वेदे विश्वासटिप्पन्यः

Source: TW

The mantra lines that start with namaH in 3 major veda-saMhitA-s:

𝚁^𝚒𝚐𝚟𝚎𝚍𝚊 𝟷𝟿
𝚊𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚟𝚊𝚟𝚎𝚍𝚊 (𝚟𝚞𝚕𝚐𝚊𝚝𝚎) 𝟻𝟷
𝚝𝚊𝚒𝚝𝚝𝚒𝚛𝙸𝚢𝚊 𝚜𝚊𝙼𝚑𝚒𝚝𝙰 𝟷𝟻𝟸

Mantra-s of this form are prominent in the later mantrashAstra of the tAntrika tradition. They go back to at least the common Indo-Iranian period on the high steppes. While they are found in the RV: e.g. namo dive bR^ihate rodasIbhyAm mitrAya vochaM varuNAya mILhuShe sumR^iLIkAya mILhuShe | they are rather rare in that text & the count of 19 is liberal including cases like: namovR^idhair avasyubhiH sute raNa || One observes that their count dramatically increases in the yajuSh text.

This reflects the two distinct mantra styles, which we suspect might have deep IE roots – the R^iks of the RV & the yajuSh-es, with the AV showing both types. The namaH mantra-s are a common feature of the latter type & came to dominate the mantrashAstra landscape.

The other such type are those that end in svAhA. These are the counts for svAhA

𝚁^𝚒𝚐𝚟𝚎𝚍𝚊 𝟷𝟿 𝟿
𝚊𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚟𝚊𝚟𝚎𝚍𝚊 (𝚟𝚞𝚕𝚐𝚊𝚝𝚎) 𝟷𝟼𝟷 𝟸
𝚝𝚊𝚒𝚝𝚝𝚒𝚛𝙸𝚢𝚊 𝚜𝚊𝙼𝚑𝚒𝚝𝙰 𝟷𝟺0 𝟷𝟻

The 1st column is a mantra line that contains svAhA; the second is a mantra that starts (with it).

Note that while it is rare in RV proportionately more start with svAhA. This raises the possibility that originally svAhA was used like namaH with beginning bias but by the middle Vedic phase was predominantly end biased. The TS counts can be seen as undercounts relative to AV as the AV tends to break lines at svAhA whereas TS tends to have long agglutinates of svAhAnta-mantra-s. It is possible that the Greek khaire was an equivalent of svAhA.

A similar trend is seen for another mantra element vaShaT:

𝚁^𝚒𝚐𝚟𝚎𝚍𝚊 𝟷𝟸
𝚊𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚟𝚊𝚟𝚎𝚍𝚊 (𝚟𝚞𝚕𝚐𝚊𝚝𝚎) 𝟷𝟹
𝚝𝚊𝚒𝚝𝚝𝚒𝚛𝙸𝚢𝚊 𝚜𝚊𝙼𝚑𝚒𝚝𝙰 𝟹𝟿

In both the RV & AV there is a propensity for it the start the mantra but in the TS the ending is implied in several incantations.

Others like phaT are rare. There is a single example of it in the AV. However, it is used as stobha in the sAmaveda.