Missing You..... [Dadaji]

16. Erudite Sanskrit Scholar

प्रकाण्ड संस्कृत विद्वान

Dadaji was an Erudite Sanskrit Scholar, whose even talks used to be rich with Sanskrit slogans, Shlokas and numerous Sanskrit words. Everyone whom he met with in life was impressed with his talks full of knowledge and the way he spoke. Though Dadaji was purely a Marwari speaking person, he was still famous among people for his way of talking. My friends told me so many times:

"Oh dear ! How smashing your Dadaji speaks Marwari mixed with Sanskrit. Like no one else can. "

Dadaji was this much accurate in sanskrit pronunciation that people started asking him the doubts instead of consulting books. Many a time he challenged the book content and explained with satisfying facts why it was wrong. Like:

Once, one of Dadaji's close friends sent his son our home for a doubt. Actually he was a kind of our family because Dadaji treated him like his own son, so did he in return by treating Dadaji as his gardian. That's why, when he was inaugurating his new drugstore he sent his son to Dadaji for him to pick the correct Sanskrit phrase between the two they wrote paying homage to all the ancestors-

~ "ॐ पितराय नमः।" [Om Piteraay Namah]

~ "पितरेश्वराय नमः।" [Pitereshwaraay Namah]

📌📌'Both have the same meaning of paying obeisance to our ancestors but with grammatical mistakes.'

He asked Dadaji which one was correct as they were having conflict between both the phrases.

Dadaji listened to him carefully and with an ease he replied wholeheartedly-

"Neither of them is correct."

"Is it ?"

"Yes."

"What's the correct phrase, then ?" Bhaiya (his son) asked.

"It's - सर्व पितृभ्यो नमः ।" [Sarv Pitribhyo Namah] Dadaji spoke in response.

"Would you please write it down on this paper ?"

Bhaiya gestured towards the paper chit of previously written incorrect phrases in Dadaji's hand. Dadaji asked me to bring a pen. 'Yes, I was there all the time listening to their conversation. In fact I was there already when he came.' I brought the pen and Dadaji wrote the correct one on chit and handed it to him. Once he left, Dadaji explained me thoroughly.

"People may find it incorrect - सर्व पितृभ्यो नमः । But here, when we are paying obeisance to our ancestors, we should use ऋकारान्त पुल्लिंग - पितृ शब्द [ Rikarant Pulling - Pitri Shabd], चतुर्थी विभक्ति - सम्प्रदान कारक [Chaturthi vibhakti -Sampradan kaarak]. As it's for all, there will be बहुवचन [Bahuvachan]. It's - पितृभ्य: [Pitribhyah]।
So सर्व पितृभ्यो नमः [Sarv Pitribhyo Namah] is the correct phrase for it.

📌NOTE : Those, who are non Hindi/Sanskrit readers, I'm sorry, I can't explain in depth. It needs to learn the basics of Sanskrit language to understand it properly. Though I tried my level best to explain in short but I couldn't go further in deep.

Dadaji never considered any grammatical mistake lightly. This was for us as well. Even while speaking he didn't let go of any error. My little sister had a habit of saying 'हा' [Haa] instead of 'हाँ' [Haan] in response which means a 'Yes' or 'What' in English. Whenever Dadaji called her, she used to hurl back- 'हा [Haa]'. And Dadaji always pointed it out-