2021, Vol. 7, Issue 4, Part A

author(s)
CSHN Murthy

abstract
The present study offers a first ever pathway to the understanding of the Indian ‘semiotics’ embedded in Vedic literature through the Sanskrit and Telugu poetic works of Mellacheruvu Subrahmanya Sastri— ‘Sri Nirajana’ and Sri Krishna Raasa Lila—Yogatrayee Hela. Indian Vedic literature is a repertoire of semiotics. The Ramayana, The Mahabhrarata, The Bhagavatam, etc are based on Vedic tenets and doctrines. While Valmiki had written The Ramayana, Vyasa has contributed the latter two—The Mahabharata, and The Bhagavata. One thing common in all these texts, descending down from Vedic literature, is extensive use of semiotics. The imagery, the ideas, the values, the traditions, the observances, the objects, the rituals, etc are all expressed through the signs, symbols and codes, which combinedly called in the West as ‘semiotics’, a branch that emerged in the post half of the last century. Though there were a few studies from the Western scholars (Gerow, 1984; Piatigorsky & Zilberman, 2009) to study the Indian semiotics in ancient Indian texts, they could hardly make any big way in decoding them due to lack of an in-depth Sanskrit knowledge. The study is explorative coupled with hermeneutics, and reveals simple pathways to draw meanings for the ‘semiotics’ in the poetic works under study.