Veda02- Vedas - Unsolved puzzle of ancient India!

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One of interesting observations of ancient Indian Grammarians was that all the words in any language have a verb as their root. That means any word, no matter it is a noun or adjective or otherwise, has a verb from which it originated. There is no language, if there is no action.

 

The word Veda means knowledge. It stems from the root verb ‘vid’ which means ‘to know’. So, knowledge is something that comes out of the act of ‘knowing’. Even in English, you can see the prefix ‘know’ in the word ‘knowledge’.

 

Granted, Veda means knowledge. Knowledge of what? The faithful would say it is about ‘everything’!

 

It is common sense that knowledge is infinite since there are infinitely many things that can be known. That means nothing can contain knowledge about everything. So, how can some scriptures that are called the Veda, contain infinite knowledge?

 

We sometimes casually use the word ‘omniscient’ to mean someone who knows everything. Buddhists claimed that Buddha was omniscient. There are many who believe that God is omniscient. But did you know that omniscience was a topic of hot debate in ancient India? Many Indian philosophers argued that omniscience is impossible. Not even God can be omniscient! These philosophers had their own complex arguments to support their views.

 

Well, let us narrow down our scope of omniscience. Let us say that Vedas are repositories of vast knowledge, if not about everything. Why do we normally need any knowledge? We need it to solve some practical problems, to use it in some practical situation. ‘Knowledge for knowledge sake’ is an ideal slogan but not very useful 😉

 

Before we know what is the knowledge that these Vedas contain, let us first try to understand the needs of the ancient Indians who wanted to use that knowledge.

 

Ancient Indians considered 4 things as attainables in everyone’s life. These are Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha.

 

Dharma is the way one has to live, both as an individual as well as part of the whole existence. Kama is various pleasures one can enjoy and Artha is the material means that can get those pleasures. And finally, Moksha is a complete liberation from all the worldly problems, once for all. This was the world view of ancient Indians, and probably it should have been the world view of any one, ancient or modern, Indian or otherwise. Unfortunately, many of us are stuck with Kama and Artha alone 😉

 

Vedas have knowledge about all these 4 attainables. That is why it is said that they have all the knowledge. Here the word ‘all’ does not mean unbounded or infinite, but all that that is needed.

 

Major part of the Vedas revolves around Kama and Artha –pleasures and the means to get them. They are described in Samhitas, and Brahmanas – the major parts of the Vedas. Vedas also have components that provide knowledge about how one can completely liberate oneself from the worldly mire. That part is called the Upanishad or the Vedanta. In the background, these Vedas also support the Dharma Sutras which elaborate how to live in this world in a righteous way or Dharmic way.

 

So, the Vedas cover all useful aspects of our life. That is why they are said to contain all the knowledge. Well they may not have solution to our current Corona problem, or for that matter, the technology needed to make nuclear bombs or biological weapons. Fortunately, ancient Indians did not find any use for them 😉

 

So, where is the puzzle – you may ask.

 

The puzzle is that

 

1. This vast knowledge was preserved over thousands of years without putting them into writing! It was passed on from generation to generation purely in an oral tradition. The teacher taught to his disciples and they in turn to their disciples without anywhere writing them down. That is why these Vedas are also called the ‘Shrutis’ – something that was only ‘heard’. Why did they not write it down?

 

2. Though this knowledge was needed for everyone, it was a highly guarded secret. Only those who were officially permitted, were allowed to access this knowledge. Specifically, a vast section of the society was barred from its access. And this vast section included women among others. Except in special cases, women were considered to be unqualified to access this knowledge. Why such a secrecy?

 

3. Till the advent of Buddhism, all schools of ancient Indian thought accepted these Vedas to be the final authority. This is in spite of the fact that they had serious differences of opinion on various things including the concept of God. But none questioned the Vedas! If at all, they merely re-interpreted them to garner support to their way of thinking. Anything that contradicts the Vedas was not acceptable. Why was such a prominence given?

 

4. Not just in India, a vast geographical region around India looked upon the Vedas as the fountainhead of knowledge. Does it mean that the people living in these geographically scattered regions had common ancestry?

 

5. Even today, when there is hardly anybody who really understands the contents of these Vedas, traditional people in India dedicate their entire life to rote learning of these scriptures which are almost unintelligible to them! Is it just motivated by blind faith alone?

 

6. Most important puzzle is – who composed these Vedas that had such a prominent role in the society?

 

I definitely don’t claim that I have precise answers to all these questions. I will try to answer them to the extent possible. First let us take up the most important question as to who composed these Vedas? The answer to that may solve some of the other mysteries.

 

We will discuss that in the next episode.

 

 

A series discussing the most ancient of the Indian scriptures, nay the world scriptures namely the Vedas. © Dr. King, Swami Satyapriya 2021