Vedic Recitation & Svaram : NarayaNOpanishad

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Om NamO BhagaavthE Veda PurushAya !

 

VedAkhilO Dharma Mulam .

( The entire VedAs are the root of Dharmaam)

 

"asmin KaalE vikshEpa bhUyishtathvAth

Guru Saasthra sampradhAya dhourbalyAth

virala sraddhatthvAccha ---"

 

so says Swami VimalAnandhA

in his introduction to MahA NaarAyaNOpanishad

( part of KrishNa Yajur Vedam ) .This particular

upanishad is also called " Yajnikyupanishad "

because of the recognition of Yaj~nAthmA NaarAyaNA

being the seer of this part of the Vedam .This Upanishad

is the tenth prapAthaka of the TaittirIya AraNyakam

and is a Khila (supplementary passage ).

 

In his above observation on MahA NaarAyaNOpanishad ,

there are three key word groups:

 

1) "VikshEpa BhUyishtathvAth : " ( casting away

liberally or mainly ) , The "kshEpa" portion of VikshEpam

is common to the word Kaala-kshEpam , the time honored

way to learn about grantha chAthushtyam at the feet

of one's AchAryan .

 

2) " SampradhAya dhourbalyAth" :

( the feebleness of the tradition of AchAryA-SishyA

connection to learn Vedams thru Adhyayanam and

the poor understanding of Saasthrams without

Guru kula route )

 

3) " virala sraddhathtvaacccha " :

( thin or little sraddhA )

 

Here , Swami VimalaanandhA is referring to

the decline of the proper way to recite VedAs

with the FOUR accents , UdAttha or acute accent ,

anudAtha or low acccent , Svaritha or samAhAra

accent produced by the combination of the acute

and the low accents and the Eka sruthi or prachya ,

where the above three accents become indistinct .

 

Swami Vimlaanadaa is also lamenting here about

the lack of understanding the meanings of the Vedams

and Upanishads thru AchArya Mukham in the traditional

patasAlAs soon after the sacred thread ceremony

and before entering grahasthAsramam .

 

What the Swami said about MahA NaarAyaNOpanishad is

valid for other Upanishads and Vedams as well and particularly

for an Atharva Veda Upanishad like NaarAyaNOpanishad .

The great efforts of the Late Kaanchi PeriyavAL

helped to preserve and protect the Atharva Vedam

thru support for it to be learnt and retained

in the traditional , ancient manner with the right svaram ,

sandhi , breath control et al .THERE IS HENCE

SVARAM FOR NAARAAYANOPANISHAD .My earlier reference in

this context was not to suggest that there are no

svarams for the passage from NaarAyaNOpanishad .

Yes , there is .I was saying that this may not be

prevalent in usage in the most precise way .

Hence some may recite it without svaram ,

which is not the correct procedure .

 

That there are paata bhEdhams in recitation of

the Vedams and Upanishads is also well known .

For instance , there is a Draavida Paatam and

Andhra Paatam for MahA NaarAyaNopanishad .

 

Of the nine saakhAs of Atharva Vedam recorded

by Patanjali Maharishi -- Paippalaada , Tauda ,

MuNDa ,SaunakIya ,Jaajala, Jalada , BhrAmavEda ,

Devadarsa and ChAraNavaidya --only two ( SaunakIya and

PaippalAda ) are curently available and they are

extent in Kashmir and Northern part of India .

Sri KrishNan and his group did a yeoman service

recently in recording the entire Atharva Vedam by

accessing the Veda pandits in the North .I am glad

that I have this precious recitation .

 

I am not sure to which recital tradition the NaarAyaNOpanishad

belongs among Atharva saakhAs . It does not matter

as long as the time honored and traditional

recitation is maintained. In Bhagavadh

ArAdhanam , miniscule sections of Atharva Vedam is included

by us in Souhern part of India , where most of

the people are Yajus sAkhAdhyAyins . This miniscule

amount from Atharva Vedam is included for completeness of

the Chathur Vedams in the AarAdhanam for the Veda Purushan .

 

In villages like the one that my ancestors come from ,

there were salakshaNa ganapAtis and Dhvi Vedis , Thri VedAs

and ChathurvEdhis and the villages having the latter

type of Vedic scholars were called Chathur Veda

Mangalam .Today , this village of ours six miles

from Oppiliappan Koil and three miles from Poudarikapuram

is shining by name only .Villages like Poundarikapuram

got that name because of experts , who had performed the

great Soma Yaagam called PoundarIkam .

 

Inview of the complexity of the Grammar and the need to

follow praathisAkhya granthams to settle issues related

to the proper accent , our elders have settled strictly

on aural teaching and rote memory to protect and preserve the

Sruthis . A dimension of the complexity can be indicated by

one of the Four accents , SvaritA . The svaritA itslef is

classified into nine sub-categories . The four of the nine

key ones are : jatya , ksaipra , praslista and abhinihita .

 

The euphonies ( Sandhis ) complicate matter further .

For instance in Ksaipra sandhi , the two words

Vaaji and arvan unite to form Vaajyarvan .

Before sandhi , the Va in Vaaji was anuddhAtham .

in the word arvan , the first two letters are

also anuddhAtham .

 

After Sandhi , in the word Vaajyarvan formed

by vaaji and arvan , Va portion of this word

is anuddhAtham and " jya " portion is uddhAtham .

 

As a result of these Sandhis , different changes

in accents result according to the different

schools of SamhithAs .

 

The matter is more complicated by Undulations or KampAs .

This is a result of residual accentuations , like

gamakams in Music , where ten are known . Kampitha

Gamakam is the one most relevant here and the players

of ViNA are familiar with it . ShyAmA Saasthris krithis have

some beautiful kampitha gamakams . These are found ,

where Jatya , Ksaipra , praslista and abhinihita svaritAs

are followed by an uddAta or a straight svartA .

The situation is like a metal plate or a tuning fork

struck with another piece of metal . There are

residual vibrations ( KampAs ) .

 

Each of the saakhAs denote the Vedic accents differently , which

adds to more complications in reading them . The notation

system for indicating accents (SvarAs )is for instance

different for the two remaining sAkhAs of the

Atharva Vedam .

 

INVIEW OF ALL THESE SUBTELITIES , IT HAS BEEN OUR

TRADITION TO LEARN THRU GURU MUKHAM THE VEDAAS

to protect and preserve the accents , sandhis

and the most important meanings resulting from

such proper usage .One can bypass the Guru ,

(Guru Mukham anadhIthya ) , if you happen to be blessed

by the ParamaachAryan as in the case of PeriyAzhwAr.

 

I will now the strange meanings that result from

the shift in accents in Vedic Passages .

For example ," nathasya prathimAasthi

( Yajur Vedam XXX11.2) can also be recited as

" na tasya prathimAasthi" . The first rendering

conveys the meaning ( There is an idol of the

inclined one ). The second type of rendering

means " There is no idol for the one described ).

Using traditional grammar directives , the second

way of rendering is considered correct to give

the intended meaning .

 

Another passage traditionally cited to indicate

the entirely different meanings thru shift of accents

in just one word , Jayaa and its derivative :

 

hanO vruthram jayA apa: ( Rg Vedam : I.80.3)

 

jayO mE savya aahitha: ( Atharva Vedam VII.52.8)

 

In Rg Vedic rk , in the word JayA , the sharp

( UddhAtham ) is on yaa prtion of jayA . This is

called adi-udatta) and with this accent , the

meaning of this passage is : O IndrA ! May You

win over waters(apas) ".

 

In the Atharva manthram , the sharp accent is on

the yO section of JayO and this leads to a different

meaning " Victory is assuredly in my left hand " .

 

Additional examples from Rg Vedam , where a slight

change in accent gives an entirely different meaning

are :

 

jatara: fire or stomach

yama: by whom one goes or Vaivasvata Yama dharman

( Here the first meaning is from sharp accent on "Ma" and

the second meaning from the low accent on "Ya" ) .

Sathyam : truth or poverty

 

There is so much to learn and observe . I have covered

some of these intricacies and classifications in

the monograph that I wrote few years ago for my own

understanding by a preliminary study of various

works on this subject . I am sure that I know very

little and stand before Veda Purushan with a bowed head .

 

The conclusion is that , please do not learn

Vedic recitation from books and recordings , but

wherever possible , please learn from the ones ,

who have had adhyayanam from authentic persons ,

who have learnt it the proper way .

 

On this day before Sri KrishNa jayanthi , it is

appropriate to remember that our Lord born in

the dark night , learnt the VedAs by being a student

at the feet of a proper AchArya although He is

the Veda purushan Himself , just to remind us

the importance of the ancient guru kulam tradition .

This is what the Guru Kulam project of the Ahobila

Matam decribed by a recent posting by Sriman

Dileepan and Sriman RajAji Raghavan on behalf of

the Ahobila Matam 600th anniversary celebrations

is relating to .

 

NamO NaarAytaNA , NamO NaarAyaNA

Oppiliappan Koil VaradAchAri SadagOpan