Hinduism - What Is Nirukta In Hindu Philosophy?


 (“explanation”) These were the ancillary disciplines of knowledge related to the Vedas, the earliest Hindu holy writings.

Nirukta is interested in the origins of archaic terms and their etymological interpretations.

This seemed to be a severe issue, since about a fourth of the Vedic terms appear just once, and their pre cise meanings became either obscure or unknown over time.

Yaska the grammarian wrote the most renowned nirukta manuscript, known simply as the Nirukta, in the fifth century B.C.E.

His work was very useful to subsequent readers, but it is apparent that the meanings of many of these phrases had grown dubious and ambiguous even in Yaska's day.

Vyakarana (Sanskrit grammar), chandas (Sanskrit prosody), kalpa (ritual instructions), shiksha (correct pronunciation), and jyotisha are the other Vedangas (auspicious times for sacrifices).


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