478 Srimad-Bhagavatam [Canto 3, Ch. 12

TRANSLATION

The art of writing verse, pankti, became manifested from the bone
marrow, and that of brhati, another type of verse, was generated from the
life-breath of the lord of the living entities.

TEXT 47

AMAIA: Ail A szlea |
SSMOAUNAesq eager en AAA: |
ea: aq fret aaa He TANITA: IVT

sparsas tasyabhavaj jivah
svaro deha udahrta

usmanam indriyany ahur
antahstha balam atmanah

svarah sapta viharena
bhavanti sma prajapateh

sparsah —the set of letters from ka to ma; tasya—his; abhavat— became;
Jivah—the soul; svarah—vowels; dehah—his body ; udahytah—are expressed;
usmanam—the letters sa, sa, sa and ha; indriyani—the senses; ahuh—are
called; antahsthah—the set of letters so known (ya, ra, la and va); balam—
energy; atmanah—of his self; suarah— music; sapta—seven; viharena—by the
sensual activities; bhavanti sma—became manifested; prajapateh—of the
lord of the living entities.

TRANSLATION

Brahma’s soul manifested as the touch alphabets, his body as the vowels,
his senses as the sibilant alphabets, his strength as the intermediate alpha-
bets and his sensual activities as the seven notes of music.

PURPORT

In Sanskrit there are thirteen vowels and thirty-five consonants. ‘The
vowels are a, a, i, i, u, a, r, fF, l, e, ai, o, au, and the consonants are ka,
kha, ga, gha, etc. Amongst the consonants, the first twenty-five letters are
called the sparsas. ‘There are also four antahsthas. Of the asmas
there are three s’s, called talavya, miirdhanya and danta. The musical notes
are sa, 7, ga, ma, pa, dha, and ni. All these sound vibrations are originally
called sabda-brahma, or spiritual sound. It is said, therefore, that Brahma
