One more try re: AnusvAra in Vedic Recitation

Srini Pichumani srini_pichumani at MENTORG.COM
Tue Feb 15 02:49:53 UTC 2000


Harry Spier wrote:

> Tape B recites anusvAra before sibilants, r and h as [gum] (with a very few
> exceptions detailed in my posting of Feb. 7).
>
> To complicate matters a chanting book in roman transliteration which
> explicitly writes in the recitation of anusvAra (i.e. it writes  ga_NAnA"M
> tvA ga_Napa'tigum havAmahe for ga_NAnA"M tvA ga_Napa'tiM havAmahe etc.)and
> it agrees exactly with tape B but in the introduction it says it was made
> from recitations by the Brahmin priest who produced tape A (and one other
> Brahmin priest).

Is this just due to a typo... or a clear mistake.

> Again to complicate matters Wayne Howard in "Vedic Recitation in Varanasi"
> says that anusvAra before sibilants and r is recited as [ghuM] in the
> mAdhyandina yajur veda school but makes no mention about anusvAra in the
> taittiriya samhita school.

The Taittiriya school seems to recite the anusvAra with the "ghuM" on such
occasions,  as far as I know !!

That is how I have always heard "gaNapatiM havAmahe" recited by Taittiriya
reciters.  I am surprised that Wayne Howard doesn't have any note on this,  but
he may not have studied or recorded it much since it is one of the most readily
available and documented schools.

I have a few tapes of Vedic recitation by traditional scholars.  One among these
is a tape recording of a LP from the Unesco Collection entited "A Musical
Anthology of the Orient" made by Alain Danielou in 1950-51.  The Taittiriya
reciter,  Venkatesha GhanapaaThi of Kanchipuram,  recites Taittiriya Samhita
2,2,6,5,50.  He consistently uses "ghum" in the various vikritis whenever he
recites the phrase "(pra)hiNuyAt nirRtiM"...  so in the jaTA,  it is recited as
"hiNuyAnnirRtiM nirRti(-ghu-)MhiNuyAt hiNuyAnnirRtiM".

-Srini.





More information about the INDOLOGY mailing list