BCKGROUND
- In Indian languages, most words are made of other words. For example वसुदेवसुतं is made of three words वसु देव and सुत.
- is वसु made of three constituent words व स उ ?
- Does Sanskrit वर्ण/अक्षर have meaning ? Are all words have composite meanings derived from these meanings? Short answer is Yes.
- But that knowledge is lost and meanings of वर्ण/अक्षर needs to be deciphered.
- Once we reinterpret meanings of ancient most words, an interesting picture emerges.
- I am deciphering it and there are some very interesting hypothesis that emerge form this work.
- This is work in progress. There are more tings uncertain than there are certain/confident interpretations. However, It is certain that decipher is not random chance interpretaiton. There is underlying pattern that is real.
EARLY FINDINGS - वर्ण meanings and it seems to emerges from brain circuitry. Meanings are fluid and can take any grammatical form required. Refer to Understanding वर्ण
- All words are composite words all the way down to वर्ण. ALL meanings can be understood from meanings of वर्ण. Nothing is “assigned.” Language is NOT Saussurean.
- Vowels and consonants seem to have emerged at different times. Vowels are old and are used as cases - विभक्ति way before verb-noun distinction emerged.
- धातु, प्रत्यय, उप सर्ग - all words describe a physical reality that can be experienced in both - real physical world लोक world and in spoken-auditory वाक worlds. These experiences of both worlds are interchangeable because वर्ण meanings are hard wired in brain and brain can switch between वाक experience and लोक experience and can understand both. The way speaking and hearing are interchangeable.
- वर्ण meanings suggest that at some point hands and legs could be used interchangeably and using leg fingers/toe for maneuvering objects was possible. though this signal is very feeble.
- Language vocabulary suggests a sea shore dwelling, fishing oriented settlements.
-Muscle availability with tides and predictability of food availability evolved neural circuits linked to “desire” and what we now call सन प्रत्यय evolved as faculty to desire. Periodicity of tides mapped this “desire” circuitry to language circuit and enabled “planning.” This created a vircular virtuous loop strengthening both these circuits and evolving language in the process. - Emergence of conception of time and tense emerges form tide periodicity and edibility of food. The लकार are not simple past-present-future the way we interprete. Entire cognitive development is four dimensional - temporal aspect - edibility - visibility and conditionality/certainty.
- Words that are used as suffix as verbal inflexion all point to sea faring. There is indirect evidence of sea faring going back to 1.5 Ma.
- Once verbs are churned out as separate class of words, using inflexion to indicate case emerges. But it is force fitted into already existing case system based on vowels.
- Some institutionalized speak-as-you-do education mechanism must have existed. Language emerged mainly from this institute of teaching. Physical reality constraints left their foot prints on spoken language. with spoken language preserved, we can reconstruct physical reality.
- That institutionalized education, called शिक्षा and वेद, is the reason we have teaching material preserved form 10-15 lakh year ago. This binding of speech and physical activity ensured that language did not became babelian (refer tower of Babel.) and defied entropy. Not having any assigned meaninigs and all meanings being hard wired anatomically, or at least having that rooting, also helped defying entropy.
- Pronunciation of ऋ and ऌ require tongue root to approach hard palate and teeth respectively. This is impossible for Humans as larynx has descended. Larynx descent is at least 4.3 lakh year old. This signal, compared to leg-hand anatomy, is loud and clear - as if it were today’s newspaper headline.
SUMMARY
SO THE HYPOTHESIS IS - - वर्ण have meanings rooted in brain circuitry. Sanskrit grammar is a code. Deciphering it will enable us to understand evolution of Sanskrit. Part interpretation of Ashtadhyayi with part deciphered code indicates that -
- Language started 30-40 lakh year ago.
- There is linguistic continuity and high fidelity preservation of education material from this era on.
- Very little A. Afarensis material seems to be there. But huge corpus is there from Erectus era.
- Besides fossilized archaeological record, we can learn about past from this education/training materials. And it is not history of kings and battles but history mainly of how to get food.
- Language and Human evolution occurred on sea shores fishing and boating.