Sutra 1

HNV 1

Chapter One

१ । नारायणाद् उद्भूतोऽयं वर्णक्रमः ।

nārāyaṇād udbhūto ’yaṁ varṇa-kramaḥ

nārāyaṇāt—from Lord Nārāyaṇa; udbhūtaḥ—appeared; ayam—this; varṇa—of phonemes; kramaḥ—series.

This series of varṇas (the Sanskrit alphabet) appeared from Nārāyaṇa:
a ā i ī u ū ṛ ṝ ḷ ḷ e ai o au ṁ ḥ. ka kha ga gha ṅa ca cha ja jha ña ṭa ṭha ḍa ḍha
ṇa ta tha da dha na pa pha ba bha ma ya ra la va śa ṣa sa ha kṣa. ete varṇā
akṣarāṇi. eṣām udbhava-sthānāni—a-ā-ka-varga-ha-visargāṇāṁ kaṇṭhaḥ.
i-ī-ca-varga-ya-śānāṁ tālu. u-ū-pa-vargāṇām oṣṭhaḥ. ṛ-ṝ-ṭa-varga-ra-ṣāṇāṁ
ū
mūrdhā. ḷ-ḷ-ta-varga-la-sānāṁ dantāḥ. ed-aitoḥ kaṇṭha-tālu. od-autoḥ
kaṇṭhauṣṭham. va-kārasya dantauṣṭham. anusvārasya śiro nāsikā vā.

Vṛtti

These sounds are called varṇas or akṣaras:

Group	Varṇas
Vowels	a ā i ī u ū ṛ ṝ ḷ ḹ e ai o au ṁ ḥ
Ka-varga	ka kha ga gha ṅa
Ca-varga	ca cha ja jha ña
Ṭa-varga	ṭa ṭha ḍa ḍha ṇa
Ta-varga	ta tha da dha na
Pa-varga	pa pha ba bha ma
Semivowels	ya ra la va
Sibilants + h + kṣa	śa ṣa sa ha kṣa

ete varṇā akṣarāṇi.

Varṇa set	Udbhava-sthāna (source place)
a-ā-ka-varga-ha-visargāṇām	kaṇṭhaḥ
i-ī-ca-varga-ya-śānāṁ	tālu
u-ū-pa-vargāṇām	oṣṭhaḥ
ṛ-ṝ-ṭa-varga-ra-ṣāṇāṁ	mūrdhā
ḷ-ḹ-ta-varga-la-sānāṁ	dantāḥ
e-ai-toḥ	kaṇṭha-tālu
o-au-toḥ	kaṇṭhauṣṭham
va-kārasya	dantauṣṭham
anusvārasya	śiro nāsikā vā

Vṛtti

These sounds are called varṇas or akṣaras.

Saṁśodhinī

To say that the word varṇa (phoneme) refers to a letter in the alphabet is inaccurate. A letter is defined as a symbol that represents a speech sound, not the sound itself. The Sanskrit word varṇa is more accurately translated as a phoneme, a speech sound. Having arisen from Nārāyaṇa, the phonemes in the Sanskrit alphabet are eternal, whereas the letters used to represent them may vary. For example, prior to the introduction of the printing press in India, the script in which Sanskrit was written and taught varied from place to place and was often the same as the script of the local vernacular language. The dissemination of printed Sanskrit texts, however, encouraged the predominance of a single printed alphabet, the Devanāgarī script, in which the modern languages Hindi and Marathi are also written. Today most Sanskrit publications are printed in this script. The fifty varṇas of the varṇa-krama (Sanskrit alphabet) are listed at the beginning of this section in both Devanāgarī script and roman transliteration.20

20 For the details regarding the procedure of the writing of each Sanskrit phoneme and conjunct consonant, as well as an explanation of the various meters in Sanskrit and a thorough grammatical analysis of each word in Bhagavad-gītā, consult the three-book series called Sanskrit: Bhagavad-gita grammar (Bhaktivedānta Svāmī Language School, Vrindavan: Ras Bihari Lal and Sons, 2005).

i One edition of the text does not list kṣa. There is some disagreement about whether kṣa is part of the Sanskrit alphabet. This is addressed in Saṁśodhinī 16.

It will be explained in sūtra 16 that the varṇas from ka to ha, the consonants of the Sanskrit alphabet, depend on a vowel for their pronunciation. Therefore the consonants are appended with the vowel a when they appear in the varṇa-krama. Thus ka refers to the varṇa k, kha to the varṇa kh, and so on. One should not be confused by the proliferation of terms like “the varṇa ka,” “ka-rāma,” and k; they all refer to the consonant k, never to k+a. This is the case with all consonants in the Sanskrit alphabet. One should also be careful not to mistake kh, gh, ch, and so on, to be a combination of k+h, g+h, c+h, and so forth. There are no conjunct consonants that have h as their second member in Sanskrit. In roman transliteration, the h in kh, gh, and so on, is used merely to indicate that the varṇa is an aspirated consonant.

The varṇas from a to au, the vowels of the Sanskrit alphabet, are written differently when they follow a consonant. The vowel a, however, has no post-consonantal symbol and is assumed to come after every consonant unless there is another vowel or a virāma (see below) in its place. In this list, the post-consonantal forms of the vowels appear with the consonant k to indicate their proper placement:

अ a	आ ā	इ i	ई ī	उ u	ऊ ū	ऋ ṛ
क ka	का kā	कि ki	की kī	कु ku	कू kū	कृ kṛ

ॠ ṝ	ऌ ḷ	ॡ ḹ	ए e	ऐ ai	ओ o	औ au
कॄ kṝ	कॢ kḷ	कॣ kḹ	के ke	कै kai	को ko	कौ kau

In the following special instances, the post-consonantal symbols of u, ū, and ṛ are put in different places:

Devanāgarī	IAST
रु	ru
रू	rū
दृ	dṛ
हृ	hṛ

The virāma (्) is a small oblique stroke, placed just below a consonant, that is used to signal the deletion of the consonant’s inherent a. Thus ak would be written in Devanāgarī as अक्. The various conjunct consonants and the symbol called avagraha (') will be described under sūtras 34 and 56 respectively. The daṇḍa (।) is used at the end of a half-verse or sentence to signify a full stop (period), whereas the double daṇḍa (॥) is used in prosody to signify the end of a verse and in prose to signify the end of a paragraph. The numbers of the Devanāgarī script are as follows:

१	२	३	४	५	६	७	८	९	०
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0

Amṛta

One might wonder, “It was stated that the varṇas appeared from Nārāyaṇa, but from where specifically on His body did each varṇa appear?” Jīva Gosvāmī answers:

Vṛtti

Varṇas	Appeared from
A, ā, ka-varga (ka, kha, ga, gha, ṅa), ha, visarga (ḥ)	throat of Nārāyaṇa
I, ī, ca-varga (ca, cha, ja, jha, ña), ya, śa	palate of Nārāyaṇa
U, ū, pa-varga (pa, pha, ba, bha, ma)	lips of Nārāyaṇa
Ṛ, ṝ, ṭa-varga (ṭa, ṭha, ḍa, ḍha, ṇa), ra, ṣa	top of the palate of Nārāyaṇa
Ḷ, ḹ, ta-varga (ta, tha, da, dha, na), la, sa	teeth of Nārāyaṇa
E, ai	throat and palate of Nārāyaṇa
O, au	throat and lips of Nārāyaṇa
V	teeth and lips of Nārāyaṇa
Anusvāra (ṁ)	either the head or nose of Nārāyaṇa

Saṁśodhinī

The place where each varṇa appeared corresponds to the place where it is properly pronounced. The varṇas a, ā, ka-varga (ka, kha, ga, gha, ṅa), ha, and visarga (ḥ) are called kaṇṭhya because they are pronounced in the throat (kaṇṭha). The varṇas i, ī, ca-varga (ca, cha, ja, jha, ña), ya, and śa are called tālavya because they are pronounced on the palate (tālu). Other names, which also correspond to the place where they are pronounced, appear below along with their English equivalents. The normalized chart is provided in the Alphabet Charts section.

Amṛta

Even though the word nārāyaṇa can refer to any form of the Lord, it primarily refers to Kṛṣṇa because He is the original Nārāyaṇa and because the avatāras, beginning from Matsya and Vāmana, and even the three Puruṣas are His aspects (aṅgas). This is corroborated by Lord Brahmā’s statement in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (10.14.14):

nārāyaṇas tvaṁ na hi sarva-dehinām
ātmāsy adhīśākhila-loka-sākṣī
nārāyaṇo ’ṅgaṁ nara-bhū-jalāyanāt
tac cāpi satyaṁ na tavaiva māyā

“Are You not the original Nārāyaṇa, O supreme controller, since You are the Soul of every embodied being and the eternal witness of all created realms? Indeed, Lord Nārāyaṇa is Your expansion, and He is called Nārāyaṇa because He is the generating source of the primeval water of the universe. He is real, not a product of Your illusory Māyā.”

In his commentary on this verse, Śrīdhara Svāmī defines the name Nārāyaṇa as follows: nāro jīva-samūho ’yanam āśrayo yasya saḥ ... nārasyāyanaṁ pravṛttir yasmāt saḥ, “Nārāyaṇa is He whose abode is the aggregate of jīvas, and from whom the aggregate of jīvas arises.” In other words, He stays in the hearts of all the living entities as the Supersoul, and He is the origin of all living entities. But while explaining the phrase nārāyaṇo ’ṅgam, Śrīdhara Svāmī gives an alternate etymology of the word nārāyaṇa. Narād udbhūtā ye ’rthāś catur-viṁśati-tattvāni tathā narāj jātaṁ yaj jalaṁ tad-ayanād yo nārāyaṇa prasiddhaḥ so ’pi tavaivāṅgaṁ mūrtiḥ: “That Nārāyaṇa who is well-known because of His entering the twenty-four elements that appeared from Nara and the water that was produced from Nara is also Your plenary portion.” The Nārāyaṇa referred to here is Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu. He is also called Nara. When Nara entered the universe, He found only darkness with no place in which to reside. Thus He filled half the universe with water from His own perspiration and laid down on the same water. Because this water was produced from Nara, it is called Nāra, and because Nara lies down on this water he is called Nārāyaṇa (One whose resting place is the water called Nāra).

Jīva Gosvāmī defines Nārāyaṇa in his Bhāgavatam commentary, Krama-sandarbha, in the following way: narāṇāṁ dvitīya-tṛtīya-puruṣa-bhedānāṁ samūho nāraṁ tat-samaṣṭi-rūpaḥ prathama-puruṣa eva; tasyāpy ayanaṁ pravṛttir yasmāt sa nārāyaṇaḥ, “Nāra is the first Puruṣa [Kāraṇodakaśāyī Viṣṇu], the source of the two Naras who are the second Puruṣa [Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu] and the third Puruṣa [Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu]. Nārāyaṇa is He from whom even Kāraṇodakaśāyī Viṣṇu arises.”

The explanation of the name Nārāyaṇa is nāram ayanam yasya saḥ nārāyaṇaḥ, “Nārāyaṇa is He whose shelter is the Vrajavāsīs.” Here the word nara (human) means a Vrajavāsī (resident of Vṛndāvana), and the whole community of Vrajavāsīs is called nāra. Thus the word nārāyaṇa means Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead who appears in a human-like form and becomes dependant on His devotees. Kṛṣṇa Himself confirms this in Śrīmad Bhāgavatam (10.25.18): tasmān mac-charaṇaṁ goṣṭhaṁ man-nāthaṁ mat-parigraham, “The Vraja-vāsīs21 are My shelter, My protectors, and My family.” Kṛṣṇa, controlled by their love, is unable to even bathe, drink, eat, sleep, or enjoy without them. Thus in the Ādi Purāṇa Kṛṣṇa tells Arjuna:

sahāyā guravaḥ śiṣyā bhujiṣyā bāndhavāḥ striyaḥ
satyaṁ vadāmi te pārtha gopyaḥ kiṁ me bhavanti na

“The gopīs are My assistants, My gurus, My disciples, My maidservants, My relatives, and My consorts. O son of Pṛthā, I tell you the truth. What aren’t the gopīs to Me?”

Saṁśodhinī

It is well known that Lord Caitanya often called Advaita Ācārya, the celebrated incarnation of Mahā Viṣṇu (Kāraṇodakaśāyī Viṣṇu), by the name Nāḍā. This is recorded both in the Caitanya-bhāgavata and in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta. In the Caitanya-bhāgavata (Madhya 2.264), Lord Caitanya says to Śrīvāsa Paṇḍita, “By your loud chanting and Nāḍā’s roaring I left Vaikuṇṭha and came here with My associates.” In his Gauḍīya-bhāṣya commentary on this verse, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura explains the word nāḍā as follows:

21 In this verse the word goṣṭham implies the goṣṭha-vāsīs, and goṣṭha-vāsīs means vraja-vāsīs because the word goṣṭha is a synonym of the word vraja.

The editor of Śrī Sajjana-toṣaṇī, Śrīmān Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, has written in Volume 7, Part 11, as follows: “Śrīmān Mahāprabhu often addressed Śrīla Advaita Prabhu as Nāḍā. I have heard a number of meanings of the word nāḍā. Some Vaiṣṇava scholar has said that the word nārā refers to Mahā-Viṣṇu because nāra, the total aggregate of all living entities, is situated within Him. Is the word nāḍā a corruption of the word nārā? The people of Rāḍha-deśa often use ḍa in place of ra. Is this the reason that the word nārā has been written as nāḍā? This meaning is often applicable.” The word nāra or nārā (nāḍā) is explained by Śrīdhara Svāmipāda in his Bhāvārtha-dīpikā commentary on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (10.14.14) as follows: “The word nāra refers to the aggregate of living entities, and the word ayana refers to the shelter. You are Nārāyaṇa Himself because You are the supreme shelter of all embodied souls. You are Nārāyaṇa because all the propensities (ayana) of the living entities (nāra) emanate from You. You are the supreme Nārāyaṇa because You know (ayana) all living entities (nāra). You are renowned as Nārāyaṇa because You are the supreme shelter (ayana) of the water that emanates from Nara.” In the smṛtis it is stated: “All the truths born from Nara are known as nārān by the learned scholars. Since the Supreme Lord is the shelter of this nārān, learned scholars glorify Him as Nārāyaṇa.” In the Manu-saṁhitā (1.10) it is stated: “The waters are called nāra, for they emanate from the Supersoul, Nara. As they are His original resting place (ayana), He is named Nārāyaṇa.”

In Hari-nāmāmṛta-vyākaraṇa, the varṇa-krama is traced back to Nārāyaṇa, who is glorified throughout Vedic literature as the Supreme Lord. In that regard, the first sūtra of Kātantra grammar is: siddho varṇa-samāmnāyaḥ, “There is an established tradition of phonemes.”22 When Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s students asked Him to explain it, He replied: sarva-varṇe siddho nārāyaṇaḥ, “Nārāyaṇa is established in each phoneme” (Caitanya-bhāgavata, Madhya 1.252). He added that the origin of the phonemes is Kṛṣṇa’s glance: śiṣya bale, varṇa siddha haila kemane? prabhu bale, kṛṣṇa-dṛṣṭi-pātera kāraṇe (Caitanya-bhāgavata, Madhya 1.253).

According to Haridāsa Dāsa of Navadvīpa, the purport of Jīva Gosvāmī’s sūtra is that Nārāyaṇa manifested the syllable oṁ in the sky of Brahmā’s heart, and Brahmā created the alphabet from oṁkāra: tato ’kṣara-samāmnāyam asṛjad bhagavān ajaḥ (Bhāgavatam 12.6.43).23 However, in Pāṇini’s system, the most popular system of Sanskrit grammar, the varṇa-krama is said to originate from the fourteen pratyāhāra-sūtras emanated from Śrī Śiva.

Pratyāhāra

The term pratyāhāra literally means “withdrawal”, as in the fifth stage of the eightfold Yoga system (withdrawal of the senses). But in Pāṇini’s grammar, the term pratyāhāra refers to an abridgment: the abbreviation of a series of varṇas into one syllable by combining the first member of the series with the indicatory letter of the last member. The purpose of this system is brevity in the wording. The sage Pāṇini, author of the famous Aṣṭādhyāyī (the bible of Sanskrit grammar, literally “a group of eight chapters”), formed pratyāhāras and used such codes to make his sūtras (rules) as short as possible. It is said that Lord Śiva sounded his ḍamaru drum and thus revealed the following fourteen pratyāhāra-sūtras (often called the Maheśvara-sūtras or Śiva-sūtras) to Pāṇini:

No.	Śiva-sūtra
1	a-i-u[ṇ]
2	ṛ-ḷ[k]
3	e-o[ṅ]
4	ai-au[c]
5	ha-ya-va-ra[ṭ]
6	la[ṇ]
7	ña-ma-ṅa-ṇa-na[m]
8	jha-bha[ñ]
9	gha-ḍha-dha[ṣ]
10	ja-ba-ga-ḍa-da[ś]
11	kha-pha-cha-ṭha-tha-ca-ṭa-ta[v]
12	ka-pa[y]
13	śa-ṣa-sa[r]
14	ha[l]

The arrangement of the Śiva-sūtras is as follows:

Category	Sūtra range	Subclassification
Vowels	1-4	simple (1-2), complex (3-4)
Consonants	5-14	semivowels (5-6), nasals (7), voiced aspirates (8-9), voiced nonaspirates (10), voiceless aspirates (11), voiceless nonaspirates (12), sibilants and h (13-14, ūṣman/śa-varga)

A pratyāhāra is made from one or more pratyāhāra-sūtras. In the pratyāhāra-sūtras, the letters in brackets are indicatory letters, not to be counted among the group of varṇas indicated by a pratyāhāra. Further, a, i, u, ṛ, and ḷ in the first two sūtras stand for both the short form and the long form of the simple vowels (ref. the pratyāhāra ak in: akaḥ savarṇe dīrghaḥ, Aṣṭādhyāyī 6.1.101)—a and ā, i and ī, u and ū, ṛ and ṝ, and ḷ and ḹ respectively. The pratyāhāra al therefore indicates the group of varṇas beginning from a in the first pratyāhāra-sūtra and ending with ha, which has the indicatory letter l, in the fourteenth pratyāhāra-sūtra. Thus the pratyāhāra al indicates the whole alphabet. Similarly, the pratyāhāra ac indicates the group of varṇas beginning from a in the first pratyāhāra-sūtra and ending with au, which has the indicatory letter c, in the fourth pratyāhāra-sūtra. Thus the pratyāhāra ac indicates all the vowels. Other pratyāhāras are made in the same way.

In the pratyāhāra-sūtras, both the indicatory letter ṇ and ha appear twice. This can lead to confusion. For example, the pratyāhāra aṇ in Aṣṭādhyāyī 1.1.51 (ur aṇ ra-paraḥ) denotes a-i-u (the first Śiva-sūtra), but the pratyāhāra aṇ in Aṣṭādhyāyī 1.1.69 (aṇ ud-it savarṇasya cāpratyayaḥ) denotes all the phonemes in the first six Śiva-sūtras. But as regards ha, it was necessary to repeat it twice: the second ha is only used within pratyāhāras that have the indicatory letter l, as in śal (śa-varga, or the hari-gotras in HNV 25).

The first two sūtras of Aṣṭādhyāyī illustrate the usage of the application of pratyāhāra (coding):

Aṣṭādhyāyī sūtra	Statement	Code word reference
1.1.1 (`vṛddhir ād aic`)	“Ā, ai [and au] are called vṛddhi”	`aic` = `ai-au[c]` (Śiva-sūtra 4)
1.1.2 (`ad eṅ guṇaḥ`)	“A, e [and o] are called guṇa”	`eṅ` = `e-o[ṅ]` (Śiva-sūtra 3)

In addition, Pāṇini made some pratyāhāras without referring to the pratyāhāra-sūtras. In total, it is said that Pāṇini used forty-two pratyāhāras.

22 In this context, the word siddha (established) means nitya (eternal).

23 varṇa-krama—pāṇini śiva hoite ḍamaru-vādye udghoṣite caturdaśa sūtrādhāra a i u ṇ ityādi pāiyāchilen. [...] kintu ei nāmāmṛte “nārāyaṇād udbhūto ’yaṁ varṇa-kramaḥ” mātṛkā-krame svara-vyañjanādi varṇa śrī-nārāyaṇa hoite udbhūta hoiyā svābhāvika uccāraṇer paryyāye nirdiṣṭa hoiteche. ‘tene brahma-hṛdā ya ādi-kavaye’ (bhā. 1.1.1) o ‘pracoditā yena’ (bhā. 2.4.22) ity-ādi vacane jānā jāy je nārāyaṇa-i sva-nābhi-kamalaja brahmār mukha hoite śabda-brahma prakaṭita koriyācchen. nārāyaṇa hoite prāpta nāda-brahma hoite brahmā antaḥ-stha, uṣmādi akṣara-samaṣṭi sṛṣṭi koriyācchen, tāhāo bhāg. 12.6.43 hoite avagata haoyā jāy. (Dāsa, Haridāsa, Gauḍīya-vaiṣṇava-sāhitya, Haribol Kuṭīr, Navadwip, Bengal, 1967 [1948], ṣaṣṭha-pariccheda, pp. 216-217)