The Vedas and
Vedic scriptures are available in the Sanskrit language. We already discussed about the six subjects ancillary to the study of Vedas and Vedic scriptures in some
of our earlier posts. These are called Vedangas or limbs of Vedas. One should
study these Vedangas prior to the study of the Vedas and Vedic subjects. After
that only one can fully understand the language of Vedas and Vedic scriptures
and also the underlying meanings contained in those. Vyakarana or Grammar is
one of those six ancillary subjects. It
is told that study of Vedas and Vedic literature without knowledge of Grammar
is like witnessing of a natural scenery by a man not having proper eyesight.
Ashtadhyaee of Panini, Kalap Vyakaran etc are famous classical Grammars
available from very old times. With the passage of time, these grammatical
works become very hard to understand even for the scholars of higher knowledge.
So in the later periods, some of the famous Grammarians started composing
Sanskrit Grammars in a simpler way for the benefit of the people of different
times. Prayog Ratnamala is one of such simplified Sanskrit Grammar mostly used
in the eastern and north-eastern parts of India since 16th century
CE. It was compiled under the patronization of King Naranarayana of Coochbihar
state. The name of the author of this grammar was Purushottam Vidyabagish. He
was a well known Grammarian scholar serving in the King’s Court of Coochbihar.
We already told that Dwija Ajanabha, the father Guru Harideva, had one younger
brother named Padmanabha. This Purushottama Vidyabagish was the son of Dwija
Padmanabha. Padmanabha and his wife expired when Purushottama was a young baby. Baby Purushottama was under the care of Dwija
Ajanabha and his wife. At a time when Purushottama was nine years old, Dwija Ajanabha along with his wife had to
leave Dantapur, present Bahari, in the Barpeta District of Assam due to some
unavoidable situation. These things we already discussed in some of our earlier
posts. Under the situation, Dwija Ajanabha had to keep Prushottama under the
care of his maternal uncle residing in nearby Shila village. Later on,
Purushottama attained higher education on classical Sanskrit Grammar and got
appointed as a scholar in the King’s court at Coochbihar. When Guru Harideva was
about to leave Kashi after completion of his education, this Purushottama
arrived there for a pilgrimage. There they met each other for the first time
and from then onwards, Purushuttama played an important role in the life of
Guru Harideva which we will discuss in the coming posts. (to be continued)