Chandogya Upanishad:

The Chanters' Teaching:

Book I Part II
1.8

1. There were three who were expert in the Udgitha, Silaka Salavatya, Caikitayana Dalbhya and Pravahana Jaivali. They said, 'We are expert in the Udgitha: come, let us have a debate about the Udgitha.'

2. 'Agreed,' they said, and sat down together.

Pravahana Jaivali said, 'Blessed ones, speak first, and I will listen to you two Brahmanas as you speak.'

3. Silaka Salavatya said to Caikitayana Dalbhya, 'Come, let me ask you a question.' 'Ask,' he said.

4. 'What does the saman go back to?' Literally, what is its gati, 'going', or ultimate destination (and hence its source, too).

'Sound (svara),' he said.

'What does sound go back to?'

'The breath’ he said.

'What does the breath go back to?'

'Food’ he said.

'What does food go back to?'

'The waters’ he said.

5. 'What do the waters go back to?'

'That world’ he said.

'What does that world go back to?'

'One should not carry it on beyond the heavenly world' he said. 'We establish the saman on the heavenly world, for the saman is praised as heaven.'

6. Silaka Salavatya said to Caikitayana Dalbhya, 'Dalbhya, your saman is unsupported. If someone were to say now, "Your head will split apart", your head would split apart.'

7. 'Come then, I must know it from you, blessed one.'

'You shall know it,' he said.

'What does that world go back to?'

'This world,' he said.

'What does this world go back to?'

'One should not carry it on beyond this world, the support,' he said. 'We establish the saman on the world, the support, for the saman is praised as the support.'

8. Pravahana Jaivali said to him, 'Salavatya, your saman is finite. If someone were to say now, "Your head will split apart", your head would, split apart.'

'Come then, I must know it from you, blessed one.'

'You shall know it,' he said.

1.9

1. 'What does this world go back to?'

'Space’ he said, 'for all beings arise from space and sink back into space. Space is older than they: space is the final end.'

2. The Udgitha is higher than the highest; it is infinite. The one who, knowing this, contemplates the Udgitha as higher than the highest gets what is higher than the highest, conquers worlds which are higher than the highest.

3. Atidhanvan Saunaka, having taught this to Udarasandilya, said, 'As long as those in your progeny know the Udgitha as such, their life in this world will be higher than the highest.

4. 'They will have a world in that world, too.'

Likewise, for the one who, knowing this, contemplates it as such, his life in this world is higher than the highest. He will have a world in that world, too: a world in that world, too.

1.10

1. When the Kuru-country had been battered by hailstones, Literally, when the Kurus were struck by hailstones (or possibly locusts—mataa). There was a famine, but no shortage of water Usasti Cakrayana, being destitute, lived with his wife Atiki in an elephant keeper's village. Ibhyagrama, said to be a village belonging to a man who is rich enough to keep an elephant (ibha), though it is equally possible that Ibhya is the headman's name. In the following passage, I have repeated the names of the speakers where the pronouns seemed ambiguous.

2. He begged alms from the elephant keeper, who was eating black beans.

The elephant keeper said, 'There are none but these which have been served to me.'

3. Usasti said, 'Give me some of them.'

He gave them to him, and said, 'Come, here is water to go with it.'

Usasti said, 'But then I would be drinking leftovers.'

4. 'So weren't these leftovers, too?'

'If I had not eaten them, I would not have lived,' he said, 'but drinking the water is up to me.' To save his life Usasti accepts the beans, despite the ritual impurity of eating ucchisrta, leftovers (an instance of Spad-dharma); but since water is available elsewhere he does not feel able to accept that.

5. When he had eaten, he took those that were left, for his wife. She had got good alms earlier, so she took them and put them in store.

6. When he got up in the morning, he said, 'Ah! If only we could get some food! Then we could get a little bit of wealth. The king is going to offer a sacrifice. He would have chosen me for all the priestly offices.'

7. His wife said, 'Well, husband, here are the black beans!' He ate them, and went to the sacrifice which had been prepared.

8. He sat down near the Udgatr priests, who were about to sing praises at the praising-place. The Sstava, where the Udgatr and his assistants, the Prastotr and Pratihartr, sit to chant the saman. He said to the Prastotr,

9. 'Prastotr, if you sing the Prastava without knowing the deity that is associated with the Prastava, your head will split apart.' The singing of the sSman is typically divided up as follows: the Prastava, 'prelude', sung by the Prastotr; the Udgitha, sung by the Udgatr; the Pratihara, 'response', sung by the Pratihartr; and the Nidhana, 'finale', sung by all three. The whole is preceded by the Hinkara, 'humming'. The whole sSman corresponds to one or more stanzas of a hymn, adapted for chanting by the insertion of syllables called stobhas, and the sections sung by different priests often overlap, the Udgatr, for example, beginning the Udgitha before the Prastotr has finished the Prastava. For details of saffian-chanting, with musical examples, see Staal 1983, especially Howard, W.'The Music of Nambudiri Unexpressed Chant (Aniruktagana)'

10. Likewise, he said to the Udgatr, 'Udgatr, if you sing the Udgitha without knowing the deity that is associated with the Udgitha, your head will split apart.'

11. Likewise, he said to the Pratihartr, 'Pratihartr, if you sing the Pratihara without knowing the deity that is associated with the Pratihara, your head will split apart.' They ceased and sat in silence.

1.11

1. The patron of the sacrifice I.e. the king said, 'Blessed one, I would very much like to know who you are.' 'Usasti Cakrayana,' he said.

2. The patron said, 'Blessed one, I searched for you for all the priestly offices. Because I could not find you, blessed one, I chose the others.

3. 'Blessed one, please act for me in all the priestly offices.' It seems that just the priestly offices of the Udgatr group are intended. 'I will. But let these still offer praise, under my direction. But you should give me as much money as you give them.'

'I will,' said the patron of the sacrifice.

4. Then the Prastotr approached him, saying, 'Blessed one, you said to me, "Prastotr, if you sing the Prastava without knowing the deity that is associated with the Prastava, your head will split apart." Which is that deity?'

5. 'The breath,' he said. 'All beings enter into the breath, rise up with the breath. That is the deity that is associated with the Prastava. If you had sung the Prastava without knowing it, your head would have split apart when I told you this.'

6. Then the Udgatr approached him, saying, 'Blessed one, you said to me, "Udgatr, if you sing the Udgitha without knowing the deity that is associated with the Udgitha, your head will split apart."

7.Which is that deity?' 'knowing it, your head would have split apart when I told you this.'

8. Then the Pratihartr approached him, saying, 'Blessed one, you said to me, "Pratihartr, if you sing the Pratihara without knowing the deity that is associated with the Pratihara, your head will split apart." Which is that deity?'

9. 'Food,' he said. 'All beings live by. collecting (prati-hr-) food. That is the deity that is associated with the Pratihara. If you had sung the Pratihara without knowing it, your head would have split apart when I told you this—when I told you this.'

1.12

1. Now the Udgitha of the dogs: There seems no reason to assume that satire is intended, though perhaps some shock value is intended in placing the saman is the mouths of animals regarded as unclean. Perhaps the implication is that the chanter should desire the higher benefits of the sacrifice as earnestly as the dogs desire food and drink.

Once Baka Dalbhya, or Glava Maitreya, went forth to study.

2. A white dog appeared to him. Other dogs approached that one and said, 'Blessed one, sing into being food for us, for we are hungry.'

3. He told them, 'Meet me just here in the morning.' Baka Dalbhya, or Glava Maitreya, waited.

4. Just as those who are about to chant the Bahispavamana glide around holding on to one another, As the priests move around in a circle, each holding on to the robe of the one in front, each dog holds the tail of the one in front. The Bahispavamana ('externally purifying') is the ritual by which the priests purify the outside of the sacrificial area. they glided around. Then, sitting down together, they uttered the sound him.

5. 'OM ... Let us eat . . .! OM. Let us drink . . .! OM . . . May the god Varuna, may Prajapati, may Savitr . . .

Then, sitting down together, they uttered the sound him. 5. 'OM ... Let us eat . . .! OM. Let us drink . . .! OM . . . May the god Varuna, may Prajapati, may Savitr . . . bring food here . . .! 0 lord of food . . . bring here . . ., bring food here . . .! OM.!' Many of the syllables are marked as extended to three beats to imitate the style of chanting

1.13

1. This world is the sound hau. Air is the sound hai. The moon is the sound atha. The self is the sound iha. Fire is the sound ; These are stohhas, ritual cries inserted into verses in sitman-chanting.

2. The sun is the sound «. Invocation is the sound e. The Visvedevas are the sound auhoyi. Prajapati is the sound him. Breath is svara. Food is yd. Speech is viraj.

3. The thirteenth ritual cry, hum, which is variable, is undefined.

4. Speech gives milk, the milk of speech, for him, and he becomes a possessor of food, an eater of food—the one who knows the inner meaning (Upanishad) of the sdman: the one who knows the inner meaning.



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