Thread by @pvaal2

#संस्कृतम् - Incredible flexibility of the देवभाषा।

Pancharatram is a Mahabharata based play by Bhasa involving Pandavas & Kauravas

The first stanza goes thus

द्रोणः पृथिव्यर्जुनभीमदूतो
यः कर्णधारः शकुनीस्वरस्य
दुर्योधनो भीष्मयुधिष्ठिरः स
पायाद् विराडुत्तरगौऽभिमन्युः।

For those who find it difficult to read Samskritam with Sandhi, the terms in the invocatory verse are

द्रोण - पृथिवी - अर्जुन - भीम - दूत - य - कर्ण - धार - शकुनी - ईश्वर - दुर्योधन - भीष्म - युधिष्ठिर - स - पायाद् - विराड् - उत्तरग - अभिमन्यु

The नान्दी or the invocatory verse says this

👇🏼

But, at first read, the verse seems to talk about the dramatis personae!

In fact no less than 12 of them!
👇🏼
Drona
Krishna
Arjuna
Bhima
Virata
Karna
Shakuni
Duryodhana
Bhishma
Yudhishtir
Abhimanyu
Virata’s Son
Virata’s cows😀

How is this possible? How is the poet doing this?

Lets take a look at a master’s amazing ability to convey multiple meanings in संस्कृतम्!

Poets typically give a hint of what’s to come in the introductory verse. This is termed ‘mudra’ - सूच्यार्थसूचनं मुद्रा प्रकृतार्थपरै पदैः।

Here Bhasa goes all out with शब्दश्लेषः (puns)।

The poet Bhasa creates an appropriate invocation while also signaling the names of various characters who are going to come in his play!

He does his magic while making sure ‘meaning’ is appropriate & also fully in a meter- Vasantatilaka!

Talk about skills 🔥

Lets break it up

द्रोण- also means black. द्रोणकाकः।

Hence कृष्णः

अर्जुनभीमदूतः - messenger to Arjuna & Bhima

कर्ण- also means rudder/helm

कर्णधार- one who controls

शकुनी- also means a bird

शकुनीश्वर - king of birds (Garuda)

दुर्योधन - means a warrior difficult to vanquish. Hence Krishna

भीष्मयुधिष्ठिर are used as adjectives for Krishna here

भीष्म - terrible when offended

युधिष्ठिर - one who is steady in fighting

विराज् - to shine विविधं राजभानत्वाद् विराट्

उत्तरगः - doing the best thing / going to the best

अभिमन्यु - who goes towards a sacrifice

So the full meaning of the invocation is

The source material: Pancharatra edited by Shivaram Paranjape

So the master poet has used शब्दश्लेषः to not only convey a wonderful invocation, but also pushed in multiple character names

Samskritam is a wonderful language

If you can’t access it to enjoy the vast riches, then you are missing something भोः।

पठतु संस्कृतम्। जयतु भारतम्।