स एव काद्रवेयो व्याकरणज्योतिषादिशास्त्राणि निर्मिमाणो बहुभिर्मुमुक्षुभिरुपास्यमानोऽखिलां भुवमेकस्मिन् शीर्ष्ण सिद्धार्थवदवध्रियमाणः सर्वैर्मुनिभिः सम्प्रार्थ्यमानः सहस्रशिखराणि मेरोः शिरोभिरावार्यमाणो महावाय्वहंकारं निराचकार
sa eva kādraveyo vyākaraṇajyotiṣādiśāstrāṇi nirmimāṇo bahubhirmumukṣubhirupāsyamāno'khilāṃ bhuvamekasmin śīrṣṇa siddhārthavadavadhriyamāṇaḥ sarvairmunibhiḥ samprārthyamānaḥ sahasraśikharāṇi meroḥ śirobhirāvāryamāṇo mahāvāyvahaṃkāraṃ nirācakāra
"He himself, the son of Kadru, creating grammar, astronomy, and other sciences, worshiped by many who desire freedom, holding the whole earth on one head like a mustard seed, entreated by all the sages, covering thousands of Meru's peaks with his heads, cast off the great wind and the ego."
de7c8838cdb4 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
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It is worth examining who is meant: kādraveya, "son of Kadru," is a serpent; and Patañjali is meant, whom tradition holds to be an incarnation of Śeṣa. Hence it is said that he created vyākaraṇa, "grammar": Patañjali is the author of the Mahābhāṣya, the great commentary on Pāṇini. This correspondence is worth noting, for it is unexpected: an arrangement of the Lord appeared as a grammarian.
Let us add what stands behind this. In the Indian reckoning, grammar is the highest of the sciences, as was discussed when reading the Tārasāra (2.2). It guards the word from corruption; and the word guards tradition.
That is, the grammarian is set in the same rank as those who save; and this is not exaggeration out of courtesy, but consistency. Tradition is transmitted by sound; sound corrupts over time; and one who fixed the rules preserved that by which everything else is transmitted. The Vaiṣṇava side accepts this position and has her own grammarians: Jīva Gosvāmī wrote the Hari-nāmāmṛta, a grammar in which every example is taken from the names of the Lord.
The intent there was the same: to teach language and subject at once, so that a boy declining a noun would be declining a name of the Lord. The image of the earth on the head, like a mustard seed, is the usual description of Śeṣa; and it is, to my mind, the finest expression of what is called disproportion: what is, for us, all the weight, is for Him a tiny seed.