Sanatana Dharma Siksa Part 19 one of the Vedic scriptures
KR IRS 9524//8524 LDN Kanchi
Nose of the Vedapurusa
Siksa comes first among the six limbs of the Vedas, the nose of the
Vedapurusa. The function of the nose here is not be taken only as that of
perceiving smells. It has also the function of breathing; in fact, it is
one of the organs of breathing. Siksa serves as the life-breath of the
Vedic mantras.
Where is the life of a Vedic mantra centred? Each syllable of a hymn is to
be enunciated strictly according to its measure. Clarity of pronunciation
is what is intended. Apart from this, each syllable is raised, lowered or
pronounced evenly -- udatta, anudatta, savarita. If attention is paid to
these points, there will be tonal purity. A mantra yields the desired fruit
if each syllable is vocalised with clarity and tonal accuracy. The phonetic
and tonal exactitude of a mantra is even more important that its meaning.
In other words, even though the meaning is not understood, if the tonal
form takes shape correctly, the mantra will bring the intended benefit. So
the life-breath of the Vedas, which are a collection of mantras, is their
sound [the "sound form" ].
There is a mantra to cure scorpion sting. Its meaning is not revealed. Its
potency is in its sound. Certain sounds have certain powers associated with
them. It is sometimes asked: Why should the sraddha mantras be in Sanskrit?
May they not be in English or Tamil? Those who raise these questions do not
realise that it is the sound that matters here, not the language as such. If
the teeth of a sorcerer were knocked off, his witchcraft [magic] would have
no effect. Why? Because the man would not be able to recite this spell
properly. Pronunciation of the aged with dropped teeth would change so have
no or least effect.
Enunciation of the mantras is most important to the Vedas. What do we do
about it? Siksa is the science that deals with the character of Vedic
syllables it determines their true nature. The science of the sounds of human
speech is called phonetics and it is more important to the Vedic language
that to any other tongue. The reason is that even if there is a slight
change in how you vocalise a syllable the efficacy of the mantra will be
affected. [The result sometimes will be contrary to what is
intended].(Remember Kumbakarnan boon). West phonetics of Englisj of which
avivekis are proud of, had been in existence, when they were nomadic.
It is because of the importance of Vedic phonetics that Siksa has been
placed first among the six Angas. It is dealt with in the Taittiriya
Upanishad. Its "Siksavalli" begins like this: (why named siksavalli may be
understood now) "Let us now explain the Siksa sastra ". The name of the
sastra occurs here as well as in many other Vedic texts with a long "i"
("Siksa"). Sankara observes in his commentary: "Dairghyam Chandasam": it
means that the usually short "i" occurs as long [in the Vedas]. (Such
examples are to be found in Tamil poetry also. ) (And avivekis criticise
Tiruvalluar and Tamil) I told you that the Vedic language is not called
Sanskrit but Chhandas. "Chandasam", from "chhandas", denotes here a Vedic
usage.
Yoga and Speech
When you play the harmonium, the nagasvaram or the flute, the sound is
produced by the air discharged in various measures through different
outlets. Our throat has a similar system to produce sound. It is not that
the throat alone is involved in this process. How do we speak and sing?
Speaking or singing is an exercise that has its source below the navel in
the "muladhara" or "root-base' of the spinal column. From this point the
breath is brought up in various measures as we speak or sing. The human
instrument made by the Lord is far superior to the harmonium, the
nagasvaram or the flute. These latter can produce only mere sounds and
cannot articulate the syllables a, ka, ca, etc. Man, alone possesses this
faculty. Animals can produce one or two types of sound but do not have the
ability to articulate.
It teaches us how the syllables are to be produced accurately and
describes in the minutest detail how the passage of the breath coming from
the pit of the stomach is to be controlled. Further, it tells us on which
parts of the body the breath must impinge and how it must be discharged
from the mouth. In a sense, air going into our body in different ways is a
manifestation of the yogic science: it is because of the vibrations caused
in our nadis as a result of the passage of our breath that our emotions and
powers take shape. There is a saying, "What is in the macrocosm is present
in the microcosm. " As mentioned before, the vibrations within us produce
vibrations outside also and these are the cause of worldly activities. That
is why those who have mastered the mantras have the same powers as those
who have achieved yogic perfection controlling their breath. The one is
mantra yoga, the other is Raja yoga.
Siksa explains how each syllable of a mantra is to be produced by the
human voice, what its tone should be like. It lays down the duration or
matra for each syllable. In determining the matra the short and long
syllables (the "hrsva" and "dirgha") are taken into account. Siksa also
describes how words that are joined together (according to the rules of
"sandhi" ) are to be enunciated without breaking them. All such matters as
help in the correct chanting of the mantras are included in this sastra. A
sound like "ka" is to be created from between the neck and the throat;
another like "na" is nasal. To produce the sound of 'ta" the tongue should
come into contact with particular teeth - this is mentioned in this sastra;
so too how the tongue should touch the upper palate for a sound like "na".
Phonemes like "ma" arise from completely closing the lips together and
those like "va" (labia-dental) are produced using both the lips and the
teeth. It is all scientific and at the same time part of mantrayoga and
sabdayoga.
Root Language – Sanskrit {This would show those were arguing pita pitu
pitru etc as to what dhatu the root in Sanskrit}
In the Vedic language called "Chandas" and in Sanskrit which is based on
it, there are words the very sound of which denotes their meaning. Take the
word "danta". You know that it means a tooth. We have to use our teeth to
produce the sound of the word "danta" - the tongue has to make an impact on
the teeth. You will note this phenomenon when you ask a toothless person to
say "danta". He will not he able to vocalise the word clearly. From such
small observations comparative philology can discover an important fact : which
word has come first in what language. Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, German,
French, etc, have been jointly referred to as belonging to the
Indo-European group and derived from one mother language. Western
philologists do not accept Sanskrit as the original language, the mother of
all Indo-European tongues. But words like "danta" point to the fact that
Sanskrit is the root language.( Another point to show why Sanskrit is the
oldest language and avivekis may try to learn before holding torch for
someone else)
Consider the English word "dental". There is so much similarity
between "dant"
and "dent". In languages like French and Latin also the word for tooth is
akin to "dent", though it is "da-kara" and not the "da-kara" of Sanskrit. "Why
shouldn’t you derive the Sanskrit word 'danta' from 'dental'? " it might be
asked. But you must consider the fact that to say "danta" you have to make
use of your teeth. Not so to say "dental". (clean bold; root is that arise
out of that source itself and akin and close to it, which vary in other
languages; Danta touches the teeth but dental touches only upper layer of
the mouth; so where is the root in etymology) ) You get the sound "dental"
as a result of the tip of your tongue touching your upper palate. It is
only in Sanskrit that the sound of the word itself signifies its meaning.
So that must be the root form of the word. Hence languages like English,
French, Latin, etc, must have been derived from Sanskrit.
By interchanging the letters of some words you get other words which are
related in meaning to the original. What is the nature of the animal called
lion, the quality you associate with it most? It is violence. "Himsa" is
violence and the word turns into "simha" to denote the lion. Kasyapa was
the first among the sages. Celestials, non-celestials, human beings, all
may be traced back to him. He knew the truth or, rather, saw the Truth.
Jnana is also called "drsya". Kasyapa is thus a seer, "Pasyaka": "Pasyaka
became Kasyapa". In Tamil one who sees, the seer, is "parppan". It is in
this sense, as men who know the Truth or Reality, that Brahmins in the
Tamil land came to be called "Parppans". So paarpanar is now an insult word
pronounced as paappaan, though meaning is similar. (Those who insult Tamil
are not Paarpanans at all.}
Siksa deals with "uccarna", "svara", "matra", "bala", "sama" and
"santana". The sound of each mantra is determined with the utmost accuracy.
How different sounds have their source in different parts of the body and
how they are vocalised, all such details which are of scientific and
practical importance are dealt with in this Anga. If it says, "Join your
lips in this way and such and such a sound will be produced as you speak",
you may verify it for yourself in practice and find it to be true.
The lips come into use in "pa", "ma", "va". They are not used in "ka",
"nga", "ca", "na", "ta", "na", "ta", and "na". A poet has composed a
Ramayana which can be read without using your lips. It is called "Nirosthya-
Ramayana". "Ostha" means "lip". "Austraka", the word for camel, is derived
from it and the Tamil word "ottagai" has the same origin. "Nir-osthya"
means without lips. Nirosthya-Ramayana was perhaps composed by its author
to demonstrate his linguistic ingenuity. The poet must have been very much
concerned about ritual purity and felt that the story of Sri Ramancandra
must be read without bringing the lips together.(souchaam).
There is a beautiful verse in Paniniya Siksa(its author, as the name
itself suggests, is Panini) which tells us how careful we must be in
pronouncing Vedic syllables.
Vyaghri yatha haret putran Damstrabhyam na ca pidayet
Bhita patana dhedabhyam Tadvad varnan prayojayet
"The Vedic syllables must be pronounced with clarity. The character of
their sound should not be distorted a bit. But no force must be used in
vocalising the syllables. There should be no damage done - no erosion of
the sound - and no violence should be suggested in the pronunciation.
How does a tigress carry its cubs? Tigresses and cats carry their young
ones by holding them firmly with their teeth, yet in doing so they do not
cause any hurt to the little ones. The Vedic hymns must be chanted in the
same way, the syllables enunciated gently and yet distinctly. Panini, the
author of the above stanza, has written the most important work on grammar,
a subject which comes next (after Siksa) among the Vedangas. Apart from him
many others written on Siksa. There are thirty works in this category.
Panini's and Yājñavalkya are particularly important. {And never ever
ignorant shall speak ill of Yagnavalkya the real scholar} Each Veda has
attached to it a "Pratisakhya" which examines Vedic sounds. There are also
ancient commentaries on them and these too are included in Siksa.
The evolution of the *script* of any language must be based on symbols
or signs denoting various "units" of its speech(phonemes). Most of the
European languages including English are written in the Roman script. There
is a script called Brahmi and the Asokan edicts are in it. In fact it is
from Brahmi that the scripts of most Indian languages have evolved and
these include not only the Devanagari script in which Sanskrit is written
but also the Tamil and Grantha scripts.The Brahmi lipi or script has two
branches. Of the two, the Pallava Grantha script was prevalent in the South
and it is from it that scripts of most of the Dravidian languages
evolved.The Telugu script has a unique feature. While in all other scripts
the letters are written in a clockwise fashion, in Telugu there are letters
written in an anticlockwise fashion, that is the loops are shaped
leftward. Parasakti,
the Supreme Goddess, is to the left of Isvara and there is leftist worship
associated with her( "vama-marga"). For this reason it is believed that
some of the letters of the Sricakra should be written in Telugu. The Andhra
language itself is said to have a Saiva character. In most parts of India,
the child is first taught to write the "Astaksari", [prayer to Vishu] but
in Andhra Pradesh it is the "Siva Pancaksara". There are places sacred to
Siva in three corners of this state: Kalahasti in the south, Srisailam in
the west and Kotilingaksetram in the north. It is because this land is
within the area marked by these Lingas that it is called "Telungu-desa"
(from "Trilinga"). Appayya Diksita has composed a stanza in which he
expresses his regret that he was not born in Andhra.
Andhratvam Andhrabhasacapy andhradesa svajanmabhuh
Tatrapi Yajusi Sakha na 'lpasya tapasah phalam
Appayya Diksita was a Samadevin by birth. "Of the Vedas I am the Samaveda,
"so says Bhagavan in the Gita. But Diksita, a great devotee of Siva,
regrets that he was not born in Andhra, and that too as a Yajurvedin, and
states that the reason for this was his failure to perform austerities in
sufficient measure. *The Yajurveda, it will be remembered, contains the
Siva-Pancaksara mantra.*
It is hard to make out elements of the original Brahmi in them. So anything
that we find difficult to understand or make out is referred to as
"Brahmi-lipi". Later this came into usage as "Brahma-lipi", the Creator's
"writing" on our forehead [our destiny]. Another old script is "Kharosthi".
"Khara-ostham" means the lips of a donkey - these resemble bellows. The
loops protrude in the script. Persian is written in Kharosthi. Brahmi was
our common script just as Roman is today for most European languages. Now
Devanagari [with variations] is the common script for most Northern
languages. We do not realise that each letter or syllable represents a
particular sound or phoneme. There are two different letters in Tamil to
represent "na". Why should there be two to represent the same sound, we
wonder, thinking it to be unique to that language. But there is a subtle
difference between the two "na"s. In Telugu there is only one "na". So is
the case with other languages. There are two types of "r" common to Tamil
and Telugu. But the two types differ in the two languages. In Tamil, two
'r's together of one of these two types form a consonant with a special
sound value (kurram, marrum, sorannai). In Telugu it is different. The
Tamil word for horse is "kudirai"; in Telugu it is "kurram" - the two r's
are pronounced fully. In Tamil there is no such phoneme. There are some
other unique phonemes in Telugu. In some words "ja" is pronounced as "za".
Andhras pronounce "sala" as "tsala". The Devanagari and Grantha alphabets
have 50 letters. In Telugu there are 52(including the additional letters in
the "ja" and "ca" groups. The Telugu-speaking people sometimes interchange
"tha" and "dha". I am told you *find this in some of the compositions of
Tyagaraja himself.*
When we transliterate passages from one language into another we must
keep these peculiarities in mind. In English also for the same labial there
are two letters, "v" and "w". A professor told me that there is a
difference between the two. The English "v" should be pronounced with the
lower lip folded and the upper row of teeth coming into contact with it.
When "w" is pronounced the lips do not come into contact with the teeth but
are turned round. Words like "Sarasvati" and "Isvara" must be written with
a "v" (not as "Saraswati" and "Iswara"). Sanskrit, more than any other
language, exemplifies the principle of phonetic spelling. In English the
spelling is erratic and confusing. I remember reading a newspaper heading
recently: "Legislature wound up. " Absent-mindedly I read the word "wound"
in the sense of a hurt or injury. Of course, it was actually used as the
past participle of "wind". Now the word "wind" can also mean a breeze but
then it is pronounced differently. So, it is all confusing. Is the word
"put" pronounced in the same way as "cut" or "but"? In "walk" and "chalk",
the "l" is silent.
Seemingly, such is not the case with Tamil which contains many words
from other languages like Sanskrit. In other Indian languages for each
series of consonants there are four different letters in place of the one
in Tamil. For instance, the same "ka" is used for "kan" (Tamil for eye) and
the Sanskrit "mukha" (in Tamil it is written as "mukham") while "Ganga" is
written as "kanga" and "ghatam" (pot in Sanskrit) is written as "katam". In
Tamil the word for mace ( the weapon wielded by Bhima) and for story are
written alike as "katai", instead of as "gadai" and "kathai". In Tamil,
unlike in other Indian languages, "ka" serves the purpose of "kha", "ga",
and "gha". "ta" serves for "da" also. Words that have almost opposite
meanings are spelt identically: "Dosam" and "tosam" meaning blemish and
happiness respectively are written identically. Letters from the Grantha
script are added in Tamil for proper pronunciation _ "sa", "ha", "ja",
"ksa", etc. In the past these letters were not used in Tamil poetry
following the tradition of poetic usage. Since they find it difficult to
get rid of Sanskrit words from the Tamil vocabulary, the next best thing
they can do perhaps is to rid the language of the letters representing
the phonemes
of Sanskrit which have no equivalents in the Tamil alphabet. This causes
confusion. If an author writes "catakam"(100) in the strict Tamil manner it
can read also as "sad(h)akam" (advantage) or "jatakam"(astro chart) . From
the very beginning Tamil has not had all the consonants. But why should
characters added to meet this deficiency be dropped? Does it mean "victory"
for Tamil and "defeat" for Sanskrit? *Why should there be a fight over
languages?* There is no need to nurse any bitterness against languages that
we think are not our own.
It is only in Sanskrit that the pronunciation is fully phonetic but for
two exceptions. One is when there is a visarga before "pa". Visarga more or
less has the same sound as "ha" - not a full "ha", though. In Tamil Nadu it
is pronounced fully as "ha" and Northerners who slur over it are made fun
of. But their pronunciation is correct according to the rules of Siksa.
With the visarga occurring before it, "pa" becomes "fa". The second
exception: "Subrahmanya", "Brahma", "vahni"(fire) are pronounced as
"Subramhanya", "Bramha" and "vanhi". But all words with "ha" coming as a
conjunct consonant are not like this as, for example, "jahvara"(deep,
inaccessible), "jihva"(tongue), "guhya"(secret), and "Prahlada" [son of the
demon Hiranyakasipu and a great devotee of Visnu].
A Language that has all Phonemes From the foregoing it is
clear that Sanskrit has the "f" sound. In fact there is no sound vocalised
by humans that is not present in that language. "Zha"("ழ") is not, as is
usually imagined, unique to Tamil. It exists in the Vedic language which is
the source of Sanskrit. *The "da" in the Yajurveda has to be pronounced as
"zha" in the corresponding passages* in the Samaveda. In the Rgveda also in
some places the "da" has to be similarly pronounced. The very first word in
the first sukta of the Rigveda, "Agnimile", has to be pronounced
almost as "Agnimizhe"
- not a full "zhe" for "le", but almost.
There is a sound very close to "zha" in French. But neither in that
language nor in Sanskrit is there a separate letter to represent that
sound. "Ja" and "ga" serve the purpose of"zha" in French. In Sanskrit "la"
serves the same purpose (I am told there is "zha" in Chinese.) The
three-dot symbol in Tamil, called "aytam",("ஃ") is present in Sanskrit also.
There is a Panini sutra, "h kap pauc". According to it, if a visarga comes
before a word beginning with "ka"(Ramah + Karunakarah), it will not have
the sound of "h", as mentioned before, but of "h" in the "aytam". Here it
is the visarga that is the aytam that becomes the "f" before "pa-kara".One
more point about "fa". We generally pronounce "fa" as "pa". But it would be
wrong to think that we [ in the South] pronounce coffee as "kapi" in the
same way. In Sanskrit "kapisa" means dark brown - that is the colour of
coffee powder. Our kapisa is the white man's coffee.
What Tamils call kurriyalukaram is present in Sanskrit also -r and l.
People write both "Rigveda" and "Rugveda" - the first letter of the word is
neither "Ri" nor "Ru". It represents in fact the Kurriyalukara sound. It is
between "u" and "i". We write "Krishna" in Roman. In the North some people
write the same as "Krushna". It is amusing to listen to Andhras pronouncing
"hrdayam" as "hrudayam". Both the "ra-kara" and "la-kara" of Sanskrit have
vocalic forms. But in "la-kara" the vocalic form comes only in conjunction
with another consonant. In the ra-kara vocalic form we have examples like
"Rg", "rsi"; in the "la-kara" vocalic form we have "klpta".
In Sanskrit the vocalic "r" and "l" are not included among the
consonants but regarded as vowels: a, a, u, u, i, i, r, l, e, ai, o, au,
am, ah.
There is no short "e" or "o" in Sanskrit. I felt this to be a minus point
for that language. Parasakti, the Supreme Goddess, is the personification
of all sounds. So should there not be all sounds in a language (like
Sanskrit)? Why should it lack these two sounds (short "e" and short "o")?
On going through Patanjali's commentary on the sutras of Panini, I
discovered that Sanskrit too had these short vowels and it was a comforting
discovery. Patanjali says that, in chanting the Satyamugri and Ranayaniya
Sakhas of the Samaveda the short "e" and "o" are used.
Thus Sanskrit embraces all sounds. It has also a script in which the sound
of every letter is determined with the utmost accuracy.
Languages and Scripts: Indian and Foreign
A special feature of our Sanskrit (sams+ Krita) language is that each
syllable of every word is pronounced distinctly. Take the English word
"world". The sound of the first syllable has no clear form; it is neither
"we" nor "wo". Then the letter "r" is slurred over. There are many such
indistinct words in foreign tongues. They come under the category of
"avyakta-sabda"
(indistinct sounds). In our country all languages are "spasta"(clear and
distinct). In the languages of many other countries there is no accord
between spelling and pronunciation. For the sound of "ka" there are three
letters in English "k", "c" and "q". Such is not the case with our languages.
The "f" sound in English is represented in three different ways as
illustrated in the words "fairy", "philosophy", "rough". When you say "c"
as a letter of the English alphabet, it sounds like a "sa-kara" letter, but
many words with the initial letter "c" have the "ka-kara" sound. The
"sa-kara" sound occurs only in a few words like "cell", "celluloid",
"cinema". The spelling is totally unrelated to the pronunciation as in
"station" and "nation". (TO BE CONTD} K RAJARAM IRS 8524//9524
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