LinuxPasar páginas
Upaniṣads · Hayagrīva 2.2
॥
Devanāgarī
गौरीर्मिमाय सलिलानि तक्षत्येकपदी द्विपदी सा चतुष्पदी । अष्टापदी नवपदी बभूवुषी सहस्राक्षरा परमे व्योमन्
Transliteración (IAST)
gaurīrmimāya salilāni takṣatyekapadī dvipadī sā catuṣpadī | aṣṭāpadī navapadī babhūvuṣī sahasrākṣarā parame vyoman
Palabra por palabra
SánscritoIASTSignificado
गौरीः मिमायgaurīḥ mimāyathe bright one lowed
सलिलानि तक्षतीsalilāni takṣatīhewing the waters
एक-पदी द्वि-पदीeka-padī dvi-padīone-footed, two-footed
सा चतुष्-पदीsā catuṣ-padīshe, four-footed
अष्टा-पदी नव-पदीaṣṭā-padī nava-padīeight-footed, nine-footed
बभूवुषीbabhūvuṣīhaving become
सहस्र-अक्षराsahasra-akṣarāthousand-syllabled
परमे व्योमन्parame vyomanin the highest heaven
Traducción
«The bright one lowed, hewing the waters; she — one-footed, two-footed, four-footed, eight-footed, nine-footed — having become thousand-syllabled in the highest heaven».
Versión
1447caaab901 · publicado 12 ago 2026, 5:00:00 UTC
Disponible enRUENPasa de verso en verso con
The verse is Ṛgveda 1.164.41 and belongs to the famous hymn of riddles; it deserves examination, for it is beautiful and difficult. Gaurī means “bright, white” and denotes a cow; and Speech here is pictured as a cow. This comparison is constant in Vedic literature: speech is milked like a cow, and gives milk — that is, it nourishes.
Mimāya means “lowed,” from mā; and here there is a play on words: the same root means “to measure,” and so the lowing of a cow and the meteredness of speech are named with one word. Salilāni takṣatī, “hewing the waters”: a dark image, interpreted this way — that speech gives shape to the formless, as a carpenter hews. This reading, to my mind, is correct and profound: the word truly does turn the indistinct into the distinct; until a thing is named, it does not exist for the speaker.
Then comes the count of feet: one, two, four, eight, nine — and finally sahasrākṣarā parame vyoman, “thousand-syllabled in the highest heaven.” That is, speech grows: the higher, the more syllables it has; and its limit lies not in brevity but in fullness. This detail deserves attention, for it runs contrary to the usual course of these books.
Ascent is usually described as diminishment: from the many to the one, from word to silence. Here it is the reverse: at the top stand a thousand syllables. The Vaiṣṇava side holds this as its own argument: fullness is not silence, but abundance of speech; and its own books, which list names by the hundred, are the fulfillment of exactly this verse.