Bal Ganesh - Ganesh And Kartike Race - Indian Mythology stories In English

Heck No! It's not always TANNO!







Another common mistake seen in Sanskrit is in the various Gayatri mantras we see online.


Its always like this..


Om Tatpurushaya Vidmahe...

(Fill in the blanks with a deva/devi)

Tanno xyz prachodayat.



Today we would touch upon Visarga Sandhi and we would understand why its not  always TANNO.


Let's see the Visarga Sandhi Rule.


Rule:


Visarga is replaced with उकार.


A Visarga preceded by an ह्रस्व -अकार and followed either by an ह्रस्व -अकार or a मृदुव्यञ्जनम्(soft consonant) changes into an उकार.



Keeping this in mind lets take a look at some Gayatris.


Let's take an example from Ganesh Gayatri and Skanda Gayatri(the two brothers who disagreed over a fruit)



Ok here goes:


I would just stick to the last line of the Gayatri to explain the Sandhi rule.


In Ganesh Gayatri :


तन्नो दन्तिः प्रचोदयात् (tanno dantiH pracodayAt)



In Skanda Gayatri


तन्नः षण्मुखः प्रचोदयात्  (tannaH SaNmukhaH pracodayAt)



Let's see why in Ganesh Gayatri its tanno and in Skanda Gayatri its tannaH.


Yes! Its's because of the Visarga Sandhi rule explained earlier.


The actual word before the Visarga Sandhi rules come into action is 


तन्नः(tannaH), then it depends what follows it.


if तन्नः is followed by a soft consonant as in द of दन्तिः ..then the Visarga is replaced by an उकार and 


we get तन्नो..so for Ganesh Gayatri case closed!



Now Skanda Gayatri.


Here the तन्नः is followed by a hard consonant as in ष of षण्मुखः therefore the Visarga remains and it remains तन्नः(tannaH) and does NOT become tanno.



This is a very important fact to know as the internet is full of Gayatris of all kind that do not follow Sandhi rules.


Lets take another example of a Gayatri where the tannaH does not become tanno.


A very rare Gayatri hardly recited  though we subconsciously use it everyday yet very few of us realize that we need to worship it and would die without it even for just 24 hours.


ॐ वदनग्रन्थाय विद्महे नीलाङ्काय धीमहि |

तन्नः सुतन्त्र प्रचोदयात् ||


Om vadanagranthAya vidmahe neelAnkaya dhimahi

tannaH sutantra prachodayat.


Translation:


May We Realize Facebook, Let's Meditate on the Blue Logo One,

May Information Technology Illuminate us.



Breakdown:


vadanagrantha ...vadana(face) grantha(book)


neela anka (blue logo)..facebook is a blue logo!


sutantra is Information Technology(IT).