Upanishads · Jābāladarśana 4.21
॥
Devanāgarī
सरस्वती तथा चोर्ध्वगता जिह्वा तथा मुने । हस्तिजिह्वा तथा सव्यपादाङ्गुष्ठान्तमिष्यते
Transliteration (IAST)
sarasvatī tathā cordhvagatā jihvā tathā mune | hastijihvā tathā savyapādāṅguṣṭhāntamiṣyate
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
सरस्वती तथा च ऊर्ध्व-गताsarasvatī tathā ca ūrdhva-gatāsarasvati, likewise, goes upward
जिह्वा तथा मुनेjihvā tathā muneto the tongue, likewise, O sage
हस्ति-जिह्वा तथा सव्य-hasti-jihvā tathā savya-hasti-jihva, likewise, to the left
पाद-अङ्गुष्ठ-अन्तम् इष्यतेpāda-aṅguṣṭha-antam iṣyatereaches the big toe of the foot
Translation
"Sarasvati, likewise, goes upward, to the tongue, O sage; hasti-jihva, likewise, reaches to the big toe of the left foot."
Version
3503de85c969 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
Sarasvati leads to the tongue, and this correspondence is no accident: Sarasvati is the goddess of speech, and the tongue is the instrument of speech. This detail shows how such schemes were composed. A passage was given the name of the goddess of speech and led out to the organ of speech; and anyone who knew who Sarasvati was could remember the scheme without effort.
This device — a name as a mnemonic — is primary in oral literature, and it deserves being named. Where there is no writing, everything rests on memory; and hence names are chosen so that they themselves recall the content. Hence too, incidentally, the abundance in these books of lists, verse meters, and consonances: all of these are instruments of memory, not ornaments.
The Vaishnava side makes use of the very same thing in its own chief means. The Name that is repeated is, at once, both the object and the mnemonic: uttering it, a person cannot help but remember of whom it speaks. In this, it should be said, lies the advantage of a Name over an abstract thought, so far as memory is concerned. A thought must be held by effort; a Name is held by itself, being uttered.
Hence, in its practice, neither schemes, nor mnemonics, nor sequences are required at all: the whole content is reduced to two or three words a person can carry with him, holding nothing else.