[Advaita-l] virATa, virAja, svarATa

[Praveen R. Bhat]

Namaste Shrinivasji,

On Tue, Sep 27, 2016 at 2:00 PM, Shrinivas Gadkari via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> I would like to ask if list members can shed light on three technical
> terms that often occur in the vedic literature, especially bhAgavatam:
> virATa, virAja, svarATa
> Notes.1. virATa, and virAja occur in mantra 5 of puruSa sUkta also2.
> svarATa occurs in the very first shloka of bhAgavatam, and also
> elsewhere in the same text.
>

The 'a' at the end of all three words is an extra typo to halanta. The
प्रातिपदिक is विराज् =विशेषेण विविधं वा राजते इति विराट् or विराड्।
Similarly, प्रातिपदिक स्वराज् =स्वयं स्वेन वा राजते इति स्वराट्/ स्वराड्।
The जकार changes to डकार or टकार at the when it is at the end of a पद ( and
followed by झल् letters or अवसान)। There are more rules to it, but thats
the basic rule. So विराट् and विराज् in some declension are basically the
same word and could mean Virat or Lord Brahma. Contextually though, स्वराट्
can mean these, Indra or just about an adjective to someone else. I just
looked up the first shloka of Bhagavatam and I think the word स्वराट् there
is an adjective to Parabrahma being saluted, meaning one who is independent.

The relevant portion of Purusha sukta Sayanabhashya on the mantra reads:
तस्मात् आदिपुरुषात्, विराट्/विराड् =ब्रह्माण्डदेहः अजायत =उत्पन्नः।
विविधानि राजन्ते वस्तूनि अत्र इति =विराट्। विराजः अधि विराड्‌देहस्य उपरि
तम् एव देहम् अधिकरणं कृत्वा पुरुषः तद्देहाभिमानी कश्चित् पुमान् अजायत, सः
अयं सर्ववेदान्तवेद्यः परमात्मा। सः एव स्वकीयया मायया विराड्-देहं
ब्रह्माण्डरूपं सृष्ट्वा तत्र जीवरूपेण प्रविश्य ब्रह्माण्डाभिमानी देवात्मा
जीवः अभवत्।

Kind rgds,
--Praveen R. Bhat
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