**The Pāṇinian dhātu’s ability to reconnect us to our civilizational consciousness is, as of right now, unrealized. A dhātu is a verbal root in Sanskrit, using which words are built. Some examples are- bṛh, bhū, bhṛ. These lead on to words like bṛhat, bhūmi and bhārata. The unique privilege that Sanskrit grants to us is a window into meaning-making and ontology- the study of being and existence itself. It is a language laden with what we can call ontological onomatopoeia - a semantic consonance between sound and meaning. It is why the study of Sanskrit grammar - vyākaraṇa - is considered a Vedāntika discipline in itself, capable of leading us to yoga with Śabda Brahman and ultimately, to mokṣa itself.
We know of dhātus through the text Dhātupāṭha, associated with Pāṇini’s Aṣṭādhyāyī. It is a lexical list of verbal roots and their properties and meanings. The Dhātupāṭha contains roughly 2300 roots, of which ~500 are found replete in classical Sanskrit.
In this essay we substantiate the position that even short of reviving Sanskrit’s ancient status as the prime register of Indian languages, we can utilize it to build a mind-map that takes us closer to the Indian way of thinking. And this is done by understanding ṛṣi Pāṇini’s dhātus, or word roots. Enter the dhātuverse.
Dhatuverse Fractal 1 - √ṛ
**Or - ऋ. For each of the dhātus he listed, Pāṇini gave us their base meaning or evocation - the sense their sound evokes. Let us begin with √ṛ, to which he assigned the evocation of gatau and gatiprāpaṇayoh - or motion and motion attainment. Other senses evoked are moving, reaching, attaining - जाना, संपादन करना, प्राप्त करना, मिलाना, पहुंचना. Now a simple rule, to the dhātu √ṛ we add the suffix of -kta (क्त) to get ṛ + kta, or ṛta. The suffix -kta implies has been done, or a past tense. In other words, ṛta means ‘√ṛ has been done’ - motion has been attained, put into motion.