Talk:Ghanapāṭha
By Swami Harshananda
ghanapāṭha
The Vedas are the basic scriptures of Hinduism. The Samhitās are the core part of these Vedas. These Samhitās had to be committed to memory and passed on orally from generation to generation. Even now they have been preserved in a pure form. This was possible only due to the unique system of chanting that had been evolved, consisting of padapāṭha, kramapāṭha, jaṭāpāṭha and ghanapāṭha, which are all various chanting modes.
These four modes of chanting can be explained more clearly by choosing one sentence from the Rgveda Samhitā (10.97.22) and working upon it.
sarhhitāpātha
i i n
osadhayah sam vadante somena
II
saha rājñā I
padapātha
i
osadhayah I sam I vadante I 1 2 3
n n
somena I saha I rājñā I 4 ~~5 6 kramapātha
i i osadhayah sarh I sam vadante I 1 2 2 3
II _M
vadante somena I somena saha I 3 4 4 5
ll n
saha rājñā I rājñeti rājñā I _5 6 6 _ 6
jatāpātha
i _i
osadhayah sarh samosadhaya 1 2 2 1
i
osadhayah sarh I 1 2 i
sam vadante vadante sarh 2 3 3 2
i
sam vadante I 2 3
ghanapātha
i i osadhayah sam samosadhaya l 2 2 1
i i
osadhayah sarh vadante 1 2 3
i i vadante samosadhaya osadhayah 3 — 2 1 1
i
sam vadante 2 3
i
sam vadante vadante sarh
2 3 3 _ 2
i ll
sarh vadante somena....
2 3 — 4
When the text of the Samhitā is broken into the constituent words as per the rules of the prātiśākhyas (works connected with phonetics of the Vedas) we get the padapāṭha first. The other pāṭhas or readings can be got by a permutation and combination of the words of the padapātha. By numbering these words, the other pāṭhas can be shown as follows:
kramapātha—1+2, 2+3, 3+4, 4+5, 5+6.
jaṭāpāṭha—1+2, 2+1, 1+2; 2+3, 3+2, 2+3;
and so on.
ghanapātha—1+2, 2+1, 1+2+3, 3+2+1, 1+2+3; 2+3, 3+2, 2+3+4, 4+3+2, 2+3+4 and so on.
Since the words are repeated several times in different ways, not only the words but also the svaras or intonations have been preserved over the centuries.
References[edit]
* The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore