An Approach To Indian History
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Prof. Kittu Reddy

 

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The Vedas

 We  shall  now study the ancient history of  India,  and  we shall start with the Vedas. As we have mentioned in the previous chapter, research is going on  the dating of the Vedas and the Harappan and Mohenjodaro  civilisations;  but whatever be their dates  we  shall start  with the Vedas because it is generally accepted that  they represent  the  foundation and basis of  Indian culture and  Indian  spirituality.

Indian  spiritual tradition and the great spiritual  figures right  till  modern  times have considered the Vedas  to  be  the fountain  and  source of all Indian spirituality.  Is  there  any truth  in  this legend and tradition or is it all  moonshine  and imagination?  For modern European scholarship finds in the  Vedas nothing  but  the most trivial and superficial writings  with  no real value at all, the composition of a barbarian people. Also   it   has   been  stated   after  a   study   of   the Vedas  that there was an invasion of India  by a race called  the Aryans  and they were opposed by the native Dravidians. There  is constant reference in the Vedas to battles between the Aryans and the Dasyus - the  Aryans supposedly being the fair-skinned people and the Dasyus the darker race, and this has led to the theory of the Aryan invasion.

We  shall have to examine these theories and see what  truth they  contain. But, first let us see what the Vedas are  and  how they have been written.

There are four Vedas - Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Sama Veda,  and Atharva  Veda. The Rig Veda is the most pre-eminent one.  The  Rig Veda consists of 10 mandalas (parts) and each mandala consists of a number of suktas and each one of the suktas consists of a group of  verses. Veda is said to be fundamentally a record  of  experiences of intuition and revelation. The experiences are varied and belong  to various stages of development and  inner  exploration. They record not only the experiences of the poets but also of the ancestors (pitarah purvajanah). Veda thus describes the knowledge contained in the pre-Vedic tradition as also the Vedic  tradition proper. It is important to note that the largest number of verses and hymns are addressed to Agni, the Mystic Fire.

We must also note that the people of those times looked upon the  universe with  some kind of  a deeper feeling. They saw divinity in everything and worshipping animals was also  part of it. "Isha-vasyamidam sarvam"

To  them the most important things were  the  phenomena  of Nature, the sun, the moon, the stars, day and night, rain and the storms. Quite naturally therefore, the Vedas were expressed in  a language  which referred to Nature and there are constant  references to animals like cows and horses and to the rain god and  to the  Wind. 

This was how they combined human and animal traits as an exaltation of a deity and not as a  denigration. This is the meaning of Ganesha,  Narasimha and others in the Hindu tradition.

Also the Vedas were written in a  language  which  is almost  archaic; no doubt it has a great similarity  to  Sanskrit but many of the words have a different connotation to the  modern mind.  There   have naturally been many  interpretations  of  the Vedas;  yet it is a fact that Indian spirituality  and  tradition have always regarded the Vedas as the fount of all knowledge.

There are three reasons for this persistent belief.

First  as we have already said, it has been a long  tradition in India that the Veda is the highest source of knowledge; it  has been supported by almost all the schools of Indian philosophy and further  most of the great spiritual personalities of India  have confirmed this opinion.

Secondly, the Upanishads which come after the Vedas and  are universally recognised as a body of the most profound truths have themselves declared the sacredness of the Vedas.

Thirdly, it has been found that the Vedas reveal their  true meaning  by the proper interpretation of certain  very  important keywords.  These words which in their ordinary sense give only  a very  superficial and external meaning reveal a profound spiritual truth when viewed in another sense. We shall explain this later in the chapter.

However  history  tells us that there have been  four  major attempts to interpret the Vedas. We shall touch upon them  briefly. 

The first one was by Yaska, the second by  Sayanacharya,  the third by Max Mueller and other Indologists and the last one by Sri Aurobindo. We shall make a quick survey of these different interpretations.

The  first interpretation by Yaska was one might almost  say lexicographic. It gave a detailed dictionary meaning of the words as  understood by the Rishis and although it did not provide  any deeper meaning its great use lay in giving us a precise sense  of the terms used in the Veda; also since it was nearest in time  to the  Vedas the deformation in the meaning of the words must  have been the least.

The work of Sayanacharya was more scholarly and ritualistic. He   tried to disengage and reveal the meaning of the  Vedas  by giving  the words a symbolic sense . He however stressed more  on the ritualistic sense of the Vedas, on its external aspects  such as  the  sacrifice. Sacrifice was the principal  institution  and symbol  of the Vedic tradition and knowledge. He gave it  however solely an external and ritualistic meaning and thus robbed it  of the  deeper spiritual sense;  yet  now and then he did show  that the Vedas had a deeper import.

The work of the modern European scholars was based on a study of Philology. They too stressed on the ritualistic aspect of the Vedas and came to the conclusion that the Vedas were the composition of a primitive people with no real and profound sense.  This fits in perfectly with the modern view of history that primitive man was barbarian and that civilisation has been the result of a gradual development of the mind.

Lastly  we have the interpretation of Sri Aurobindo. He  has explained  that the Vedas had a double significance, one for  the ordinary physically-minded men and another for the initiates  and the more spiritually evolved men. The physically-minded   man  is the  man  who is in the first stage of evolution  and  is  mainly concerned  with the  material interests of life; he has  not  yet reached  the  stage  where he can seek for a  higher  mental  and     spiritual  development. And in India it has always been considered unwise  and unsafe to reveal highest knowledge to those  who  are not  ready; to them has to be given a simpler and  more  external truth  which  they   can  easily  assimilate. Thus  the  Veda  has       been written in a double language - we shall illustrate this now. Let us take  as an example the word ‘go’ in Sanskrit which  means cow.  This  word has a double meaning -in the external  sense  it means  cow but in the symbolic  sense it means light. Thus one  of the   most revered spiritual figures  of India, Buddha  has  been known  as Gotama the Buddha and that means the “most  enlightened one” and not as the external sense would have conveyed the greatest cow. In the same way it can be shown that many of the  important  words- in fact the keywords,-  have a double meaning,  an external  sense  and a symbolic  significance;  necessarily  this alters the whole significance of the Vedas. It will then be  seen that the  Vedas are not the composition of a barbarian people but that they contain great and profound  spiritual revelations.  The Vedas  have a double meaning - one in its external sense for  the less developed man and another with a profound sense and a deeper psychological import.

Viewed  in this light, a totally different  meaning  emerges and  it can be shown that the Vedas contain some of  the  deepest values  of Indian culture. We shall briefly mention these  values in the remaining  part of this chapter.

First  as  we have already said, the Vedic system  took  its outward  foundation  on the mind of the physical  man  and  based itself  on the physical representations and aims of the  material world. The primitive man was deeply religious and looked upon the  world  from a symbolic   angle. He believed that the sun and  the moon and the stars were living entities and he prayed to them for a better harvest or for greater riches. The Vedic seer understood the  nature  of the men of that time but even here it  did    not limit  itself  to  the first religious notions   of  the  natural external man; the Rishis gave a psychic function to the  godheads worshipped by the  people. They spoke to them of a higher  Truth, Right, Law  of  which  the   gods were the guardians  and  of  the necessity  of a truer knowledge and of a larger inner living.  No  doubt,  the people understood these truths in their more  outward  sense  but  they  were slowly and gradually trained  by  them  to develop their ethical nature. This approach is based on a  fundamental concept of Indian culture - that of graduality. For it is a firm  Indian belief that truth cannot be grasped at  one  stroke, one  has  to approach it by stages and that the truth has  to  be presented according to the stage of development. 

The deeper truth of these things was reserved for the initiates, for those who were ready to understand and  practise  the inner  truths. It was to these seekers that the Vedas  were   addressed and  quite naturally it was they who understood the inner meaning that was revealed by the secret words.

The  primary  notion  of the Vedic religion was  that  of  a hierarchy of worlds, an ascending stair of planes of being in the universe. It saw a mounting scale of the worlds corresponding  to a  similar scale of planes or degrees or levels of  consciousness in the nature of man. All these worlds and planes are governed by a truth, a right and a law, one in essence but different in their forms. We thus have the outer physical light, another higher  and mental  light  and  a still higher spiritual  light.  Surya,  the Sun-God,  was the god of the physical Sun, but he is at the  same time to the Vedic Rishi the giver of the rays of knowledge and  a higher  light of spiritual illumination. All the  Vedic  godheads have  this outer and inner and inmost function, their  known  and their secret names, all are in their external character ,  powers of physical nature and have in their inner meaning a psychic  and psychological significance.

The greatest power of the Vedic teaching lay in its application  to the inner life of man. Man lives in the  physical  world and he is subject to death and the falsehood of the mortal existence. To  rise  beyond this death and falsehood, he has   to  turn from the falsehood to the truth, he has to turn to the Light  and to battle with and conquer the  Forces of the Darkness. This,  he does  by  communion with the divine powers and their aid and  the way to call down this aid  was the secret of the Vedic mystics.     

How  to call down this aid, what was the means to  get  into  communion with the divine powers? The image used was that of  the sacrifice  or  yajna which we find constantly  mentioned  in  the Vedas. From the purely external point of view, the sacrifice was a ritual  which had to be performed before all important  occasions or  actions and it governed the whole society and all its  hours. It consisted in the offering of ghee  and other material  possessions  at  fixed times  of the day in a prescribed  manner;  many have  looked upon the sacrifice as nothing but a propitiation  of Nature-Gods  for the gaining of worldly prosperity and  of  Paradise. But it will be evident that this is only a superficial view and  that the image of the sacrifice was profoundly  mystic.  The concept of the sacrifice was based on the recognition of a secret relationship between the manifest and external world on one  side and  the occult and secret energies and actions that  lie  behind all  our  physical vision and experience on  the  other  side. The symbols of the outer sacrifice were given an inner meaning as  in  many  other sacred Mysteries all over the world;  they  represent the calling of the gods into the human being, a connecting sacrifice. an intimate interchange, a mutual aid and a communion. 

To what Gods shall the sacrifice be offered?

First, Agni the seven tongued power of the Will, a Force  of God  instinct  with Knowledge; for without  him  the  sacrificial flame cannot burn on the altar of the soul.

Next,  Indra  the Puissant, who is the power  of  the  Pure Existent manifested as the Divine Mind.

Surya, the Sun, is the master of that supreme Truth -  truth of being, truth of knowledge, truth of process and act and  movement and functioning.

Soma,  is  the representative deity of  the  beatitude;  the beatitude concealed in the waters of our existence.

The  Aryan  man  has to   constantly labour  and  fight  and conquer; he must be a tireless toiler and a stern warrior. He  has to  win  kingdom after kingdom and tread down enemy  after  enemy that are leagued against him to thwart his progress.

The  chief enemy is the Dasyu; these dividers, plunderers  and harmful powers are given different names and appellations;  there are  also some specific names given such as Vritra, the   Serpent who is the grand Adversary, Vala and the Panis who are the  miser  traffickers in the sense-life and so on. So  understood, the Vedas become the high aspiring  song  of Humanity; its chants are the episodes of the lyrical epic of  the soul  in  its immortal ascension. The battle is  not  between  the fair-skinned  Aryan and the  dark Dravidian but the  struggle  of the aspiring soul against the lower nature in man.

Another  point  to note is the nature of the  hymns  or  the mantras,  for according to the Vedic poets, a sound or a  certain  secret  set  of  vibrations tunes  exactly  with  the  vibrations which  are appropriate to the invisible psychological forces  and entities. Mantras are thus not only expressions of  knowledge, but they  are  also  vehicles of devotion. They  are  also  vibratory forces  of dynamism and action and it is therefore  important  to recite them properly and in the right manner. 

One  hears  often  of  the  Rishi  in  connection  with  the Vedas;  the  Rishi  was the seer who had lived  the  fullness  of   life  and had often even led the life of the householder; but  he had at the same time realised his spiritual fullness and lived in his  soul.  He had thus the experience  of life and was above  it at the same time and could therefore  guide wisely human life and endeavour. It is important to note that the Vedic teaching always insisted  that spirituality never rejected life but embraced  the whole  of  life  and the Rishi was  the  perfect  expression  and  embodiment of the highest spiritual life.

We  shall now illustrate with a legend from the Vedas -  the legend of the Cow and the Angirasa Rishis. It is a  simple legend -the  cows have been  lost and the Angirasa Rishis are in  search of the lost cows. The sacrifice has to be performed, the sacrificial fire has to be lit and the Rishis have to recite the Mantra. Indra  has to be invoked and he comes down with  his  thunderbolt and  the  power of all the gods. A battle is  waged  against  the Dasyus  and  the   Panis and with the help of Sarama,  the  divine hound, the gods and the Rishis enter the caves of the Panis where the  cows are hidden. The cows are liberated and the conquest  is over. The legend is simple but it has a deeper significance;  the cows,  as  we have already seen represent the light,  the  Rishis represent  aspiring humanity, the  Dasyus and the Panis  are  the dark  forces  and Indra is the divine power. The light  has  been stolen  by the dark forces and has been hidden in the caves,  the dark caverns of our lower nature; it has to be recovered with the aid  of the divine forces. The legend becomes thus the  story  of man’s aspiration and of his soul’s adventure.

And  this is a long and difficult endeavour and leads  to  a direct  experience of the soul and a practical living it  out  in the actualities of life. This way and the path to this experience is  termed  in India  -  Yoga. For the word Yoga means  union  and here  it  is  union with the highest spirit and  soul,  which  is concealed  in the depths of our being. Thus Yoga is  a  practical discipline with a definite method and goal.

It becomes clear from all this that the theory of the  invasion  of India by the Aryans is not founded on any  reliable  and sure  evidence  from the Vedas. On the contrary,  the  word  Arya might  well  represent the higher element in human nature  -  the aspiring  soul while the Dasyu is simply the lower nature  wedded to the animal part  in man. This seems as plausible and reasonable as the theory of the invasion of the fair-skinned Aryans and  the battle with the dark Dravidians.

We  may now sum up the chapter on the Vedas with  its  chief contributions to Indian culture and spiritual development 

·                                                First,  it believed that at the centre of this creation  and  of  the universe was a supreme Reality and Consciousness.(Ekam Sat)

·                                                Secondly, it said that this Reality was present in the heart of all living beings - it was the soul or the psychic  element in man.(hrdaye guhayam)

·                                                This  supreme Reality also manifests and presents itself  to us in many forms, names, powers and personalities whom we call the gods.

·                                                It made a distinction between Knowledge and Ignorance; the only true Knowledge was the knowledge of the supreme Reality. All other knowledge was termed Ignorance. This explains the great reverence in the Indian mind to a person who has attained spiritual realization.

·                                                It also said that there was a means and method to enter into contact with this soul; this discipline is termed in India as the Yoga.(rtasya pantha).

·                                                The Vedas spoke of the immortality of the human life and  of the  possibility of the conquest of death and there was  a  clear perception of divinising human life.

On these ideas, the Vedic  sages built up a profound psychological  and  psychic discipline which led to  a  high  spiritual realisation.

Indian civilisation and culture has taken its stamp and  its fundamental direction from the ideas and values of the Vedic  age and the Vedic culture.

The  Vedas  may  thus be considered the  cradle   of  Indian culture, the seed time of all its future development and not  the creation of a barbaric  and undeveloped stage of humanity.

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