New words I learnt from Manache Shlok

Recently I purchased a small booklet of Manache Shlok at Sajjangad and later after 3-4 days started posting a shloka a day and slowly it’s becoming a habit. 6 weeks of consistency at least. It’s serving many purposes for me. Obviously top most is spiritual. But in the process I am learning how to inculcate a new habit, posting a shlok daily is instilling some consistency. Also, it gives a good set of new vocabulary and in the process explores their etymology.

Shloka 1. गमू : to follow or trudge (a path) easy to guess based on Sanskrit Gaman

Shloka 2 : knew all words

3: वैखरी : one of the four types of speech. Normal Human speech.
मानवी : human being (noun). It’s less common in the modern usage, but is a favourite of our prime minister मानव is common in the cotemporary usage

5: ची ची the older version of छी छी

6: नुरे again an olden style , the modern syntax is न उरे.

७: नीववावे to pacify

13: कुडी means body.

18: श्लाघ्यवाणे appreciable it’s not common in current Marathi usage but its opposite अश्लाघ्य ( an adjective usually reserved for usage of fowl language and cuss words).

19: हिंपुटी an interesting word, initially I thought it might be some native Marathi ( Deshaj) word but I found out that it is derived from Sanskrit roots. हृदय in Sanskrit is analogous to हिय्य in Prakrit. Though people will find if someone uses this word today amusing, it has left its footprint in Marathi by being a part of a common phrase मनाचा हिय्या करून ( meaning gathering all courage). हिय्या फुटी became हिंपुटी meaning a hertbreak. Now heartbreak has a modern Sankrit-based neologism in Marathi called हृदयभंग and हिंपुटी nobody uses.

21: द्रव्यदारा wife and wealth. It might be common in medieval times but not suitable as a compound word for modern times hence no longer in use and rightly so.

23: वाउगें an older form of modern वावगे which means objectionable.

24: वोसणावें again I thought this would be pure Marathi without a Sanskrit connection but is derived from ऊत्स्वप्न which means to talk irrelevant, as irrelevant as one talks in sleep when having a dream.

By the way this again reminds me that often ओ is interchangeable with वो in old Marathi and still persists in some styles of spoken Marathi. Modern linguists will consider this ‘अशुद्ध’ ( a word meaning impure used for inaccurate grammar usage. But the usage of the word itself, once rampant, is going down and the politically correct alternative is चुकीचा !)

I have a strong hunch that each of इ/ए, ऋ , लृ, उ/ओ have a correspondence with य, र, ल, व in their pronunciation and the previous is a softer vowel form and later consonant form of the same entities. In spoken language, I’ve noted some interchangeability among these also. I think ऋ sounds something in the middle of अ & र continuum. I don’t have any evidence for this conjecture but if a Marathi Language expert is reading this please give me feedback.

27: लंडी is a pretentious fellow. It’s not related to the membrum virile as modern obscene usage of this word refers to.

29: पदी राघवाचे सदा ब्रीद गाजे। वळें. ब्रीदवाक्य means motto in modern Marathi. Let’s how these two get connected. ब्रीद I used to think is a Sanskrit word ( a Tastsama: means the same as that) but it is not so. It is a Tadbhava( means derived from that). It is derived from Sanskrit verb वि+रुद ( रुद means to cry and वि धातुप्रत्यय qualifies it in a specific context).
Now let’s see that context. Ordinarily, विरुद can mean crying out loud. But in the olden days, a guard in front of the King would shout out loud a list of epithets before the King entered his court so the audience in the court would get some time and get ready for the reception of the King. This list became विरुदावली and the word got imported as बिरुदावली in Marathi. Now each member of that list of epithets became a बिरुद. Thus बिरुद means epithet in Marathi. ( I am not running a fantasy. Please see Tulpule’s dictionary of old English and Apte’s Sanskrit to cross-check.) Now this बिरुद got changed to ब्रीद.When a worrier/fighter made a huge effort as a token of appreciation an ornament to be worn on legs was offered. It is called बिरुदाचा तोडर or बिरुदाचा तोडा or ब्रीद तोडर / ब्रीद वळे. Rama is the bravest of heroes hence it is quite natural that he must have won this ornament for his heroic deeds. पदी राघवाचे सदा ब्रीद गाजे। वळें means always the epithet-ornament makes noise (गाजे derived from Sanskrit गर्ज ) at the feet of Raghava. It is followed by भक्तरीपूशिरी कांबि वाजे means an iron rod loudly hits the head of the opponents of Rama’s Bhakts. Hence Ram is powerful and he always protects his bhakts.

38-42 all these shlokas end with मना सज्जना राघवीं वस्ति कीजे . कीजे here exactly means what किजीये means in modern Hindi. This verb is no longer in use in modern Marathi.

I am putting one shloka as a tweet every day in form of a thread on my Twitter timeline. I would update this blog after a few weeks again.

मना सज्जना एक जीवीं धरावें।
जनी आपुलें हीत तूवां करावें॥
रघूनायकावीण बोलो नको हो।
सदा मानसीं तो निजध्यास राहो॥४३॥

— Sudhanwa Pathak MBBS (@pathaksudh) December 18, 2022