31. The Phonetics of Collective Chanting Described in the Vedas

Phonetics and sonic principles have been given maximum importance in the compilation of the mantras that encode the supreme knowledge compiled in the four Vedas. The Sama Vedas, in particular, emphasizes the most on the rhythmic patterns of the chanting of the vedic mantras.

Specific symbols are used in the Vedas to represent different accents and amplitudes. the savants note that because of a highly compact symbolic representation, each letter of the vedic mantras can have as many as eighteen different forms of phonemes associated with its pronunciation. A complete decipheration of this self-sufficient phonetic code has not been possible by the scholars of later times. Some symbols have been decoded to identify the swaras (accents) with the help of the main principles cited in Mahamuni Patanjali's Mahabhasya. For instance, the vertical and horizontal lines around a syllable of the Veda-script are found to indicate the levels of high (udatta), medium ( anudatta) or low (swarit) accents.

The scholars of th vedic literature have largely interpreted that the symbolic representation serves the main purpose to help decide a chanting pattern for collective singing of mantras during a yajan, or to guide designing specific modes of japa for creating specific acoustic effects to meet the desired purposes. It is also found that a single word would have multiple meaning and impact because of the specific context of these symbols in the same or different mantras.

the treaties on the Sanskrit grammar and the vedic literature available to the scholars of our times are too difficult and vast in terms of - (1) identifying the correct and the most logical meaning of a word (in a vedic mantra) from amongst the pumamsa possible multiple meanings; or (2) Generalizing the principles for such interpretations. Different schools of thoughts have different styles of translations. This sometimes leads to controversies in the interpretation of the meaning and/or identivicationof the best chanting patterns of the vedic mantras. The book entitled "Vedic Swar Mumamsa'' presents critical analysis of the mistakes in deciphering the vedic phonetics incurred in some of the widely used scholastic works on translations (Bhasya) of Vedas.

Few excerpts from the above works are given below in their original forms to indicate the extent of difficulties in the correct interpretation of the Vedic Swaras.

"Sayanacarya's Rig-Veda Bhasya is based on a superficial knowledge of the Vedic Swaras…… Most often his interpretations seem to have been blindly copied from the Swar Prakriya (rules for identification of accents or phonetic patterns) defined by Bhatt-Bhaskara in Taittiriya Samhita. His independent interpretations are almost 50% erroneous; about 4 to 5 mistake per humn is common in his wrok….. For instance, a word 'dosa vastah' in a hymn of the first mandal (part) of the Rig-Veda has been, because of the erring knowledge about the Vedic accents (symbols), interpreted by Sayanacarya as 'morning and evening instead of 'fire'…… This mistake appears to have been adopted from the meaning of this word cited by Bhatt Bhaskar in 'Taitiriya Samhita' - 1/5/6/2. Similar meaning of this word is mistaken by Shriniwas Jha in his compilation of 'Swar Siddhamta Candrika' - 9/2/27. Venkat Madhav's Laghu Bhasya, as edited by Dr. Lakshman Swaroopa also contains the same mistake".