A question about Ishavasya Upanishad.

[Aryavartian]

Namaste all,

We know that the first word of Ishavasya Upanishad is īśā(ईशा) meaning 'Lord' or 'Master'.Now,I don't understand why the long vowel ā(aa) is used.Isn't it the same as īśa(ईश ) ?Does the long vowel in īśā have any significance?Pardon my Sanskrit,I don't have much knowledge on how grammar works :D I hope members here can help me on this issue.


Best wishes,
A.

[anucarh]

Namaste Aryavartian ji,

Yes, the long vowel does indeed have significance.

Sanskrit (saṃskṛta) is a language that has grammatical cases. (Students of Latin will be familiar with this concept.) A case (vibhakti) is a form of a word that tells us how it relates to other words grammatically in a particular sentence. If a noun is the subject of the sentence, for example, it will have an ending indicating that it is in the nominative (prathamā or "first") case, in other words, the form of the subject. Sanskrit has eight cases in total.

Here we're looking at the instrumental (tṛtīyā or "third") case. The instrumental case can indicate accompaniment ("with") or instrumentality ("by means of"). In this context īśā specifically means "by the Lord." That is the significance of the ending.

I hope that this is helpful.

praṇām

[Aryavartian]

Pranam Anucarh,

Thank yo very much for clearing my doubts,your post is exactly what I was hoping for :)

Namaste.