[Advaita-l] Is it saMpradAya dOSha or pATha bhEda??

[Venkata sriram P]

Dear Vidyasankarji,
 
As regards the pATha bhEda of “mamAvaha”,  I have an ancient manuscript on 
shrIsukta mantra prayOga by a great rg vedic scholar and srividya upAsaka by name
“unmattAanandanAtha” who wrote a wonderful gloss on shrIsukta who in his 
Commentary says that shrIsukta is “bhUma vidyA bOdhini”.   He while commenting
on the pratipadArtha of 1st rik, writes as “mama Avaha”.    
 
An entirely different version of shrIsukta with variant svarAs chanted by kaShmIrI pundits has the pATha bhEda of “mamAvaha”.   
 
Also, here is a version of shrIsukta found in the website: 
 
http://www.geocities.ws/giirvaani/ss/ss.htm
 
As regards the bhUtvavita version,  I have a copy of “vana durga kalpa” compiled by shrI vidyAraNya muni.  This ancient copy of kalpa was procured from a great vedic scholar of sUrat (Gujarat) whose name was Sri Sitaram Shukla.   He was a vana durga upAsaka.  So, as per the above mentioned kalpa, the mantra pATha of Durga Sukta has 6 riks ie., from 1st rik of “jAtavEdase…duritAtyagniH” to the 6th rik “pratnOShikamIDhyO…saubhagamAyajasva”.   And the version “bhUtvAvita” was found in it.  
 
Based on these 6 riks of Durga Sukta, the akShara saMkhya from first rik to sixth rik are 43, 43, 41, 42, 43, 40 respectively which comes to the total of 252.  The mula patha does not have the rest of the riks which could be prakShiptAs.   And based on these total number of syllables, 252 parivara devatas of Goddess Vana Durga was envisioned and Sri Vidyaranya drew a yantra which is called “bhadramaShTAra maNDala” with  2 bhUpurAs, 1 vritta, 32 daLa padmAs, 16 daLa padmAs, 8 daLa padmAs, 4 daLa padmAs, 1 shaTkONa, 1 Urdhva mukha trikONa and 1 virtta again.  So, the 252 parivAra dEvatAs of Durga Sukta Yantra exactly matches with 252 akSharAs of Durga Sukta of Rg Veda. 
 
BTW, I was discussing the above issues with couple of Rigvedic Scholars whom i know.  They are Acharya Narendra Kapreji and tarkAchArya of Sringeri Vidwan Naveen Holla.  They say, it could be paTha bhedas.
 
Regs,Sriram