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264
AITAREYA-ARANYAKA
of this, so there is the cavity1 (in the board) of that. As there is a tongue of this, so there is a tongue" in that. As there are fingers of this, so there are strings of that 3. As there are vowels of this, so there are tones of that. As there are consonants of this, so there are touches of that. As this is endowed with sound and firmly strung, so that is endowed with sound and firmly strung. As this is covered with a hairy skin, so that is covered with a hairy skin.
5. Verily, in former times they covered a lute with a hairy skin.
6. He who knows this lute made by the Devas (and meditates on it), is willingly listened to, his glory fills the earth, and wherever they speak Åryan languages, there they know him.
7. Next follows the verse, called vâgrasa, the essence of speech. When a man reciting or speaking in an assembly does not please, let him say this verse:
8. May the queen of all speech, who is covered, as it were, by the lips, surrounded by teeth, as if by spears, who is a thunderbolt, help me to speak well.' This is the vâgrasa, the essence of speech.
SIXTH KHANDA.
1. Next Krishna-Hârita confided this Brahmana 5 concerning speech to him (his pupil):
1 The Kashmir MS. reads udara evam, &c.
⚫ Vâdanam, what makes the instrument speak, hastena. Comm. Here the order is inverted in the text.
One of the sons of Harita, who was dark. Comm.
Brahmana, in the sense of Upanishad, this secret doctrine or explanation. It forms an appendix, like the svishtakrit at the end of a sacrifice. 'Iva,' which the commentator explains as restrictive or useless, may mean, something like a Brahmana.
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