Upanishads · Taittirīya 1.2
॥
Devanāgarī
ओं शिक्षाम् व्याख्यास्यामः वर्णः स्वरः मात्रा बलम् साम सन्तानः इति उक्तः शिक्षाध्यायः
Transliteration (IAST)
oṃ śikṣām vyākhyāsyāmaḥ varṇaḥ svaraḥ mātrā balam sāma santānaḥ iti uktaḥ śikṣādhyāyaḥ
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
ओंoṃoṁ; the sacred syllable
शिक्षाम्śikṣāmthe science of pronunciation (śikṣā); phonetics; the teaching of utterance
व्याख्यास्यामःvyākhyāsyāmaḥwe shall expound; we shall set forth
वर्णःvarṇaḥthe sound (varṇa — a phoneme); the letter-sound; the quality of the sound
स्वरःsvaraḥtone, accent (svara); the pitch of the sound; the Vedic note
मात्राmātrāquantity (mātrā — the measure of a syllable); measure; duration
बलम्balamstrength (bala — the force of articulation); effort; the firmness [of the sound]
सामsāmaevenness (sāman — levelness); smoothness; even sounding
सन्तानःsantānaḥcontinuity (santāna — 'an unbroken thread'); unbrokenness; the cohesion of the flow
इतिitithus; such is it
उक्तःuktaḥhas been declared; has been set forth
शिक्षाध्यायःśikṣādhyāyaḥthe chapter on phonetics; the chapter on pronunciation
Translation
Oṁ. Let us expound the science of pronunciation: sound, accent, quantity, strength, evenness, continuity. Thus has the chapter on pronunciation been declared.
Version
beb909818162 · published Jul 26, 2026, 7:50:25 PM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The Upaniṣad's first lesson is phonetics. śikṣāṁ vyākhyāsyāmaḥ — "let us expound the śikṣā": the science of utterance, and its six subjects are listed like six strings: varṇa — the sound (the precision of each phoneme), svara — the tone or accent (the pitch of the Vedic note), mātrā — the measure (the length of the syllable), balam — strength (the force of articulation), sāma — evenness (the levelness of the sounding), santāna — continuity (the unbrokenness of the flow).
Why should an Upaniṣad — the summit of knowledge — begin with a lesson in diction? Because in the Vedic world sound is the bearer of truth: the śruti lives in its utterance as music lives in performance; a sound falsely rendered is already a sense falsely rendered. A word that is to carry Brahman (and the whole Taittirīya is a road to satyaṁ jñānam anantam) must first be tuned as an instrument: tuning before the concert.
There is also a spiritual gesture here deeper than the technical one: reverence for form. Carelessness with the letter is the first step of carelessness with the substance; he who has not laboured over the syllable will not hold the meaning either. The Taittirīya teaches from its threshold: holiness begins with precision — the same precision the Muṇḍaka demanded of the oblation poured "into the middle, between the two halves of the butter".