[Advaita-l] Mantrapushpam > Vedic Education

[(Maitreya) Borayin Larios]

Dear Venkatesh Murthy,

Thanks for your imput. I am well aware that some mantras are very long and
that pādas of these can be long. But as far as I am aware the pañcāśat
breaks are meant for the advanced recitation. After a few rounds of
memorizing smaller units, gradually they increase the size of the text to be
recited. Ultimately students have to chant the whole chapter (anuvaka) by
heart, so that the length here would only be a problem if the students had
to memorize the 50 pādas from the beginning (which is not the case).
My doubts regarding the count of the 50 words are regarding the mūla
recitation, which is of course with the words clustered by sandhi. Students
are not aware of the of the individual words, until they learn padapātha.
If you have learned the Veda by counting words, could you please explain how
this is done?

Best,
Maitreya Larios
--
विद्या ददाति विनयं विनयाद्याति पात्रताम् ।
पात्रत्वाद्धनमाप्नोति धनाद्धर्मं ततः सुखम् ॥

---------- Forwarded message ----------

> From: Venkatesh Murthy <vmurthy36 at gmail.com>
> To: A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta <
> advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
> Date: Tue, 10 May 2011 21:10:36 +0530
> Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] Mantrapushpam > Vedic Education
> Namaste
>
> Krishnayajur Veda mantras can be very long like a paragraph. If we
> take 50 Padas of very long mantras it will become very difficult for
> students. It is 50 words only not Padas.
>
> On Tue, May 10, 2011 at 9:01 PM, (Maitreya) Borayin Larios
> <shrimaitreya at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Dear List members,
> >
> > I very recently joined the list. So I want to breifly introduce myself.
> My
> > name is Maitreya B. Larios. I am a PhD student in classical indology from
> > the University of Heidelberg, Germany. I'm currently doing my research on
> > the current state of the Vedic tradition in Maharashtra, particularly
> > looking at the Vedic schools (vedapāṭhaśālās) in this state. I visited
> > around 25 of these schools during my fieldwork in 2009 and have been
> working
> > on the subject since then.
> >
> > If Subhanu Saxena is still active on this list? In a post he made some
> time
> > ago on Vedic learning, he described the method of recitation as per
> > theTaittirīyaśākhā, and wrote the following:
> >
> > *Also to aid memorisation, there is usually a break every 50 words*,
> *where
> > there will be a pause in recitation as if it were the end of a sentence.
> At
> > the end of the section concerned, the phrases at the breaks are repeated,
> > and the phrase at the final break is then followed by the number of words
> > that exist till the end of the section.  Finally, at the end of a kanda,
> the
> > 1st words of each anuvaka are repeated, as an aid to memorise the
> sequence
> > of anuvakas*
> >
> >
> > I have a technical question. If my memory doesn't fail me according to
> the
> > vaidikas I visited in Maharashtra, the "break" he is describing is
> > technically called "pañcāśat" (Skt for 50), but instead of "words", my
> > informants say it refers to 50 pādas (quarter of a verse) and not to
> words.
> > We must remember that in the saṁhitā text the words are joined by sandhi,
> so
> > that it becomes difficult for the pupil to count the individual
> > words.The pādas,
> > on the other hand, are relatively easy to count and are not dependent on
> the
> > break of sandhi. So my question is, whether the described "break" also
> > refers to the pañcāśat of pādas, or if he could elucidate how they count
> the
> > words if their are joined by sandhi?
> >
> > I am very much interested in obtaining detailed descriptions from members
> of
> > the list who have learned the veda in the traditional method on how they
> > received instruction (or eventually teach themselves). For instance, I
> have
> > observed that the ṛgvedins initially repeat the pāda (or a fraction of
> > it)three times after the guru, instead of two like the yajurvedins.
> >
> > If Subhanu Saxena is still active on the list, I would really appreciate
> if
> > he responded to this issue. Any other contributions on the topic are most
> > welcomed.
> >
> > Thank you.
> > Best,
> > Maitreya Larios
> > ---
> > विद्या ददाति विनयं विनयाद्याति पात्रताम् ।
> > पात्रत्वाद्धनमाप्नोति धनाद्धर्मं ततः सुखम् ॥
>