Lyrics to Dvadasa Stotram as sung by MS Subbulakshmi

[Guest guest]

hi

 

Does anyone have the english transliteration of Dvadasa Stotram composed by Madhvacharya?

 

it starts like this "devakinandana nanda-kumara vrndavananjana gokulacandra kandaphalasana sundara-rupa nanditagokula vanditapada"

 

thank youuu

 

 

if you are good at sanskrit, i will send u this wonderful song to listen and maybe write down in english for me? that would be really nice of you.

[Avinash]

I just translated what you wrote.

 

"devakinandana nanda-kumara vrndavananjana gokulacandra kandaphalasana sundara-rupa nanditagokula vanditapada"

 

Meaning:- Salutations to the feet of the son of Devaki and Nand, the eyeliner of Vrndavan, the moon of Gokul, whose seat is made of roots and fruits, who is of beautiful form, who is the delighter of Gokul.

[Guest guest]

no, i didnt really want a translation. but i guess that'd be good also.

 

what i want is just the sanskrit written down in english so i can learn to sing it better.

[Avinash]

I thought you wanted English translation. But now I know that you just want it to be written in Roman script.

 

Let me know where I can hear this song. Then I can write it in Roman script.

[Guest guest]

oh..

doesnt english transliteration mean roman script?

 

anyways yes, i can email u the song to listen to. what is ur email?

 

its from the cd Sri Venkateshwara (Balaji) Pancharatnamalabolakshmi by M.S. Subbulakshmi.

[Guest guest]

Dear Avinash,

 

You seem to know your stuff. I am trying to learn Samskrita myself. Could you please suggest some ways to improve vocabulary? And even though I have some knowledge of Samskrita grammar, some of the sentences are so hard to understand! Can you give some idea on this, on how samskrita sentences are normally constructed, how to actually set about understanding them (as distinct from understanding other languages).

 

I am asking this, because even if I know the meaning of every word in a certain verse, it doesn't really seem to form a perfect sentence. I am not sure if I am making myself clear! I'll give a small example to explain this.

 

In the book I am reading, there's a certain sentence: panditaH shishyabuddhi pariikshartham prcchati. They haven't given word to word meaning, so this is what I understand. panditaH=scholar, shishya-student, buddhi-intelligence, pariiksha-examine, artham-purpose, prcchati-asks. The book gives the translation as: "In order to test the wisdom of the student, the scholar asks." How did they get this well-constructed sentence, when it sounds fragmented and abstract in Samskrita?

 

This is the frustration I am experiencing right from the beginning, and I'd like to know what I am missing here. Hope you suggest something. BTW, I've just started learning the language from Samskrita Bharati. Is it any good?

[Avinash]

 

oh..

doesnt english transliteration mean roman script?

 

No, the two are different. For changing language (say from Sanskrit to English), we have to consider the vocabulary and the grammar of the target language. But when we change script (say from Devanagari to English), then we have to consider how to something is written in the alphabets of the target script.

 

 

anyways yes, i can email u the song to listen to. what is ur email?

Please PM me for my email id.

[Avinash]

So far vocabulary is concerned, it is a must that there has to be some memorization. But memorization need not and should not be as much as in English. In English, just by knowing the root form of a word, you cannot tell how it sounds in past tense; you have to memorize both.

But while learning Sanskrit, memorize the root forms of some simple (i.e. not compound) words. After that learn sandhi and samaas to see how words should be combined to form compound words. When you learn sandhi and samaas, then on seeing complicated word, you should be able to break it into individual simple words to know its meaning. Also, learn the tenses (lat, lot etc.) in Sanskrit and what rules should be followed to find the forms of a verb in various tenses.

If you follow these rules, then memorizing only some words, you will be able to know the meanings of many more words.

 

To understand the meaning of a sentence, you should see the meanings of individual words in it with correct part of speech and tense. After that translate only a small part of the sentence, which contains only subject and verb. Then insert the translations of the remaining. I have underlined "with correct part of speech and tense", because those who newly learn Sanskrit often ignore this and mostly face problems because of this.

 

Consider the sentence you gave: -

"panditaH shishyabuddhi pariikshartham prcchati"

 

When I read the above sentence, then I paused to translate it into English and only after I had translated I read the remaining part of your message. The translation that I came up with is: -

"The scholar asks to test the student's intelligence."

 

As you can see, this translation is the same, in meaning, as the translation you posted though, of course, the wordings are different.

Here is how I came up with the translation: -

panditaH - scholar (part of speech is karta i.e. subject)

shishyabuddhi - compound word meaning intelligence of students

pariikshartham - for testing (or to test)

prcchati - it is a verb. The root word has meaning 'to ask' and the word 'prcchati' is to be used in present tense with a subject, which is third person singular.

 

What is the subject? The scholar

What is the verb? Asks

Then insert the translations of the remaining words keeping in mind correct tense and the parts of speech, as appropriate and you will come up with correct translation.

 

Sanskrit Bharati is good for beginning.

[Guest guest]

Dear Avinash,

 

Thanks for your response, it was very helpful.

 

Just two doubts, though.

 

#1 You said one should start with root forms. Isn't it true that only a limited number of root verbs are commonly used, like 300 or so? What are they, and would it be enough to understand them first?

 

#2 You said we must understand correct part of speech and tense. I understand the deal with tense, but what do you mean by correct part of speech? Also in the example, could you tell me how pariikshartham translates to 'to test.' I can understand we simply translate words to their English equaivalent, but how do we get words like "to" etc. How are they accommodated in Samskrita?

 

Regards,

[Avinash]

 

You said one should start with root forms. Isn't it true that only a limited number of root verbs are commonly used, like 300 or so? What are they, and would it be enough to understand them first?

 

Let me give an example to explain what I meant by root forms. In English, you have to remember go, went, gone (all the three). But do not do that for learning Sanskrit. Memorise only the root form. In this example, the root form is 'go'. Of course, go is an English word. To get an example from Sanskrit, consider the word 'path', which means 'to read'. Do not try to memorize various tense equivalents of 'path'. Rather just memorize that 'path' means to read and learn the rule of how to get various tense forms of a word.

 

 

You said we must understand correct part of speech and tense. I understand the deal with tense, but what do you mean by correct part of speech?

By part of speech I mean what we call 'kaarak' in Sanskrit - karta, karam, karn, sampradan, apadan, sambandh, adhikaran, and sambodhan. In any Sanskrit text book, you will see these mentioned.

 

 

Also in the example, could you tell me how pariikshartham translates to 'to test.' I can understand we simply translate words to their English equaivalent, but how do we get words like "to" etc. How are they accommodated in Samskrita?

 

As you are already aware, pariikshartham is a combination of pariiksha and artham; pariiksha means test or examination and artham means for the sake of. Therefore, pariikshartham means ;for the sake of examination'. From the knowledge of English, we know that 'for the sake of examination' can also be written (at least in the given context) as 'for testing' or 'to test'.

 

So, you should not try to find the equivalent of even words like 'to'. Rather see what the Sanskrit word actually converys and what words in English convey that meaning.

[Guest guest]

 

No, the two are different. For changing language (say from Sanskrit to English), we have to consider the vocabulary and the grammar of the target language. But when we change script (say from Devanagari to English), then we have to consider how to something is written in the alphabets of the target script.

 

 

Please PM me for my email id.

 

Guest1111 is right. The two are the same.

 

English transliteration is writing in Roman script. You are confusing the words transliteration and translation.

[Avinash]

 

Guest1111 is right. The two are the same.

 

English transliteration is writing in Roman script. You are confusing the words transliteration and translation.

 

I just now checked the first post of this thread again and found that Guest1111 had written transliteration. First time, I had read it as translation.

[Avinash]

Now that we are at it ...

Guest1111 wrote that he would like to be able to sing the Stotram better. So, the sound is important here. Therefore, the word "transcription" is even more accurate (though I admit that if I had read the word 'transliteration', I would have got what he really was asking for).

[Guest guest]

i knew i was right!

so avinash, like the song?

[Avinash]

I listened to the song and noted down its lyrics on a piece of paper. I will type it onto my computer.

 

Have you seen the lyrics of the song somewhere in any script?

[Guest guest]

i've only seen it as i posted on the first thread. devakinandana......

[Guest guest]

hey, are u done?

[Guest guest]

avinash, are you done??

helooooo

b/c u said u were done..

so... where are you?

[Guest guest]

bump!

[Guest guest]

dear Avinash, are you done yet with the transliteration yet? its been quite a while....