The Veda is a term applied to a group of Literature that forms the earliest record of the Indian civilization. Whether the civilization represented by the Vedas is the earliest or whether there were other still earlier civilizations in the country is a disputed fact. Even if such civilizations existed in the country prior to the appearance of the Vedic people and their civilization, the records of those civilizations are not available. We can under present conditions of our knowledge of ancient India, safely assert that the Vedas are the earliest literary records of the civilization of ancient India.

As the Vedas contain eternal thoughts, a deep knowledge of the contemporary world is also absolutely necessary. The question in what way the Vedas and the allied Sastras are going to help the modern man is answered in this volume of 'Proceedings of National Conference on Vedas and Sastras".

It is the aim of T.T. Devasthanams to preserve and propagate the study of the Vedas and their allied Sastras. As the Vedas are vast and inexhaustable in content a humble attempt was made by the T.T. Devasthanams by conducting a National Conference on the Vedas and Sastras in ten ses- sions from January 29th to February 3rd 1992 at Tirumala in order to unearth the Vedic treasure.

Several eminent traditional and modern scholars attended the Conference and presented their valuable and scholarly papers on different subjects. The summaries of the papers presented during the National Conference were printed and published by the T.T. Devasthanams on the occassion of the inauguration of the Conference.

After receiving the fullfledged papers from the authors the TTDs, have deemed it a great pleasure to print and publish these papers for the benefit of the readers, who are interested in gaining an insight into the Vedas and the Sastras. This will also be helpful for those who are persuing research on the Vedas and the Sastras. Late Prof. S.B. Raghunathacharya, the Convener of the Conterence edited these papers and prepared this volume.

The T.T. Devasthanams will feel highly honoured if the aim of this publication would be fulfilled when the general readers and scholars are benifitted by this volume.