வேத இலக்கியத்தில் சூரியனின் ஏழு குதிரைகளும் சப்த சந்த மரபும்: அனுஷ்டுப் சந்தத்தை மையமாகக் கொண்ட இந்திய அறிவு, மொழி மற்றும் பண்பாட்டுக் குறியீடுகளின் ஆய்வு

The Seven Horses of the Sun and the Sapta Chanda Tradition in Vedic Literature: A Study of Indian Knowledge, Language and Cultural Symbols Centred on the Anushtubh Metre

Abstract

The Vedic literatures, which serve as ancient sources of the Indian knowledge tradition, are multifaceted repositories of knowledge that encompass not only religious thought but also language, sound, time, nature, astronomical observation, ritual, memory and cultural life. Solar imagery and the Vedic metrical tradition constitute important fields of inquiry in the history of Indian knowledge. The Sun, chariot, wheel, horse and the numerical symbol ‘seven’ express ideas such as motion, the cycle of time, light, vital energy and cosmic order. Among the Vedic metres, seven principal ones are notable: Gayatri, Ushnih, Anushtubh, Brihati, Pankti, Trishtubh and Jagati. Of these, Anushtubh generally has four feet of eight syllables each, forming a metre of 32 syllables. Based on original mantras selected from Rigveda hymns 1.164 and 10.85, this article approaches the imagery of the Sun’s seven horses and the Sapta Chanda tradition semiotically, and examines the structure of the Anushtubh metre, its linguistic function, oral-memory transmission and later literary continuity. The aim of this study is thereby to reveal the connections that developed in the Indian knowledge tradition among nature–time–motion–number–sound–language–memory–culture. As a distinctive contribution of this article, five original mantras belonging to the true Anushtubh / Nicrt Anushtubh / Virat Anushtubh varieties from Rigveda hymn 10.85 are presented together with the Sanskrit original, transliteration, Tamil meaning and metrical analysis.