Śrīmukham of Jagadguru Śrī Shankara Vijayendra Saraswathi Swamiji, Shankaracharya of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham
One among many specialities of our Sanātanadharma, which is also the primary one, is that this dharma is deep rooted in Veda which is authorless. Veda, which is the eternal breathing air of the Supreme-Being, is known as Śrutī, as it is protected by learning through hearing only. As it is vast and extensive, it is called as Brahma, which is an excellent form of sound, the pronunciation of which itself protects all – thus proclaims Veda. Moreover, perfection in the pronunciation should be adhered to as dharma during the time of practice.
Hence, to protect the form of pronunciation of Śrutī, several texts describing the characteristic features of Veda were composed by our ancestors. Although through the vedāṅgas namely Śikṣā (Science of proper articulation and pronunciation), Vyākaraṇa (Grammar) and Chandas (Science of prosody), the characteristics of the forms of words of the Sanskrit language are made known in general, the special attributes of specific branch of Veda are understood only with the aid of the special treatise namely Vedalakṣaṇa. The matters prevailing in each branch are asserted not only through the texts titled as “Prātiśākhya”, the very meaning of which is clear, but also there are other texts named as Śikṣā etc which are into this assertion. In those texts, matters concerned with articulation and pronunciation of words which form the subject of Śikṣā, specialities of the rules of euphonic junction which form the subject of Vyākaraṇa and the metrical aspects which form the subject of Chandas are elaborated.
By studying the texts describing the characteristic features of Vedas from the perspective of the formation of words along with the exploration of their meanings and by doing comparison with the Vedas, communion of the attributes should be established in the objective. If it is accomplished so that the students could practice, the Lakṣaṇaśāstra becomes fruitful.
The novel endeavour started by the institution named Kautā-Svadharma-Svārājya-Saṅgha situated in the city of Bhāgyanagar (Hyderabad), desirous of encouraging the teaching and learning of this Śāstra through the conduct of examinations generates joy of the intellectuals. We hope – may this auspicious undertaking produce more and more students who become experienced scholars by taking bath in this river of Lakṣaṇavidyā by the divine grace of lord Candramaulīśvara, the embodiment of Veda and goddess Mahātripurasundarī, the embodiment of knowledge.
Narayanasmriti
Camp: Tirupati
Shankara year 2534, Vishvavasu, Vrishabha, Jyeshtha Shukla Ekadashi
Friday (6th June 2025)
Translated: Dr. Jayadevi Prakash