Author: Ram Sury

Raghuvīra-Gadyam (Mahāvīra-vaibhavam) of Śrī Vedānta Deśika

Vedānta Deśika (1268–1369) was an esteemed ācārya in the Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta & Śrī-Vaiṣṇava paramparā of Śri Rāmānuja. Raghuvīra-Gadyam, which celebrates Rāma’s valour, was composed when the author was residing at the temple town of Thiruvahindrapuram in Tamil Nadu. The temple has icons of Rāma, Lakṣmaṇa and Sītā, and here Rāma is seen as Kodaṇḍa-Rāma (with a bow in His hand). Inspired by this, Deśika wrote Raghuvīra-gadyam, in which he focuses on Rāma as a ‘mahā-vīra’ (great-hero). Hence Raghuvīra-gadyam is also known as Mahāvīra-vaibhavam. These lessons are delivered in Sanskrit.

Word-generating power of Saṃskṛtam

Chamu Krishna Shastry, one of the founders of Samskrita Bharati, speaks about the prakṛti-pratyaya-vibhāga (morphological transparency) that makes the Sanskrit language sanskritic, and why it is important to preserve that uniquely analytical feature of Sanskrit by coining neologisms in Sanskrit itself rather than adopt modern words (such as electricity, car, train, computer etc) from other languages into Spoken Saṃskṛtam.

Only our collective will can revive Spoken Saṃskṛtam

Chamu Krishna Shastry, one of the founders of Samskrita Bharati – draws a comparison between the revival of Spoken Hebrew as a spoken language by Eliezer Ben-Yehuda in Israel in the 20th century, and the revival of Spoken Sanskrit on a massive scale by the efforts of a small community of commited enthusiasts.