Learning Vedic Sanskrit, a few words at a time,, in quest of the true meaning of the Vedas..
- Learning Vedic Sanskrit
- Learning Vedic Sanskrit : Kasyapa’s Nighantu – Yaska Niruktha : 3
- Learning Vedic Sanskrit : Kasyapa’s Nighantu – Yaska Niruktha : 2
- Learning Vedic Sanskrit : Kasyapa’s Nighantu – Yaska Niruktha
Gayathri Devi
Having established that the Vedas and Upanishads as well as the Bhagavad Gita are the texts of maximum importance to students of Ancient India and to Hindus.. I studies the Bhagavad Gita first and wrote a course about it as well as a small book. You can read my explanation and commentary here : Bhagavad Gita (Complete) – Satya Bhashyam. (I started reading the meaning of the Bhagavad Gita when I was 16 years old and still continue to read and teach it).
Though I have read some of the Upanishads starting at the age of 18, I have not ever written about any of them, and there are many more Upanishads that I have to continue reading. (Sankara Bhashyam)
Vedas : I first read Max Muellers’ book “The Holy Vedas”. Max Mueller sees Vedic Luminaries as sort of Norse Gods and thinks that Indra is like Thor etc.. I always loved Thor, the god of Thunder even as a child, and I really liked the way Mueller saw Indra. This was a vast improvement over the unfair and highly inaccurate representations of Indra in Telugu movies. But even then it was clear to me that Mueller was trying to force fit Indian luminaries into a Comparitive Philogy Model.
Then I read translations of the Vedas by some Indian authors (Pandey etc), and got an impression that the Vedic rshis were like children asking for cows and health and victory in battle.
Next, I read a book called “The secret of the Veda” by Sri Aurobindo… I was seriously bowled over by the genius of this man – rshi. Aurobindo pointed out that there were dozens of meanings of the word gouh.. one of which was light. He reasoned that the Upanishads which were explanations of the Vedas and shared many Vedic passages were in fact extensions of the Vedas and not “revolutions against them” as some writers have projected. He gave the spiritual and psychological interpretation of a few of the Vedic hymns. After reading the arguments of Sri Aurobindo, I realised that however sweet the translations I had completed reading.. they were probably wrong!!
When I read that people were using astronomical references to date the Vedas, I started learning about Indian Astronomy.. you can find my notes and articles here : http://oldthoughts.wordpress.com. Now, I understand, the method that they are using to arrive at their conclusions., what I need to know is how accurate their data and assumptions are, and also how justified they are in selecting some data and rejecting other data.
Confident of my background in science and engineering, I decided to try my hand at translating the Vedas… you can see my first effort here : Prathama Suktham.
Saraswathi Devi
Having realised that in Vedas, the svara variations are very important to uccharana (pronounciation), I searched for a Guru who would teach me this. There is no other way. It cannot be learnt otherwise. Saraswathi Devi herself appeared in Vidyaranyapura as my Guru to teach me and at her feet, I have begun to understand how swaras are to be “sung” if you will. I have also collected books and literature on Siksha – the art of pronounciation and need to begin the second step of my study. Here are some links to some of my notes.
- Vedanga : Siksha : Book : Siksha Sangrahah : s’ikSAsangrahah
- Vedangas
- Vedic Swaras or Variations in Pitch
So I have now some beginnings in Vedanga Jyotisha, as well as Siksha. My uncle insisted that I MUST study the niruktha (dictionaries plus etymyology).. and I was looking for it. Luckily I found it here : Niruktha.
There is a special God who looks after fools and small children, and this God realized that I was running out of book funds, so now I have access to lots of free online resources as well as standard textbooks in my Guru’s house.
I have started reading the Niruktha, 3 sets of synonyms a day and started making notes in my blog http://satyaveda.wordpress.com. Everyone says that Vedic Sanskrit is different from Classical Sanskrit, and initially I felt the same. Then I started to think that it is not really all that different. Many nouns, verbs, declinations and conjugations etc are the same. Plus all Indian languages use Sanskrit noun and verb roots heavily with their own accents, declination and conjugation.
The point to note is that the words mean different things now than they did in the Vedas. Take a look at these links and you will observe what I mean.
- Learning Vedic Sanskrit : Kasyapa’s Nighantu – Yaska Niruktha : 3
- Learning Vedic Sanskrit : Kasyapa’s Nighantu – Yaska Niruktha : 2
- Learning Vedic Sanskrit : Kasyapa’s Nighantu – Yaska Niruktha
My next question was this :
The Vedas and the Valmiki Ramayanam were of the Tretha Yuga, we know this from two points, one from the Srimad Bhagavatham and second from the fact that all the Vedic Rshis were Sri Rama’s gurus and elders. Valmiki was a friend of Dasaratha as well as of Rama श्री राम. Valmiki used one of the Vedic Metres in the composition of the Valmiki Ramayanam.
Why does the Ramayanam feel so easy to read and the Vedas so tough? ….This is my answer :
The word force is used by laymen, by scientists and by sociologists alike. When I say.. “please don’t force me to read nonsense”., the meaning is different from when a scientist says ” a force of 20 Newtons is required to lift this box”. Mystics talk of a “life-force” that I can’t understand and so on.. you get the idea.
Valmiki was a poet and an explorer. The Vedic rshis were scientists. They used the same words to reflect different meanings. Also Valmiki wanted all the world to know and love Sri Rama as he did. The rshis were fully prepared to further encrypt their data and their ideas as if scientific jargon alone was not enough. In addition to the worldly and verifiable knowledge that was science , there was also the mystic knowledge, to be experienced and verified in one’s own mind.
That is why every human mind that tries to interpret the Vedas comes up with a different answer. Your translations reveal more about your own mind than they do about the Vedas!
This reminds me of my childhood when my folks used to speak Telugu words backwards so that I would not understand their secrets. This was called Latha drinkala Shabha! Later my sister and I came up with our own written English code, so that they could not understand our secrets!!
Reading the Valmiki Ramayanam is like reading my blog. Reading the Vedas is like reading an advanced textbook of science and medicine. Both may be written on the same day, in the same language and using the same words. But one is much easier than the other.
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