Second day! Here is a shloka most of us know:
अगजाननपद्मार्कं गजाननमहर्निशम् ।
अनेकदन्तं भक्तानामेकदन्तमुपास्महे ॥
anekadantaṃ bhaktānāmekadantamupāsmahe ॥
This shloka says as follows:
We worship day and night him, the Elephant-headed God, who has one tusk, who is like the sun to the lotus of his mother born of the Mountain, and who gives so many boons to devotees!
This very popular shloka on Ganesha has so many beautiful aspects. First of all, we should know that over 90% of all Sanskrit literature is in the form of poetry! That is because all literature- from the Vedas to Kavyas and Itihasas like Ramayana and Mahabharata were transmitted by word of mouth and stored in memory, not in written form, till about 2500 years ago. The Sanskrit literature available to us today itself extends to millions of palm leaf manuscripts. And a lot of it has also been lost. So you can imagine the memory power of ancient Rishis. Anyway, that is a different topic!
Coming to poetry, there are rules about metre, and also the beautification of words by alliteration and such aspects. Easily, Sanskrit has the most elaborate system of Alaṅkāra-s or beautifying elements in a verse. Sanskrit poets are not matter-of-fact. They give a lot of similes, metaphors, hyperbole and so on. They tell a story every moment. Additionally, all shlokas can be sung!
Word-by-word meaning:
agajā daughter of the mountain
-ānana face
-padma lotus
-arkaṃ the sun
gajānanam the Elephant-faced God
aharniśam day and night
anekadam giver of many boons
taṃ him
bhaktānām to the devotees
ekadantam one-tusked
upāsmahe we worship.
Vande mātaram ! Vande samskṛtam !
