brahma-granthi technical_term

6 BRHADDESI एवम्प्रकारा देशीयं ज?्ञातव्या गीतकोविदै ॥ ٥रो यः एवमेतन्मया प्रोक्तं देश्या उत्पत्तिलक्षणम् ॥१६॥ 15मु ॥ इति देशी-लक्षणम् ॥ II [ नादप्रकरणम् ] [ नादस्य प्रशंसा, उत्पत्ति, लक्षणम्, भेदाश्च ] इदानी सम्प्रवक्ष्यामि नादलक्षणमुत्तमम् ।।१७॥ न नादेन विना गीतं न नादेन विना स्वरा । न नादेन विना नृतं तस्मान्नादात्मकं जगत् ॥१८॥ नादरूपः स्मृतो ब्रह्मा नादरूपो जनार्दनः । ¹₀पस्ततो नादरूपा परा शक्तिर्नादरूपो महेश्वरः ॥१९॥ "यदुक्तं ब्रह्मणः स्थानं ब्रह्मग्रन्थिश्च यः स्मृतः । तन्मध्ये संस्थितः प्राणः प्राणाद् वह्निसमुद्गमः² ॥ •द्भवः वह्निमारुतसंयोगान्नादः समुपजायते । नादादुत्पद्यते बिन्दुर्नादात् सर्वे च वाङ्मयम् ।।" अविन्दुरुत्पद्यते नादान्नादात् ⁴•स्ततः इति केचित् । "कन्दस्थानसमुत्थो हि 7समीरः संचरन्नधः । 6ऽपि अर्ध्व च कुरुते सर्वा नादपद्धतिमुद्धताम् ॥" ⁸सर्वाद्वादान्यूर्धीन तूद्धतान् इत्यन्ये वदन्ति ।

Vimarśa (ANNOTATIONS) Chapter I Section I ( Desi ) 1. Upto verse 13 a dialogue between Matanga and Nārada is explicit; accordingly, Matanga has been identified here as the first speaker, to whom Nārada responds. The name of Matanga appears only once again in the beginning of the Prabandha chapter (verse 361 cd) where Matanga is said to address anonymous munis. 2. Since the quality of pleasantness in sound is mentioned here, it could be conjectured that musical sound is being referred to, although later (verse 13) desi has been identified with syllabic sound. Tonal sound ( nāda ) has not been separately mentioned in this section, except in verse 7 where the svaras ( şadja etc.) of music have been said to be different from svaras (vowels) in language. 3. 'Jantu' means living being, including the human beings, but since 'people' and 'kings' are separately mentioned here, jantu could be taken to stand for sub-human creatures. 4. The manifest form or level of sound is referred to here and its spatial or regional aspect is being emphasised in the context of desi (pertaining to desa, i.e. space or region or location). 5. Dhvani at the metaphysical level is beyond space and time, it is all- pervasive ( vyāpaka ) and eternal ( nitya ). How could it be said to be related to desa (space or region or location)? This is the question. 6. Sound at the manifest level is perceived according to its direction (up, down, right, left etc.) in relation to the listener. 7. Sthāna stands for location of sound in the human body. Five such locations are identified; viz. the navel, chest, throat, palate or cerebrum and mouth, the first and the last being omitted in music. The vital air is propelled from the seat of energy in the body known as brahmagranthi and as it travels upward it touches the various locations, producing low and high sounds. This is the purport of sound being the 'follower' of sthana. 8, 9, 10. In Tantra the concentrated form of energy is identified with bindu (lit. point or drop) and the flowing form of energy is called nāda. At the aural level bindu manifests as the anusvāra ( nasal sound marked with a dot on the line) and nāda as tones and vowels (combined with consonants) without specification and at the visual level bindu is the point and nāda could bear the analogy of rekhā (line) without specific form. Mātṛkās (lit. mothers) are the subtle and unmanifest forms of letters of the alphabet; thus they are the matrices of all sound-forms, they could be said to stand for the subtle level of individualised specific letters. These three and the manifest form of mátykas viz.

VIMARŚA 153 Siva, and bija with Sakti and nada is a combination of the two. The first passage (verse 5) which is broken, seems to refer to the second process and bija appears to have been replaced with mātṛkās. The present passage where bindu is born of nāda could be construed to refer to the first order of manifestation. (cf. MM Gopinath Kaviraj, Bhāratīya Saṃskṛti Aur Sādhanā, pp. 23, 33, 34). 13. V\bar{a}k + maya = v\bar{a}nmaya, of the essence of speech or consisting of speech. 'Vāk' covers a very wide range, including nāda (tone) and syllable (varṇa) and that way it could comprise of both music and literature. But by convention, 'vānmaya' stands for literature as distinct from geya (music)- अनन्ता वाङ्मयस्याहो गेयस्येव विचित्रता । (Siśupālavadha II, 72) "Lo! the variety of vānmaya (literature) is infinite like that of geya (music)." In Sangitasastra also vak is identified with the text of music- वाङ्मातुरुच्यते गेय धातुरित्यभिधीयते । (SRIII, 2 ab) "Vāk (text) is known as mātu and geya (music) is known as dhātu." 14. Kanda lit. means a bulbous or tumorous root. Hence it is a synonym of brahma-granthi (see note 9 above) (Also cf. SRI, 2.147, 150). 15. The word nada has been split into 'na' and 'da' and these two syllables have been spoken of as padas. This is the way of interpretation known as nirvacana, where a word is split into syllables and each syllable is accepted as meaningful in itself. This is distinct from etymological derivation ( vyutpatti ) where a word is derived from a root (prakti) to which a suffix (pratyaya) is added. The way of nirvacana is peculiar to Tantra. All the same, the two words viz. vyutpatti and nirvacana or nirukti are also sometimes used as interchangeables. This is how the dual verbal component (pada) of 'nāda' could be explained. 16. cf. S R I, 3.5 where the order of the first two has been reversed and names of the third and fourth types of nada have been changed as follows - 1. atisūksma 2. sūksma 3. pusta 4. apuşta and 5. kytrima. Pārśvadeva (Sam S Sā II, 22-24) presents a paraphrase of this portion of BrD, mentioning the name of Matanga, with the difference that the order and names have been changed as in S R. This change of order seems to have been prompted by the idea that 'very subtle' should be the first type and 'subtle' the → second one so that the 'very subtle' is located in the lowest portion in the vocal apparatus, and 'subtle' in the next higher one; this seems to be the rational order. I had occasion to ask the opinion of MM Pt. Gopinath Kaviraj on the order described by Matanga and he had said that this view was correct, there was nothing wrong with it. Hence the reverse order given by S R and other texts need not be taken as a correction or rationalisation, but as a different opinion represented in tradition. ١