The History and Principles of Vedic Interpretation

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The correct interpretation of the Vedas has posed a problem to both ancient and modem scholars. The Vedic scholars of ancient India put ritualistic, mythological, mystical and natural interpretations on these holy scriptures, while the modern scholars critically approaching the subject from a literary point of view subject them to linguistic, historical and cultural interpretations.

The present volume puts the age-old problem of interpreting the Vedas in its proper perspective. It analyses the factors mainly responsible for divergent interpretations, traces the origin and development of various ancient Indian systems of Vedic Interpretation, gives a detailed account of the Vedic commentaries written by ancient and mediaeval Bhasyakaras, and highlights their salient features.

Besides, it contains a history of Vedic studies in modern times, discusses current trends and tendencies in the realm of Vedic interpretation, and sums up the results of outstanding contributions made to Vedic studies during the last two hundred years. The present book makes a comparative assessment of the ancient Indian Veda-Bhasyas and modern exegetical studies in respect of their merits and demerits.

In the light of a thorough and dispassionate analysis of the Vedic interpretations attempted hitherto, the learned author has formulated fourteen cardinal principles for an objective, scientific and systematic interpretation of the Vedas.

Professor Ram Gopal, the author of the present book, is now Kalidasa Professor of Sanskrit and Head, Department of Kalidasa Chair, Panjab University, Chandigarh. He is an eminent Sanskrit scholar of international repute whose numerous research publications such as India of Vedic Kalpasūtras, Vaidika Vyakarana (in two volumes) and Vaidika-Vyakhya-Vivechana have won world- wide fame. He is an acknowledged authority on the Vedic language, literature and culture. In recognition of his outstanding contributions to the realm of Sanskrit studies he was awarded the Independence Day Award, Certificate of Honour in Sanskrit, by the President of India in 1971; and the same year he was honoured by the Haryana Government also with the State Literary Award in Sanskrit and a Felicitation Volume. The Ministry of Education and Culture, Government of India, awarded him a literary prize of Rs.10,000 in 1981 in appreciation of his reputed research publication, Vaidika Vyakarana (in two volumes). He has chaired several seminars, symposia and conferences connected with Vedic studies and was the President of the Vedic Section of the All India Oriental Conference in 1966.

Every student of the Vedas is faced with the problem of their correct interpretation. As soon as he compares any translations or commentaries of the Vedas, he is baffled by the diversity of their inconsistent and contradictor y interpretations. He wonders why the Vedic scholars, ancient and modern, differ so sharply. with regard to the interpretation of these hoary scriptures, and inquires if there can be any rational and scientific guidelines to determine the meaning of the Vedas in an objective and systematic manner. Although the problem of Vedic exegesis has engaged the attention of Vedic scholars for more than two millennia, a comprehensive work throwing light on the root cause of the problem, dealing with the origin and development of different systems of Vedic interpretation, and offering a rational and scientific solution to the problem has long been a desideratum. The present work aims at meeting this need of the Vedic students.

An attempt has been made here to put the problem of Vedic interpretation in proper perspective. Difficulty in deter- mining the correct meaning of the Vedas is largely due to three main factors: first, the archaic nature of the Vedic language containing a large number of rare and obscure words and obsolete grammatical forms which are not met with in Classical Sanskrit; secondly, the use of common words in a figurative sense in the Vedas; and thirdly, a wide hiatus between the ideas embodied in the Vedas and those contained in the later works. The attempts of the ritual lists, mythologists, mystics, etc., to interpret the Vedas according to their own standpoint; gave rise to various schools of Vedic interpretation in ancient India. The Nighaptu represents the earliest lexicographical attempt to tackle the problem of Vedic interpretation in a systematic manner. Similarly the authors of the Padapatha the Pritisakhyas and the Nirukta have made significant contributions to the linguistic interpretation of the Vedas. The origin, development and characteristic features of different ancient Indian schools of Vedic interpretation have been discussed by us in the present work. This discussion is followed by a detailed account of the ancient and mediaeval Veda Bhasyas which are undobtedly indebted to the ancient India schools of Vedic interpretation in several ways.

When the study of Sanskrit was first introduced in Europei towards the end of the eighteenth century, the Western scholars were pre-occupied mainly with the study of Classical Sanskrit and had no clear concept about the nature and scope of the Vedic language and literature. In the initial stage of Vedic studies in Europe Sayapa's commentary on the Rgveda was the principal guide of the Western Vedic scholars. However, the nineteenth century witnessed a great upsurge in Vedic studies in the West. A number of eminent Western scholars, who made a systematic, critical and thorough study of the original Vedic texts, rejected Sayana as their guide and gave a new orientation to the concept of Vedic interpretation. Since then significant contributions have been made by modern scholars to the realm of Vedic exegesis in the form of Vedic dictionaries, grammars, translations," indices, concordances, and critical studies on the historical, cultural and linguistic aspects of the Vedas. The present work, gives a systematic and chronological account of the outstanding contributions made to Vedic interpretation during the last two hundred years, and discusses current trends and tendencies in Vedic studies.

**Contents and Sample Pages**