35. BRAHMA VALLI________________________________________ 35.1. The Final Knowledge on Brāhmi Script This work will come to a close with the important Taittiriya Upaniṣad which is a part of the Taittiriya Āraṇyaka, appearing in three parts as the seventh, eighth and ninth Prapāṭaka, which go by the name Sikṣāvalli, Ānandavalli and Bṛghuvalli. They were also called by other names like the second one called as “Brahma Ānandavalli”. Yet other names for them are Samhitā, Yajña, and Vāruni Vidyas, but the most popular one for the first one is Sikṣāvalli, several hymns in the first part associated with a number of seers like Mahācamasya, Rathitara, Pauruśiṣṭi, Nāka the son of Mudgala and finally Triśaṅku, each emphasizing one or other aspect of discipline as for example Mahā-camasya emphasized Brahmam (Mahaḥ), Rathitara emphasized Satyam, Pauruśiṣṭi emphasized Tapas, and Nāka emphasized Learning and teaching (Svādhyāya and Pravacana). The sage Triśaṅku experienced that the “'I' in the individual is like the life in the tree, the fame of it is like the peak of a hill, is extreme purity in existence; It is resplendent as the brightness of Sun and the abode of truth in soul.” All these experiences of the sages are one and the same and that is the truth about Brahmam. Having taught this the teacher advices the student with a remarkable counseling. This Upaniṣad is very popular among the Vedic scholars to this day and is used in many rituals, teachings and Vedic sacrifices. Dr. Sir. S. Radhakrishnan in his book “The Principal Upanishad” says:- “The Taittirya Upaniṣad belongs to Taittiriya school of the Yajurveda. It is divided into three sections called Vallis. The first is the Sikṣāvalli. Sikṣā is th first aṅga-subject of the six Vedāṅgas (limbs or auxiliaries of the Vedas). The second is the Brahmānandavalli and the third is the Bhṛguvalli. These two deal with the knowledge of the Supreme self — Parmatma Jñāna.” According to Sanskrit traditions the six limbs of the Vedic studies are 1) Sikṣā, 2) Vyākaraṇa, 3) Chandas, 4) Niruktam, 5) Jyostiṣam, and 6) Kalpam. Thus Sikṣa is the first and important limb of Vedic studies and relates to Phonetics, and Pronunciation”. It begins with the statement “we now begin with explaining Siksha: Varnas (letters) Svara, its strength, Mātrās, and their continuity and combination are the rhythmic recitation”. sikṣām vyākh yāsyāmaḥ; varnas svaraḥ; mātrā balam; sāma santānam. Radhakrishnan translates this passage as “We will expound pronunciation of letters or sounds, pitch, quality, force or stress, articulation, and combination; This is called the section on Sikṣa”. According to this, the first lesson on Vedānga begins with the study of letters. The most ancient Tamiḻ Grammar Tolkāppiyam incidentally begins with “Eḻuttu” the letters. A study of this chapter shows Tolkāppiyar wrote his work when Brāhmi script had already come into vogue in Tamailnadu for he wrote about both the written script and phonetic sound. How Tolkāppiyam deals with the phonetic sounds is brilliantly analyzed by P. S. Subrahmanya Sastry, in his work “An Enquiry into the relationship of Sanskirt and Tamiḻ”, published by the University of Travancore, 1946, Chapter II. His following remarks are worth recalling at this point.
“Many technical terms relating to Phonology, Morphology, Poetics and Prosody had already existed before his time and Tolkāppiyar should have made use of them. His text tells us not only this, but he has also made use of his knowledge of the Vedas Sikshās, the Prātisākhyas, the Nirukta, Sanskrit grammar, Sanskrit science of Poetics, Dharma Sāstras, the Kamasutra, the Arthaśāstra etc.In the chapter on the production of Sound he refers to the four phases of speech sound Parā, Paśyanti, Madhyamā and Vaikahari mentioned in the Ṛg Veda and tells us that in his work he deals with only the last Vaikhari and those who wish can learn them from Antanar Marai (Vedas of the Brāhmins). Prof Sastri refers to Sutra 102 of eḻuttu atikāram of Tolkāppiyam. ellā eḻuttm — ahatteḻu vai icai aril tapa nāḍi aḷavir koḍal antaṇar maṟaitte” It is necessary to note that P. S. Sastri wrote when much inscriptional material especially about the script was not discovered. A large number of Brāhmi inscription have come to light in recent times and need to be studied in relation to Tolkäppiyam. The earliest inscriptions are found in Brahmi script that may be ascribed to First cent BCE. As Tolkāppiyar mentions script he may be assigned to first cent CE. The following sūtras of Tolkāppiyam refer to written script. meyyiyarkai pulliyōdu nilayal. The nature of consonant is to appear with a dot. pulli illā ellā meyyum uruuruāki akaramōḍu uyirttalum, enai uyiroḍu uruvu tirindu uyirtalum āyīriyala uyirtal āre. All consonants without dot, appear with modifications to their forms except the syllable of the first varga like “ka” which has only its basic form without any change. The graphic form of script is “Eḻuttu” in Tamiḻ which is also used to denote its phonetic sound. So Naccinārkkiniyār, the commentator says that “Eḻuttu” stands for both written and phonetic form. “eḻutap-paḍuvatālum eḻuppap-paḍuvatālum eḻuttu”. i.e., eḻuttu is so called because it is written and is also pronounced. The root “eḻu” means both raise (sound) and write/draw. The Vedic Brāhmaṉas were obliged to serve as judges in village courts and that calls for a knowledge of Dharma Śāstras for him. Eighteen major Dharma Śāstras like that of Manu, Yājñyavalkhya, Vasiṣṭa, Nārada, Bṛhaspati and others were available for study then. The Dharma Śāstra insists on the written document for ownership rights and other transactions for deciding disputes. Similarly a knowledge of Numerals and Arithmetic is required for all transactions like laying yāgakuṇḍas, construction of residences, trade, royal treasury and administration, etc. The Vedic Brāmhaṇas were to study both written script and numerals. They were also considered as effective ambassadors. When they learnt the Vedas, the knowledge of phonetics and pronunciation was necessary. There is a tradition of calling the Vedas “unwritten text” eḻutākkiḻavi which some scholars mistook and wrote that (Vedic) Brāhmaṇas were against written script. This eḻutākkiḻavi applies only to the learning of Vedic texts and not against other subjects -vidyas like Dharma Śāstra, mathematics, astronomy, royal administration etc. There are three words in the Vedas namely Bhūḥ, Bhuvaḥ, and Suvaḥ which are used extensively in Vedic recitations and rituals. A certain Maharishi Camasya realized and introduced another Vyāhṛti called “Mahaḥ” as the fourth. These terms had multiple layers of meaning, given in the Upaniṣad itself. The meanings of each layer are:- a) Bhūḥ means earth pṛthvī; bhuvaḥ means space ākāśaḥ; Suvaḥ means the whole universe and mahaḥ means Āditya - Sun. It is from Sun all beings grow. b) Bhūḥ means Fire, Agni; Bhuvaḥ means Wind, Vayuḥ; Suvaḥ means Sun, Sūrya and Mahaḥ means Moon, Chandramāḥ. It is from Moon all luminaries shine brightly. c) Bhūḥ means Ṛg veda; Bhuvaḥ means Sāmaveda; Suvaḥ means Yajurveda and Mahaḥ means Brahmam. It is from Brahmam everything attain pre-eminence. d) Bhūḥ means vital breadth, Prāṇaḥ; Bhuvaḥ means Apāna out breadth air ; Suvaḥ means Vyāna diffused breadth and Mahaḥ means Annam food. These four Vyāhṛtis are explained as above by the Upaniṣad and in which Mahaḥ stands for Āditya, Chandramā, Brahmam, and Annam the four, vital requirements of men. Veda stand for learning process. So the ultimate in Veda is called Brahmam. All these are called as the mystic utterance of the Veda “OM”. This Upaniṣad praises everything as Brahmam identical with “OM”. This shows that the first praśna of this Upaniṣad is devoted to emphasizing Brahmam and is therefore rightly called Brahma valli aum iti brāhmaṇaḥ pravakṣyann āha, branhmopāpnavānīti, brahmaivopāpnoti It is because of this unity, the Vedic scholar is called a “Brāhmaṇa”. The student who studies this, concludes the first part of this Upaniṣad as “I salute Brahmam om namo brahmaṇe”. In this connection there is interesting information provided by Naccinarkkiniyar in his commentary on the study of Vedas and Vedāṅgas by Brāhmins of Tamiḻnadu. According to Naccinarkkiniyar the six limbs studied by the Tamiḻ Brāhmins were Nirutta (Niruktam) study of Vedic terms, Vyākaraṇa that deals with the grammar of Vedic terms and also worldly usages like Aintiram; Kalpas like that of Bodhāyaniyam, Bhāradvājam, Āpastampam, Ātreyam, and others; Gaṇitham Mathematics like that of Nārāyaṇīyam and Varāham; Chandam classical poetics, and Brahmam standing for eḻuttuārāycci. In this list Gaṇitham stands for what is called in Sanskrit sources as Jyotisham that satnds for astronomical calculations. But the most important point for our study here in the name is “Brahmam” (piraman) mentioned standing for eḻuttārāycci which means both written and phonetic sound. This is a clear example of Tamiḻ Brāhmins learning both written script and phonetic letters. The question arises what is the connection between eḻuttārāicci and Brāhmam? We have seen that the first lessons on phonetic of letters is called Sikṣā-valli in Taittirya Upaniṣd. We have also seen that this section teaching Varṇa letters emphasizes “brahmam”. So Naccinarkkiniyar gives the name Brahmam to Sikṣā valli which by this time included written script as well - eḻuttu. Naccinārkkiniyar is an extraordinary commentator who cites hundreds of examples for the sūtras but almost all of them are from Sangam literature and none from later period there by showing his primary concern as a stickler to tradition. The tradition of calling Sikṣāvalli as Brahmam two thousand years ago, is preserved for us by Naccinārkkiniyar, because of the importance given to Brahmam in that first section. It is certain that the study of script and Phonetic letters were very closely and largely used in the learning of Vedic Brāhmaṇas and so the script itself came to be called Brahmi i.e “of the Brahmanas”. It naturally was also called Bammi in Prākrit. Scholars who have studied the Brāhmi script has shown that it was designed for Sanskrit phonetics like the varga sounds and invented by those well versed in Sanskrit. There is also a 7th Cent Chinese annals that mentions the Brahmi and Kharoshti scripts were invented in India which shows that Brāhmins who used to study the phonetics of Sanskrit invented this script. We may add that Panini's Vyākaraṇa came into vogue in the North West Frontiers of India and this school was very active in that region. Asoka Maurya (3rd cent BCE) in whose time the script emerges was the Governor of this Province when he started his career as a young prince before he went to Avanti and then became the Ruler of Magada. He was an enterprising king who had already the knowledge of writings in Greek (Balkan states) and Persia that had Aramaic script. It is not unlikely that he was responsible in encouraging the Sanskrit scholars to invent a script for his administrative and judicial functions. Asoka's edicts have been found in Greek and Aramaic characters are known. Also he used Kharoshti script which also emerges in that region from that times onwards. So he preferred the use of Brāhmi in his kingdom upto Māgadha and Kharoshti in North-West Frontier Province. Asoka's instruction to enter all the gift made by his queen should be entered in her name, in one of his edict, shows that he was using it in his administrative and judicial systems. I have shown in the chapter on “Brāhmins and Brāhmi under Asoka”, that the Dharma he preached was the same as the Sikṣāvalli of the Taittirya Upaniṣad, which teaches the study of letters. It is necessary to point out that the Tolkāppiyam has a prologue Pāyiram written by Tolkāppiyar's co-student Panam pāranar who categorically states that Tolkāppiyam fully followed a grammar named Aintiram “aintiram nirainta tolkāppiyam”. We have seen that Naccinarkkiniyar says the Vyākaraṇa studied by the Tamiḻ Brāhmins in their study of Vedas was Aintiram which deals with Vedic tradition. āru aṅgamāva (ṣaḍaṅga) ulakiyal collai olittu vaidika collai ārayum nirukta; avviraṇḍaiyum (ulakiyal and vaidikam) uḍan ārayum aintiram todakkattu vyākaraṇamum; bhāradvajam, bodhāyanaiym, āpasthambam, ātreyam mudaliya karpangalum, nārāyaṇīyam, varāhammudaliya ganitankalum; eḻuttārāycciyākiya biramamum, ceyyuḷ ilakkaṇamākiya chandamumām — (Nacciṉārkkiṉiyar’s commentary on Tolkāppiyam Sūtram 75, in Purattinai ). Also Nacciṉārkkiṉiyar in his commentary on Ahat-tiṇai of Tolkāppiyam mentions that the nomenclature used by Tolkāppiyar was the ones used by Agastya in his Tamiḻ grammar Agattiyam. He further state “These technical words were coined by Agastya”. So the terms Ahat-tiṇai, Puṟat-tiṇai, etc used in Tolkāppiyam were wholly Vedic terminology. It should be remembered that the Eearly Pāṇḍyās repeatedly claim that their ancestors learnt both Sanskrit and Tamiḻ from Agastya. All evidences in Tamiḻ and Sanskrit point to the fact that the Tamiḻ and Tamiḻ society followed Vedic Traditions.
