One more try re: AnusvAra in Vedic Recitation

[Srini Pichumani]

Harry Spier wrote:

> The chanting book agrees with my description of tape A's realization of
> anusvAra before sibilants, r and h in my posting of Feb. 7.  I.e. it writes
> gum (not ghuM)in all cases.  It also agrees with the two exceptions to the
> above on the tape (the one case where the tape has [gim] it writes gim and
> the one case of where the tape has [gUm] it writes gUm.

OK,  by now,  I am reeling from the A's and B's...  I looked at your earlier
post and your recent one...  you seemed to have changed the order of what is
Tape A and what is Tape B in your e-mails... anyway,  let A be ;-)

Here are some more data points for you to consider.

In the Taittiriya recitation of reciters from Tamil Nadu,  where this s'AkhA is
preponderant,  the realization is mostly "gum" (the aspiration was a typo on my
part).

However,  in compound words such as "asaMsthita",  the realization is close to
"asa -gg[*]- sthita"...  where the [*] is a vowel that sounds to me like a "a"
or a "half-u".  Significantly,  there is no "m" sound at all.

This is the way I hear TS 6.3.1.6 recited on Staal and Levy's LP recordings
"The Four Vedas" (Asch Mankind Series Album # AHM 4126).

Also,  in a recording of Vazhuthur Rajagopala Sarma reciting Navagraha
mantras,  the mantra to Budha contains the phrase "punaH kRNvaMstvaa" (from TS
4.7.13.5) which is recited as "punaH kRNva -gg[*] - stvaa".

On Staal's recording,  there is also a Nambudiri Adhvaryu reciting at an
agniSToma ritual... he ends his address with the words "oM studhvam" recited as
"o-gga-studhvam".

-Srini.