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**
Vedas are the chief source of Indian religion and culture. The roots of History, Geography, Philosophy, Ethics, Mythology, Musicology, Ayurveda, Biology, Botony, Social Sciences or Technical Sciences in India are traceable in the Vedic literature. They have attracted a host of scholars from Western countries and various theories regarding its subject matter have been put forth.
Here an attempt is made to put forth Indian Traditional views or theories of the worthy Indian texts like Upanised or Gita, Ancient Acharyas or modern Indian scholars about the Vedas. What Upanisads, Nirukta, Gita, in ancient days or Swami Dayanand, Sri. Aurobindo, Swami .Gangesh- waranandj, Prof. Vasudeva Sharan Agrawal say about Vedas are briefly discussed in this book. Its appendices are interesting where only one Vedic mantra is interpreted by various Indian scholars in different ways is collected in their own words.
This work would definitely prove useful and interesting to the students of Vedic literature in general and to those of the lovers of traditional Vedic interpretations in particular.
Dr. Gautam Patel born on 4th August, 1936, at Ahmedabad, Gujarat. Obtained the M.A. and PhD. degrees in Sanskrit from Gujarat University. He rendered service in the Sanskrit department of St. Xavier's College, Ahmedabad.
Attended 12 international and 60 national conferences. He has established Sanskrit Seva Samiti in1981, and through this samiti published 60 low cost books and organised 12 national seminars. He has 85 books at his credit and has published more than' 60 research paper and 200 articles in different reputed journals.
He was awarded Veda-Ratna by Swami Gangeshwaranand Trust, Mumbai and Sanskrit Seva-Retna by Shankaracharya of Dwarika-peetha.
Presently he is the Chairman of Gujarat State Sanskrit Sahitya Akademi. He is the elected Vice-President for the 40th Session of All India Oriental Conference to be held at Chennai in 2000. A.D.
Recently he is appointed as the Chairman of the state level committee for the formation of Sanskrit University in the State.
I have great pleasure to present this volume of Golden Jubilee of India's Independence Series of Rashtriya Sanskrit Sans than to our esteemed readers. The Volume varily represents the goodwill and cooperation, the Sansthan has all along been receiving from the distinguished scholars all over the country.
The Sansthan was established in October, 1970 as an autonomous apex body under the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Govt. of India with a view to promoting, preserving and propagating Sanskrit learning in all its aspects, with special reference to the in depth shastraic learning. Apart from conducting the regular courses of studies at the various constituents Vidyapeethas, it has been bringing out invaluable publications representing dissemination of knowledge contained in the Shastras.
Thanks to the continued help, encouragement and support from the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Govt. of India that the Sensthan has grown by leaps and bounds and has been able to render its services to promotion of Sanskrit learning at national and international levels. The Sansthan has decided to bring out 50 scholarly monographs by eminent Sanskrit scholars of different fields as part of the academic programmes organised to celebrate the Golden Jublee of India’s Independence.
The present book Traditional vedic Interpretations critically analyses the different methodology of interpretations for proper understanding of the glorious Vedic texts containing all sorts of spiritual, scientific, technical knowledge valuable for human welfare.
We are highly thankful to Dr. Gautam Bhai Petel, the Chairman, Gujrat Sanskrit Sahitya Academi for contributing this valuable book for the Golden Jubilee of India's Independence Series of Sans than.
Dr. Savita Pathak, Dr. Viroopaksha, V Jaddipal and Dr. R.C. Hota deserve special appreciation for their valuable services rendered in planning and bringing out the glorious series particularly the present book. Thanks are due to M/s New Tech Graphic Home for printing the book on time.
In the first week of January 1998 I received a letter from Dr. K.K. Mishra, the Director, Rastriya Sanskrit Sansthan, New Delhi, the able administrator with deep insight in the subject, informing about a plan to publish 50 books under the Golden Jubilee of India's Independence series. There I was asked to contribute one book and I have accepted to write a book on Traditional Vedic Interpretations.
It is too difficult to give justice to all the Vedic interpretations in such a small volume and that too in a stipulated period. I have tried to cover some of them such as Vedas and upanisads, Veda and Nitukte, Bhagavad-gita and some modern scholars such as Maharsi Dayananda, Sri Aurobindo, Swami Gangeshwaranandji, V.S Agrawal etc. Some remarkable works like Nitimanjari, Vedopadesacandrika etc. are also included.
In the beginning the concept of tradition is made clear and in an introductory chapter a brief history of Vedic interpretation is also included to give an idea of the extensiveness and encompassiveness of the subject. One appreciative chapter for the poetry in Rgveds is also included at the end.
In the days of Nirukta there were more than ten schools, and among them the psychological interpretation of Aurobindo and symbolic approach of VS Agrawal is added. Dayananda Sarasvati's all-encompassing views or Swami Gangeshwaranandji's Satvatapaksa-a modification of an ancient tradition etc. are the added featuers. In the end I have listed various interpretations of (RV.I-I-I) and (R. V.-58-3) to give an idea how one mantra could be interpreted in various ways. Sri Aurobindo has translated RV f-I-I in sixteen different ways with explanations. They all are included here.
In Indian tradition Vedas are regarded as of Almighty and the culture which is depicted there is I have tried here to provide just an of the great flow of in the form of Vedic lore only by the grace of God and the blessings of my gurudev.
I am highly thankful to my students like Dr. Urmi Samir Shah and Prof Ravindra Khandwala as they have spared no pain in helping me to prepare this work in limited time. The help rendered by Prof Satyanarayana Chakraborthy, Shri Baldevanand Sagar, Prof, Prajna Thakar is also worth mentioning. Dr. Rashmi Mehta, Smt. Nilam Patel, Dr. Rajendra Nanavati and Dr. Ramanabhai Pathak (both from Vadodara) and Prof Jagruti Patel of Mahila Arts College, Vijapur deserve special thanks for their active co-operation in preparing this book. I thank all of them wholeheartedly.
Last but not least I express my deep sense of gratitude to my Gurudev whose blessings are responsible for my love and study of Veda & Vedic literature.
I am highly thankful to Dr. K.K. Mishra, the Director and Dr. Savita Pathak the deputy director of Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan for giving me this oportunity to serve the subject and nation alike.
This book maintains that the Veda is what makes known knowledge not accessible to empirical means of knowledge and what is not contradicted by what is knowable through history, science, reason and common sense. Its content is only what relates to Dharma and Brahman. It can be rightly interpreted through principles laid down by the Nirukta and the two Mimamsas.
What is taken to be the Veda by the principal tradition is indeed so. It has been rightly said, "The meaning of its earlier portion is illuminated by the smrtis and its later by itihasa-puranas" The bhasyas of Madhva, Sayana, Atmananda and others are of invaluable help in comprehending its purport. This work endeavours to show this to be the case. The Rgveda asserts the unity of Being and yields the knowledge of it. The Yajurveda informs us about the supreme action. The Samaveda chants and meditates on what the first Veda lauds or describes. The Atharvaveda propounds the closeness, if not the identity, of Being and Man.
About the Author:
Prof. K. Satchidananda Murty (b. 1924) has been a university professor of philosophy for a quarter century, a vice-chancellor, UGC National Lecturer and National Fellow, General President of the Akhila Bharatiya Darshan Parishad (1963) and the Indian Philosophical Congress (1968). Since 1980 he is the Chairman of the latter, and from 1988 Member, Steering Committee, the Federation International des Societies de Philosophie. From 1984 to 86 he has been the National Fellow of the Indian Council of philosophical Research and from 1986 to 1989 the Vice-Chairman of the University Grants Commission.
Pro. Murty was the first to receive the coveted Dr. B. C. Roy National Award, the highest available in India, for Philosophy. The President of India awarded him Padma Bhushan in 1984. Starting with the "Vachaspati" (Hon. D. Litt.) degree of Sampurnananda Sanskrit University, Varanasi, in 1980, in subsequent years he received the honorary doctorates of a number of Indian universities. He is hon. Dr. Phil. of the University of Halle-Wittenberg, Germany, and the USSR Academy of Sciences, and Hon. Sc.D. of Sofia University, Bulgaria. He has been Visiting Professor at Princeton, and is Honorary Professor of the People's University, New Delhi; Banaras Hindu University; university of Hyderabad and Andhra University.
Back of Book:
This work is an attempt to understand and interpret the Vedas by a contemporary leading Indian philosopher, who while aware of modern Indian and Western Vedic scholarship and exegesis, prefers to rely on the Nirukta, the two Mimamsas the smrtis-itihasas-puranas, and Sayana and other bhasya-karas.
From the Preface:
I am neither a "Vedavratasnata" (i.e., one who has "completed one's Vedic and scientific studies and one's vows"), nor a "Vedaparaga" (i.e., "one thoroughly conversant with the Veda"); I wonder how many of those who have written on the Veda in Western or modern Indian languages, or have translated it into them, have been such. I have been only endeavouring to do upasana of sruti-bhagavati for quite a long time: From the middle of the 30s to the beginning of the 40s one of my major preoccupations was to understand and elucidate the work which, according to the understand and elucidate the work which, according to the Varaha-purana, is "the three Vedas, ultimate bliss and united with the knowledge of the import of Reality", and which, according to A.K. Coomaraswami, is a "compendium of all Vedic doctrines", viz., the Bhagavadgita. As I have not so far succeeded in this task to my satisfaction, it still engrosses me and is likely to be life-long. In the first half of the 40s I intensely studied the Isa, the smallest, but one of the most profound and the only Upanisad which is to be found in the Samhita portion. Then, from the mid-40s to mid-50s I was obsessed with srutipramanyavicara" (=thinking about the authority and validity of the Veda). As I find I cannot be satiated by Vedartha-cintana (meditation on the import of the Veda), however much I may indulge in it, I may never become free from this passion also. The results of my study of texts dealing with yajna along with relevant sociological and anthropological literature, were published in 1973.
One of the gratifying things I could do at Tirupati when I headed the S. V. University there (1975-78) was to make its Oriental Institute prepare and publish in Telugu in 1978 a 'vivrti' (explanation) of the first forty suktas of the Rgveda, according to the bhasya of Madhvacarya and Raghavendra Svami's Mantrarthamanjari based on it. It contains word-by-word meaning (pratipadartha) of every mantra, followed by its substance in simple prose, written by Dr. S. B. Raghunathacharyulu. It appeared with a 22-page introduction by me. Thus was published for the first time in a modern language-a monotheistic interpretation of these suktas according to the greatest Dvaita teachers.
When I was with the University Grants Commission (1986-89), one of my first acts was to help establish a centre for Vedic studies in a state university in the East of India, and later I could provide special assistance to promote Mimamsa studies in a premier central university in the North. After sanctioning grants, as universities are autonomous, the UGC could only hope they would be utilised properly for purposes earmarked.
The chapters in this book and the notes of them will give an indication of some of the books I more often used. But I may mention that among the older works those of Yaska, Sayana and Atmananda, and among the modern those of Swami Dayananda Saraswati, Sri Aurobindo and T.V. Kapali Sastry were very helpful. I am indebted to the two epics and the Srimadbhagavata, as well as to the writings of the great masters of Mimamsa and Vedanta for enabling me to comprehend to some extent and assess however inadequately the purport of the Veda. Every modern Indian like me, who has used the Western editions and translations of the Veda and the monographs and articles on it by Western scholars, ought to be grateful for the immense benefit derived from them. Since the mid-80s I have used the Samhita texts edited by Pt. S.D. Satvalekar, and published by Svadhyaya Mandal, Paradi, Gujarat.
From the Jacket
It is an introduction to interpretation of the Mantras of the Rksamhita. In the first part of the first volume of the three-volume Veda mimamsa, Anirvan has dealt with the modes of interpretation in general. In the second part of the same book he has reflected on the Vedic literature in brief. Anirvan's explanation of the Veda has looked into the poetical philosophy of the poet seers, which he has named as Chinmaya Pratakyakshavada. This thought provoking work of Anirvan sheds a new light to the interpretation of the Veda.
About the Author
Anirvan the mystic poet commentator of the Veda was born in 1886 in Bengal, now in Bangladesh. It's original name was Narendra Chandra Dhar. He had a uniformly brilliant academic career; earned scholarship in matriculation and stood first in Sanskrit in both B. A. and M.A. examinations of Calcutta University.
Raised in a monastic environment since childhood, Narendra Chandra was consecrated as a Sannyasi by Swami Nigamananda in 1927. Anirvan was the Director of the Kokolamukha-based Bangiya Saraswat Math in Assam for 12 years, Professor at Rishi Vidyalaya and later became the Acharya of the Institute. He was also the editor of the Aryadarpan Patrika. His celebrated work Veda-Mimamsa earned him the Rabindra Purushkar. Anirvan's translation of Life Divine was hailed as 'A Living Translation'.
Sumita Bhattacharya worked as a sub-editor and later as the Assistant Quality Controller in Northen India Patrika. She also worked as assistant Editor of Sundaram the journal on art and culture brought out by North Central Zone Cultural Centre, Allahabad. She also worked for the British Civil Service, U. K. for sometime. Her articles have been published in 'The Times of India', The Pioneer NIP etc.
Preface
Srimat Anirvan Veda Mimamsa in three volumes constitutes a landmark in the field of Vedic studies. The interpretation and the significance of the Veda have been considered baffling and often, contentious issues. The explanation of the meaning of Veda has ranged from primitive animism to the most sublime yearnings of human heart. Anirvan views the Veda as the fountainhead and the sustainer of the entire spiritual quest of the Bharatvarsha from the earliest times to the present day. This quest, according to him, basically is a quest for light, a pursuit of illumination. And according to him it is still vigorously alive. His work is suffused with the spiritual and mystic quality of Sri Aurobindo's interpretation, the poetic delicacy of Tagore's language and thoroughness of German scholarship. As Anirvan was a Sanyasi and a mystic a unique insight and lucidity characterize his interpretation of the Veda.
Being written in Bengali Veda Mimamsa has remained outside the reach of a large number of scholars and readers. It was a welcome decision on the part of the Indian Institute Of Advanced Study, shimla, to undertake the task of translating the work into Englsih. The present publication comprises the Prologue of the first volume of the original work. The translation of the rest of the volumes is in progress and will be ready for publication soon.
Without the benign and constant motivation and encouragement of Professor Govind Chandra Pande it would not have been possible for me to muster the courage and strength to undertake the translation work of Anirvan's masterpiece. Shrimati Sudha Pande has been a source of unflagging inspiration. I will remain forever indebted to her for this. The Director of the Institute Professor Bhuvan Chandel has always been kind and extremely cooperative and extended all kinds of support. I think her from the very bottom of my heart.
Special words of thanks are due to the library staff of the Institute especially to Shrimati Alekha Jabar. Project on Study of Indian Civilization, IIAS and Shri Kulbhushan of the same section, have been very cooperative. I also thank Shri L. K. Das and Brahma Chand Rana for their help. Shri Omprakash has been cheerfully running innumerable errands for me and so deserves a special word of thanks. I take this opportunity to thank all of them. I also take the opportunity to express my heartfelt appreciation for the entire staff of the Institute who made my association with the Institute memorable experience.
The present book is a study of three Vedic interpretations, viz., of Max Muller, Dayanand and Aurobindo from the perspective of Sociology of knowledge. The perspective compares the interpretations and, instead of evaluating their merits, relates them with the cultural traditions of the commentators. This approach not only enables the exploration of specific cultural ideas but also brings to the surface objective findings on those, for which there is inter subjective agreement.
Those, interested in Vedic studies. Indology, Philosophy and Religion, will find a compilation of condensed interpretations, otherwise widely scattered and diffused, at one place. Even a layman can get some idea of the Vedas and their content which is widely ingrained in the modern man and his language.
The treatment of Max Muller's Historicism and its refutation by commentators of Indian tradition have made it inevitable to question some well accepted assumptions of Indian history, in which the students of history may feel interested.
This study of a Sociologist crossing the specialist's narrow boundaries of a discipline encompasses the points of interest for multiple
A.K. Pateria (born on March 30, 1946 at Bilaspur in M. P.) graduated with Science and Mathematics. He postgraduated in Sociology in 1969 and joined that very year as Lecturer in the Department of Sociology, Ravi Shankar University where he is still continuing. He has written his Ph.D. dissertation in Industrial Sociology on 'The executive role in a large industrial organization'. Various research papers have been published in national and international journals to his credit.
He is keenly interested in music. literature, painting and dramatics. Some of his dramatic activities have been broadcast over A.I.R. He has been awarded First prize in story competition of "Soviet Nari".
To write a commentary on a classic like Veda is not easy. It is in itself creation of a classic. That is why the systematic Vedic commentaries are few in number and can be counted on finguers.
However, with the spread of Sanskrit learning in West some of the western scholars also joined the march. This provides us an opportunity to compare eastern and western perspectives in a comparable area of thought.
Thus the objective of the present study is to compare the modern commentators of Veda, eastern and western and to relate their cultural traditions.
The weltan schauung of East and West appear, at times, so categorically different that one finds it in tune with Rudyard Kipling's utterance:
East is east, and west is west, and never the twain shall meet.
In an average Indian layman's mind West is held to be materialistic. By materialism, of course, he does not mean its philosophical system; but a sheer involvement and content in day-to-day life with the sensory objects and world. Likewise there are ample evidences in the descriptions of western on lookers to hold the image of India as having mystical, other worldly and irrational orientations.
A FIGHT HAS BEEN RAGING over the ownership of the sacred relic of the body of the RgVeda (and over the question of whether it is, in fact, a corpse) for over a century, from the days of Colebrooke and Wilson, perhaps cresting in 1890, when E Max Muller published his edition of the Sanskrit text and brought it to the consciousness of Europe. There have been two main warring camps, each consisting of a small, elite group: on this side, German (and British) philologists, in their obsessively neat ranks of scholarship, and on that side, Brahmins, in their equally (but separately) obsessive ranks of ritual. Each has claimed the Veda, for very different purposes and on very different grounds. The anti-Orientalists, following Edward Said, have argued that European scholars have somehow simultaneously inflicted the Veda upon the Hindus and kept it from them; and the subaltern/Marxist coalition, in a parallel rut, have argued that the Brahmins have done the same double damage.
But now a third party has entered the ranks, academicus ex machina, to rescue the Veda from the depth of the Ocean of Obfuscation to which those twin demons, European and Brahminical, had abducted it' Now it appears that (if we accept the wise dictum of Antoine de Saint Exupery's Petit Prince, that you can only truly own something that you take care of) the Veda belongs neither to the anal-retentive nor to the sanctimonious, but to the methodological. More precisely, the Veda has attracted the attention of a group of historians of religions in North America, which turns out to be intellectually, if not geographically, midway between Benares and Berlin.
This shift in the center of gravity, this tilting of the axis mundi, may be attributed in part to the excitement stirred up in the 1980s by two works by American scholars. First (in 1982) came Jonathan Z. Smith's article on canon, an article that has now itself become canonical in our field: "Sacred Persistence: Toward a Redescription of Canon" (to which several of the chapters in this volume refer, beginning with Laurie Patton in the introduction). In many ways, the ghost in the (methodological) machine of the present volume is not F. Max Muller but Jonathan Z. Smith. Then (in 1989) Brian K. Smith published Reflections on Resemblance, Ritual and Religion, a book that took a bold look at the Veda's canonical status within Hinduism and issued in a New Age in the study not merely of the Veda but of the whole religious complex that we call Hinduism.
Laurie Patton, who had already been plowing her own furrow in the rich field of the Vedas, joined with Brian K. Smith and others laboring in other parts of the forest, and they converged on an American Academy of Religion panel in 1990. That panel, in its turn, served as a magnet for yet other scholars with yet other interests in the Veda. The result is this volume.
When I first discussed the possibilities of this series with Bill Eastman (who surely deserves a medal for courageous publishing-perhaps he should be made Knight of the Multiauthored Volume), I said I hoped the series would include both classical studies and the cutting edge of new studies. I did not then imagine that a single volume would do both at once, but this is that volume. For, after all, the Veda is as Ur as it gets, while the young scholars who have written this volume represent the nouvelle vague in approaches to religious texts. They carry their theoretical assumptions not as shields to protect themselves from unexpected and recalcitrant dirty data (what Mary Douglas called "matter out of place"), but as awkward backpacks that get heavier with every step, burdens that can neither jettison nor ignore. It is their honest attempt to grapple with the theoretical monkeys on their backs, while still paying careful attention to the Indological tradition before them, that makes these chapters both so solid and so stimulating. Whatever the Veda may or may not be anywhere else (and it is precisely this question that is so hotly debated throughout this volume), it is certainly very much alive and well in these pages.
THE POET KABIR'S WARNING that the one who studies the Vedas "gets entangled and dies therein"' is one to be taken quite seriously. Until recently, the study of the Veda has been philologically rigorous yet theoretically moribund. Also until recently, the influence of the Vedic canon on the rest of Indian religious history has been inadequately addressed. One of the few scholars to address the issue, Louis Renou, ends up closing off rather than opening up possibilities for further research in this area. In his small but influential essay, "The Destiny of the Veda in India,"2 Renou asserts that over time the Vedic canon became a kind of empty icon, signifying various kinds of prestige and power, but little else. According to Renou, in the classical and modern religious traditions of India, only the "outside" of the Veda has survived. Renou concludes rather sadly, "The Vedic world, whose essence has passed . . . was no more than a distant object, exposed to the hazards of an adoration stripped of its textual substance."
The present volume joins other recent Indological scholarship in demuring from such conclusions.' The book began as a panel at the American Academy of Religion, held in New Orleans, Louisiana, in late 1990, and continued as a series of informal discussions and conversations well into 1991. The panelists argued that the substance of the Veda is indeed integrated into later traditions. What is more, they demonstrated that Renou has missed the most interesting point of departure: even if it were true that only the outside of the Veda survives in later periods, that "outside" itself is not uniformly received. Such a point is simply illustrated by the commonplace fact that the Vedas can refer either to the four earliest collections of verses (the Rg-, the Sama-, the Yajur-, and the Atharva-Vedas), or to an aggregate of early Indian works, including the four Vedas, the Brahmanas, and the Upaniads. (The chapters in the present volume use both definitions, depending on which historical period is being discussed.) While Renou perceived that the Veda takes on various patterns of influence in different systems of Indian thought, he failed to see how that variety is precisely the reason why inquiry into the vicissitudes of Vedic influence is fruitful.
The chapters in the present volume develop the perspective of that panel, taking up the question of the Vedas from a theoretical as well as a philological and historical basis. In a particularly helpful theoretical essay, "Sacred Persistence," J. Z. Smith asserts that canon is a salutary category in the study of religion because it incorporates questions of authority and innovation simultaneously. In the study of exegesis, one can focus upon both the limiting of canon and the overcoming of that limitation through ingenuity. Smith also suggests that because canons can take the form of ritual objects and spoken words as well as texts, both written and oral media can be taken into account.
Too few scholars have taken up the preliminary challenge that Smith makes to the study of religion, with one notable exception. In his book, Reflections on Ritual, Resemblance and Religion,5 Brian K. Smith, one of our contributors, argues that the amoeba-like cluster of practices and beliefs now called "Hinduism" can be defined as Hinduism precisely by their appeal to the Vedas as their canonical authority. While the question of defining "Hinduism" itself remains open, his suggestive study paves the way for more specific studies to delineate the history of the reception of the Vedas in various genres of discourse and at various points in India's religious history. Indeed, the very element that might define "Hinduism" is also the element that most richly exposes the heterogeneity of Indian religious practices.
In order to incorporate such heterogeneity, each of the chapters in this volume engages a twofold study: the theoretical question of canonicity and the historical question of the continuation, appropriation, or rejection of Vedic authority in different forms of Indian religions. These chapters modify and challenge J. Z. Smith's ideas about limitation and ingenuity in canon formation and exegesis. In doing so, these studies also specify and diversify Brian Smith's more general suggestions about the place of the Veda in Indian religions. For example, in their studies of the Brahmanas, the ritual philosophical works that follow the four Vedas, David Carpenter, Barbara Holdrege, and Brian Smith all argue that the Brahmanas view the Vedas primarily as a form of ritual and cosmological speech (Vac) that guarantees social status; the Vedas are not collections of oral "texts" that are to be limited or expanded through exegesis. David Gitomer, Frederick Smith, and Francis Clooney all push the definition of canonical exegesis further by inquiring about the Vedic canon's relationship to discourses that are simultaneously "inside" and "outside" the Vedic tradition. While texts from the Puranic, Vedantan, and NaOicthastra traditions all claim some kind of development from Vedic origins, their perceptions and methods of maintaining Vedic authority differ radically. Finally, J. E. Llewellyn, Anantanand Rambachan, Dorothy Figueira, and I take the insider/outsider question one step further-examining how contact with the West affects notions of canonicity. In this period, the Veda is subject to the more strident exegetical strategies of universalization (Llewellyn), rejection (Rambachan), and romanticization, whether in the service of colonialist (Figueira) or anticolonialist (Patton) ends.
As its title suggests, this volume incorporates two themes that are closely related to each other: authority and anxiety. Many of the chapters are concerned with the question of the maintenance and modification of a Vedic authority that has already been established, and remains, to a large extent, unquestioned. The second theme, that of anxiety, addresses explicit tensions about Vedic authority itself-how it is used by non-Vedic traditions, how it is controlled, and how it is overturned. It should be noted at the outset that the distinction between these two sections is one of degree, not of kind. Any tradition that attempts to maintain an authori-tative canon necessarily involves some anxiety over the boundaries of that canon, no matter how well accepted they may be. Relatedly, any anxiety about Vedic canon itself involves either a reassertion of Vedic authority or an appeal to another kind of authority.
The chapters move chronologically, delineating varying responses to the Vedic authority in the realm of philosophy, literature and drama, and narrative. Not surprisingly, the volume begins with two chapters dealing with the early Brahmanical interpretation of the four earliest Vedic texts-the Rg-, Yajur-, Sama-, and Atharva-Vedas. In his chapter, "The Mastery of Speech," David Carpenter argues that the limitation of Vedic canon is motivated by a kind of uneasiness. The management of canon is achieved far more frequently through narratives depicting the control of oral speech than it is through the precise numbering and cataloguing of the content of the Sarphitas, or collections, that make up the four Vedas. Carpenter substantiates this suggestion by showing how the Brahmanical appro-priation of the goddess of speech, Vac, is far different from the earlier portrayals of Vac found in the Samhitas. The later Brahmatias apprehen-sively depict Speech not as a benevolent muse of poetic eloquence, but as a potential danger to be managed and circumscribed.
In "Veda in the Brahmanas: Cosmogonic Paradigms and the Delimi-tation of Canon," Barbara Holdrege follows up on Carpenter's "detex-tualizing" of the Vedic canon. She argues that the Brahmanical tradition's emphasis on the form of the Vedic mantras over their content is integrally connected to the mantras' status as "primordial impulses of speech" that constitute the source and model of creation. Through the actions of the creator Prajapati, the Veda is cosmologized, so that forms of the Veda correspond to levels of creation.
In his chapter, "The Veda and the Authority of Class," Brian Smith picks up on the cosmological themes introduced by Holdrege and asks about their social meaning. He maintains that the Brahmana texts have a specific strategy for classifying the Veda according to the varna, or "social estate" system. Through an analysis of the various hierarchical equivalences (bandhus) made in the Brahmanas, as well as through the representation of the Vedas in Brahmanical narratives, Smith shows that the Brahmanas seal the distinctive social scheme of the varnas as "cosmologically aboriginal" and "authentically Vedic." For Smith, the canonical Vedas are inextricably linked to an idealized form of social hierarchy.
In his chapter, Frederick Smith engages the so-called classical Indian tradition through a close reading of the Bhagavata Purana as a Vedic text. The Puranic appropriation of the Vedas involved reshaping the mysterious, mantrically constructed Vedicpurusa into the all-encompassing, sectarian deity purusottama. In addition, Puranic authors manipulated geneaology to align themselves with Vedic sages, and employed contemporary philosophical ideas to prove Vedic infallibility. Finally, Smith argues that the central concern of the Purana was not the performance of Vedic ritual per se. Instead, the Bhagavata Purana used the Vedas and Vedic ritual as a repertory of persuasive invocational and evocational images-shaping the Vedas toward its own theological ends.
The next two chapters take up the classical Indian traditions from the perspective of the philosophy of Vedanta and the aesthetic theories of Sanskrit drama. In his chapter "From Anxiety to Bliss," Francis X. Clooney takes up the question of Vedic interpretation from a dual perspective-that of Vedantic debate and that of the contemporary Western scholar. While contemporary Vedic exegetes may find their initial enthusiasm giving way to anxiety about the possibility of "right meaning," they can learn a good deal from the Vedantan perspective. Clooney goes on to provide an example: in pondering a crucial passage from the Taittiriya Upanisad, the Vedantans must decide whether or not certain verses refer to brahman. In his analysis of what the "right meaning" is to Vedantan commentators, Clooney discusses not only the ways in which Vedic authority is maintained, but also the specific criteria used within Indian tradition for the "right reading" of Vedic texts. From the perspective of Vedanta, salvation itself is at stake in the interpretive process, and right meaning can only come about through a gradual, temporally attained understanding of the text.
David Gitomer's chapter, "Whither the Sweet Thickness of Their Passion?" provides a detailed analysis of the natyopatti myth-the myth of origins of Sanskrit drama. While many Indologists have attempted to ascribe Vedic origins to this myth, Gitomer argues persuasively that the narrative is of a different nature entirely. The story is loosely allegorical, designed to impart priestly prestige to a dramatic profession anxious about its status.
I began my Vedic studies seriously in 1923. As I proceeded with my studies the idea of working out Sri Aurobindo's line of interpretation dawned on me. It had its origin in the following passage :—
'To justify, for instance, the idea that I attach to the Vedic term Ritarn, the Truth, or my explanation of the symbol of the Cow of Light, I should have to cite all passages of any importance in which the idea of the Truth or the image of the Cow are introduced and establish my thesis by an examination of their sense and context. Or, if I wish to prove that Indra in the Veda is really in his psychological functions the Master of the Luminous Mind tipified by Dyaus or Heaven, with its three shining realms, Rochana. I should have to examine 'similarly hymns addressed to Indra and the passages in which there is a clear mention of the Vedic system of Worlds'. ( The Secret of Veda ).
recognise the necessity of such a work of justification and hope to follow it out in other studies on the Vedic truth, on the gods of the Veda and on Vedic symbols'. (The Secret of Veda ). It was a happy surprise for me to find that the late Dr. Ananda Kumaraswamy, the famous art-critic and student of comparative religion, in his Vedic studies approaches very near the stand taken by Sri Aurobindo.
In my studies I have collected certain references to the ritam. The principle that has guided my choice not only in the titan?, but in other Vedic subjects also, is obvious psychological sense and the variety of the context. I have quoted Sayana's commentary wherever I thought it necessary. Words derived from, or formed from, ritam have also been collected. Similarly references to go have also been studied, where the psychological function, I believe, is brought out irresistibly by the mere perusal of the text. Similarly, passages containing references to satya, so also those connected with vrishabha indicating the male—energy (purusha ) have been brought together and studied. I have also tried to- explain the symbolism underlying the Vedic Urvagi, Sarasvati, Sapta—Sindhus, etc. and have accordingly interpreted several important Riks connected with these.
I have tried to include in this book some Vedic word studies also. The meaning of these words is not known with certainty to Yaska. He admits his ignorance of them in the Nirukta before assigning them the current meaning. Such words as Parame-Vyoman and Para vat tmqq) used in the Upanishads in an acknowledged spiritual and psychological sense have also been studied. A chapter giving comparative interpretations of Yaska, Sayana and Sri Aurobindo may be found useful by the students of the comparative aspects of the Veda. My sincere thanks are due to my friend Prof. Anand Swarup Gupta, M. A., Editor-in-charge of 'MR-ANA' bulletin of the All-India Kashiraj Trust, for finally revising the Manu-script and for suggesting important modifications in it. I am also thankful to him for his help in seeing the book through the press. Without his unselfish and ready help the book would have remained in manuscript form for an indefinite period.
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