands do not embellish a person, nor do garlands and shiny jewellery. Nor baths, anointments, flowers and decorated hair-dos. Refined speech and culture make the person appealing. External ornaments fade with time, but the gift of speech shines forever.

In this episode, Dr. N. Hema Malini and Madhavi Nadig celebrate World Sanskrit Day in a freewheeling discussion about Sanskrit.

• This is the 20th shloka in Bharthrihari’s Neethi Shathakam.
• Every year, Shravana Poornima is observed as World Sanskrit Day, to promote the usage of Sanskrit. It is the birth anniversary of Panini—the greatest linguist and Sanskrit grammarian. This year, it was on 31st August, 2023.
• The Ashtadhyayi is the first known work of linguistics in the world. In the Aṣṭādhyāyī, Panini elaborated the rules of Sanskrit grammar. Most works produced since then adhere to these rules.
• European scholars discovered Ashtadhyayi in the 19th century. Since then, it continues to influence our modern languages as well.
• Sanskrit is written as it is spoken and allows conjoining words.
• The longest word ever to appear in any literary work, worldwide, is in Sanskrit. It has 195 Sanskrit letters (syllables in English):

निरन्तरान्धकारितदिगन्तरकन्दलदमन्दसुधारसबिन्दुसान्द्रतरघनाघनवृन्द-सन्देहकरस्यन्दमानमकरन्दबिन्दुबन्धुरतरमाकन्दतरुकुलतल्पकल्पमृ-दुळसिकताजालजटिलमूलतलमरुवकमिलदलघुलघुलयकलितरमणीय-पानीयशालिकाबालिकाकरारविन्दगलन्तिकागलदेलालवङ्गपाटलघनसा-रकस्तूरिकातिसौरभमेदुरलघुतरमधुरशीतलतरसलिलधारानिराकरिष्णुत-दीयविमलविलोचनमयूखरेखापसारितपिपासायासपथिकलोकान्  

from the Varadāmbikā Pariṇaya Campū by Tirumalāmbā.

• A prayer commonly heard in many a yoga class pays homage to Patanjali for his contribution to ancient Indian society.

योगेन चित्तस्य पदेन वाचां ।

मलं शरीरस्य च वैद्यकेन ॥

योऽपाकरोत्तमं प्रवरं मुनीनां ।

पतञ्जलिं प्राञ्जलिरानतोऽस्मि ॥

Let us bow to the noblest of sages, Patanjali, who has given us serenity and peace of mind through yoga, purity of speech through grammar and good health through medicine.

• Patanjali was a great scholar, a Sanskrit grammarian, the compiler of the yoga sutras and a medical authority who wrote seminal texts in medicine.
• Many English words are derived from Sanskrit—candy (खण्डक, piece of sugar), loot (लोत्र, plunder, booty), cheetah (चित्रक, leopard, speckled or variegated), jungle (जाङ्गल, wild, feral, not tame), crimson (कृमिज, red dye produced by a worm), guru, neem (निम्ब, neem tree), pepper (पिप्पली, Indian long pepper), sugar (शार्कर, sugar, pebble), and trigonometry (त्रिकोणमिति, measurement of triangles).
• English has also adopted some Sanskrit words without distorting their pronunciation—dharma, karma, atma, etc.—but the cultural context and the true meanings are lost in translation.
• There are other words that do not have translations in English—Sanskrit non-translatables. 
• Many names used in the Chandrayaan-3 & Aditya L1 missions are Sanskrit words. Chandrayaan—voyage to the moon, the liquid-fuel engine Vikas—progress, the rover Pragyaan—quest for knowledge, and Aditya—the sun.
• Not all works in Sanskrit are holy or religious in nature, i.e. they’re not all scriptures. There are works about astronomy, mathematics, medicine, yoga, philosophy, ayurveda, chemistry, statecraft and many other subjects written in Sanskrit since it was the lingua franca of that era.
• The legend of Kalidasa says that he was born a simpleton and married off to a princess in deceit. When she discovered his ignorance, she rejected him. Scorned, he worshipped Goddess Kali who blessed him to become a scholar.
• Kalidasa has produced 41 literary works in Sanskrit, using various types of prose, poetry and drama. He is considered one of the greatest litterateurs. Abhijnanashakuntalam (अभिज्ञानशाकुन्तलम्) is his best known work.
• वाग्भूषणं, the gift of the gab, is essential for people in the entertainment industry—in comedy, poetry, avadhanam, drama and oration.
• Some of the world’s best orators are Martin Luther King Jr., George Bernard Shaw, Swami Vivekananda, Oprah Winfrey, Barack Obama, Sushma Swaraj, S. Jaishankar—India’s foreign minister and Narendra Modi.
• There are some villages in India where all the residents speak Sanskrit fluently. In Karnataka, Mattur and Hosa Halli, are twin villages where Sanskrit is the mother tongues of the villagers. King Krishnadevaraya is said to have entrusted these two villages with the responsibility of propagating Sanskrit usage, in the 16th century.
• Subhashithas are examples of वाग्भूषणं, capturing pearls of wisdom in concise and eloquent lines.

What are some examples of witty or eloquent sayings you’ve come across?

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