Help on Samskṛtam Transliteration

We used International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST) from June 6th to July 6th. Since people found it distracting we reverted back to normal (intuitive) transliteration. We decided to henceforth use IAST only to clarify the pronunciation for rare nouns (and for the Category titles). The following information is for people who want to read the stories for which we followed IAST.

Please see this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IAST

Note: We use ṣ and ṣh equivalently. This is because ṣh “looks” more intuitive and it is a rare occasion to have the samyutākṣhara — ṣ + h

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Published on June 7, 2006 at 6:34 am  Comments (14)  

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  1. The stories are all very nice. I am sending one story every week to my grandson at US. But he finds it difficult to pronounce the words as lot of sanskrit words are used. I simplify and translate some words in English.Hence I request you to translate the sanskrit words in English except the proper nouns.

    Reply by Moral Stories:

    Thank you very much for the comment.

    The very reason we kept most of the nouns “as it is” because we didnt want to change the true meaning of the Samskrutam words. As you know all Bhaarateeya Bhaashas share common culture and hence mostly we can translate in between them. However English is very different. It came from a very vastly different culture. For example what will you translate for Dharmam, Moksham, Satyam, Adrushtam, Paramaatma, Buddhi, Chittam, Ahankaaram, manas, Aaatma etc? If we think carefully none of these can be translated because the basis on which the English language and Samskrutam are developed is completely different. For instance Adrushtam means what cannot be seen (what Karma you did previously). So in our culture sukham, duhkham etc. are result of what Karma you did previously. All these tattvams are built into a small word Adrushtam. Once you translate it into luck or fortune or something else then the whole meaning is lost. Satyam for instance if we see it is not just truth. It is the 13 sadgunams as told by Shri Veda Vyaasa.

    For this reason we never wanted to write these stories in English. However now it is the only language which all people in India know well (not Samskrutam or Hindi). So we thought it is just right to keep English as medium but use Samskrutam words whereever possible. This way atleast we will learn good words and their meanings. Also we tried to give nearest english meanings in brackets whereever needed.

    So please understand us. We accept that in some stories we might have overused Samskrutam words. But in the small time we have we cannot do many revisions.

    Also another good possibility is to write these languages in Hindi. After English it is the most popular language. However we could not get hold of a person who knows the originals, writes them in good Hindi, spends his valuable time and most importantly writing in a way stressing on the Morals. If anyone is interested please mail to moralstories@gmail.com

    Thanks.


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तीर्थक्शेत्रभक्तिसुध

Stories of Bhaktas related to our Ancient Temples

अद्यतिथिः

Importance of this day!

Tīrtha Yātra

The glory of India

कः पन्थाः ?

महाजनो येन गतः स पन्थाः

Moral Stories

A tribute to the great Bharatiya Samskruti.