Source : The Hindu
The Cosmic dance of Lord Siva is significant from the point of view of the Sanskrit language, said Krishna Ganapadigal in a discourse. The Lord holds in one of His hands a damaru. This is a small drum, shaped like an hour glass. When the Lord paused in the middle of His dance, He shook His damaru. It is said that He shook it fourteen times. Each time He shook the damaru, a sabda was produced. The Sanakadhi rishis, who watched His dance, absorbed the sabdas. The fourteen sabdas became fourteen sutras. Panini, the great grammarian, wrote his Ashtadyayi based on these sutras, which owed their origin to the sabdas emanating from Lord Siva’s damaru. Thus Lord Siva is the origin of Sanskrit grammar.
Every word has a meaningful root in Sanskrit. And the same word can have different meanings in different contexts. While we know ‘anna’ as referring to cooked rice, in fact it can be used to refer simply to food, and not necessarily only to rice.
Sanskrit is the language of the Vedas. The Vedas were taught orally, a student learning from a teacher, who in turn would have learned from an earlier one and so on. Can you trace this Vedic instruction right up to its origin? It cannot be done, because the Vedas are eternal, without a beginning or an end.
In this respect, they are very much like the Supreme One Himself. The Vedas lay down what constitutes righteous conduct. The Vedas also talk about what happens in the various yugas. Thus the Vedas are not just records of past knowledge, but they also talk of the future. They are the repositories of all kinds of knowledge. None can claim to have complete mastery over the Vedas. This is seen in the life of sage Bharadwaja, who could not master the Vedas, despite his life being extended up to three hundred years.