Lesson 32: Compounds (an example)
Sanskrit makes use of compounds on a scale that is difficult to conceive of coming from English. Not only are they more frequent and more freely composed than in English, they also can become quite long when an author wishes to emphasize such things as the unity of an idea in a very direct way (unmediated by case endings). For example, take this benedictory verse—the first half of which is a single compound—from the commentary of Abhinavagupta (a 10th-11th c. Śaiva polymath) on the Nāṭya-śāstra (Treatise on Drama, ascribed to Bharatamuni).
षट्त्रिंशकात्मकजगद्गगनावभास-
संविन्मरीचिचयचुम्बितबिम्बशोभम् षट्त्रिंशकं भरतसूत्रमिदं विवृण्व- न्वन्दे शिवं श्रुतितदर्थविवेकधाम ॥ |
ṣaṭ-triṃśakâtmaka-jagad-gaganâvabhāsa-
saṃvin-marīci-caya-cumbita-bimba-śobham | ṣaṭ-triṃśakaṃ bharata-sūtram idaṃ vivṛṇvan vande śivaṃ śruti-tad-artha-viveka-dhāma || |
thirty-sixfold-essence-earth-heaven-manifestation-
consciousness-ray-multitude-kissed-mirror-beauty thirty-sixfold bharata-sūtra this explaining I praise Śiva Veda-it-meaning-discrimination-light |
[Note how the translation will read the compounds backwards, starting from the compound-head at the end and working back to the beginning of the word. Generally speaking, there is only one (basically adverbial) type of compound that must be read forwards rather than backwards.]
In explaining this thirty-sixfold sūtra of Bharata,
the beauty (of which) is (like that of) a mirror kissed by the multitude of the rays of consciousness, (whose) manifestation is heaven and earth, the essence (of which) is the thirty-sixfold (tattvas),
I praise Śiva, the light for the discrimination of śruti (Veda) and its content. →
In explaining this thirty-sixfold sūtra of Bharata,
the beauty (of which) is (like that of) a mirror kissed by the multitude of the rays of consciousness, (whose) manifestation is heaven and earth, the essence (of which) is the thirty-sixfold (tattvas),
I praise Śiva, the light for the discrimination of śruti (Veda) and its content. →
“In explaining this 36(-chaptered) foundational work of Bharata(muni) --
its beauty like that of a mirror kissed by the multitude of consciousness’ rays,
which manifest the earth and heavens, with the 36 (tattvas) at their core --
I praise Śiva as the light by which the Veda and its content are distinguished.”
its beauty like that of a mirror kissed by the multitude of consciousness’ rays,
which manifest the earth and heavens, with the 36 (tattvas) at their core --
I praise Śiva as the light by which the Veda and its content are distinguished.”
The long compound beginning this verse constructs and integrates a 3-part simile between Śiva and the Nāṭya-śāstra. Abhinava invokes a monist Śaiva image here: Śiva as the mirror on which the rays of consciousness (his powers, śaktis) manifest creation, which is at its heart his unfolding from pure consciousness to solid earth via the 36 tattvas of Śaiva ontology. In the simile the Nāṭya-śāstra becomes akin to that mirror as it too reflects an all-encompassing awareness: the dramaturgical one drawn by Brahmā from the four Vedas. And it too manifests an entire cosmos (in the plays it permits the director to stage) which also consists of a 36-part essence (the performance’s elements as detailed in its 36 chapters). So the compound expresses the unity of this three-part simile between Śiva and the Nāṭyaśāstra—in consciousness, manifestation and its 36-fold essence—in a way that the words could not, individually. But the aesthetics of the compound in its real-time unfolding is more complicated: it takes us in quick succession from Śaiva essence to manifestation to conscious substrate before finally revealing each as an element of a simile—the dramatic subject of which the compound witholds from us. It is only in the next line (with bharata-sūtram) that the compound’s poetic purport finally becomes clear.
The 28-syllable, 11-member compound in the first half of the verse is of course long by English standards, but not uncommon in Sanskrit, especially in certain styles of poetry where compounds can easily exceed a full line of text. Moreover, they are relatively freely composed: any number of words that can be “thought together” can be expressed together in a compound. But the longer the compound, the more opportunity there is for misunderstanding because all of the ‘words’ within it have been stripped of their case endings and so their syntax is unmarked. That being the case, despite how it may seem when you’re banging your head against a compound and begin to suspect that it makes no sense, remember: compounds in Sanskrit could never reliably communicate anything if there were not a limited number of well-defined ways of interpreting them, according to which all compounds must be composed if they are to be intelligible. Fortunately, these methods of interpretation have been elegantly enumerated and analyzed by the tradition. Their subtleties can be practiced over the next year of your reading but their main categories and analyses need to be mastered at once. In the long term, mastering compound-types and the ways in which they’re read will be crucial to your making sense of any given Sanskrit text with confidence.