punctuation and Telugu/Sanskrit.

STADIGAD.US.ORACLE.COM (STADIGAD@us.oracle.com)
14 Nov 95 16:43:25 -0800


I haven't got much to add apart from confirming that we needed
no punctuation marks when building Sanskrit lit. and like wise
in Telugu.

There is a style called `maNipravALA' which is known form long
drawn prose compositions where sentancial forms go on to even
several pages.

For example, in kAdambari, we see it starts as

Asee daSesha narapati sirah, samabhyarchita SASAnah,
kartA mahAscharyaNAm, ......

....................................................
...................................................
...................................................
............[ pages of text continues ] ............
...................................................
.................................rAjA SoodrakOnamah


In mahAbhAratam and other old classicals,( for eg: gajEndramOksha
gadya in bhAgavatam ) we see this kind of style.

In modern classics, say SeetarAmAnjaNEya SamvAdam by paraSurAma-
pantula lingamoorthi gurumoorthi, the kailASa varNana is also
in this stylAe.

For those, well versed in the language, these styles never posed
problem.

Infact, the problem in reading Telugu classics is not comming
because of punctuations ( - the lack of them, I mean ) but is
because of falling vocabulary in currency.

For eg, one of my great grand fathers has composed the kAvya
`SrigAra SAkuntalam' a nirOstya, accha-tenugu work. I can't
simply enjoy the book. Not because, it is not beautiful, it
is because, I do not have adequate vocabulary.

Now, then who wishes to improve the Telugu vocabulary, at the
expense of other important material like sciences and maths.
Also, we must learn 3 languages, so some time is lost to English
and even to Hindi. And remember, we are adding most modern
stuff in school Telugu books, so older day Telugu is covered
sparingly.

So, the crux of the problem is not punctuation, it is
out vocabulary.

-Syamala Rao
~~~~~~~~~~~~