[Advaita-l] SRI SUKTAM - Meaning

[Sundaresan, Vidyasankar (GE Infra, Water)]

>thanks for the clarification...but I've noticed there is not only
change in
>the style of recitation (like Andra pATha & dravida pATha), there are
some
>changes in svara-s also in the printed versions of these veda shAkha
maNtra-s 

Bhaskar, I'm not sure what you mean by this. Let us leave printed books
aside. Even the best of efforts is not free from errors - that is only
natural.
Moreover, different publishers don't use the same consistent notations.
You have to go by what is recited well by an expert in the field. Can
you
give specific examples?

For my part, I have heard both Rg and yajurveda recitations by people
from
Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra and Maharashtra and haven't noticed a
major
difference in svara-s for the same mantra-s, except for how the svarita
is
handled differently between the two veda-s (and also regionally within
RV).
Although the way of rendering the svarita differs, what is svarita in
the YV
version is also svarita in the RV version, as long as the mantra is
identical
in wording.

Also, what is called an xyz sUktam in popular parlance can have
different
contents, according to whether it is taken from one or the other veda.
And
the overall constitution of a text may be slightly different in
different regions,
leading to names like Andhra pATha and drAviDa pATha. All these variants
do not impact the svara-s in a given mantra. It is not as if the drAviDa
pATha
of YV gaNAnAM tvA has different *svara-s* from the Andhra pATha, or from
the RV version of gaNAnAM tvA. Finally, one should be careful about
thinking
there is a change in svara, when all that is happening is a context
dependent
application -

e.g. in "tryambakaM yajAmahe sugandhiM pushTivardhanaM" the last
syllable
"he" in yajAmahe is not down at the anudAtta pitch, whereas in
"tryambakaM
yajAmaha ity Aha" the pitch of the last syllable "ha" is down at
anudAtta
position. There is no intrinsic change in the svara because the pada in
both
cases is yajAmahe, with all syllables being anudAtta.

As an aside, there may be an influence of local pronunciation on veda
recitation
too, e.g. in Tamil Nadu, the distinction between aspirate and
unaspirates can
get lost (as in "bayam bavati", instead of "bhayam bhavati"); in Andhra,
-tha
often becomes -dha (as in "mahAn ardha utpatsyamAno bhavati" instead of
"mahAn artha ..."); in Maharashtra, the sound sra often becomes stra (as
in
"sahastraSIrshA purushaH") and so on. However, if you listen to expert
reciters
from any region, they are well aware of all these issues and make a
conscious
effort to recite, learn and teach as defect-free as possible.

Regards,
Vidyasankar