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ArchivesRe: can any one tell me the meaning of "Brijesh"..
in reply to a message by Pranav..
I am writing this though I do not like to do people's assignments for them. In my time, I did my assignments and had a great lot of fun researching it, so I sincerely hope that you will use this post as a basis of your assignment, and not merely cut and paste portions of this post. (The stories referred to here are far more interesting than the references.)
vraj (the v is less aspirated than in English: think of an unaspirated labio-dental consonant, b/w are common alternates) is a Sanskrit root meaning to travel and wander, and hence vraja is a road. Also vrj means to bend, turn, twist off, pluck, or gather (as in pluck grass for religious ceremonies).
From this cluster of meanings, one has the word vraj which means a stall or cattle-shed, and from that, the name of a place. This place is also called vrji (That r is a vowel, just think of vrrrrrrrrm, and you will see how r acts as a vowel. In north india, it is usually pronounced closed to ri, in western parts close to ru). It is called Braj today, and is in the region around Agra and Mathura, close to Delhi. Ish means to possess and Isha means master.
As the Hindu religion arose out of the Indo-european vedic religion, it gathered other streams of thought. In particular there was a pastoral religion which worshipped a very human character called krshna (dark coloured), who grew up amongst the herdsmen of Braj, conquered a lot of demons as a very naughty kid, and saved the people from a tyrant called kamsa (brass or bell metal). The stories of his dalliance with the local herdsmen women (not always `proper' or accepted by society), his pranks (sometimes definitely risque), and his love affair with one particular married lady (whom he finally left to go on with his life), Radha (prosperity), forms a large and very human part of the literature of North India. (Not all those stories are of the same time or place: the origin of the stories is probably far before 7th cent BC, Radha probably not much before 1000 AD). In modern Hinduism, he is seen as a human manifestation of the `protector' Vishnu (worker), who supports the world by achieving the right goals by often clever, though not always recognizably proper, means.
Well Brijesh/Brajesh is this character; very close and dear to the hearts of a lot of Indians.
vraj (the v is less aspirated than in English: think of an unaspirated labio-dental consonant, b/w are common alternates) is a Sanskrit root meaning to travel and wander, and hence vraja is a road. Also vrj means to bend, turn, twist off, pluck, or gather (as in pluck grass for religious ceremonies).
From this cluster of meanings, one has the word vraj which means a stall or cattle-shed, and from that, the name of a place. This place is also called vrji (That r is a vowel, just think of vrrrrrrrrm, and you will see how r acts as a vowel. In north india, it is usually pronounced closed to ri, in western parts close to ru). It is called Braj today, and is in the region around Agra and Mathura, close to Delhi. Ish means to possess and Isha means master.
As the Hindu religion arose out of the Indo-european vedic religion, it gathered other streams of thought. In particular there was a pastoral religion which worshipped a very human character called krshna (dark coloured), who grew up amongst the herdsmen of Braj, conquered a lot of demons as a very naughty kid, and saved the people from a tyrant called kamsa (brass or bell metal). The stories of his dalliance with the local herdsmen women (not always `proper' or accepted by society), his pranks (sometimes definitely risque), and his love affair with one particular married lady (whom he finally left to go on with his life), Radha (prosperity), forms a large and very human part of the literature of North India. (Not all those stories are of the same time or place: the origin of the stories is probably far before 7th cent BC, Radha probably not much before 1000 AD). In modern Hinduism, he is seen as a human manifestation of the `protector' Vishnu (worker), who supports the world by achieving the right goals by often clever, though not always recognizably proper, means.
Well Brijesh/Brajesh is this character; very close and dear to the hearts of a lot of Indians.
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Replies
I must be developing ADD, can't hold a thought in mind for more than a moment (O! what euphemisms does a man employ to deny the ravages of time!)
I forgot to mention that as an adult Krshna appears in the stories of the mahabharata (great Indian) war, in the tradition of the yadava people (people of yadu, an ancient name appearing in the Vedas, and may refer to the people to the west of the Yamuna river, which, of course, has changed course since this ancient history), and as a central character in the holy book shrimad bhagavad gita (Beautiful prosperous/holy song) which attempts a synthesis between the various philosophical thoughts about what it means to be/do good. Also the love of the gopini (protector/cowherd women) towards him is seen as the human souls yearning for the spiritual, a stream of thought called the bhakti (devotion) movement that diffused and ultimately fed into and was reinforced by the sufi movement.
I forgot to mention that as an adult Krshna appears in the stories of the mahabharata (great Indian) war, in the tradition of the yadava people (people of yadu, an ancient name appearing in the Vedas, and may refer to the people to the west of the Yamuna river, which, of course, has changed course since this ancient history), and as a central character in the holy book shrimad bhagavad gita (Beautiful prosperous/holy song) which attempts a synthesis between the various philosophical thoughts about what it means to be/do good. Also the love of the gopini (protector/cowherd women) towards him is seen as the human souls yearning for the spiritual, a stream of thought called the bhakti (devotion) movement that diffused and ultimately fed into and was reinforced by the sufi movement.
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