Namaskar & Namaste
Namaskar is the common Hindu mode of greeting. It is also used as a mode of prayer. Namaste or Namaskara is the traditional Indian form of salutation. It is used while greeting friends and acquaintances as also while paying obeisance to God.
As a word it finds its place in the invocation to our different Gods, for instance we have Shri Ganeshaya Namaha Aum Namaha Shivaya, Krishnaya Tubhyam Namaha.
Namaste could be an amalgam of Namsya (or Namaha) meaning obeisance and 'Te' which means you or to you. Thus Namaste as an amalgam of Namasyate could be translated as obeisance to you. Namaste involves the joining together of both palms at the level of the breast. If the person being greeted is a senior or if it is addressed to God, the Namaste isaccompanied with a slight bow.
Namaste could be an amalgam of Namsya (or Namaha) meaning obeisance and 'Te' which means you or to you. Thus Namaste as an amalgam of Namasyate could be translated as obeisance to you. The meaning implies a submission of one person to another. Thus, Namaste as a salutation could have originated as an acknowledgement of submission or surrender of one person to another. The fact that both hands have to be displayed to the person being greeted could have its origin in the practice that when a person submits to another or when two strangers hail each other they have to prove that they
are unarmed and that their intentions are peaceful.
This inference may sound incredible, but social anthropologists have
established that different types of mutual greetings and salutations have
originated in actions of two or more persons (facing each other) which aim
at proving that all of them are unarmed and that they come in peace.
The origin of this graceful and modest form of greeting can only be guessed.
Its literal meaning is an indication of it origin.Thus Namaste as an amalgam of Namasyate could be translated as obeisance to you.
The meaning implies a submission of one person to another
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