BACK TO VEDAS (VEDAS AND VEDANGAS)

The study of the ancient works of India must evoke in us some gratitude for the western
scholars who have done considerable work in translating many of these texts. But that is the only one side of the coin.

These translations are generally accepted as authorative but without any question being asked. To some extent western interpretations have served their purpose. But there is an important aspect related to the translation of India’s great works on philosophy, science, Jyotish and other subjects. That is adhikara or competence and eligibility. Just by knowing a language one cannot say one gets the competence to translate a work. Often the spirit of the work is lost or mutilated in such translations.

This is especially relevant when an outsider seeks to interpret a culture, an ethos, away of thought that could have developed over thousands of years in comparison to his own which may be only 200 or say 1000 years old at the most.

Proficiency in English alone can never give competence or adhikara to interpret say a chemistry text book for example. There is so much difference in material approach of a westerner or the evangelist approach of a European and the spiritual approach of an Indian to the same that the right comprehension of the essence of the next by the foreign scholars is nearly impossible. The gap is further widened by the fact of the difference in the ways of their lives and often, a trend towards hasty generalizations which at best are only speculative. Therefore such interpretations are often misleading and carry with them all the limitations of those making the interpretations and fail to convey the spirit of the original work.

The Late Shri V. K. Rajwade, President, Vedic Research Institute, Pune had in his foreword to Rigveda Samhita of Sayanacharya said that it is dangerous to follow tradition, even tradition established by European Scholars.
What is required is a mind free of prejudice and prepossession and a persistent desire to work independently. We have to deal with a document, which on all hands is acknowledged as the oldest in the world.

As language, grammar, idiom, everything has no parallel to modern Sanskrit, words modern in look have often got their modern senses. Exhaustive word hunting leads to the discovery of unexpected sense i.e. unless the mystery lying enveloped in every word however insignificant in look is laid bare, it is not possible to arrive at the true meaning in the minds of the composers.

Additionally because of colonization of large parts of the world by Britain in the 18th to 20th centuries a massive inferiority complex began to take hold of sections of thinkers in these colonized countries especially in India. And they had come to believe all science and rational thinking has come only from the west. They were in complete ignorance of ancient Indian attainments. The reason being that this was not being taught or introduced to in school, where they were taught only about scientists and thinkers from the west. And so they believed only the west had scientists and thinkers. The ignorance of our intellectual heritage has led them to believe there’s no intellectual legacy whatsoever for us leading to contempt of Indian sciences.

But as Yaksha says:
Nityam hi avijnatur vijname asuya
Eternal indeed is the scorn of the ignorant for knowledge.

The Vedas has six limbs:
Jyotisha, Kalpa, Nirukta, Siksha, Vyakarana and Chandas. The role of each (limb=anga). Vedanga is clearly described as or equated with the parts of the Ved Purush.

NÝX: [mXm¡ eãXemņ̃ M d•Ì§
H ë[ [mUr Á`m{oVf§ Mjwfr M &
oejm§ K«mUm§ üm{Ì_w•V§ oZé•V§
d{X ñ`m SmÝ`{H _mhw_wZrZX«m: &&

Chandas (teats of Prosody and metres) is deemed to be the feet. Vyakarna (grammar) the face, Kalpa (procedures
and sacrifices) the hands, Jyotisha (the time or Muhurta for such Vedic rituals) the eyes, Siksha (phonetics) the nose
and Nirukta (special meanings of the words) the ears. These vedangas are treated as limbs of the Vedas personified – Ved Purusha and essential for the study of the Vedas of these, Jyotisha is given the pride of place – d{Xñ` Mjw: oH b emñÌ_{dV² or astrology is the eye of the Vedas.

The vedangas are deemed auxillary to the Vedas and important in the proper understanding and application of Vedic
knowledge. However strictly speaking they are not accepted as part of Sruti or divine revelation.

Veda means Vid (to know) or knowledge of God, life, deities, nature, dharma and ofcourse the Absolute. The Vedas are said to have been obtained by the Rishi’s through tapasya and are divine revelations without a human author and therefore, described as A pourusheya. They are called Srutis. They were not written or composed by any human but received as Divine communications from the Absolute Parabrahma. Sage Vyasa did not compose the Vedas but codified them.

The Vedas illustrate the universal pattern of human religion and quest for reality, peace, fulfillment and salvation. The Vedic hymns embody the highest and loftiest human aspirations. The Vedangas (though called by some as Mundane disciples) are the auxillaries to the Vedas.

They (Vedangas) aim to sub serve and aid the preservation of the Veda and can be placed (in a General sense) in the category of Smruti.

During the earliest periods the Brahmana period, the Vedas were preserved through oral tradition (by the humble Vaidika Brahmans), but as time passed the gulf between the language of the Srutis (Vedas) and the spoken language of the Srutis (Vedas) and the spoken language kept on widening. Therefore a need was felt to preserve the Sruti – both its internal form or its internal content or essence – on its pristine purity.

The sanctity with which the Vedas were held was such that any changes, no matter how minute, in its form were deemed a sacrilegious mutilation. The proper pronunciation and the metrics of the mantras could be safeguarded only if consciously approached and as a result, Siksha (Phonetics) and Chandas (the subject of metre’s in composition) were thought very essential. These two Anga’s were necessary to take care of the external form or body of the Vedas. But regarding their meaning and the different rituals, which often attracted debate due to a difference in the traditions of the different sects and schools of Brahmanical learning. Vyakarana (Grammar) and Nirukta (etymology) were formulated. Likewise Kalpa (ritual) and Vedanga Jyotisha became necessary to preserve the methods of ritual and determine the best times for these rituals.

All the Vedangas therefore were subjects of study with the Rishis and cannot be confined to the short tracts appended to the Vedas.

The Paniniya Shiksha is a Sloka Compilation ascribed to Pingala, younger brother Panini and has 60 Shlokas.

There are other Sikshas extant in two resconsions belonging to Rig and Yajur Vedas.

Nirukta or Yaska is a commentary on an older list of Vedic words called Nighantu or Nighatuka. Yaska says “without this (science) there can be no understanding of the (vedic) Mantras. Many earlier Niruktakaras are mentione by Yaska himself.

Likewise in Vedanga Vyakrana, it is understood that grammatical studies culminated in it and it did not mark the starting point of Vyakrana. It is associated with Panini who himself mentions atleast 64 predecessors.

Again Pinalai Chandah Sutras deal with Vedic metres in General. The Kalpa sutras falling into two or more groups are also special manuals for priests.

The Srauta sutra deals with sacrifices and are based on Sruti.

The Smarta Sutra are based on Smriti and again are divided into Graha sutra – dealing with household ceremonies – Pancha Mahayagna, Samaskara etc.

Dharma sutra deals with duty or law in the sense of Dharma or moral or religion.

Sulba sutra deals with rules for construction of altars and reflect the very advanced levels reached in Mathematics by
your Rishis.

Baudharya and Apasthambha in their Sulba Sutra (BC 800) explain the architectural measurement of various Vedic altars. Infact Baudharya actually solved, long before Pythagoras the theorem.

Truly speaking our children should be learning Baudharya’s theorem and not the wrongly named Pythagoras’s theorem.

The last Vedanga is Jyotish which deals with the subject Muhurta based primarily on lunar and solar positions. The Vedas have two section, the karma khanda and the Graha khanda. The former describes different Yagnas for obtaining specific results and its is for the Muhuratas of these Yagnas and rituals that rules of Vedanga Jyotish evolved to find the tithis and the Nakshatras for the use of Non mathematical Vedic scholars.

The tracts (of vedangas) are not the whole of the subject dealt as Vedangas are not abridged portions but vast and highly developed disciplines.

Narada in describing his knowledge in Chandogya Upanishad refers to 1) Nakshatra Vidya 2) Veda of the Vedas 3) Dev Vidya 4) Brahma Vidya which means he is referring to Jyotisha, Vyakrana, Nirukta and Brahma Vidya covering the remaining Angas of Siksha, Chandas nd Kalpa.

When we approach the Vedas and the Vedangas a great sense of humility must mark our efforts to understand then when only we can catch only some of their import like a mirror trying to catch the sun.

The Vedic tradition of knowledge is like an ocean so vast and encompassing, so encyclopaedic in range, it can never be grasped in its entirety but even a small glimpse of the Vedas tells us what makes us Indian, what makes India unique and helps us overcome the psychological complex of intellectual inferiority, so evident in some of our so call secular thinkers that we must go back to the Vedas.