Upanishads · Rudrahṛdaya 29
॥
Devanāgarī
सामवेदस्तथाथर्ववेदः शिक्षा मुनीश्वर । कल्पो व्याकरणं चैव निरुक्तं छन्द एव च
Transliteration (IAST)
sāmavedastathātharvavedaḥ śikṣā munīśvara | kalpo vyākaraṇaṃ caiva niruktaṃ chanda eva ca
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
साम-वेदः तथा अथर्व-वेदःsāma-vedaḥ tathā atharva-vedaḥthe Sāmaveda and likewise the Atharvaveda
शिक्षा मुनि-ईश्वरśikṣā muni-īśvaraphonetics, O lord of sages
कल्पः व्याकरणं च एवkalpaḥ vyākaraṇaṃ ca evaritual and grammar as well
निरुक्तं छन्दः एव चniruktaṃ chandaḥ eva caetymology and likewise meter
Translation
"The Sāmaveda and likewise the Atharvaveda, phonetics, O lord of sages, ritual and grammar as well, etymology and likewise meter …"
Version
d9353fa925b9 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The list of "lower" knowledge continues, and the vedāṅgas, "limbs of the Veda," are named — six auxiliary sciences without which the Veda can neither be pronounced nor understood. Here they are. Śikṣā — the science of sounds and pronunciation; kalpa — the ritual manual, the code of sacrifice; vyākaraṇa — grammar; nirukta — the interpretation of words, discussed when reading the Tripurā-tāpanī (40); chandas — metrics; jyotiṣa — the reckoning of time, named in the next line.
This list is worth knowing, for it shows what this literature actually occupied itself with. Of the six sciences, four are sciences of language: how to pronounce, how to construct words, how to interpret, how to count syllables. One is about time, one about rite.
Hence the whole peculiarity of Indian scholarship: it grew out of the need to preserve the text exactly and to transmit it orally. Pāṇini's grammar, the finest thing this scholarship produced, is, in essence, an instrument of preservation. The Vaiṣṇava side treats these sciences by her own rule: they are lower, but obligatory. One who undertakes to interpret must know the language; and all her teachers — Rāmānuja, Madhva, Jīva Gosvāmī — were, not least, grammarians. Jīva wrote his own grammar, in which cases and verbs are explained on the names of Kṛṣṇa.