Ancient Indians and The Veda
This web-site is all about the ancient Indians. Who they were, where they lived and what they did.
How can we know what happened in the far past? Times change so rapidly, that our lives are very different from the times of our parents and grand-parents.
If you wanted to know about your grand father, you would listen to the stories that he told you about himself, the stories that others told you about him, look at his diaries and photographs and other such records. Then you would piece it all together and create in your mind, a picture of what your grandfather was like when he was young, what he did and how he lived.
You would see how it all fits in, with any other information you have about his times. Then you would be ready to tell your grandchildren how your grandfather lived. You might just tell them the story, or write it all down, or make a song about it, or paint pictures about it, or even carve it in stone.
Ancient Indians, our forefathers, preserved all that they knew, all that they did, all that happened to them and descriptions of all the places they had been to or lived in., in The Veda and in the Sthala Puranas or stories of Places.
Ancient Indians were spiritual and poetic. They saw divinity and beauty in everything. They were also highly technical and mathematical and were very good astronomers. And they put everything into their Veda, their rituals and their lifestyle. They lived in a way that they could never forget who they were and what they had learned so far.
Veda Vyasa studied the entire Veda and he classified it into 4 separate Vedas – that had to be used together with rituals and other books whether for worship or for knowledge. He also separated all the stories out into different Puranas.
Vyasa was a great organiser and the first story that I tell will be Vyasa’s story.
Authorship and Copyright Notice: All rights reserved – Satya Sarada Kandula.
Vaikuntha Ekadasi, Geeta Jayanthi: The day the Bhagavad Gita was revealed to Arjuna. (Gadhimai, Bakrid, Thanksgiving, Margasira))
Astronomy : The Geeta Jayanti Day is 11th day (Ekadasi) of the bright half (Sukla Paksha) of the month of Margasira. It coincides with Vaikuntha Ekadasi. (I need to check for state-wise variations if any.) This year is joined with the Revati Nakshatram.
Significance : It was the day the Bhagavad Gita was revealed to Arjuna, by Sri Krishna. This year it is celebrated on the 28th Nov. Though ekadasi “starts” on 27th afternoon, it is the tithi at sunrise that counts. That is why 28th Nov will be celebrated as Gita Jayanti. Common belief is that the gates to Vaikunta are held open in this day and that it is a divine day to leave one’s mortal coils. It is also the day the Mahabharata Yuddha started.
Celebrations : The Geeta Jayanti Samaroh Festival is celebrated in Kurukshetra. (The location of the Mahabharata war.) The devotees bathe in the holy water of the sacred tanks – Sannihit Sarovar and Brahma Sarovar. The week long festival witnesses wonderful events like Shloka recital, dance, Bhagawatam reading, Bhajans and dramas. (Source)
The place of the original Gitopadesa is marked in kurukshetra by a marble sculpture and may be seen by tourists and piligrims.
The festival of Geeta Jayanti Samaroh is organized by Kurukshetra Development Board of Haryana Tourism, District Administration, North Zone Cultural Centre Patiala and Information and Public Relations Department Haryana. (Source)
The Gita was given to us about six thousand years ago by Sri Krishna, the Lord incarnate, through His most devoted disciple, Arjuna. Its teachings are based on the sacred Upanishads. (Source)
Vishnu Statue in Tamil Style at PoomPuhar, Brigade Road. Photo Credit : Satya Sarada Kandula : All Rights Reserved
More Information :
- For a list of all ekadasis and their significance see : http://www.salagram.net/ekadasilistinfo.htm
- For a modified story of Vaikuntha Ekadasi based on the brahmanda purana see :http://www.salagram.net/ekadasi-2.htm (fasting on this day is highly recommended).
- This Source, says that there is goat and other animal sacrifice that is taking place in a Nepali temple right now, which is held once in 5 years. The deity is called Gadhi-mai. (It is interesting because Gathi is one of the names of Viswamitra and he is also called the brother of the Kosi river. One of his names is Kausika. This reveals a Nepali connection.) “A month –long fair is held in the month of Mangsir (November / December) once in every five years to worship the goddess.” (Source) In India Mangsir refers to Margasira. A 5 year period refers to the yuga duration in the Paitamaha Siddhanta.
- This year Bakrid falls on the same day. Idu’l Juha Bakrid annually falls on the 10th day of the month of Dhul Hijja of the lunar Islamic calendar. Idu’l Juha is the latter of two Eid festivals celebrated by Muslims, Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha (For legend see : Source) It is celebrated by slaughtering goats and sheep. The road from Mekhri circle to Cantonment is lined with goats and sheep for purchase. Camels are walked t in from Rajasthan and sell at Rs 20,000 a camel.
- Modern Americans celebrate Thanksgiving day on the 4th Thursday of November, when they buy and eat turkeys killed in slaughterhouses. Their memory of Thanksgiving only dates back to 500 years ago, when the piligrims first arrived in USA. It is believed to be a harvest festival and occurs in the middle of Margasira Masam. At that time various other animals were slaughtered at home and eaten. Thanksgiving falls somewhere between Nov 22nd and Nov 28th in the coming years. This year it fell on 26/11, ironically, the anniversary of the Mumbai terrorist attacks.
- In Margasira Masam, Jews celebrate the festival of Chanukah or Hanukah, which is their festival of lights, a custom that interestingly dates from the time of Seleucus! Even more interestingly, at the same site, I found this correspondence between Jewish calender and common era : 3538 to 3574 (222-186 B.C.E.). Their calendar is closer to the generally accepted Kaliyuga Start Date of 3102 BCE. (Needs more investigation)
An interesting point is that while there are widespread protests against the animal “sacrifice” for Gadhimai, the slaughter of goats, sheep and turkeys by people of other religions is considered very civilized. And while the “Hindu Custom” of animal sacrifice is covered on BBC.. the Hindu-Vaishnava custom of fasting on that day is completely ignored.
See Also :
Images, Authorship and Copyright Notice : All Rights Reserved : Satya Sarada Kandula
Sanskrit Classes
My first sanskrit class on gvoice chat went well.
- We discussed AUM namah s’ivAya – caturthI prayOgah.
- namah, svasti, svAha. svadhA, alam, vaSaD yogAt ca, caturthI!
- We also practised prathama, dvitiya and sambodhana prathama vibhakthis using some internet resources.
- And ended with the prayer to Saraswathi.
It is possible for me to try a batch of upto 9 using skype conference call. A beginner’s batch.
Leave a comment if you are interested and we can have a shot at it…
Below : I am on my way to becoming an Ancient Indian myself!
Portrait Courtesy of Artist Sri SankaraNarayana Sathiraju : shankarair@gmail.com
Images, Authorship and Copyright Notice : All Rights Reserved : Satya Sarada Kandula
Date of the Puranas
In his Kautilya Artha Sastra, Chanakya mentions Veda Vyasa.
Ravana,Duryodhana, Bhoja (Dandakya), Karala (Vaideha), Janamejaya, Talajangha, Aila, Ajabindhu, Sauvira (Jayadratha), Arjuna (Haihaya), Vatapi and Vrishnis who conspired against Dwaipayana (Veda Vyasa). He gives them as examples of people who failed because they were unable to conquer their six internal enemies. (Desire,anger etc…)
Chanakya lived after Bharadwaja, Visalaksha,Parasara (father of Veda Vyasa), Pisuna, Kaunapadanta, Vatavyadhi and Bahudanti . He quotes their views on the matter of selection of ministers.
Chanakya lived after the following kings killed by their own families: Bhadrasena; Kárusa, Kásirája (killed by his queen), Vairantya, Sauvíra, Jálútha, Vidúratha.
So we know that Veda Vyasa lived before Chanakya. Vyasa was the grandfather of the Kauravas.
Veda Vyasa compiled the histories of the people and events before his time in the Puranas. Each Purana gives us a list of the people through which he heard the purana. For example he learned the Siva Mahapurana from Sanatkumara, who learned it from Nandikeswara, who learned it from Siva himself. Vyasa (Krishna Dwaipayana) was the great grand son of Vasishtha who was the guru of Sri Rama. (See : Generations between Rama and Krishna., Generations previous to Sri Rama. )
- Vyasa classified the Veda Mantras, which included mantras by his father Parasara and mantras by his grandfather Sakthi and his great grandfather Vasishtha.
- Vyasa edited and compiled the Puranas which contained incidents of times before him – like the flood of the Matsya Avataram. as well as the achievements of Siva, Vishnu, Karthikeya and others.
- He made a reference to the Valmiki Ramayanam, and gave it as a reason why he need not explain the story of Rama in detail.
- He originally wrote the Mahabharatam and the SrimadBhagavatham, to reflect the heroic events of his time. The Bharatam includes the story of Sri Rama in it, as told to Draupadi to encourage her, that justice would prevail.
- He classified the Mahabharatam and Valmiki ramayanam as Itihasas.
Vyasa left a Placeholder for Future Events :
- There was a section in every purana to deal with events after the Bharata war.
- This section was written in the future tense to capture the time of the original work.
- It was updated every century or every dynasty.
- A special Purana called the Bhavishya Purana deals with incidents of the Kaliyuga. It was last updated in the time of QutbUdDin Aibak.
The british colonials dated the Puranas at the time of their last updation. This is like taking a diary maintained by a family for generations and dating all the incidents of that diary at the time of the last entry. It is silly to say the list. The anti-astrology people rejected the entire sections based solely on the use of future tense. It did not occur to them to treat it as a style issue.
David Frawley is not a typical western writer who maintains the colonial traditions. Yet he dates the Puranas as 400 AD. But he makes the following errors:
- Though he accurately interprets the shlokas and mantras, astronomically., he treats them in isolation.
- For example, he quotes a shlokam from the Vishnu Puranam which gives the astronomic date of 400 AD, but does not provide the context. It think that date-time-stamp indicated by that shlokam refers to an incident of 400 AD or to the poet who updated it.
Approximate Dateline as worked out by me, to be refined, filled in and expanded : this is based on a 3102 BCE date for the start of kaliyuga. (See : Date of Sri Rama, Date of the Mahabharata War, How many kinds of Sakas (Eras) are there? How many kinds of Yugas are there? Date of Veda Mantras Equinoxes and Dating Vedas )
- Some Veda Mantras were composed by Vasishtha on the banks of Godavari and on the shores of the Bay of Bengal.
- The Matsya Avatar is a contemporary of Satyavrata Manu, a forefather of Sri Rama. Vasishtha was on the boat to the Himalayas and helped Ikshvaku settle Ayodhya after the flood.
- Vishnu and Garuda defeated the brothers Sumali, Mali and Malyavan. (Sumali was the grandfather of Ravana)
- Surya Siddhantam created by Maya Danava.
- Siva destroyed Tripura built by Maya Danava, Ravana’s father-in-law.
- Veda Mantras of Parasara and Sakthi.
- Rama killed Ravana.
- Valmiki composed Ramayanam.
- Satrughna killed Lavanasura and established Mathura
- Bharata conquered Takshasila and Pushkalavata.
- Uttarkanda of Valmiki Ramayanam completed
- Veda Vyasa classified the Veda Mantras and he edited, abridged and compiled the Puranas. (between 3138 and 3162 BCE. (BC))
- Mahabharata war. (3138 BCE)
- Veda Vyasa Composed Mahabharatam (Jayam) and Srimad Bhagvatham (3102 to 3098 BCE): Puranas received by Saunaka and others at Naimsaranya.
- Janamejaya’s dana sasana patram. (3009 BCE)
- Aryans arrive in India (2100 BCE)
- Kautilya Artha Sastram
See Also: Aryan + Naga: Sisunagas, Gauthama Kasyapa Buddha, Chandragupta : Bhavishya Purana, Dark, handsome heroes of Uttar Pradesh – Sri Rama and Sri Krishna, Anarya! Dushyantha, Sri Rama, Sri Krishna.
Authorship and Copyright Notice : All Rights Reserved: Satya Sarada Kandula
Aryan + Naga: Sisunagas, Gauthama Kasyapa Buddha, Chandragupta : Bhavishya Purana
- After 1000 years of Kaliyuga Kasyapa Muni and Aryavati came to India (earth). They worshipped Saraswathi of Kashmir and had her blessings. (If Kaliyuga began in 3100 BC this event took place in 2000 BC.)
… ( Aryans to Asoka (Bhavishya Purana)…
- Arya-Prithu’s son was King Magadha.
- Magadha’s son was Sisunaga. (Interestingly Sisu means child and – Naga means snake as well as the Naga tribe . Sisunaga was born with Balabhadra’s grace. Balabhadra is one of the names of Balarama who is considered the incarnation of Sesha-Naga, Sisunaga could also be a variant of Sesha Naga. So Sisunaga was an Aryan-Naga blend.)
- Descendants: Kakavarma, Kshemadharma, Vedamisra, Ajata-ripu (or Ajatasatru. Ripu = Satru = enemy),Darbhaka, Udayasva, Nanda-Vardhana -
- Nanda-suta, Pranancala, Parananda, Samananda, Priyananda, Devananda, Yajna-bhanga, Mauryananda,Mahananda – the 9 Nandas
- Gautama Kaasyapa, introduced Buddhism in 1790 kaliyuga. (If Kaliyuga is 3100 BCE, then this is 1310 BCE)
- Descendants: Shakya Muni (Buddha was also called Sakya muni), Suddhodana, Sakyasimha, Buddha Simha, Chandragupta (who married the daughter of Suluva the Yavana king of Pausasa), Bindusara, Asoka.
Thus, as per the reference above Chandragupta, Bindusara and Asoka are descendants of Gautama Kaasyapa who founded Buddhism.
- Nandivardhana was the father of Sisunaga and the last of the Pradyotanas. (The account before Sisunaga differs from the Bhavishya Puranam)
- Sisunaga Descendants : Kākavarṇa, Kṣemadharmā, Kṣetrajña ,Vidhisāra, Ajātaśatru, Darbhaka, Ajaya, Nandivardhana, Mahānandi (also known as Mahapadma Nanda), father of 8 nandas (the oldest being Sumalya).
- “A certain brāhmaṇa [Cāṇakya] will betray the trust of King Nanda and his eight sons and will destroy their dynasty. In their absence the Mauryas will rule the world as the age of Kali continues.
- This brāhmaṇa will enthrone Candragupta, whose son will be named Vārisāra. The son of Vārisāra ( Bindusara?) will be Aśokavardhana.” (Vari means water and Bindu means drop)
If Chandragupta Maurya of the Bhagavatam is the same as Chandragupta Kaasyapa of the Bhavishya Purana, and if Sandrokottus is the same as Chandragupta Maurya, and if Sandrokottus was about 300 BC, then Kaliyuga start date will have to be approx 2100 BCE. Then Kasyapa-Aryavati (Aryans) would have come to India in 1100 BCE. Then could they have worshipped the Saraswathi river in kashmir?
In the Kautilya Arthasastra, Chanakya mentions the fall of Ravana, Jayadrata, Bhoja, Vatapi (at the hands of Agastya) and so on and the reasons for their respective falls.
Authorship and Copyright Notice : All Rights Reserved : Satya Sarada Kandula
Related Posts :
- Magadha after Jarasandha
- Magadha kings as per Bhavishyat Purana
- Nagas
- Dark, handsome heroes of Uttar Pradesh – Sri Rama and Sri Krishna
- Anarya! Dushyantha, Sri Rama, Sri Krishna.
- Evidence of the Gandharvas : Mehrgarh – Neolithic site ((9000?)7000-3200 BC)
- What is Itihasa? Kautilya’s (Chanakya’s) definition.
- A link to Kautilya Arthasastra
- Exciting time for Indian History
- Historical Clues from the Bhavishyat Puranam
Dark, handsome heroes of Uttar Pradesh – Sri Rama and Sri Krishna
In modern India, you see fairness creams advertised not only for women but also for men.
Yet, the most handsome of all Indian men Sri Rama and Sri Krishna, were both dark and were both born in Uttar Pradesh. One in Ayodhya and the other in Mathura.
The word ‘Neela’ in sanskrit means dark or black and over time has come to be interpreted only as blue. And there is no painting of Sri Rama or Sri Krishna that you see in modern times where they are not painted blue. And any actor chosen to play the parts nowadays is always fair – NTR, Nitish Bharadwaj and all the rest. No one in modern times has the courage or desire to cast a dark looking man for the role.
The word ‘Nalla’ which means black in telugu means good in tamil. No colour prejudice there!
The aryans with their fondness for skin fairness blended into our culture starting 1000 Kaliyuga (~2100 BC), a 1000 years after Sri Krishna left his mortal coils, a thousand years after the Mahabharata war, date is as per the Bhavishya Purana. (See : Anarya! Dushyantha, Sri Rama, Sri Krishna.) (They literally “white-washed” our history.)
Till such time dark heroes like Rama and Krishna and dark heroines like Draupadi द्रौपदी अग्निपुत्री were considered the most beautiful. Veda Vyasa himself was dark and called Krishna Dwaipayana. The word Krishna means dark and was applied to Sri Krishna as well to Draupadi as Krishnaa.
The British have popularised an Aryan-Dravidian theory, and portrayed the Aryans as an invading race. There is no literary evidence for this.
- Valmiki, in his Ramayanam, mentions only races such as Rakshasas, Gandharvas, Vanaras, Rkshas, Nagas and so on. He says that Sri Rama was as handsome as the king of the Gandharvas and as Indra the king of the Devas.
- Sri Rama made a friendship with the Vanaras of Kishkinda (Bellary Region), and with Rakshasa king Vibhishana also. His only war was with Ravana, for kidnapping Sita Devi.
- The Ramayana is not a story of North Invading South as westerners portray. It was a conflict between the Vanaras and the Rakshasas, The Vanara hero Vali had previously defeated not only Ravana but other rakshasas, as well. Sugriva and Sri Rama made a pact to help each other. Some sthala puranas suggest that Hanuman also killed some rakshasas.
- Many ordinary people wrongly confuse Danavas the descendants of Danu, with Daityas, the sons of Diti and with rakshasas an exogenic community, who tried to move into India but were repulsed.
- Sri Rama’s territorial conquests include Mathura (through his brother Satrughna) and Sindhu-Gandhar-Gandharva Desa (through his brother Bharata.) (See : Bharata, Takshasila, Puskalavata and Satrughna : He founded Mathura) The Ikshvaku rule expanded westwards under Sri Rama.
- Sri Krishna too conquered and unified North India – Assam, Nepal, Gujarat directly and the rest through the Pandavas. There is a sthala purana to indicate that Sri Krishna moved south after Dwaraka drowned, but that is all. (See : Where Janardhana washed his feet – Janardhana teertha)
- When the Vanaras (Mainda and Dwivida) attacked Dwaraka in Sri Krishna’s absence, Balarama beat them back. The yadavas expanded south.
- The youngest Pandava brother, the handsome Sahadeva, son of Madri and the Ashwinis, made a coastal conquest of some regions of South India and sent a friendhip message to Vibhishana (Mahabharata).
- Janamejaya, son of Parikshit, grandson of Abhimanyu, great-grandson of Arjuna was enthroned in Kishkinda. See (Janamejaya’s Dana Sasana Patram)
Perhaps the British with their Divide and Conquer Policy wanted to discredit all this information – so they called our Itihasas as mere Kavyas. (See : Chanakya’s Definition of Itihasa)
They projected the Post-Aryan-Culture of Kalidasa onto the Pre-Aryan Ganga-Saraswathi civilization of Valmiki and Vyasa.
All of us probably have some Aryan blood due to racial mixing.., but thats all.
Authorship and Copyright Notice : All Rights Reserved : Satya Sarada Kandula
Tons of Sanskrit Resources on the Web
I am delighted to see that there are tons of sites, blogs, videos and what have you for learning sanskrit on the web and each of these links to a million more.. These are all Very easy to find and bookmark and they are free.
I think anyone with a Will, will find it very easy. There are also forums for discussion etc…
So there is no need for me to teach sanskrit at all…. 
A few links to start you off..
http://sanskritvoice.com/
http://sanskritvoice.com/digest/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9uoNo8S7Jo
http://acharya.iitm.ac.in/sanskrit/tutor.html
All you have to do is type learn sanskrit online in google.. and you will get pages of links…
http://www.google.co.in/search?rlz=1C1CHNH_enIN325IN325&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=learn+sanskrit+online
Illustrations for Ancient Indians
Charaka. Courtesy : shankarair@gmail.com All Rights Reserved
Sri Sankaranarayana Sattiraju has been kind and generous enough to send me a set of his illustrations for use on Ancient Indians, at my request.
Retired from AIR, Sri Sankaranarayana is also known to Andhras as the younger brother of Bapu, of the Bapu-Mullapudi fame (bapu bomma and movie director (sakshi, sampurna ramayanam, woh saat din, mutyala muggu and so on and on and on).
Sri Sankar does portrait sketches on a commercial basis and may be contacted at the e-mail address given in the caption. Some samples of his work and his profile, may be seen on bapubomma.com, telugunidhi.com, and totaltollywood.com
We are fortunate, that he has allowed us to use his work, free of cost, on Ancient Indians.
Authorship and Copyright Notice : All Rights Reserved : Satya Sarada Kandula.
Copyright for sourced image rests with the source.
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