Deivathin Kural # 29 of (Vol 2) of 30 Sept 2007.

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Om Namah Sivaya.Deivathin Kural # 29 of (Vol 2) of 30 Sept 2007.(continued from DK # 28 of 26 Sept 2007.)White Man's Research and Analysis - The Good and Bad Aspects.48. In the condition that is existing now, we have to learn about our own religion and Vedas only from the research and analysis findings of the so called 'Orientalists' and 'Indologists' , who are basically Westerners and their Indian followers. They have done yeoman's job alright, for which we have to be thankful with sincere gratitude. I do appreciate the many useful researches conducted by people like Max Mueller who had real and genuine respect for what the Vedas contained. They have taken a lot of pains and effort, to look for the materials from every nook and corner of this vast country, collect, organise and publish their findings, to be useful for generations to come.49. There was one Sir William Jones, who was a Judge in the Calcutta High Court more than 250 years back. He had started an 'Asiatic Society', whose books on Vedas, are astounding to say the least. Max Mueller with the help of the East India Company, had published the Rik Veda with Bhashyam by 'Sayana'. They have also published many other Hindu Religious books of significance. Not only Englishmen, but many from France, Germany and Russia, have also done some wonderful jobs. There have been such Westerners, who used to celebrate their research saying that, "their discoveries in Hindu Vedas were more significant than Columbus' discovery of America!"50. Think about it! Searching for a needle in a haystack may have been easier! Think of the problems of communications, transportation and crude if any, methods available those days for making copies! Think of the diffidence to part with matters of religious significance and hand them over to people, who are 'untouchable pardesi' who may be non-vegetarians for all you know! Still, despite insurmountable difficulties, Vedas, its Angas and Upangas, with Dharma - gruhya - sroutha Suthras, have been collected from all over the country and published with authoritative translations and commentaries. Not only Vedas, Tantra and Kundalinee Yoga were made world famous only by the singular contributions of Sir John Woodroff, who was an officer in the Indian Railways, writing with a pseudonym as Arthur Avalon. 51. There have been many such 'do gooders' amongst the Britishers. Lord Curzon, when he was the Viceroy enacted the Protection of Ancient Monuments Act, which was instrumental in saving many Hindu Temples from being demolished. One Mr. Ferguson photographed all the temples in the country, for their architectural and sculptural beauty, indicative of the sophistication of our cultural heritage and published them. Mr Cunningham, Mr Martimar Wheeler, Sir John Marshal; are the archeologists worth quoting for their contributions in Indology. One Mr Mckinsy collected the Palm Leaf Manuscripts, from all over the country. It was during his time or shortly afterwards that a Government Department of Epigraphy, came into being.52. Thus, though the Britisher's rule was a period of slavery for this country, there were individual great persons who did a lot of good on their own. But the main aim of the the Britishers as rulers of this country was to sustain themselves in power for ever. So, it was a confirmed Governmental Strategy of theirs to explore all possible ways and means, to identify, create and expand; as much differences as possible, based on Logic and or on Fiction and Canard if need be, between people and people, at every level of the fabric of Indian Society. The so called Orientalists and Indologists as an arm of the Government, were mainly interested in such direction of purpose. To spread the Christian religion was another motive. 53. In the pretext of scientifically researching into the History of India, one of the major areas of emphasise was to create the Aryan vs the Dravidian divide. In the name of "paguthu arivuk kolgai", meaning 'learn by differentiation' , anything beyond their understanding, was called Allegorical / Symbolic / Mythological; open to any mis-interpretation! As per the theory of evolution, the interpreters were all far advanced, modern and sophisticated, in their opinion. The Rishis of yore, they were interpreting were crude primitives. This would be the back ground of their analysis and interpretations. Then there were also those making a show of their balanced, unbiased approach; mainly interested in ridiculing the Indian heritage; so as to favourably impress upon Indians here for conversion into Christianity. The same logic went hand in hand, in impressing people back home, about their missionary zeal! I must however accept that, there were always some exceptions to the trend. There were Philologists, who were genuinely sincere and serious in their research, as they were motivated by the many parallels, between English and Sanskrit! They deserve our appreciation for their work and application.54. The very idea of learning, practicing and spreading Vedas and Veda Karma Activities; is so as to benefit all the life forms, the worlds and the universe. Instead of that, intellectual analysis of the Vedas, (which are essentially beyond the reach of human comprehension) , and to make huge books of what should be living in human speech and action; was like keeping a living useful animal in the muzeum.The Research in to Fixing the Date of the Vedas.55. When we say that Vedas are 'Anadi', it is not acceptable to the Westerner's attitude and understanding. However much they may stand on impartiality and scientific approach, at least some of them could never come to accept such superior status for the books of, 'after all Hindus'. Some more people yet again, would accept anything only on, very scientific analysis. There are many Indians and Hindus too who have approached this problem, in that frame of mind. 56. There are two methods in these calculations of trying to arrive at the Date of the Vedas. One is the Astronomical Method and the other is through analysis of the way the Language has evolved. But whatever mehtod used, they have not arrived at any consensus. Each expert says something different. Thilakar says that the Vedas are of 6,000 B.C. Some others quote 3,000 B.C. Yet others have pulled it as close to 1,500 B.C.57. Other Religion's books do not have this sort of a problem. Buddhist's 'Thripitakam' , is said to have been written around the time of Asoka and that it contains the 'Upadesas' as given by Buddha and can be fixed at 500 B.C. Bible's New Testament is dated to be approximately 2,000 years old. Quran is about 1,300 years old. These dates are all universally acceptable. But in the case of Vedas, there is no consensus. I told you that there are two types of Time analysis. I must explain that, a little more in detail.58. In the Vedas, there is a description at one place, of a particular conjunction of planets and stars. That conjunction has been calculated to have possibly occurred in the past, say in 6,000 B.C. But this calculation does not rule out the possibility that Vedas could have been of yet another earlier cosmic conjunction. Not only in this creation, the same planetary positions could have occurred, in a previous cycle of creation too! How to come to a decision on these things? The Rishis were capable of seeing beyond the limits of Time and Space, with 'extra sensory perceptions' . Then to try and bring their findings within the purview of Time and Space, is being rather inane, to say the least. Anyhow, these astronomical calculations have not been very conclusive!59. There has been another method of approach, through the analysis of the Language. In this analysis, we have to take into consideration; the spoken language and script. In our country, the earliest 'lipi' or script, for any language has been Brahmi. It is totally different to the Sanskrit Devanagari Script and the Tamil Script. But after studying hundreds of years of authoritative recordings in various Palm Leaves; Copper and other metal Plates; and Stone Carvings; a comparative study of how these scripts could have evolved; has been made. What is clear from this study is that, all these later day scripts, (which are totally without any similarities) ; have evolved out of the root Brahmi only! I used to look at some of these letters of Brahmi and wonder if some of these letters drew 'moushtaches' or 'horns' for themselves; and changed over to Devanagiri or Tamil, respectively! These changes could be correctly identified over a time scale; thereby arriving at the approximate date of the Metal Plate / Stone Carving! As far as Vedas are concerned, they have never been inscribed on metal or stone! So this procedure of deciding the 'period', based on 'lipi' or 'script' does not apply in deciding the age of Vedas!60. Through the Language, there is another method of analysing the Time of Vedas. That is based on an analysis of, 'the form of the sound of the words'. Many Tamil words in usage in the Sanga Kalam, are totally unrecognisable now; and vice versa. Some words get worn out or lose shape and sound or obtain different meaning. Now a days, in Tamil, if some one is 'veguli', he is considered to be rather innocent. The earlier meaning used to be, a person who was prone to 'anger'. There is a word, 'maanda' in Tamil. It has come to mean 'dead'. But its original meaning was, 'respectable' . Since everyone becomes 'respectable' after death, the word, 'maanda' has assumed the meaning of, 'someone who is no more'. Such changes have happened in Sanskrit too. As we can understand later day Sanskrit Literature, we cannot understand the Sanskrit of the Vedas. This happens in all Languages. In the English language for example, to-day's English world cannot understand a word of what is known as the Old English or Anglo Saxon, and the changes in it have happened within less than a thousand years.61. How a sound of a word undergoes changes, slowly over time, has been analysed and Philologists have come to some understanding of the time frame. Though these calculations can never be conclusive, but can only guess estimates. (A word in Sanskrit is called 'Shabdam' which can be literally translated as 'Sound'. So, in Sanskrit a 'word' and a 'sound' are synonymous.) "Every 200 years, a sound undergoes, so many changes or 'mutations'. Taking a word in Veda and analysing as to how it could have changed shape to a present day word, the analysts arrive at a conclusion that, it must have undergone say, 10 changes. Thus they have arrived at a conclusion that, Vedas could be as old as, anywhere between 2,000 to 6,000 years old. Thus Vedas cannot be more older than 4,000 B.C." These are the sort of opinions expressed.62. I will give you a counter arguement. In our houses, we use many type of utensils. Some are used every-day and some are used rarely. The pressure cooker (those days Vengala Paanai) has to be used daily, may be even twice a day. It has to be cleaned and reused. Compare this with a huge container of water, which may be cleaned may once a week or a month! By their wearing out, we cannot arrive at any conclusion of their relative age! Similarly in languages too, the words used in day-to-day conversations may undergo much change. But, this logic cannot be applicable to the Veda Shabdas! Yes, Vedas are chanted every day. But How? I am going to expand on this subject later. But suffice it to say here that, all the efforts had been taken to see to it that, Vedas do not undergo, the sort of mutations that other words have to. They remained unchanged over very very long periods, because of special efforts.63. Out of Vedas, Rik Vedam is the earliest, then Yajus, Sama and Atharvana in that order. In each branch of the Veda, Samhita is the earlier portion, Brahmanam was added later and Aranyakam came at the end. People make calculations based on the differences in the language of Samhita, Brahmana and Aranyaka. But the trouble is that, however much you may analyse, since they are not looking at the fact that, "Vedas were specially protected against the type of changes that would have occurred in the spoken languages"; none of these guess estimates are acceptable, for being far from the truth. Then if you claim that, 'despite the efforts to guard against changes, the Shabdas may have undergone changes', then your scale may have to be broadened to 2,000 years, for every small change. Wear and tear of words applicable to normal spoken languages is simply not applicable to Vedas!64. Hindi became a language only within the past 200 years or so. But since it is spread over a vast area, absorbing in itself, Sanskrit, Arabik, Persian, English and so on; within a short period it has changed a lot. Tamil has comparatively remained restricted to a smaller geographic area. But, even then, Thayumanavar songs are easier to understand compared to Kamba Ramayanam. But, if we go back successively from Kamba Ramayanam to Tevaram to Thirumurugarruppada i, the degree of difficulty will increase. But this is not equally applicable to the Sanskrit. Though Sanskrit was spread all over India, It was protected by the intelligentia against erotion and mis-pronounciation, with great respect, diligent regard and delicate care. Moreover, Sanskrit remained a language of literati and not the spoken language of the common man! 65. Now then, in the light of the above, consider the fact that, effectiveness of the Mantras are totally dependent upon the correctness of pronounciation. To safe guard against it's deterioration, a whole caste of people had been tasked to do just this job; from generation to generation. It is a fact of life that, they have been doing this very job over thousands of years, till as recently as the arrival of Britishers in this country; with the concomittant historical changes in all walks of life, at every strata of the Indian society. Anyhow the point to bear in mind is the fact that, none of these researches have disproved the 'anadi'tvam of the Vedas. Now we should try and understand as to how, the Vedas' correct pronounciation and sound was saved and guarded against corruption. This was mainly done by 'fool proof' methods of 'Adhyayana', to be elaborately covered in the next e-mail!(To be continued.)Sambhomahadeva.