Camakam, anuvāka 5 — stone, clay, metal, fire, water, and the first "may it be fit"
The popular claimThe materials of the world — and the verb the whole Camakam has been waiting for.
Four anuvākas of nouns with ca me and no verb. The fifth supplies it, in the middle of a list of metals and animals, and the reader who has wondered what the Camakam is asking the fire to do gets the answer here.
Earth
Aśmā ca me mṛttikā ca me. — Stone, and clay. The two things a house is built of.
Girayaś ca me parvatāś ca me. — Hills, and mountains. Giri — the hill; parvata — the great mountain, the one with knots or joints in it, which is what the word means.
Sikatāś ca me vanaspatayaś ca me. — Sand, and the great trees. Vanaspati — lord of the forest, the large tree.
Metals
Hiraṇyaṁ ca me'yaś ca me. — Gold, and iron. Ayas — the metal; in the Ṛgveda it is copper or bronze, in the Yajurveda iron.
Sīsaṁ ca me trapuś ca me. — Lead, and tin.
Śyāmaṁ ca me lohaṁ ca me. — The dark metal, and the red. Śyāma — Sāyaṇa: iron, the black metal; loha — copper, the red. The six metals of the Vedic smith, listed.
Elements and growth
Agniś ca ma āpaś ca me. — Fire, and the waters.
Vīrudhaś ca ma oṣadhayaś ca me. — Plants, and herbs. Vīrudh — the creeping, spreading plant; oṣadhi — the herb that dies after fruiting, the annual.
Kṛṣṭapacyaṁ ca me'kṛṣṭapacyaṁ ca me. — What ripens by ploughing, and what ripens unploughed. The sown crop and the wild harvest — the fourth anuvāka's nīvāra belongs to the second.
The animals, and the verb
Grāmyāś ca me paśava āraṇyāś ca yajñena kalpantām. — The village animals, and the wild ones — may they be made fit by the sacrifice. Grāmya — of the village, the domestic; āraṇya — of the forest. And then yajñena kalpantām — the third-person plural imperative of kḷp, to be fit, to be arranged: may they be put in order by the sacrifice. This is the verb the commentators supply for every ca me in the Camakam, and this is where the text itself says it.
Wealth and act
Vittaṁ ca me vittiś ca me. — What is gained, and gaining.
Bhūtaṁ ca me bhūtiś ca me. — What is, and becoming. Bhūti — prosperity, the state of having come to be.
Vasu ca me vasatiś ca me. — Goods, and dwelling. Vasu — wealth, the possessions; vasati — the abode.
Karma ca me śaktiś ca me. — Action, and power. Karma here is the act — the rite — not the doctrine.
Arthaś ca ma emaś ca me. — Purpose, and going. Artha — aim, and the wealth that serves it; ema — Sāyaṇa: the path, the going forth.
Itiś ca me gatiś ca me. — Movement, and destination. Iti — going; gati — the course, the goal reached.
What the fifth anuvāka asks
Materials — stone, clay, sand, tree, six metals, fire, water, plants, both harvests, both kinds of animal — and then the abstractions of having and doing. It is the anuvāka a builder or a smith would recognise, as the fourth was the farmer's. And it is where the petition says what it wants done: kalpantām, may these be arranged, made fit, put in order, by the sacrifice.
The verb
Kḷp is a quiet root. It does not mean give or grant. It means to be suitable, to be arranged, to come out right. The Camakam is not a list of demands; it is a list of things the sacrificer hopes will be in their right order when the rite is done. The ninth and tenth anuvākas will use the same verb for the breath, the eye, the mind and the sacrifice itself.
What this page does not say
It does not claim the metal identifications are certain — ayas and śyāma are argued over — and it does not read karma as anything but the rite. It opens the twenty-eight items, marks the verb, and leaves the reader with the Camakam's own word for what it wants: fit.
Source — Taittiriya Samhita 4.7.5 (Camakam, fifth anuvaka), Krishna Yajurveda; Sayana's bhashya on the Taittiriya; Bhattabhaskara's commentary on the Camakam
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