- सवितृ
The Gāyatrī, word by word — and who it is actually addressed to
Gāyatrī is not the name of the goddess. It is the name of the metre.
Twenty-four syllables, one sentence, and one verb that most translations quietly drop. Here is the verse broken into its words, what each one does grammatically, and why the deity named in it is Savitṛ.
Read → - गं
Gaṇeśa Atharvaśīrṣa — word by word
A late Upaniṣad that says, in its own words, what it thinks Gaṇeśa is.
The Gaṇapati Atharvaśīrṣa is the text recited at nearly every Gaṇeśa pūjā, and the one most people know by sound rather than sense. It is short, late, and unusually explicit: it names Gaṇeśa as brahman, gives the bīja and its construction, and ends with the phala-śruti that every recitation ends with. What the text says, section by section; where it sits in the canon; and what its closing promises are, described rather than repeated.
Read → - चालीसा
Hanumān Chālīsā — what each line is actually saying
Forty verses by Tulsīdās. Most who sing them know the tune better than the text.
The Hanumān Chālīsā is probably the most recited text in North India, and a sixteenth-century Awadhi poem by Tulsīdās. It is sung so fast that its content — a catalogue of Hanumān's qualities and deeds drawn from the Rāmāyaṇa, framed by a doha at each end — is rarely heard as sentences. What the forty verses say, in groups; where the stories come from; and what the closing verses promise, described rather than adopted.
Read → - त्र्यम्बकं
Mahāmṛtyuñjaya — the compound at its centre, opened
One Ṛgvedic verse. One simile about a cucumber. Everything else is what people say about it.
The Mahāmṛtyuñjaya mantra is one verse of the Ṛgveda, addressed to Rudra as Tryambaka, and it is the mantra people turn to in illness. It has one image — a ripe cucumber falling from its stem — which carries the whole request. The verse word by word; where it is in the Veda and what surrounds it there; what the tradition built on it; and what this page will not claim for it.
Read → - श्री
Śrī Sūkta — the hymn to Lakṣmī, and what it actually asks for
Fifteen Ṛgvedic verses to Śrī. Cattle, horses, gold — and the sending away of her sister.
The Śrī Sūkta is the hymn recited at Lakṣmī Pūjā and at every Dīwālī, and it is a khila — an appendix — to the Ṛgveda's fifth maṇḍala. It addresses Śrī and Lakṣmī, at first as two, then as one; asks in plain words for the things a Vedic household wanted; and, in its most striking verse, asks for Alakṣmī, the goddess of want, to be driven out. The hymn verse by verse, its strange place in the canon, and what it says rather than what it is said to do.
Read → - नमः
Rudram — in parts, over several pages
The Namakam bows to Rudra three hundred times. The Camakam asks for three hundred things. This is the map.
Śrī Rudram — the Namakam and Camakam — is the longest Vedic text in daily use, the centre of every Rudrābhiṣeka, and the source of the five-syllable mantra. It is two chapters of the Taittirīya Saṁhitā, one a litany of obeisances to Rudra in every form, the other a litany of requests. What the two halves are, how each is built, where namaḥ Śivāya sits inside it, and how the eleven-fold recitations are counted. This page is the map; the anuvākas will follow, one page each.
Read → - १
Rudram, anuvāka 1 — the bow, the arrow, and the first request
Before the hundred bows, the Namakam asks one thing: put the bow down.
The first anuvāka of the Namakam is not a litany. It is a petition to Rudra as the archer — to his anger, his arrow, his arms — asking him to unstring the bow, blunt the arrow, and turn his gracious form toward the reciter. The word śiva is here as an adjective, four times. The section verse by verse, the names in it, and what it sets up for the ten that follow.
Read → - २
Rudram, anuvāka 2 — the lord of every place
Golden-armed general, lord of the directions — and lord of the trees, the paths, the food and the fields.
The second anuvāka begins the litany. Each clause names Rudra as the lord — pati — of some domain: the directions, the animals, the paths, the food, the fields, the forests, the herbs, the foot-soldiers. Fourteen clauses, each ending in namaḥ. The names one by one, what Sāyaṇa makes of the hard ones, and why the section is where the Rudram's universality begins.
Read → - ३
Rudram, anuvāka 3 — the lord of thieves
The Veda bows to Rudra as the lord of robbers, cheats and night-prowlers. It means it.
The third anuvāka is the one that surprises a first reader: Rudra is bowed to as the lord of thieves, of highwaymen, of pickpockets, of those who steal by night and those who kill for gain — and then as the archers, the sleepers, the sitters, the runners, the assemblies and the horses. The clauses one by one, and the reason the tradition put the thieves in.
Read → - ४
Rudram, anuvāka 4 — the crafts, the castes, and the dogs
Carpenters, potters, smiths, fowlers, hunters, dog-keepers, dogs. All Rudra.
The fourth anuvāka completes the survey of people: the armies and their leaders, the great and the small, the charioteers and the footmen, and then the trades — carpenters, chariot-makers, potters, smiths, fowlers, fishermen, arrow-makers, bow-makers, hunters, dog-keepers — and the dogs. Seventeen clauses. Each one, and what it says about who the Śatarudriya was written for.
Read → - ५
Rudram, anuvāka 5 — the eight names, and the pairs begin
Bhava and Rudra, Śarva and Paśupati, the blue-throated and the white-throated. Two names a clause, fifteen clauses.
The fifth anuvāka changes form. Every clause is now namo X-āya ca Y-āya ca — obeisance to X and to Y — two names of Rudra at a time, often opposites: the short and the dwarf, the great and the greater, the swift and the quick, the one in the waves and the one in the still water. The fifteen pairs, the classical names among them, and why the pairs are the Rudram's way of saying "all".
Read → - ६
Rudram, anuvāka 6 — eldest and youngest, field and threshing-floor
The eldest and the youngest, the first-born and the last, the one in the fields and the one on the threshing-floor, the armed and the armoured.
The sixth anuvāka continues the paired names: Rudra as the eldest and the youngest, the earlier-born and the later, the middle and the unripe, the hindmost and the one at the root; as the one in the fields, on the threshing-floor, in the forest and the thicket; as the sound and its echo; and as the warrior — fast-armied, fast-charioted, breaker of lines, armoured, helmeted, famous. Fifteen pairs, opened.
Read → - ७
Rudram, anuvāka 7 — the drum, the rivers, the rain
The drum and the drumstick; the well and the pit; the cloud and the lightning; the house and its guardian.
The seventh anuvāka finishes the warrior and turns to water and weather: Rudra as the drum, the messenger, the sharp-arrowed, the well-armed; then as the one in the road and the path, the pond and the lake, the river and the tank, the well and the pit, the rain and the drought, the cloud and the lightning, the clear sky and the heat, the wind and the storm — and, at the close, the dwelling and the one who guards it. Sixteen pairs.
Read → - ८
Rudram, anuvāka 8 — namaḥ śivāya, where it sits
The five syllables are not a separate mantra. They are the middle of this section.
The eighth anuvāka is the one the tradition calls the heart of the Rudram, because namaḥ śivāya is in it — as one half of one pair, between "the one who causes welfare" and "the one at the ford". The seventeen clauses: Soma and Rudra, copper and red, the terrible and the fearsome, the killer near and far, the trees again, the saviour, Śambhu, Śaṅkara, Śiva — and then the river-bank, the far shore, the crossing, the grass and the foam.
Read → - ९
Rudram, anuvāka 9 — the salt-flat, the cowshed, the bed, and the hearts of the gods
The last of the litany bows to Rudra in the desert and in the house, in the dust and in the leaves — and ends with the hearts of the gods.
The ninth anuvāka closes the paired litany with the most domestic and the most desolate places in the Rudram: the salt-flat and the long road, the rock and the dwelling, the cowshed and the house, the bed and the home, the deep pool and the dew, the dust and the dry, the leaves and the fallen leaves. Then the form changes for the last five clauses, which bow to the Rudras as the hearts of the gods, the scatterers, the gatherers, the destroyers and the tormentors.
Read → - १०
Rudram, anuvāka 10 — do not harm our children, our cattle, our men
After eight sections of bowing, the Namakam asks. The asking is for the household.
The tenth anuvāka returns to sentences. It calls Rudra by his names — the blue-red one, the lord of food, the one who is beside every beast — and asks him not to frighten, not to harm, not to let anything of ours fall sick; to be gracious in his body and to keep his arrow far; not to strike our children, our lifespan, our cows, our horses, our heroes; and it ends with the one verse many people know from the Namakam by heart, about the thousand and ten thousand nooses of death.
Read → - ११
Rudram, anuvāka 11 — the Rudras by thousands, and the last line
Thousands on the earth, thousands in the air, thousands in the sky. Unstring them all.
The eleventh anuvāka closes the Namakam by multiplying the god. The Rudras are thousands upon thousands — on the earth, in the great sea of the air, in the sky; blue-throated, white-throated, in the trees, in the food, on the paths, at the fords — and the reciter asks that all their bows be unstrung at a thousand leagues. Then the closing obeisance in five directions, and the last line, which the tradition sometimes omits.
Read → - च मे
Camakam, anuvāka 1 — the body, asked for piece by piece
The Camakam's first request is not wealth. It is speech, mind, eye, ear, strength, life — and bones.
The Camakam is the petition that follows the Namakam's propitiation, and its first anuvāka asks for the person: food and its impulse, effort and its reach, thought and will; speech, mind, sight, hearing; skill, strength, vigour, force; life, old age, self, body; shelter, armour; limbs, bones, joints, bodies. Thirty-six items, each followed by ca me — "and [this] for me". The list opened, and what it says about what the Veda thought a person was.
Read → - च मे
Camakam, anuvāka 2 — rank, anger, greatness, truth, faith, play
Seniority, lordship, anger, wrath — and then truth, faith, the world, play, joy.
The second anuvāka asks for a person's standing: seniority and lordship, anger and wrath, depth and water, victory and greatness, breadth and length, growth; then truth, faith, the moving world, wealth, control, brilliance, play, joy; what is born and what will be; the good hymn and the good deed; what is found and what is to be known; past and future; the easy road; prosperity; order; thought and good thought. Thirty-nine items, opened.
Read → - च मे
Camakam, anuvāka 3 — welfare, freedom from disease, a good bed, a good day
The third anuvāka asks for the quiet things: no enemy, no fear, a long life, a bed, a dawn, a good day.
The third anuvāka is the Camakam's request for wellbeing: welfare and joy, the dear and the desired, good-mindedness, the auspicious, the better, the more excellent, fame, fortune, wealth; a guide and a supporter; peace and steadfastness; the all and the great; understanding and knowing; begetting and being begotten; the plough and its rest; order and immortality; freedom from wasting disease and from illness; a long life; no enemy; no fear; easy going; a bed; a good dawn; a good day. Thirty-six items.
Read → - च मे
Camakam, anuvāka 4 — the grains, by name
Rice, barley, black gram, sesame, green gram, chickpea, wheat, lentil, millet, wild rice. The Veda's harvest list.
The fourth anuvāka asks for food — first the abstractions (nourishment, sweet speech, milk, sap, ghee, honey, eating together, drinking together, ploughing, rain, victory, sprouting, wealth, thriving, abundance, fullness, imperishability), and then, by name, the grains a Vedic household grew: rice, barley, black gram, sesame, green gram, chickpea, wheat, lentil, millet, small millet, panic-grass, wild rice. Thirty-eight items; the last twelve are a seed-list.
Read → - च मे
Camakam, anuvāka 5 — stone, clay, metal, fire, water, and the first "may it be fit"
The materials of the world — and the verb the whole Camakam has been waiting for.
The fifth anuvāka asks for the stuff things are made of: stone and clay, hills and mountains, sand and trees; gold, iron, lead, tin, copper, bronze; fire and water; plants and herbs; what ripens by ploughing and what ripens without; the village animals and the wild — and here, for the first time, the verb: yajñena kalpantām, "may they be made fit by the sacrifice". Then wealth and acquiring, being and becoming, goods and dwelling, act and power, purpose and going.
Read → - च मे
Camakam, anuvāka 6 — every god, and Indra with each
Agni and Indra for me. Soma and Indra for me. Twenty gods, and Indra beside every one.
The sixth anuvāka asks for the gods — and asks for Indra with each of them: Agni and Indra, Soma and Indra, Savitṛ and Indra, Sarasvatī and Indra, Pūṣan, Bṛhaspati, Mitra, Varuṇa, Tvaṣṭṛ, Dhātṛ, Viṣṇu, the Aśvins, the Maruts, the All-Gods, Earth, Air, Sky, the Directions, the Summit, Prajāpati — Indra with all twenty. Why the Yajurveda paired Indra with everyone, and what it says about the god the Camakam trusts.
Read → - च मे
Camakam, anuvāka 7 — the soma cups, by name
Twenty-nine cups of soma, each with a name and a god. The Camakam asks for the sacrifice's own vessels.
The seventh anuvāka asks for the soma-rite's cups: the aṁśu and the raśmi, the adābhya and the adhipati, the upāṁśu and the antaryāma; the cup for Indra-and-Vāyu, for Mitra-and-Varuṇa, for the Aśvins; the pratiprasthāna, the śukra, the manthin; the āgrayaṇa, the vaiśvadeva, the dhruva, the vaiśvānara; the season-cups and the extra cups; Indra-Agni, All-Gods, Maruts, Great Indra, Āditya, Savitṛ, Sarasvatī, Pūṣan, the wives' cup, the yoked-bay cup. What each was, in the rite the Camakam belongs to.
Read → - च मे
Camakam, anuvāka 8 — the altar and its furniture
Fuel, grass, altar, hearths, ladles, cups, pressing-stones, posts. The rite asks for its own equipment.
The eighth anuvāka asks for the things a Vedic sacrifice is made of: the firewood and the strewn grass, the altar and the priests' hearths, the ladles and the cups, the pressing-stones and the sounding-posts, the resonance-holes and the pressing-boards, the wooden trough, the wind-cups, the purifying vessel, the mixing vessel, the fire-kindler's place, the oblation-shed, the houses, the seat, the rice-cakes, the cooked offerings, the final bath, and the cry of "well-offered". Twenty-two items, each once a thing on the sacrificial ground.
Read → - च मे
Camakam, anuvāka 9 — the fires, the horse-sacrifice, the Veda's own forms
Fire, the heated pot, the sun; earth, Aditi, Diti, sky; and then the ṛc, the sāman, the yajus, the vow.
The ninth anuvāka moves from things to forms. It asks for fire and the gharma pot and the sun and the breath; for the horse-sacrifice; for earth and sky and the two mothers, Aditi and Diti; for the fingers as the śakvarī verses and the directions — "may they be made fit by the sacrifice"; and then for the Veda itself: the ṛc, the sāman, the stoma, the yajus; consecration, austerity, season, vow; day and night, rain, and the two great chants — "may they be made fit by the sacrifice". Twenty-one items and the verb twice.
Read → - च मे
Camakam, anuvāka 10 — the herd by age, and the breaths by name
Calves, yearlings, two-year-olds, three-year-olds, bulls, cows — and then breath, out-breath, sight, hearing, mind, speech, self, sacrifice: each "made fit by the sacrifice".
The tenth anuvāka has two halves. The first is a cattle-census by age and sex — embryos, calves, eighteen-month-olds, two-year-olds, two-and-a-half, three, four, and the bulls, the barren cows, the draught oxen, the milch cows. The second is the sacrificer's own faculties, each with the verb: life, breath, out-breath, diffused breath, sight, hearing, mind, speech, self — and the sacrifice, made fit by the sacrifice. Twenty cattle terms, ten faculties.
Read → - च मे
Camakam, anuvāka 11 — the numbers, and the last twelve words
One and three and five up to thirty-three; four and eight up to forty-eight. Then twelve names, and the Rudram ends.
The last anuvāka of the Camakam is arithmetic. The odd numbers from one to thirty-three, each with ca me; then the multiples of four from four to forty-eight, each with ca me; then twelve nouns with no ca me at all — food and impulse, the after-born and the will, the sun and the summit, the one born of space and the one at the end and the last, the one of the world and the world and the overlord. What the two number-sequences meant to the commentators, and what the twelve closing words are.
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Also in this section, being written
These are names, not promises. A page appears here only once it cites its sources, which is why none of them carries a date.