जिज्ञासा + अभीप्सा + तितिक्षा

Earnest enquiry + Intense longing + great endurance 

This is from today's Vijayavani newspaper. The author is a Lingayat Swamini and she writes beautifully about the story of Panini (please read my earlier posts). 

The legend is that Panini was a dunce. His teacher once wanted to cane him for not learning his lesson. He asked the boy to extend his hand and as the teacher glanced at his palm he realised that Panini had no " Vidya Rekha" = line of learning. He felt pity for Panini and asked the boy to go home as he didn't have it in him or in his destiny to study scriptures. 

Panini was walking back home shedding copious tears, when he became very thirsty. He went near a well where some women were drawing water. On the well's stone rim, they were placing their pots in a spot where the stone had a cup-like depression. That caught his attention and he asked the women if the stone has been carved to create that spot for placing the pots. They said No, it had been formed by their constantly placing their pots in the same spot. 

This set Panini thinking. If even a stone would yield to constant effort, May be he could also get knowledge by intense practice! What if he didn't have the Vidya Rekha in his hand so far? He went home and marked his palm with a knife and made his own line of learning!

After some days Panini returned to the teacher. The teacher compassionately told him, "Child, as I mentioned to you, you don't have the Vidya Rekha." Panini said, "Sir, but please see now. I do have it!" The teacher was deeply moved to see that the boy had hurt his palm and etched the line with a knife!

The teacher touched the boy's head tenderly and said, "Child, for acquiring the learning ability, go pray to Lord Shiva. He will grant you the ability." 

Panini went and did long and deep penance to Shiva, praying for His grace. The Aashutosha Shiva, ever-compassionate, chose to bless him at the end of His Tandava dance. Shiva did not speak, but merely played the damaru (hand-drum) 14 times. Those sounds were the divine Maheshwara Sutras! Panini was enlightened. He deciphered the sounds of the Sutras and set upon constructing the entire magnificent edifice of Sanskrit grammar! 

The writer ends by saying that this story is the legend is in Nadikeshwara Kaarika. The world was thus blessed by Shiva through Panini's magnum opus Ashtadhyayi.

जयतु संस्कृतम्!