"ekam sadviprā bahudhā vadanti"

One of the ṛks which has been made popular by the part message contained in it viz., "ekam sadviprā bahudhā vadanti", or, What exists is one (it is one in reality) but the knowers speak (of it) in various ways, which is also interpreted to mean "the reality is one...".

This forms part of the ṛk 1.164.46. The sūkta (1.164) itself is a very famous one going by the name "asyavāmīya sūkta" since it starts with the words, " asya vāmasya palitasya hotuḥ". The ṛṣi for this long sūkta of 52 ṛks is held to be "dīrghatamas ", meaning 'very deep, or very prolonged darkness'. This name itself has some mystery about it, it appears. Commentaries have been written separately on this single sūkta and most experts in ṛgveda are of the opinion that the ṛks in this sūkta have deeper, encrypted meanings of different levels, than the apparent ones.

Now, for the particular ṛk no.46. Since a part of this ṛk has attained very great fame, I give below the two previous ṛks also, in order that we may get some idea of the immediate context in which it occurs:-

ऋषिः - दीर्घतमाः औचथ्य: । छन्दः - जगती । दॆवता - अग्निसूर्यवायवः (४४); वाक् (४५); सम्वत्सर-कालचक्रम् (४६)

ṛṣiḥ - dīrghatamāḥ aucathya: | chandaḥ - jagatī | devatā - agnisūryavāyavaḥ (44); vāk (45); samvatsara-kālacakram (46)

त्रयः कॆशिन ऋतुथाविचक्षते

संवत्सरे वपत एक एषाम्

विश्वम् एको अभिचष्टे शचीभिर्

ध्राजिर् एकस्य ददृशे न रूपम् --१. १४६. ४४

trayaḥ keśina ṛtuthāvicakṣate

saṃvathsare vapata eka eṣām

viśvam eko abhicaṣṭe śacībhir

dhrājir ekasya dadṛśe na rūpam --1. 164. 44

Note :

This ṛk refers to three kinds of forces; sāyaṇa refers to them as agni, āditya and vāyu. From their descriptions given in the ṛk, these names look appropriate, but let us note that the ṛṣi himself has not ascribed any specific names to them.

“Three long-haired ones appear periodically during the year. One (of them) shaves this world, another graciously looks upon and strengthens, while the third is not visible but for its flow and course.”

The above is the most literal meaning of this ṛk. sāyaṇa infers the reference to the “three long-haired ones” to agni (which burns up a lot and thus can be said to "shave" the earth), āditya (who gives light and creates growth due to rains) while the third, viz., vāyu, is not visible but can only be inferred from its gliding and sweeping course. This description may fit agni whose flames may be looked upon as its hair, and āditya whose rays are usually compared to hair. But how vāyu is called ‘keśin’ is unclear, obviously when it is said to be 'invisible' (dadṛśe na rūpam). Apparently, this is illogical.

चत्वारि वाक् परिमिता पदानि

तानि विदुर् ब्राह्मणा यॆ मनीषिणः

गुहा त्रीणि निहिता नेंगयंति

तुरीयम् वाचो मनुष्या वदंति --१. १६४. ४५

catvāri vāk parimitā padāni

tāni vidur brāhmaṇā ye manīṣiṇaḥ

guhā trīṇi nihitā neṃgayaṃti

turīyam vāco manuṣyā vadaṃti --1. 164. 45

"vāk" here can be taken to mean 'words' or ‘speech’. This ṛk says that there are four kinds of words/speech, of which three are secret and hence not open. Human beings speak the fourth type of vāk.

sāyaṇa himself says that human beings, both the knowledgeable and the ignorant, (अज्ञास्तज्ञाश्च) speak the fourth category of words. He goes on to say that "about which are the four kinds of vāk, many people describe according to their opinion". vedavādins say that the praṇava (aum) and the three vyāhṛtis- bhūḥ bhuvaḥ suvaḥ - constitute the four categories. Some others go by grammatical categories like nāma, ākhyāta, etc. Yet others link it to the tonal differences like those pronounced with loud voice, low voice, etc. yājñika, kalpa, brāhmaṇa and day-to-day speech is what some others define as the four classes. The language of animals, flute, and deer (पशुषु, तूणवॆषु, मृगॆषु) as well as humans, hold the ātmavādins. Those who adopt the mātṛkā system opine that the four classes of vāk are parā , paśyanti, madhyamā and vaikharī .

इन्द्रम् मित्रम् वरुणम् अग्निम् आहु-

रथो दिव्यस्ससुपर्णो गरुत्मान्

एकम् सद् विप्रा बहुधा वद

न्त्यग्निम् यमम् मातरिश्वानमाहुः --१. १६४. ४६

indram mitram varuṇam agnim āhu-

ratho divyassasuparṇo garutmān

ekam sad viprā bahudhā vada

ntyagnim yamam mātariśvānamāhuḥ --1. 164. 46

This is the ṛk with which this post was begun. It means:

That winged divine (bird) is one but those who are adepts about the devatās and their nature, call it by different names such as indra, mitra, varuṇa, agni, yama, mātariśvan, etc.

sāyaṇa says the winged divine bird here refers to āditya. And the wise ones who have knowledge of dEvatas, attribute to this one and only āditya, various names like mitra (because he saves one from death and is the deity of day(pramītermaraṇāttrātaram aharabhimāninam etannāmakam devam), varuṇa because he removes sins and is the deity of night (pāpasya nivārakam rātryabhimāninam devam), agni because he holds court (अग्निम् अङ्गनादि गुणविशिष्टम् एतन्नामकम्), yama because he controls (the life?), mātariśvan because he breathes in the form of vāyu.

There is indication of the identity of the variously named devatās as the one āditya. Perhaps this ṛk reflects the time when sun worship was very much in vogue (as was the case in ancient Egypt).

However sāyaṇa himself admits this ṛk having been interpreted to suit the needs of advaita, in these words:

सूर्यस्य ब्रह्मणॊऽनन्यत्वेन सर्वात्म्ययुक्तम् भवति । अत्र ये के चिदग्निः सर्वा देवता इत्यादि श्रुतितोऽयम् एव अग्निरुत्तरे अपि ज्योतिषी इति मत्वा अग्नेरेव सर्वात्म्यप्रतिपादिकॊऽयम् मन्त्र इति वदंति ।

sūryasya brahmaṇo:'nanyatvena sarvātmyayuktam bhavati | atra ye ke cidagniḥ sarvā devatā ityādi śrutito:'yam eva agniruttare api jyotiṣī iti matvā agnereva sarvātmyapratipādiko:'yam mantra iti vadaṃti |

Because sūrya, being identical to brahman, becomes connected to all ātmas. Thus whichever 'agni' is stated to be the same as all devatās by this śruti, later on also, considering it as the luminous (one), it is said that only agni is meant as the representative of all devatās in this mantra.

(This is my translation. So if knowledgeable readers find any errors or inconsistencies, kindly point out so that I can carry out necessary corrections.)

Thus, it is by a derived meaning that the "ekam sad viprā bahudhā vadanti" which originally aimed at proclaiming the unity of various deities, came to be used to prove the unity of the brahman and the ātman. It appears to me that in the ṛgvEda, the word ' ātman' is not used to denote the same thing (jeevātma, which transmigrates, experiences the results of its karma and is held identical to the absolute brahman) as the upanishads do, and subsequently in the vedānta; it means the essential principle of life which, on the physical body becoming lifeless, migrates to other worlds like pitṛloka, and is not seen as identical with the hiraṇyagarbha, the primordial egg, or with the trimūrtis.

Interpretation of vedas

Interpretation of vedas

It may be useful and necessary to learn something about ‘vedic interpretation’. (In the following, the reference is mainly to ṛgveda even though the plural form is used; in regard to interpreting the other vedas also there are difficulties to more or less the same extent.)

Learned people who specialize in studying and interpretation of the vedas, opine that it is a task beset with many difficulties. Even yāska, the author of nirukta, refers to differing interpretations of words and passages in the vedas. This goes to show that right from such ancient times, eliciting the correct meaning which was intended to be conveyed by the composers of the veda, had become a difficult job. yāska also criticizes people who learn the vedas merely by rote without any understanding of their meaning. Thus, while on the one hand we, today, can take credit for the efforts of the Brahmins for preserving the vedas with even their intonations intact for millennia, through the system of oral transmission, on the other, we have to accept gross failure on the part of brahmins because this ‘intact transmission’ was mostly through the creation of ‘memorizing robots’ and hardly any emphasis or effort was put into passing on the correct interpretation of the vedas. It is relevant to note, in this connection, that even today we give more importance to “pārāyaṇa” (reading) than to “adhyayana” (learning), be it veda, bhāgavata, rāmāyaṇa, or anything else. Mostly the ‘learning’ efforts today are also confined to cultivating the ability to read aloud uninterrupted, from the book.

yāska’s nirukta is the oldest available ‘guide’ to understand the meaning of veda, though he mentions an earlier grammarian Śākaṭāyana; the work of this Śākaṭāyana is lost to us. The nirukta lists hundreds of words as those with obscure meaning. Hence even as early as yāska’s time, the continuity in transmission of the correct meaning of the vedas had been lost, it would appear.

ṛgveda VII.103, which is known as the "maṇḍūka sūktam" (frog hymn) makes an interesting, satirical observation between the croaking of frogs with the advent of the rainy season, and the brāhmaṇas; it says that "When one of these repeats the other's language, as he who learns the lesson of the teacher...". We may infer from this that even during the period of composing of this hymn, the situation regarding teaching/learning of the veda had already degenerated into one of learning by rote the mere repetition of the words and the sounds.

In this context it may be relevant to note the probable antiquity in my view (not accepted by the scholarly world):

In any discussion of the hoary past of the vedic people or avestans, we should also take into account the excavations at Nemrut Dag, Goebekli tepe, Nevali Cori, etc., in Turkey and the find of a statue of a (priest's) head with a śikhā, in the remains from those excavations. This shows, in my opinion, that some culture or civilization very similar to the brahmanic one, flourished in Anatolia even much before (c.7500 BCE) the generally assumed date of the vedas viz., 2000 BCE. Also, it is interesting to note that, as per experts, the Nevali Cori people seem to have deliberately covered their complex with soil, perhaps to preserve it for posterity! It was not destroyed or abandoned as in IVC.

It looks to me, therefore, that the seeds of the vedic tradition must have begun in very early periods around Anatolia regions and spread to the Mitanni and Hittite kingdoms, as evidenced by the Kikkuli documents on horse training. From there it could have spread eastwards to the present day Iran/Afghanistan where, most probably, one set of people started giving more attention to image or totem worship while the orthodox group probably stuck to their old fire worship steadfastly. This became a point of conflict and the totem-worshippers spread further east to the Punjab, may be by osmosis and not by invasion as was held by the ninteenth century indologists. One reason for our ancestors holding the view that the vedas are "anādi" and "apauruṣeya" might be the fact that they had only some hazy ideas about the dim past of their culture but were not able to have any clear picture about those times or areas, IMO. So, just as children's stories start with the phrase, "Once long ago, in a certain country...", they said this was beginningless (we don't know when it started) and not man-made (we don't know who composed these and when or how these were composed).

This totem worship hypothesis can be found in the book, "The Hymns of Atharvan Zarathustra" by Shri Jatindra Mohan Chatterji, M.A. and published by the Parsi Zoroastrian Association, Calcutta, 1967.”

In ṛgveda itself there is evidence for idol worship, though indirect. In RV 4. 24. 10 the bard asks who will purchse his (the bard's) "indra" in exchange for ten cows and adds that as soon as the purchaser is able to destroy his enemies (with the help of the said "indra") it should be returned to the bard himself. This can only be a reference to an idol or aome such item which was considered to represent "indra".

From ancient times, people have been trying to interpret the vedas according to their point of view, thus creating different branches/systems/schools of vedic interpretation:

1. yājñika – This school gives the ritualistic interpretation,
2. aitihāsika – Gives the traditional or historical implications.
3. nairukta – The etymological aspects are the main focus of this school.
4. parivrājaka – The mystic interpretation of Vedas.
5. vaiyākaraṇa – Grammatical aspects.
6. naidāna – Juridical aspects.

yāska refers to one kautsa whose opinions, as gleaned from yāska’s work, seems to have been that the vedas contain no meaning at all and are, therefore, worthless. From this, one can see that the doubt about the importance or even relevance of the vedas is as old as the vedas themselves, perhaps! It is also quite likely, though there is no evidence to prove it, that such doubts, which must have been held by a limited few in the beginning, came to be expressed by increasing numbers, from which the ājīvikā sect arose - a sect of naked, wandering ascetics, who decried the vedas and rituals – founded by makkhali gosala, who was a rival to both mahāvīra and buddha in their lifetime. (gosala is also mentioned as one of the teachers of buddha.) The lokāyata of cārvāka might owe its origin to such earlier opinions.

In addition to the dimensions given above, there are also vedic verses which are like riddles. A good example is the undernoted one:

चत्वारि शृङ्गात्रयो अस्यपादा
द्वेशीर्षे सप्तहस्तासो अस्य
त्रिधा बद्धो वृषभोरोरवीति
महो देवो मर्त्यँ आविवॆश--ऋग्वेद ४. ५८. ०३

catvāri śṛṅgātrayo asyapādā
dveśīrṣe saptahastāso asya
tridhā baddho vṛṣabhororavīti
maho devo martyam̐ āviveśa --ṛgveda 4. 58. 03

The ritualistic meaning of this verse, following sāyaṇa’s commentary is as follows:

agni, the great power pervading yajña, who has the four Vedas as heads, three legs in the form of the three ‘savanas’ (libations in yajñas in the morning, noon and evening), two heads, viz., the havis (food) & prāvargya (a ceremony introductory to the soma sacrifice - at which fresh milk is poured into a heated vessel called mahāvīra or gharma, or into boiling ghee – or the large earthenware pot used in the prāvargya ceremony), the seven chandases beginning with gāyatrī, and who is ‘bound’ thrice, by mantras, brāhmaṇas and kalpas, has entered into the humans.

(This interpretation suffers from a serious logical error, IMO, because the ṝṣi could not have visualized the division of the entire vedic corpus into four distinct vedas.)

Other schools (of vedic interpretation) have also made their own deductions but the verse still remains a riddle!

modes of recital of vedas (pāṭha:):

There are two main modes for veda - nirbhuja and pratṝṇa - nirbhuja (or samhitā pāṭha) means without arms; it is reciting the entire veda without any break, from start to end. pratṝṇa means pada pATha, each pada or word is pronounced clearly and separately.

eg., अग्निम् ईळे, पुरोहितम्, यज्ञस्य, देवम्, ऋत्विजम्....and so on.
(agnim īḷe, purohitam, yajñasya, devam, ṛtvijam....)
The ending 'm' is not pronounced as m but halfway between ma & mu.

By combining the above two modes, a third mode called "krama" or 'kramasamhita' has been created. It will be like:
अग्निम् ईळे, ईळे पुरोहितम्, पुरोहितमिति पुरः हितम्
agnim īḷe, īḷe purohitam, purohitamiti puraḥ hitam

vikṛtis:
(विकृति - विकृतयः - plural) :

The samhita is the natural form - prakṛti - of the veda. From this 8 main vikṛtis have been created. These vikṛtis (or deformations) help to prevent mistakes. The eight vikṛtis are:-

1. जटा - jaṭā
2. माला - mālā
3. शिखा - śikhā
4. लॆखा, रॆखा - lekhā, rekhā
5. ध्वज - dhvaja
6. दण्ड - daṇḍa
7. रथ - ratha
8. घन - ghana

The words of the ṛk or sometimes even a whole sūkta are committed to memory in different orders. For example if the words are 1,2,3,4,5,6, the arrangements for pañcasandhi ghanapāṭha (पञ्चसन्धि घनपाठ) will be:

1-2, 2-2, 2-1, 1-1, 1-2

1-2, 2-1, 1-2, 3; 3 –2-1, 1-2-3

2-3, 3-3, 3-2, 2-2, 2-3,

2-3, 3-2, 2-3- 4. 4-3-2, 2-3-4

3-4, 4-4, 4-3, 3-3, 3-4

3-4, 4-3 , 3-4 –5 , 5- 4-3, 3-4-5

4-5, 5-5, 5-4, 4 –4, 4-5

4-5, 5-4, 4-5 –6 ; 6-5-4, 4-5-6

This is the most difficult of all the vikṛtis. And one who has mastered this pāṭha for the veda is called ghanapāṭhi.

This apparently extra-ordinary obsession with the permutations & combinations in word-rendering reveals the analytical or scientific genius of our ancients which they put to use in ensuring the transmission of the vedas without any mistake in its word structure as well as intonation, to the future generations. An instance was the yajurveda mantra which goes as "natasya pratimā asti..." giving two derivations viz., na tasya pratimā asti... (His idol is not there.) or, "natasya pratimā asti..." (The idol of the one who bowed down is not there.) Both sides argued in favour of their interpretation till the arbitrator asked for the ghanapāṭha whence it became clear that the right rendering was "na + tasya" and not 'natasya'.

Note:
1. The mention of 'na tasya' brings to mind the way most people recite the verse containing these words in śivakavacam - phalaśruti, which goes as follows:

yaḥ sadā dhārayenmartyaḥ śaivam kavacam uttamam |
na tasya jāyate kāpi bhayam śambhoranugrahāt ||

Most people blissfully pronounce it as one word "natasya" because of ignorance. If there was some insight the two words would be pronounced with a very brief pause like 'na tasya'.

2. Despite all the precautions (described above), taken by our ancients, the horrible "satī" came to be practised, reportedly, on the basis of changing one word "agre" to "agne" in RV 10-18-08. It was probably done deliberately.

ṛgveda :

ṛgveda (RV) as commonly spoken of today refers to the "śākala śākhā" (शाकल शाखा) or śākala branch. In olden times there were five branches of RV viz., śākala, bāṣkala, āśvalāyana, sāṃkhyāyana (kauṣītaki) and māṇḍūkyāyana. There were no material differences between them except arrangement of riks and sūktas and some riks being omitted in one or the other branch. Most probably these differences could have arisen due to human inabilities during the millennia of oral transmission of the veda/s, and for reasons not known, the system of oral transmission in four out of the five branches disappeared almost completely; only the śākala śākhā is currently known well and has been taken as the vulgate text. We have been able to get an enormous amount of knowledge, analysis, criticism etc., based on this version, and to a less limited extent, from comparison of the five different branches.

RV - the śākala version - has 10 maṇḍalas (books) and 1017 sūktas which together contain 10472 ṛks (verses); there is also another method of looking at RV as divided into 8 aṣṭakas, 64 adhyāyas, 85 anuvākas in which the 1017 sūktas are divided. There are 1,93,816 words in the RV.

Note : There is some difference in the total number of sūktas and ṛks given by between various authorities. It is because some portions known as 'vālakhilyas or bālakhilyas ’, a collection of 11 (according to some only 6 or 8) hymns of the ṛgveda (commonly inserted after VIII - 48, but numbered separately as a supplement by some editors .

Of the ten maṇḍalas or books of RV, books 2 to 7 are called "Family Books" by scholars because the sūktas in each of these maṇḍalas are ascribed to rishis of one particular lineage, as shown below:

maṇḍala-2 gṛtsamada
maṇḍala-3 viśvāmitra
maṇḍala-4 vāmadeva
maṇḍala-5 atri
maṇḍala-6 bhāradvāja
maṇḍala-7 vasiṣṭha


Book 1 is older than Books 8, 9 and 10. These books were not composed by a distinct family of ṛṣis each, but by different individual ṛṣis. Books 1 and 8 are almost like Family Books as a majority of the hymns are composed by the family of kāṇvās and many hymns are found in both the Books. Book 9 is different from the rest and all the hymns therein are addressed to Soma (while not a single hymn is addressed to Soma in the Family Books) and by groups of ṛṣis. Book 10 is a collection of various earlier and later hymns.It appears to be of a later origin and of a supplementary character. The Books 1 and 10 are the longest Books together accounting for about 40 percent of the bulk of the Rig Veda.

Among the Namboodiris of Kerala, they used to have a system of "mudras" or signs to indicate the word endings in RV and an expert will be able to recite the rik if someone simply indicates the mudras for two or three such consecutive mudras. This used to be one method of creating expertise in the RV.

vedavyāsa is held to be the one who codified the vedas into four. In mahābhārata, śāntiparva, 359, there is a mention of another earlier Acharya by name "apāntarataman", son of vāgṛṣi, who was an epitome of virtues and a "trikālajñāni" - one who knew the past, present and the future. This apāntarataman, it is told, spread the eternal veda everywhere, and he taught it even to svāyambhuva manu. He was also known as "prācīnagarbhan".

Poetical metres or chandas in RV:

The more common poetical metres are listed below according to the number of letters (aksharas) required for each:

gāyatrī - 24
uṣṇik - 28
anuṣṭup (anuṣṭup) - 32
bṛhatī - 36
paṅkti - 40
triṣṭup- 44
jagata - 48

There are other metres equiring less than 24 akṣaras or more than 48 akṣaras. According to scholars the shortest and longest metres in vedas (all the four of them) are 'mā' chandas - 4 akṣaras and 'utkṛti' chandas - 104 akṣaras.

An important point of much interest is that the very famous "gāyatrī mantra" is not in gāyatrī chandas; it is one akshara short (only 23 aksharas) and is therefore called "nicṛd gāyatrī". (This is why in the nyāsa for gāyatrī japa we say "sāvitryā r̆śirviśvāmitraḥ, nicr̆d gāyatrī cḥandaḥ, savitā devatāḥ; the mantra is actually "sāvitri").


If two letters are short from gāyatrī metre , then the metre is known 'virāj gāyatrī'.