वेदपाठ

Heard, not read

UNESCO first proclaimed the tradition of Vedic chanting part of humanity’s oral heritage in 2003, and inscribed it on its Representative List in 2008. It singles out ‘the ingenious techniques employed by the Brahmin priests in preserving the texts intact over thousands of years’: complex recitation techniques, learnt from childhood, that rest on the accents.

The aim was not only to remember the words but to keep their sound unaltered. In the words of the scholar Wayne Howard, ‘the ultimate authority in Vedic matters is never the printed page’.

The accents

Vedic Sanskrit is chanted on three accents: the udātta; the anudātta, a lower tone; and the svarita, which follows the udātta. In the system of the Ṛgveda, which the Vedic texts in this library follow, the udātta itself is not marked at all. The low syllable before it gets a short stroke below, and the svarita after it a short stroke above. Macdonell’s Vedic Grammar gives the reason: in the Ṛgveda the udātta lies in pitch between the other two.

The Gāyatrī, as marked in the library

तत्स॑वि॒तुर्वरे॑ण्यं॒ भर्गो॑ दे॒वस्य॑ धीमहि ।

Turn Svara on in the reading bar of the Gāyatrī, Mahāmṛtyuñjaya or Puruṣa Sūkta to see the marks, and off to read the plain text.

• गायत्रीGayatri Mantra
• महामृत्युंजयMahamrityunjaya Mantra
• पुरुषसूक्तPurusha Sukta

Word by word

In continuous recitation, the saṃhitāpāṭha, the words run together, joined by the sound-changes of sandhi, so that a word’s own shape is often hidden. The padapāṭha recites the same verse with a conscious pause after every word, restoring each to its own form. Learnt together, the two let a reciter check one against the other.

Saṃhitāpāṭha

तत्सवितुर्वरेण्यं भर्गो देवस्य धीमहि ।

Padapāṭha, simplified

तत् । सवितुः । वरेण्यम् । भर्गः । देवस्य । धीमहि ।

The traditional padapāṭha also marks where a word is made of parts, such as a prefix and its verb; that detail is left out here.

Braided recitations

On the padapāṭha the reciters built longer patterns that pair, reverse and repeat the words. In the kramapāṭha each word is joined to the next: one-two, two-three, three-four. The jaṭāpāṭha braids each pair forward, back and forward again. The ghanapāṭha, named for the shape of a bell, swells to three words and back. Tradition counts eleven such recitations, and ghana is usually considered the hardest.

Krama · 1 2, 2 3, 3 4

तत् सवितुः । सवितुः वरेण्यम् । वरेण्यम् भर्गः ।

Jaṭā · 1 2 2 1 1 2

तत् सवितुः सवितुः तत् तत् सवितुः ।

Ghana · 1 2 2 1 1 2 3 3 2 1 1 2 3

तत् सवितुः सवितुः तत् तत् सवितुः वरेण्यम् वरेण्यम् सवितुः तत् तत् सवितुः वरेण्यम् ।

In recitation the words are joined by sandhi and carry their accents; they are shown apart and unaccented here so that the pattern is easy to follow. Saying the same words in several orders makes a slip in any one of them easy to notice: the checks are built into the chanting itself.

Today

The tradition is fragile. UNESCO notes that only thirteen of the more than a thousand recitation branches once known have survived, and names four schools, in Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka and Orissa, as under imminent threat.

A page can show the words and the marks. The sound itself is still learnt the old way, from a teacher’s voice.