Why do Gita verses begin with Ka?Interruptions & Questions in the freeway
On ‘ka’ being the first consonant and Gita chapter 2 frequent verse beginnings with ‘ka’
While observing the words of chapter 2, it occurred to me that there was a distribution of the first letter of verses.. A lot of questions, doubts, not so good and diminishing qualities of Arjuna. It is an introductory chapter and these elements will exist in the description of the Problem Statement. Was there a reason they had to begin with ‘ka’?
‘Arjuna, why are you behaving like this?’ ‘Krishna, How can I fight with them?’And questions in Sanskrit, Hindi always began with ‘ka’.. kutah, katham etc.. And not so perfect behaviour like impurity, miserly, timid also began with ka.. karpanya, klaibyam, kashmalam
Question/Impurity
कुतस्त्वा कश्मलमिदं
क्लैब्यं मा स्म गमः पार्थ
कथं भीष्ममहं सङ्ख्ये
कार्पण्यदोषोपहतस्वभावः
क्रोधाद्भवति सम्मोहःConnectors
[15] यं हि न व्यथयन्त्येते
[19] य एनं वेत्ति हन्तारं
[32] यदृच्छया चोपपन्नं
[57] यः सर्वत्र अनभिस्नेहः
[58] यदा संहरते चायं
[69] या निशा सर्वभूतानांथ
I was listening to the conversation between Juhi Chawla and Sampadananda ji on World Sanskrit Day and I get my answers. The vowels like we know are free flowing meditative sounds that need no contact. ‘Ka’ is the first consonant because it is the lowest point in our voice apparatus from where the sound is generated. Other consonants sets are generated due to the contact in the palatte, teeth, lip and so on.
And questions are like interruptions in free thoughts. And these constricted qualities like kashta, katina, kanta have a sense of interruption. This is Wow semantics or what ever is the term...And questions began with ka.. kyon, kaha, kidar in Hindi..
I was also discussing a while back in an etymology group why the connector pairs were always ya-ta kinds. yatra tatra, yatha tatha, yah sah.. Ya being a semi vowel had a dimension of travel.. And ta is a dental landing. Perhaps these connectors had a sense of convergence in their locii. Just as questions had a sense of interruption..
And chapter 2 being an introductory chapter is rife with questions, interruptions at the beginning and has a lot of convergence and ilustrations towards the end.. I seem to get an answer. The ka of the crow, the ku ku of Koel, the croak of the frogs are all the first sounds and first interruptions..
And I now have this question.. Why did english, Kannada, Telugu, Tamil have ‘ae’ for the question words? ‘ekkada’, ‘enduku’, ‘evvaru’, ‘eppidi’, ‘yeen’, where, why, who etc.. Did they have a common philosophy while shaping the constructs? Some other time to muse on it.
