Ancient Indian Historical Tradition book review continue........ Similar remarks hold good with regard to the rishis celebrated in the Rigveda and in the epics and puranas through the difference is naturally not so wide because the latter in praising them approximate to vedic matter .Great rishis mentioned in the later were Rcika,Jamadagni and his son Rama among the bhargavas,the vasishtas of trisanku ,Harischandra of sagara and of Kalmasapada all of ayodhya and also Parasara .Datta and Durvasa of the atreyans Bruhaspathi samvarta Diganthama and Bharadhvaja among the angirasa.The forst and great visvamitra and agastya yet no hymns are attributed to some of them and porions attributed to others are meager.Dirghanthamas Parasara Bharadhvaja agastya viswamitra atri vasishta are credited with many hymns,yet these names appear to be merely gotra and not personal names except the first two .On the other hand many rishis to whom numerous hymns are ascribed such as madhuchandas ,Kanva,Medhatithi,Kaksivant,Grtsmada ,Vamadeva and asita are mentioned in the epics and puranas though little definite is said about them The majority of reputed authors are unknown to those works The vedic literature gives us notices of ancient times from the brahminicand religious point of view and kshatriya tradition enables us to picture ancient India and its political conditions from the kshatriya standpoint .The kshatriyas manifestly played the most important part int the Aryan conquest of India and if we wish to discover and estimate what their position and achievement were it is essential to study their traditions for as will be shown the puranic genealogies and they alone give an account how the allien race dominated all regions to which we assign the Aryan occupation while the brahminic literature contain no linking whatever of that great transformation Brahmnins and Rigveda Vedic literature not only lacks the historical sense as pointed above but is not always trusted in matters that concerned brahminical claims and pretensions The greatest brahminical book is the Rigveda It is compilation of hymns composed by many authors and is arranged according to certain principles .It must manifestly have been compiled and arranged by some one or more persons yet vedic literature says absolutely nothing about this The Brahmins cannot have been ignorant about it for they preserved it and its text with unparalleled care They certainly did not accept and venerate this canon blindly upon uncertain authority and they must have known who compiled it and established it text This made clearer by another fact namely vedic literature professes to know and declares the names of authors of nearly all the hymns and even of single verses yet it ignores all knowledge of the person or persons who afterwards compiled and arranged those hymns to suppose that when it preserved the earlier information it was ignorant of the later work so vital a matter is ridiculous .Plainly therefore vedic literature has deliberately suppressed all information on these matters Epic and Puranic tradition unanimously and repeatedly declares that the veda was arranged by the great rishi parasara’s son Krishna dvaipayanawho was consequently reknowned by the name name vyasa yet vedic literature is remarkably reticent about him is that this is the name of a mythical sage who in the vedic period is found only as apupil of viswaksena in the vamsa at the end of samavidhana ,brahmana in he late trutiya aranyaka The mahabhartha and puranas are full of vyasaand it is incredible and all that say about him is pure fiction It is beyond doubt that the vedic literature has deliberately ignored him There is a conspiracy of silence in it both about the compilation of the Rigveda and about the pre eminent rishi who is declared to have arranged it The reason is patent The Brahmins put forward the doctrine that the veda exost from everlasting hence to admit that anyone had compiled or even arranged its struck at the root of their doctrine and was in common parlance to give their whole case away These considerations show how little trust can be placed in the vedic literature as regards any matter which the Brahmins found awkward for their pretensions .When they suppressed facts of the greatest moment it was a light thing to distort smaller matters
Posted on: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 09:50:19 +0000
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