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Indian
tradition, however, has held the Vedas all along in the highest
reverence, it has invested them with the authority of a revealed
scripture, Books of Wisdom. Notwithstanding all the centuries-old
efforts at such debunkings, the Vedas stand firm as a rock
towering like the snow-capped peaks of Kailas overtopping and
overlooking the vast panoramic expanse below, drawing its
nourishment every moment from the ceaseless streams that flow from
above-the huge and hoary expanse of Indian life and culture. What
is the secret that has enabled the Vedas to hold the pre-eminent
position they have occupied from the beginnings of time in this
country? Is there anything in them which is valuable for man as
to exact respect and reverence to the extent they have done? And
if the Vedas are really so valuable and so sacred, why is it that
they have become the targets of so much criticism? Why is it that
the Vedas are today so much enveloped in misunderstanding and
condemnation that they are in danger of being completely lost to
sight?
And what, in the first place, is the Veda?
The Vedās are the only extant records of the lives and expressions
of our forefathers of an age upon the time-limits of which
scholars and historians have been unable to agree with any degree
of finality. Indian scholars like Tilak and Europeans like Jacobi
are inclined to date the period from Four to Six millenniums
before the Christian era while other Western scholars have a
strong tendency to advance the date to as near the Christian era
as possible. Be that as it may, it is the songs and chants of
these fathers of the race—purve pitarah—, it is their hymns
that form the starting point and the kernel for the vast
literature that has flowed from and developed round them and goes
by the name VEDA. At some period of their history, very likely at
the close of the epoch during which the hymns were first sung and
celebrated, it was found necessary to collect and compile all the
available hymns current at that time. The necessity for the
compilation may have arisen in order to prevent their loss
inevitable with the passage of time and also to preserve them in
the form in which they were chanted. Tradition has it that they
were compiled under the direction of that Master compiler of the
Great Age—Vyasa. Certainly what have been compiled do not exhaust
all the hymns that must have been current; the compilations
represent the remnants that had survived the ravages of time and
were still extant at the time of the compilation. These hymnal
texts had been handed down from mouth to mouth and it was
inevitable that they must have suffered diminution in quantity
with each generation.
The hymns were collected and arranged in four different
compilations, Samhitās, each collection being governed by
different considerations about the nature of the hymns, the
purpose for which they were compiled, etc. Thus hymns which were
largely in the nature of prayers and dedications to Gods were
collected—says the tradition—by Paila under the guidance of Vyasa,
and went to form the Rik mantra Samhita. Hymns which were
particularly chanted during religious and social functions of the
community were compiled by Vaishampayana under the title Yajus
mantra Samhita. Jaimini is said to have collected hymns that were
set to music and melody—Saman. There is also the fourth collection
of hymns and chants ascribed to Sumantu, known as Atharva Samhita.
We need not dwell upon the subject of the Atharva mantra Samhita
and the controversy around it but recognize the Vedic tradition as
has come down to us which includes all the four Samhitās in its
fold.
Each of these Samhitās was followed gradually by explanations and
dissertations in prose and in verse for elucidating the meanings,
allusions, legends, etc. of the hymns and their application. These
portions are known as Brāhmaņās. The concluding portions of these
or the portions attached to them are discussions and speculations
of a philosophical and spiritual import based certainly on the
ideas and texts found in the Hymns. They are called the Āraņyakās
and Upanishads. Each Veda thus comprises the Mantra Samhita, the
Brāhmaņās, the Āraņyakās and the Upanishads. |
