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Atharvashikha Upanishad

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52-596: Non - Saiddhantika The Atharvashikha Upanishad ( IAST : Atharvaśikhā ) is a Sanskrit text that is one of the minor Upanishads of Hinduism . It is among the 31 Upanishads associated with the Atharvaveda . It is classified as a Shaiva Upanishad, focussing on the destroyer god, Shiva . The text is composed through the voice of the Sage Atharvan , to whom the Atharvaveda is eponymously attributed. The text discusses and equates Om symbol to Shiva as

104-568: A macron ). Vocalic (syllabic) consonants, retroflexes and ṣ ( / ʂ ~ ɕ ~ʃ/ ) have an underdot . One letter has an overdot: ṅ ( /ŋ/ ). One has an acute accent : ś ( /ʃ/ ). One letter has a line below: ḻ ( / ɭ / ) (Vedic). Unlike ASCII -only romanisations such as ITRANS or Harvard-Kyoto , the diacritics used for IAST allow capitalisation of proper names. The capital variants of letters never occurring word-initially ( Ṇ Ṅ Ñ Ṝ Ḹ ) are useful only when writing in all-caps and in Pāṇini contexts for which

156-424: A difference between the two texts is that Atharvashiras never uses the word "Shiva" (instead uses Maheshvara), while Atharvashikha repeatedly uses the word Shiva. The Upanishad opens with sages ( Rishi ) Pippalada , Angiras and Sanatkumara meeting sage Atharvan and ask, "which Dhyana (meditation) is highest?", "what does meditation comprise of and who should meditate", "what is the object of meditation?" Om

208-433: A font, etc. It can be enabled in the input menu in the menu bar under System Preferences → International → Input Menu (or System Preferences → Language and Text → Input Sources) or can be viewed under Edit → Emoji & Symbols in many programs. Equivalent tools – such as gucharmap ( GNOME ) or kcharselect ( KDE ) – exist on most Linux desktop environments. Users of SCIM on Linux based platforms can also have

260-602: A lullaby, for probably the same reason, remarks Staal. Thus the contents of the Samaveda represent a tradition and a creative synthesis of music, sounds, meaning and spirituality, the text was not entirely a sudden inspiration. The portion of the first song of Samaveda illustrates the link and mapping of Rigvedic verses into a melodic chant: अग्न आ याहि वीतये – Rigveda 6.16.10 Agna ā yāhi vītaye Samaveda transformation (Jaiminiya manuscript): o gnā i / ā yā hi vā i / tā yā i tā yā i / Translation: O Agni , come to

312-541: A metric, melodic structure with a wide range of speculations and philosophical topics. The text in eighth and ninth volumes of the first chapter, for example, describes the debate between three men proficient in Udgitha , about the origins and support of Udgitha and all of empirical existence. The text summarizes their discussion as, What is the origin of this world? Space, said he. Verily, all things here arise out of space. They disappear back into space, for space alone

364-612: A separate compilation, called the Gandharva-Veda , and this Upaveda is attached to the Samaveda. The structure and theory of chants in the Samaveda have inspired the organizing principle for Indian classical arts and performances, and this root has been widely acknowledged by musicologists dealing with the history of Indian music. Our music tradition [Indian] in the North as well as in the South, remembers and cherishes its origin in

416-662: A teacher is third, All three achieve the blessed worlds. But the Brahmasamstha – one who is firmly grounded in Brahman – alone achieves immortality. The Kena Upanishad is embedded inside the last section of the Talavakara Brahmanam recension of the Samaveda. It is much shorter, but it too delves into philosophical and spiritual questions like the Chandogya Upanishad. In the fourth chapter,

468-435: Is sant- atman , or "calm-self". The half syllable is absent in the long pronunciation, the sound which is identified as the illumination of the soul. When uttered as a long reverberation, asserts the text, it rises upwards, resonating with Om-kara , the universal sound. Chapter 2 begins stating that Om is also called Pranava , because it makes all Pranas (vital breath, life force) to give Pranama (bow down). Om, states

520-536: Is Chandogya which has played a historic role in the evolution of various schools of Hindu philosophy . The embedded philosophical premises in Chandogya Upanishad have, for example, served as foundation for Vedanta school of Hinduism. It is one of the most cited texts in later Bhasyas (reviews and commentaries) by scholars from the diverse schools of Hinduism. Adi Shankara , for example, cited Chandogya Upanishad 810 times in his Vedanta Sutra Bhasya , more than any other ancient text. The Chandogya Upanishad belongs to

572-515: Is also referred to as Sama Veda . Michael Witzel states that there is no absolute dating for Samaveda and other Vedic texts. He estimates the composition of the samhita layer of the text chronologically after the Rigveda, and in the likely range of 1200 to 1000 BCE, roughly contemporary with the Atharvaveda and the Yajurveda . There were about a dozen styles of Samavedic chanting. Of

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624-653: Is also used for major e-text repositories such as SARIT, Muktabodha, GRETIL, and sanskritdocuments.org. The IAST scheme represents more than a century of scholarly usage in books and journals on classical Indian studies. By contrast, the ISO 15919 standard for transliterating Indic scripts emerged in 2001 from the standards and library worlds. For the most part, ISO 15919 follows the IAST scheme, departing from it only in minor ways (e.g., ṃ/ṁ and ṛ/r̥)—see comparison below. The Indian National Library at Kolkata romanization , intended for

676-782: Is by setting up an alternative keyboard layout . This allows one to hold a modifier key to type letters with diacritical marks. For example, alt + a = ā. How this is set up varies by operating system. Linux/Unix and BSD desktop environments allow one to set up custom keyboard layouts and switch them by clicking a flag icon in the menu bar. macOS One can use the pre-installed US International keyboard, or install Toshiya Unebe's Easy Unicode keyboard layout. Microsoft Windows Windows also allows one to change keyboard layouts and set up additional custom keyboard mappings for IAST. This Pali keyboard installer made by Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator (MSKLC) supports IAST (works on Microsoft Windows up to at least version 10, can use Alt button on

728-530: Is described in the Sanskrit texts such as the Puspasutra . Just like Rigveda, the early sections of Samaveda typically begin with Agni and Indra hymns but shift to abstract speculations and philosophy, and their meters too shifts in a descending order. The later sections of the Samaveda, states Witzel, have least deviation from substance of hymns they derive from Rigveda into songs. The purpose of Samaveda

780-535: Is greater than these, space is the final goal. This is the most excellent Udgitha . This is endless. The most excellent is his, the most excellent worlds does he win, who, knowing it thus, reveres the most excellent Udgitha ( Om , ॐ ). Max Muller notes that the term "space" above, was later asserted in the Vedanta Sutra verse 1.1.22 to be a symbolism for the Vedic concept of Brahman . Paul Deussen explains

832-515: Is likely the minor Upanishads were commented on by different persons who were also named Shankaracharya. IAST The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration ( IAST ) is a transliteration scheme that allows the lossless romanisation of Indic scripts as employed by Sanskrit and related Indic languages. It is based on a scheme that emerged during the 19th century from suggestions by Charles Trevelyan , William Jones , Monier Monier-Williams and other scholars, and formalised by

884-497: Is meant by Om and the significance of its syllables , and Section 2 dealing with the benefits one derives by meditating coupled with reciting the word Om representing the four Vedas . The text focuses on OM mantra and its benefits. The Atharvashikha Upanishad imitates and repeats some text from other Shaiva Upanishads such as the Atharvashiras Upanishad , while expanding on a few aspects covered by it. However,

936-498: Is probably among the later Upanishad in this group, and may be the stage of Hinduism where a transition occurred from Rudra, Ishana and related Vedic deities to one Shiva. The Atharvashikha Upanishad is, states Parmeshwaranand, a relatively later era composition (still 1st millennium BCE), influenced by the Pashupata Shaivism. The Atharvashikha Upanishad is presented in two sections, with Section 1 dealing with what

988-617: Is the Veda of melodies and chants. It is an ancient Vedic Sanskrit text, and is one of the sacred scriptures in Hinduism . One of the four Vedas , it is a liturgical text which consists of 1,875 verses. All but 75 verses have been taken from the Rigveda . Three recensions of the Samaveda have survived, and variant manuscripts of the Veda have been found in various parts of India . While its earliest parts are believed to date from as early as

1040-488: Is the highest, replies Atharvan. The text explains the basic meaning of the divine Om mantra, representing the Para Brahman , the highest Brahman, the "Ultimate Reality". Om's has four legs, syllables, which symbolize the four gods and the four Vedic scriptures. It has also four heads, which stand for holy fires – Garhapatya, Dakshina, Ahavaniya and destructive fire. The four syllables of Om – A (अ), U (उ), M (म) and

1092-574: The Tandya school of the Samaveda. Like Brhadaranyaka Upanishad , the Chandogya Upanishad is an anthology of texts that must have pre-existed as separate texts, and were edited into a larger text by one or more ancient Indian scholars. The precise chronology of Chandogya Upanishad is uncertain, but it is the youngest layer of text in the Samaveda, and it is variously dated to have been composed by 8th to 6th century BCE in India. The Chandogya text combines

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1144-518: The Kena Upanishad states, for example, that all beings have an innate longing for spiritual knowledge, for self-awareness. This knowledge of Atman-Brahman is Tadvanam (transcendental happiness, blissfulness). In the final paragraphs, Kena Upanishad asserts ethical life as the foundation of self-knowledge and of Atman-Brahman. Tapas , Damah , Work - these are the foundations, the Vedas are

1196-614: The Rigveda, because outside of the musical novelty and melodic creativity, the substance of all but 75 verses of the text have predominantly been derived from the Rigveda. A study of Rigveda suffices. The Indian classical music and dance, states Guy Beck, is rooted in the sonic and musical dimensions of the Sama Veda, along with the Upanishads and Agamas. The Samaveda, in addition to singing and chanting, mentions instruments. The rules and suggestions for playing various instruments form

1248-527: The Rigvedic period, the existing samhita text dates from the post-Rigvedic Mantra period of Vedic Sanskrit , between c. 1200 and 1000 BCE or "slightly rather later," roughly contemporary with the Atharvaveda and the Yajurveda . Along with the Samhita layer of text, the Samaveda includes Brahmana texts, and a final layer of the text that covers philosophical speculations ( Upanishads ). These layers of

1300-442: The Rigvedic verses are repeated more than once. Including these repetitions, there are a total of 1,875 verses numbered in the Samaveda recension translated by Griffith. Divisions Sama vedic Yajur vedic Atharva vedic Vaishnava puranas Shaiva puranas Shakta puranas Samaveda samhita is not meant to be read as a text, it is like a musical score sheet that must be heard . Staal states that

1352-619: The Shrautasutra. The song books remain unpublished. A German edition of Samaveda was published in 1848 by Theodor Benfey , and Satyavrata Samashrami published an edited Sanskrit version in 1873. A Russian translation was published by Filipp Fortunatov in 1875. An English translation was published by Ralph Griffith in 1893. A translation in Hindi by Mridul Kirti called "Samveda Ka Hindi Padyanuvad" has also been published recently. The Samaveda text has not received as much attention as

1404-694: The Supreme Being and Brahman, explaining the spirituality behind its chanting and meditation. It declares Shiva to be higher than Brahma, Vishnu, Rudra, and Ishvara. The text is also called Atharvashikhopanishad , and is listed at 23 in the Telugu language anthology of 108 Upanishads in Muktika canon. The word "Atharvashikha", states Deussen, means the “Tip of the Atharvan”. Shikha also means "particular verse or formula" and "a tuft or lock of hair on

1456-725: The Transliteration Committee of the Geneva Oriental Congress , in September 1894. IAST makes it possible for the reader to read the Indic text unambiguously, exactly as if it were in the original Indic script. It is this faithfulness to the original scripts that accounts for its continuing popularity amongst scholars. Scholars commonly use IAST in publications that cite textual material in Sanskrit, Pāḷi and other classical Indian languages. IAST

1508-642: The area of Sanskrit studies make use of free OpenType fonts such as FreeSerif or Gentium , both of which have complete support for the full repertoire of conjoined diacritics in the IAST character set. Released under the GNU FreeFont or SIL Open Font License , respectively, such fonts may be freely shared and do not require the person reading or editing a document to purchase proprietary software to make use of its associated fonts. Sama Veda The Samaveda ( Sanskrit : सामवेद , IAST : Sāmaveda , from सामन् , "song" and वेद , "knowledge"),

1560-486: The chant- and rituals-related score modifications of the verses. The Samaveda text contains notated melodies, and these are probably the world's oldest surviving ones. The musical notation is written usually immediately above, sometimes within, the line of Samaveda text, either in syllabic or a numerical form depending on the Samavedic Sakha (school). R. T. H. Griffith says that there are three recensions of

1612-497: The compilation dates from the post-Rigvedic Mantra period of Vedic Sanskrit , likely around the 6th century BCE. Embedded inside the Samaveda are the widely studied Chandogya Upanishad and Kena Upanishad . These Upanishads are considered as primary Upanishads and have had influence on the six schools of Hindu philosophy , particularly the Vedanta school. The Samaveda laid important foundations for subsequent Indian music. It

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1664-536: The consumer edition since XP. This is limited to characters in the Basic Multilingual Plane (BMP). Characters are searchable by Unicode character name, and the table can be limited to a particular code block. More advanced third-party tools of the same type are also available (a notable freeware example is BabelMap ). macOS provides a "character palette" with much the same functionality, along with searching by related characters, glyph tables in

1716-631: The convention is to typeset the IT sounds as capital letters. For the most part, IAST is a subset of ISO 15919 that merges the retroflex (underdotted) liquids with the vocalic ones ( ringed below ) and the short close-mid vowels with the long ones. The following seven exceptions are from the ISO standard accommodating an extended repertoire of symbols to allow transliteration of Devanāgarī and other Indic scripts , as used for languages other than Sanskrit. The most convenient method of inputting romanized Sanskrit

1768-549: The crown of the head". Deussen states that the text is from the group of five Upanishads which assert god Shiva as a symbolism for Atman in Hinduism. Atharvashikha along with the other four Upanishads – Atharvashiras , Nilarudra, Kalagnirudra and Kaivalya – are ancient, with Nilarudra likely the oldest and Kaivalya the relatively later era Upanishad (still BCE) composed closer to the time of Shvetashvatara Upanishad , Mundaka Upanishad , and Mahanarayana Upanishad. Atharvashikha

1820-465: The deities of sensory organs in them. Brahman, Vishnu and Rudra too, The Lord and also the Blissful (Shiva) Fivefold as these five gods, The holy sound is proclaimed. Even utterance of the word Om for a second is stated to be superior to performance of one hundred yajna sacrifices. Further, Shiva is equated to Om. All knowledge, all Yoga practice, all meditation is about Shiva Mahadeva, states

1872-399: The feast. Multiple melodies were created by clans of sages from a Yonimantra, which is a base Mantra for Sama Chanting. Gautama's Parka was one such example cited by Dr. Damodar Satwalekar in his book Samveda. Two primary Upanishads of Hinduism are embedded inside the Samaveda – the Chandogya Upanishad and the Kena Upanishad. Both are notable for the lifting metric melodic structure, but it

1924-720: The half part (्) are equated with empirical realities, abstract concepts, rituals and gods by the Atharvashikha Upanishad. Atharvan explains that the first syllable of Om, "A", represents the Prithvi (Earth), the Rig Veda , the god Brahma – the Creator of the Trimurti, the color red, the eight Vasus , the gayatri meter , and Garhapatya , the sacred fire in a household. The second syllable "U" denotes, states

1976-569: The limbs of the same, the Truth is its fulcrum. The Kauthuma recension has been published (Samhita, Brahmana, Shrautasutra and ancillary Sutras, mainly by B.R. Sharma), parts of the Jaiminiya tradition remain unpublished. There is an edition of the first part of the Samhita by W. Caland and of the Brahmana by Raghu Vira and Lokesh Chandra, as well as the neglected Upanishad, but only parts of

2028-453: The melodies likely existed before the verses in ancient India, and the words of the Rigveda verses were mapped into those pre-existing melodies, because some early words fit and flow, while later words do not quite fit the melody in the same verse. The text uses creative structures, called Stobha , to help embellish, transform or play with the words so that they better fit into a desired musical harmony. Some verses add in meaningless sounds of

2080-700: The opportunity to install and use the sa-itrans-iast input handler which provides complete support for the ISO 15919 standard for the romanization of Indic languages as part of the m17n library. Or user can use some Unicode characters in Latin-1 Supplement, Latin Extended-A, Latin Extended Additional and Combining Diarcritical Marks block to write IAST. Only certain fonts support all the Latin Unicode characters essential for

2132-471: The right side of the keyboard instead of Ctrl+Alt combination). Many systems provide a way to select Unicode characters visually. ISO/IEC 14755 refers to this as a screen-selection entry method . Microsoft Windows has provided a Unicode version of the Character Map program (find it by hitting ⊞ Win + R then type charmap then hit ↵ Enter ) since version NT 4.0 – appearing in

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2184-486: The romanisation of all Indic scripts , is an extension of IAST. The IAST letters are listed with their Devanagari equivalents and phonetic values in IPA , valid for Sanskrit , Hindi and other modern languages that use Devanagari script, but some phonological changes have occurred: * H is actually glottal , not velar . Some letters are modified with diacritics : Long vowels are marked with an overline (often called

2236-591: The spectrum of all colours, the Maruts deities, the Viraj meter and the Samvartaka fire which destroys creation. It reverberates as the sound of Brahman. The fourth half mora (syllable) of Om has three specific pronunciation modes – the short, long and the extra long, states the text. These are related specifically to the degrees of utterance – one, two, and three matra s, units of vocal pronunciation. This fourth

2288-400: The term Brahman means the "creative principle which lies realized in the whole world". The text discusses Dharma and many other topics: There are three branches of Dharma (righteous life, duty): Yajna (sacrifice), Svādhyāya (self study) and Dāna (charity) are the first, Tapas (austerity, meditation) is the second, while dwelling as a Brahmacharya for education in the house of

2340-540: The text has 585 single stanza verses and is organized in order of deities, while Uttararcika text is ordered by rituals. The Gramageya melodies are those for public recitations, while Aranyageya melodies are for personal meditative use such as in the solitude of a forest. Typically, the Purvarcika collection were sung to melodies described in the Gramageya-Gānas index, and the rules of how the verses mapped to verses

2392-565: The text of the Samaveda Samhita: The Samaveda comprises two major parts. The first part include four melody collections and the second part three verse "books" . A melody in the song books corresponds to a verse in the aarchika books. The Gana collection is subdivided into Gramageya and Aranyageya , while the Arcika portion is subdivided into Purvarcika and Uttararcika portions. The Purvarcika portion of

2444-480: The text, should be meditated upon as the origin of the Vedas and origin of all the gods. A meditation on Om relieves ( Samtarayati ) the meditator from fears and sorrows. As Vishnu in Om, it conquers all and fixes the mind in the highest Atman. As Brahma, it withdraws all senses. As Ishvara, it sets the whole world into activity. It is through Om that Brahma, Vishnu, Rudra and Ishvara came into being, as did all creatures and

2496-949: The text, the Akasha (sky), the Yajur Veda , the color black, the eleven Rudras , the Tristubh meter, and the Dakshinagni ritual fire. The third syllable "M" represents Heavens , the Sama Veda , the color white, Vishnu , the twelve Adityas , the Jagati meter and the Ahavaniya ritual fire. The half fourth syllable, which is the hidden part that follows M, represents the Atharva Veda , Purusha (the Supreme Being),

2548-543: The text. The Om-sound, asserts the Upanishad, is Shiva. The Hindu philosopher Adi Shankara (c. early 8th century CE), apart from providing commentary on major Upanishads, which are well recorded, is also credited with bhasya (commentary) on a few minor Upanishads which include the Atharvashikha Upanishad . This is considered highly doubtful by scholars such as Paul Hacker and Natalia Isaeva, and it

2600-460: The three surviving versions, the Jaiminiya preserves the oldest surviving tradition of Samavedic chanting. The Samaveda is the Veda of Chants, or "storehouse of knowledge of chants". According to Frits Staal , it is "the Rigveda set to music". It is a fusion of older melodies ( sāman ) and the Rig verses. It has far fewer verses than Rigveda, but Samaveda is textually larger because it lists all

2652-487: The transliteration of Indic scripts according to the IAST and ISO 15919 standards. For example, the Arial , Tahoma and Times New Roman font packages that come with Microsoft Office 2007 and later versions also support precomposed Unicode characters like ī . Many other text fonts commonly used for book production may be lacking in support for one or more characters from this block. Accordingly, many academics working in

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2704-530: Was liturgical, and they were the repertoire of the udgātṛ or "singer" priests. The Samaveda, like other Vedas, contains several layers of text, with Samhita being the oldest and the Upanishads the youngest layer. The Samaveda consists of 1,549 unique verses, taken almost entirely from Rigveda, except for 75 verses. The largest number of verse come from Books 9 and 8 of the Rig Veda. Some of

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