Madhu Kanda. Adhyaya 1, Brahmana 3. The contest of the vital breath
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Each mantra is given four ways: the Sanskrit in its Devanagari script, the same sounds in Roman letters, an English translation set in our own voice, and then the line once more in plain words, for a first and unhurried reading.
Not every passage is opened to the same depth. A few central mantras carry the full cross-school commentary, where the schools are set side by side. The rest are kept here whole and faithful, set in their place but not expounded, so the book stays entire and nothing is dropped for being thought minor.
Where the schools read a line differently, the difference is kept open. None is crowned and none is corrected. Each is met on its own terms, and where they contradict, the contradiction is left standing for you to sit with.
Brahmadatta's oath over the soma
And about this, Brahmadatta the great-grandson of Cikitana, while drinking the king Soma, said: May this king strike off the head of that man, if Ayasya Angirasa chanted the Udgitha through any other than this. For it was through speech and the breath that he chanted.
On this point Brahmadatta, descendant of Cikitana, while drinking the soma (called 'the king'), swore: let this king Soma strike off my head if Ayasya Angirasa chanted the Udgitha through anything other than this very breath and speech. For he chanted only through speech and through the breath.