ISO, Mantra Eight: Prose text ? Revisited

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Please accept my humble obeisances.

All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

 

 

Original question:

 

> >I am told that Mantra Eight is actually a prose text, not a verse.

> >Can I adjust the layout of both the Devanagari and transliteration

> >accordingly?

 

 

Jayadvaita Swami Maharaja commented:

 

> As far as I know, it's not simply prose but has a meter to it.

> Would be good if a devotee expert in Sanskrit would comment.

 

 

Bhakta Rembert Prabhu:

 

None of the mantras of the Isopanisad are in prose,

but the metres of some of the verses are rather complicated; hence the

confusion.

 

MANTRA 8

--------

Mantra 8 is written in various metres. The first pada (from sa paryagAT...

to ...avranam) is in a regular Jagati-metre (12 syllables). The second

(from asnAviram... to ...viddham) and third padas (from kavir... to

....svayambhUH), however, are written in a Tristubh metre (11 syllables). I

am not quite sure n what metres what follows is, but I strongly believe

the fourth pada in the BBT edition I use (1933 edition, NA-BBT), should

actually be divided in two: thus the fourth pada would be from

yathAtathyataH... to ...vyadadhAt, and the fifth from from zAzvatIbhyaH...

to the end. The fourth pada has thus 9 syllables, and looks a bit like a

Tristubh (but doesn't have the right amount of syllables), the fifth has 7

syllables, and looks very much like a Gayatri without the final syllable

(Gayatri has 8 syllables). If however we consider the /y/ of samAbhyaH a

short vowel (thus "samAbh-i-aH"), the last pada is a regular Gayatri. It

is not very uncommon in Vedic Sanskrit to read semivowels (y,v) as vowels

(i,u) metri causa.

 

I have found a text edition of the Isopanisad that claims the second and

third padas are in a corrupt Gayatri metre (with three syllables added);

the fourth pada in a corrupt Gayatri (with one extra syllable), and the

fifth in a corrupt Gayatri with one omitted syllable. It is not very

uncommon to find the standard metres with either syllables dropped or

added, but since the second and third pada definitely are Tristubhs, this

explanation seems a bit too complicated and far fetched.

 

But that does not divide the padas of the verse differently. I would

therefore suggest that the layout of the transliteration is adjusted

accordingly (i.e. divide it into five padas). The Devanagari could remain

as it is now (or, alternatively, could be written in just two lines (pada

1&2 and 3-5 together), as it is done in most devanagari editions of the

Iso I have seen.

 

Mantra 16 is also problematic, but I'll look at that in more detail later.

 

Hare Krsna,

your humble servant, rembert

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

RSD: Can I adjust the layout of the transliteration according to Remebert's

comments? His comments concerning Mantr 16 I'll send to the conference when

I get them.

 

Thank you very much.

 

Hare Krishna! Your humble servant,

Rupa Sanatana Dasa