Sound of Mantras

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Dear spiritual brothers and sisters,

Our forefathers devised a number of methods to preserve the

unwritten Vedas in their original form, to safeguard their tonal and

verbal purity. They laid down rules to make sure that not a syllable

was changed in chanting, not a svara was altered. In this way they

ensured that the full benefits were derived from intoming the

mantras. They fixed the time taken to enunciate each syllable of a

word and called this unit of time or time interval"matra*"uot; . how

we must regulate our breathing to produce the desired vibration in a

particular part of our body so that the sound of the syllable

enunciated is produced in its pure form: even this is determined in

the Vedanga called Siksa. The similarities and differences between

the svaras of music and of the Vedas are dealt with. So too those

differences between the sounds voiced by birds and animals on the

one hand and the Vedic svaras on the other. With all this the right

way is shown for the intonation of Vedic mantras.

 

A remarkable method was devised to make sure that words and

syllables are not altered. According to this the words of a mantra

ares strung together in different patterns

like "vakya", "pada", "karma", "jata", "mala", "sikha", "rekha", "dhv

aja", "danda", "ratha", "ghana".

 

We call some Vedic scholars "ghanapathins", don't we? It means they

have leanrnt the chanting of the scripture up to the advanced stage

called "ghana". "Pathin" means one who has leanrt the "patha". When

we listen to a ghanapathin chant the ghana, we notice that he

intones a few words of a mantra in different ways, back and forth.

It is most delightful to the ear, like nectar poured into it. The

sonority natural to Vedic chanting is enhanced in ghana. Similarly,

in the other methods of chanting like karma, jata, sikha, mala, and

so on the intonation is nothing less than stately, indeed divine.

The chief purpose of such methods, as already mentioned, is to

ensure that even not even a syllable of a mantra is altered to the

slightest extent. The words are braided together, so to speak, and

recited back and forth.

 

In "vakyapatha" and "samhitapatha" the mantras are chanted in the

original (natural) order, with no special pattern adopted. In the

vakyapatha some words of the mantras are joined together in what is

called "sandhi". There is sandhi in Tamil also; but in English the

words are not joined together. You have many examples of sandhi in

the Tevaram, Tiruvacakam, Tirukkural, Divyaprabandham and other

Tamil works. Because of the sandhi the individual words are less

recognisable in Sanskrit than even in Tamil. In padapatha each word

in a mantra is clearly seperated from the next. It comes next to

samhitapatha and after it is kramapatha. In this the first word of a

mantra is joined to the second, the second to the third, the third

to the fourth, and so on, until we come to the final word.

 

In old inscriptions in the South we find the names of some important

people of the place concerned mentioned with the

appeilation "kramavittan" added to the names. "Kramavittan" is the

Tamil form of "kramavid" in the same way as "Vedavittan" is

of "Vedavid". We learn from the inscriptions that such Vedic

scholars were to be met throughout the Tamil country.

 

In jatapatha, the first word of the mantra is chanted with the

second, then the order is reversed-the second is chanted with the

first. Then, again, the first word is chanted with the second, then

the second with the third, and so on. In this way the entire mantra

is chanted, going back and forth. In sikhapatha the pattern consists

of three words of a mantra, instead of the two of jata.

 

Ghanapatha is more difficult than these. There are four types of

this method. Here also the words of a mantra are chanted back and

forth and thre is a system of permutation and combination in the

chanting. To explain all of it would be like conducting a class of

arithmetic.

 

We take all kinds of precautions in the laboratory, don't we, to

protect a life-saving drug? The sound of the Vedas gaurds the world

against all ills. Our forefathers devised these methods of chanting

to protect the sound of our scripture agianst change and distortion.

 

Samhitapatha and padapatha are called "prakrtipatha" (natural way of

chanting) since the words are recited only once and in their natural

order. The other methods belong to the "vikrtipatha" (artificial way

of chanting) category. (In krama, though the words do not go in the

strict natural order of one-two-three, there is no reversal of the

words-the first after the second, the second after the third, and so

on. So we cannot describe it fully as vikrtipatha). Leaving out

krama, there are eight vikrti patterns and they are recounted in

verse to be easily remembered.

 

Jata mala sikha rekha dhvaja dando ratho ghanah

 

Ityastau-vikrtayah proktah kramapurva maharsibhih

 

All these different methods of chanting are meant to ensure the

tonal and verbal purity of the Vedas for all time. In pada the words

in their natural order, in krama two words together, in jata the

words going back and forth. The words tally in all these methods of

chanting and there is the assurance that the original form will not

be altered.

 

The benefits to be derived from the different ways of chanting are

given in this verse.

 

Samhitapathamatrena yatphalam procyate budhaih

 

Padu tu dvigunam vidyat krame tu ca caturgunam

 

Varnakrame satagunam jatayantu sahasrakam

 

Considering that our ancestors took so much care to make sure that

the sound of the Vedas did not undergo the slightest change, it is

futile for modern researchers to try to establish the date of our

scriptures by finding out how the sounds of its words have changed.

Yours yogically,

Dattu