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The Upanishads, Part 1

By Max Müller

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III, 1, 5

FIFTH KHANDA.
1. Now those who repeat the Nirbhuga say:

2. 'The former half 1 is the first syllable, the latter half the second syllable, and the space between the first and second halves is the Samhitâ (union).'

3. He who thus knows this Samhitâ (union), becomes united with offspring, cattle, fame, glory of countenance, and the world of Svarga. He lives his full age.

4. Now Hrasva Mândûkeya says: 'We reciters of Nirbhuga say, "Yes, the former half is the first syllable, and the latter half the second syllable, but the Samhitâ is the space between the first and second halves in so far as by it one turns out the union (sandhi), and knows what is the accent and what is not 2, and distinguishes what is the mora and what is not."'

5. He who thus knows this Samhitâ (union), becomes united with offspring, cattle, fame, glory of countenance, and the world of Svarga. He lives his full age.

6. Now his middle son, the child of his mother Prâtibodhî 3, says: 'One pronounces these two syllables letter by letter, without entirely separating them, and without entirely uniting them 1. Then that mora between the first and second halves, which indicates the union, that is the Sâman (evenness, sliding). I therefore hold Sâman only to be the Samhitâ (union).

7. This has also been declared by a Rishi (Rv. II, 23, 16):--

8. 'O Brihaspati, they know nothing higher than Sâman.'

9. He who thus knows this Samhitâ (union), becomes united with offspring, cattle, fame, glory of countenance, and the world of Svarga. He lives his full age.

Footnotes
253:1 As spoken of before, III, 1, 1, 1.

253:2 In agnim île, île by itself has no accent, but as joined by sandhi with agnim, its first syllable becomes svarita, its second prakita. In tava it, the vowel i is a short mora or mâtrâ; but if joined with va, it vanishes, and becomes long e, tavet. Comm.

253:3 Prâtîbodhîputra, the son of Prâtîbodhî, she being probably one out of several wives of Hrasva. Another instance of this metronymic nomenclature occurred in Krishna Devakîputra, Kh. Up. III, 7, 6. The Kashmir MS. reads Prâkîbodhî, but Pratibodha is a recognised name in Gana Vidâdi, and the right reading is probably Prâtibodhî. The same MS. leaves out putra âha.

254:1 So that the ê in tavet should neither be one letter e, nor two letters a + i, but something between the two, enabling us to hear a + i in the pronunciation of ê.