Svara

Svara, “sound, vowel, tone”

Grammar: masculine noun, from the root svṛ (to sound): “sound, tone”.

Meaning: (1) a vowel, a sound that stands by itself; (2) the pitch of a Vedic sound, udātta, anudātta or svarita; (3) a musical note, shaḍja and the rest; (4) in the Yuddhajayārṇava, the five vowels a, i, u, e, o, which rise in turn through the day and govern success in battle.

In the scriptures: the Agni Purāṇa uses the word in these places.

  • The five svaras of the Yuddhajayārṇava: Agnideva, telling the chief matters of the Yuddhajayārṇava for victory and other auspicious acts, says that a, i, u, e and o are the five svaras, and the consonants from ka to ha come after them. In their order are the tithis Nandā, Bhadrā, Jayā, Riktā and Pūrṇā, and their lords are Sūrya and Maṅgala, Budha and Candra, Bṛhaspati and Śukra, Śani and Maṅgala. A pala is the time of 360 beats of the pulse at the hand: three beats make one ucchvāsa (breath), six ucchvāsas one pala, sixty palas one daṇḍa, and sixty daṇḍas a day and night; by this measure the svaras rise. The five are named bāla (child), kumāra (boy), yuvan (youth), vṛddha (old man) and mṛtyu (death). Each rises and sets over one eleventh of sixty daṇḍas, and the next rises after five daṇḍas and twenty-seven palas. One who fights at the rising of the mṛtyu-svara meets defeat and death (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 123).
  • Mūlabrahma: Agnideva tells what Śaṅkara told Pārvatī of the five mantras of the mantrapīṭha: the fifth mantra is the five svaras a, i, u, e, o, which are also called Mūlabrahma. First the śakti adorned with Oṃkāra came forth; the bindu became the letter e; from the sound of Oṃ came u, which sounds in the heart; from the ardhacandra came i, which shows the path to moksha; then came the unmanifest a, which gives bhoga and moksha and teaches pravṛtti and nivṛtti. In the body, a stays as prāṇa and is called Iḍā; i, named Pratishṭhā, is rasa and the protector, called Piṅgalā; the Hara-bīja u is fire in the body, the vidyā called Gāndhārī with the power of burning; e is water, with the act of pacifying; and o is air, ever moving as apāna, vyāna and udāna. The Oṃkāra, the subtle form of the five svaras joined, stays as ākāśa. Their lords are Kuja, Budha, Guru, Śukra and Śani; the letters from ka are below them, and these are the root causes of the world (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 124).
  • The svaras of the metres: in the essence of chandas, the seven metres from Gāyatrī onward have in order their devatās, their colours and their svaras, shaḍja and the rest (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 330).
  • In śikshā: Agnideva, teaching śikshā, the science of the sounds of the Veda, says that the sounds number sixty-three or sixty-four, and of them twenty-one are svaras (vowels). The prāṇa-vāyu moving in the heart makes the low (mandra) svara of the morning savana and the Gāyatrī; in the throat the middle svara of the midday savana; and in the head the high svara of the evening savana and the Jagatī. Svara is of three kinds, udātta, anudātta and svarita, and Veda-adhyayana done with good svara is radiant (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 336).

In the Bhāgavata Purāṇa. Teaching Parīkshit to meditate on the virāṭ form, Śuka Maharshi says that when that Parameśvara remembered the musical svaras beginning with shaḍja, those memories took shape as the devayonis called gandharvas, vidyādharas, cāraṇas and apsarases (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 2, Chapter 1). Maitreya tells Vidura that from Brahmā‘s vihāra (play, movement) were born the seven svaras: nishāda, ṛshabha, gāndhāra, shaḍja, madhyama, dhaivata and pañcama (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 12).

Related terms: Varṇa · Udātta · Śikshā · Oṃkāra · Yuddhajayārṇava · Chandas

Sources

  • Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 123, 124, 330, 336
  • Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 2, Chapter 1; Skandha 3, Chapter 12