Antaranga tarangam - Dance of thoughts and feelings

Antarangam - It is such a beautiful word. It is rich in meaning and offers wonderful possibilitities for word play.

If one were to dissect
antar - internal, psychological
angam - organs such as mind and heart

One of the early usages was in the context of yogic practices, Yoga Sutras,

Trayam antarangam puurvebhyah

Commentators explained that the three "internal practices", Dharana (pertaining to Intelligence or Intellect), Dhyana (Meditation) and Samadhi (Perfect concentration) were better than external yogic practices.

Instead of delving deeper into this, I just want to play with the word and indulge in wordsmithy.

In Sanskrit, Antarangam is written with 4 letters, An Ta Ran Gam.

The word as I said, deals with thoughts and feeling, mind and heart. For those of you who know Telugu the following statement renders a tone, a feel, a vision to the usage of the word.

ఏ పూర్వపుణ్యమో నీ పొందుగామారి అపురూపమై నిలిచే నా 'అంతరంగాన '

There are interesting variations in different languages. I will muse on these in a later post.

To continue with our word play, if you strip the first letter in succession, you will still get whole words each time, that have multiple meanings, implications and usage.

For example Ta Ran Gam - ( also written as tha ran gam) could be interpreted as a wave in the ocean as in Samudra Tarangam. Once again Telugu speakers would immediately appreciate the usage in

పడిలేచె కడలి తరంగం

or a confluence, a musical movement as in Naada Tarangam, Raga Tarangam.

Another beautiful usage is in the form of dance movement, especially in Kuchipudi form, as in that wonderful exposition on Infant Lord Krishna, 'Bala Gopala Tarangam'.

Once again this will be subject for analysis in the future. The last two letters Ran Gam - give you a stage, a setting, battle field, a feeling among others.

Last but not the least the letter Gam - the Sanskrit root word ('dhatu') for 'to go' can also be related to cow or earth.

There is a plethora of possibilities.

Tail piece

The Sanskrit root word analysis reminds me of a nice website that is a must for lovers of Sanskrit, Sanskrit-The Mother of All Languages. As they claim it gives us 'A Glimpse of the Perfection of Sanskrit Grammar '. It is worth checking out.

Finally, the Telugu scripts are made possible by the incredible efforts of the developer at Lekhini.