[Advaita-l] Question on Vaastu suuktam

[Anand Hudli]

rama.balasubramanian wrote:
>One more question on suuktams while we are at it. This time it's the
>vaastu suuktam. This consists of 8 half verses. The first 4 verses are
>found in the samhitaa 3.4.10. How about the last 4 which begin
>vaastoshhpate prataraNo edhi and end sakhaa sushevah ...

The vAstoShpati sUkta of the Krishna Yajur Veda has identical wording as the 
R^ig vedic one. Obviously, the accents differ. Both are used, for example, 
in the puNyAhavAchana ceremony of the respective shAkhA before any 
auspicious ceremony is to be performed. The context is that two kalashas are 
worhsipped- one representing varuNa and the other vAstoShpati. The 
vAstoShpati sUkta is recited as water from the two kalashas is poured as a 
single stream into another vessel.

The R^ig vedic vAstoShpati sUkta consists of 7.54 (3 R^iks) and the first 
R^ik of 7.55. Another detail is that in the yajur vedic version, the 2nd and 
3rd mantras are swapped, with reference to the R^ig vedic version.

Anand