Pancha Sooktham recitation

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Mani Varadarajan wrote:

>

> Once again I must refer to my experience with Sri Rangapriya

> svAmi. Several people were reciting sections from the Vedas

> in his presence -- purusha sUktam, vishvakarma sUktam, etc.

> Finally, nArAyaNa upanishad was started. There is a phrase

> in the upanishad:

>

> yad bhUtam yac ca bhavyam

>

> Immediately after the goshTi recited this line, Rangapriya

> svAmi told them to stop and asked someone to repeat what

> was just said. He said again:

>

> yad bhUtam yac ca bhavyam

> ^^^^^^

>

> with the appropriate svara, pronounced exactly as written above.

>

> Rangapriya svAmi pointed out that this was incorrect.

> According to Vedic rules for sandhi here, the correct

> pronounciation is:

>

> yad bhutain yac ca bhavyam

> ^^^^^

>

> with the "tain" being particularly nasal. This same

> pronounciation occurs in the line "tain yajnam barhi

> Siprokshan" in the purusha sUkta.

>

> What I gathered from his correction was that utmost

> attention must be paid to sandhi, svara, and pronounciation

> of the Vedic words. We cannot be casual about it.

> Consequently, we should recite said Vedic passages

> only after learning them properly.

>

> Mani

>

 

While I can not agree more with Sri Mani on the need for proper

instruction from an AchArya on all matters concerning ritual, there's

just a point or two which needs to be clarified here:

 

1. There's nothing particularly vedic about the sandhi bhUtam+yat=

bhUta(n)yyat.

 

This follows the standard rule in Sanskrit grammar

vA padAntasya (Panini 8.4.58),

when taken along with the rule

anusvArasya yayi parasavarNah (Panini 8.4.57)

 

demands that shA(n) + ta = shAnta "quiet"

 

Rule 8.4.58 governs sandhi patterns such as

saM+vatsarah = sa(n)vatsarah "a full year"

dAnam+yacchati = dAna(n)yyacchati "he gives"

aham+likhAmi= aha(n)llikhami "I write"

 

8.4.58 basically tells us to nasalize the last vowel of the first pada

(in place of the anusvAram) when yay (i.e., any consonant except the

USHma viz., sha, SHA, sa, ha) follows the anusvAram.

 

Such examples abound in normal Sanskrit too i.e., one may find them in

non Vedic slokams too e.g., SahasranAmam, SvAmi Desika's works and

other slokams which many of us recite regularly. I wonder what is the

received opinion on the need for correct uchchAraNam in these cases?

 

BTW, accents however are a different matter as they are purely vedic

and can, on occasion, change the intended meaning of the mantra as

explained lucidly in the post by Sriman Sadagopan in this connection.

 

2. What happens in situations where recourse to a qualified achArya is

not always possible e.g., outside Tamilnadu or outside India? Is

self-help disallowed in these cases? There are some larger issues here

so I would seek the advice of list members who have more experience

with such matters.

 

 

Warm Regards.

 

Lakshmi Srinivas

 

 

BTW, the last question re self-help is really important to me. My kids

are 3rd generation non-South India raised.