Numbers, names, trails, and tradition: Reconsidering the phrase "Thrice Seven" in the Rgveda and Atharvaveda.

AuthorWhitaker, Jarrod
PositionEssay

This paper examines the meaning and significance of the numerical phrase trih sapta and its compounded form trisapta in the Rgveda and Atharvaveda in order to understand its use in the opening hymn of the Saunakiya Samhita (AVS. 1.1.1-4). It argues that by invoking Vacaspati and the "Thrice Seven" (trisaptah) the hymn's composer makes a complex poetic and mythological statement about the cosmological importance of his ritual tradition, its founding fathers, and the powerful nature of ritual speech and knowledge, a message that the redactors of the Saunakiya Samhita wished to foreground by opening their text with this hymn.

INTRODUCTION

The opening hymn of the Atharvaveda Saunakiya Samhita (AVS. 1.1.1-4), which appears in an almost identical form near the beginning of the Paippalada Samhita (AVP.1.6.1-4), is for the most part intelligible and seemingly uncomplicated, and its priestly tradition uses it in a straightforward manner. (1) The Kausika Sutra (1.7.8) calls the hymn purvam trisaptiyam or the "Initial/Opening Hymn to the Thrice Seven" (see Caland 1900: 10). According to the commentarial tradition, the hymn is used in rites for the "production of wisdom" (KausS.2.1[10].l: purvasya medhajananani) and for the welfare or preparation of a Vedic student (KausS.2.2[11].1: purvasya brahmacarisampadani), particularly at the beginning of his formal education in the initiation ceremony (upanayana; cf. 14.3[139].10), when he engages in ritual performances, or at other times of study (see Thieme 1985: 560, Vishva Bandhu 1975: 54). I present here my translation of the hymn: (2)

  1. ye trisaptah pariyanti

  2. visva rupani bibhratah |

  3. vacaspatir bala tesam

  4. tanvo adya dadhatu me || AVS. 1.1.1

    The Thrice Seven that move about bearing all forms, let the Lord of Speech put their powers in my body today.

  5. punar ehi vacaspate

  6. devena manasa saha |

  7. vasospate ni ramaya

  8. mayy evastu mayi srutam || AVS. 1.1.2

    Return once more, O Lord of Speech, along with a divine mind. O Lord of Treasure, make [what is heard] stay right in me; let what is heard be in me.

  9. ihaivabhi vi tanu-

  10. -ubhe artni iva jyaya |

  11. vacaspatir ni yachatu

  12. mayy evastu mayi srutam || AVS. 1.1.3

    Right here, stretch tightly [speech and thought], like both ends of a bow with sinewy string. Let the Lord of Speech restrain [what is heard] right in me; let what is heard be in me.

  13. upahuto vacaspatir

  14. upasman vacaspatir hvayatam |

  15. sam srutena gamemahi

  16. ma srutena vi radhisi || AVS. 1.1.4

    Called near is the Lord of Speech; let the Lord of Speech call us near. May we unite with what is heard: may I not fail with what is heard.

    My translation differs notably from Whitney's (1905: 1-2), yet with some minor stylistic changes it agrees with Thieme's (1985: 559, 560-61, 565). I accept Thieme's interpretation of the problematic fourth line of stanza 1, especially the meaning of the "partitive, elliptical, genitive" tanvah. (3) In addition, lines cd of stanzas 2-3 can be translated more intelligently if we assume a case of ellipsis; that is to say, srutam in line d of both stanzas is also intended as the direct object of the imperative verbs from ni [square root of (term)]ram and ni [square root of (term)]yam in line c. Furthermore, like Thieme (p. 560), I think that the locative pronominal phrase mayy eva ("right in me") in the refrain of these two stanzas is syntactically a part of the verbal predicate of the imperative verbs in line c. There is also a clear case of ellipsis in stanza 3 because vi [square root of (term)]tan should have a direct object. Since the poet's simile involves a comparison with two ends of a bow, perhaps the two concepts of "speech and thought, word and mind" (v[??]c-, manas-) mentioned in stanza 2 carry over thematically as the elided object, though srutam could also be read here. (4)

    The hymn is clearly focused on the retention of 'what is heard' (srutam) and the importance of embodying the powers of sacred speech and knowledge. The appearance of the god Vacaspati, Lord of Speech, underscores this fact. It is important to note that Vacaspati is a new god on the scene, so to speak: his name or title only appears a few times in books 9 and 10 of the Rgveda, yet is used in greater frequency in the Atharvaveda and other Vedic texts. (5) Vacaspati's return with a "divine mind" (2b: devena manasa) suggests that the god thinks and presumably speaks in a heavenly manner. (6) The underlying message perhaps reminds the priest-in-training that the god sets the standard of liturgical study and the student should engage in it with a reverent mindset. The close relationship between the god and ritual specialists is suggested in the final stanza where the Lord of Speech is asked to call his worshippers near (4b: upa [square root of (term)]hu/hva) just as the god is called near (4a: upahutah). (7) In this regard, Vishva Bandhu (1975: 55) speculates plausibly as to why the proponents of the Saunakiya Samhita chose to open their text with this hymn:

    [Vacaspati] presided over everything that pertained to learning and its advancement and as such, if properly glorified and propitiated, would reciprocally grant to the invokers His best possible gift, namely, the all-powerful speech itself to ensure their complete success reciting and understanding their Vedic text. (8) This hymn is therefore rather appropriate to open a Veda because an attentive student would want to ensure ritually that he will not forget what is to come, while also assuming the appropriate kind of mind and body to venerate the gods upon receiving knowledge from the Lord of Speech and his teachers (cf. Dejenne 2009: 73).

    As I see it, previous interpretations of this hymn have failed to recognize the full mythological and liturgical importance of the term trisaptah, which is the first lexical word of the hymn. In the opening stanza the poet asks Vacaspati to grant him the "powers" (bala) of the Thrice Seven. (9) According to Whitney (1905: 1-2), the numerical designator "thrice seven" may not refer to a definite number, but signals an indefinite number, "dozens" or "scores." He suggests that it could be an account of all possible phonemes or syllables, or, following Roth, that it refers to an undetermined number of individuals, "old and young," who internalize "what is heard." If this is the case, then the phonological building blocks of speech or its transmitters encapsulate and carry everything in the universe; that is, "they move about, circle" (1a: pariyanti), "bearing all forms" (1b: visva rupani bibhratah). In contrast, Whitney (1905: 1-2) notes that Sayana and other Indian commentators interpret the phrase to refer to various divinities or phenomena, which can be comprised of one group of "three" and one group of "seven," "three groups of seven," or a single group of "twenty-one." (10) Commentators presumably offer multivalent interpretations because the masculine plural referent of the compound trisaptah is not overtly expressed and the numbers three and seven have rich polysemie meanings in Indian history. (11) Hence, for an interpreter of the numerical phrase--ancient or modern--the two numbers can invoke a vivid set of phenomena, themes, and figures. However, many of the open-ended interpretations can be set aside in the context of the Rgveda and Atharvaveda because the numerical compound conforms to the typical pattern for signaling multiplication with a prefixed number. (12) This is confirmed by the parallel use of the uncompounded form trih sapta in the Rgveda, which must mean "three times seven, thrice seven." (13) We are thus dealing with a totality of twenty-one, though we still lack a clear account of what constitutes the three or the seven, if the two factors refer to anything beyond numbers. (14)

    In light of this, Vishva Bandhu (1975: 47-70) argues that the number twenty-one is exact and refers to the three numbers and seven cases of Sanskrit nouns. (15) In a similar vein Thieme (1985: 563-64) proposes a phonetic interpretation and contends that the number refers precisely to the twenty-one sounds of Sanskrit as understood by early Indian linguists, such as Katyayana. Thieme argues that Katyayana rejected the model of twenty-two sounds attributed to Panini in favor of a model with twenty-one sounds, which, according to Thieme, predated Panini. The problem with Thieme's interpretation is that it requires a series of hypothetical leaps, not only in assigning an absolute number of phonemes for Panini at twenty-two, but also in bridging the time separating the composition of the Atharvaveda (c. 1000 b.c.e. onwards), Panini's Astadhyayi (c. 500-450 b.c.e.), and Katyayana's Varttika (c. 200 b.c.e.). Without further evidence it is difficult to argue for a direct correspondence between an assumed number of phonemes in the Atharvaveda--if that is what is intended by trisaptah--and Katyayana's systematic classification (cf. Deshpande 2001: 8-9).

    Most recently, Dejenne (2009: 67-73) has examined the meaning of the compound trihsaptakrtvah in the Rama Jamadagnya myth of the Mahabharata, where the epic hero slays the Ksatriya class "twenty-one times" over to avenge his Brahmana father's murder. With a cursory treatment of the Vedic evidence, Dejenne concludes that the numerical phrase trih sapta functions as "a cryptic way to express the totality of Vedic knowledge" (p. 72). (16) To my mind, Dejenne's interpretation captures the broadest sense of the phrase. However, while he recognizes its relationship with sacrificial skill and knowledge, his assessment of trih sapta bleaches its specific nuances in the Rgveda and Atharvaveda. Indeed, by explaining its efficacy in terms of "esoteric or magical power," he employs a convenient intellectual contrivance that circumvents the conceptual associations, mythic ideals, and ritualized practices underlying the use of the phrase.

    This paper will lay bare these associations, ideals, and practices and will argue that the identity...

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