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Apte On Vedangas From CHI PDF
Apte On Vedangas From CHI PDF
CULTURAL HERITAGE
OF INDIA
VOLUME I
T H E EARLY PHASES
( P r e h i s t o r i c , V e d ic a n d U p a n i s a d i c ,
J a in a , a n d B u d d h i s t )
in t r o d u c t io n by
DR. SARVEPALLI RADHAKRISHNAN
Vice-President of India
CALCUTTA
THE RAMAKRISHNA MISSION
I N S T I T U T E OF C U L T U R E
15
THE VEDAlsfGAS
HE Vedangas are a class of literature auxiliary to the proper cultivation
T and understanding of the Vedic texts and their application in rituals
and consist of the following six subjects: (1) siksa (phonetics), (2) kalpa
(ritual),1 (S) vyakarana (grammar), (4) nirukta (etymology), (5) chandas
(metrics), and (6) jyotisa (astronomy). Although the word ‘vedanga’ literally
means ‘limb (ahga) of the Veda’, and although the Vedangas are generally
included by literary historians in Vedic literature, they do not, in the
orthodox view, form part of the Veda, which is ‘Sruti’ or ‘divine revelation’,
the only working definition of which is: ‘the sum-total of Mantras and
Brahmanas’. This revealed scripture is supposedly not composed by any
human authors but simply ‘seen’ by the rsis and, as such, is sharply dis
tinguished from the literature called ‘Smrti’ (literally ‘memory’ or ‘tradition’)
composed by human authors—a literature which is held to be authoritative
only in so far as it is based on something corresponding to it in the Sruti.
The Vedangas, which originally meant ‘subjects of instruction in a Vedic
school, subserving and aiding the preservation of the Veda’, fall under the
category of ‘Smrti’, though euphemistically called ‘the limbs of the Veda’.
During the Brahmana period, the mantras of the Vedas were preserved
by oral tradition only. When, at the end of this period, the spoken
language drifted far away from the language of the Sruti, which was felt to
be as antique as it was sacred, the necessity naturally arose of preserving
intact the inner substance as well as the external form of the Sruti. Even
in the Brahmanas, there are statements that violence is done to the meaning
of Sruti passages if they are pronounced improperly. It was therefore felt
necessary to lay down general rules on the proper pronunciation and
accentuation of the mantras and their metre, especially when differences in
their pronunciation were sanctioned by the traditions of the different seats
or schools of Brahmanic learning. Thus were formulated siksa and chandas.
W ith regard to the inner substance of the mantras, the difficulties were
far greater—a situation testified to by the fact that there appear different
ritual contexts or liturgical settings for the Rg-Vedic mantras even in the
1 As kalpa has been dealt jfith in a separate chapter on 'Vedic Rituals’, the subject is
not treated here. Similarly, vyakaraipa and nirukta have not been treated here in detail as
they have been treated in the chapter on ‘Yaska and Panini’ also,
264
THE VEDANGAS
later Vedic Samhitas and endless discussions occur in the Brahmanas
regarding their meaning and the propriety of their employment in particular
contexts. Vyakarana and nirukta tried to wrestle with the problems of
exegesis of the mantras, and kalpa and jyotisa tackled the question of the
‘how and when’ of their liturgical employment in sacrifices. Thus the six
Vedangas were formulated and systematized within the curricula and
syllabi of the various Vedic schools.
from the earliest times. The Vedanga doctrines must, then, be sought for
in the Samhitas, Brahmanas, and the Sutras, step by step, rather than in
the short and barren tracts, traditionally designated as the Vedangas and
appended later to the manuscripts of the Vedas. These tracts, mistaken in
the beginning by scholars for the real Vedangas, represent but the last
attempts, though not with full success, to abridge and simplify earlier
developments in their respective fields, under titles sanctioned by antiquity.
In the Chandogya Upanisad (VII.1), Narada, while detailing the extent
of his knowledge, refers to (i) naksatra-vidya, (ii) the veda of the Vedas,
(iii) deva-vidya, and (iv) brahma-vidya, of which the first evidently means
jyotisa or astronomy; the last three have been explained as meaning,
respectively, (ii) vyakarana, (iii) nirukta, and (iv) siksa, chandas, and kalpa.
According to a commentator on the Brhadaranyaka Upanisad (II.4.10), just
as ‘Itihasa’ and ‘Purana’ in the sense of ‘epic stories’ and ‘sections on topics
like creation and the first cause’ form integral parts of the Brahmanas, so are
the Vedangas incorporated in the Brahmanas under different and unusual
heads such as upanisads (mysteries), slokas (verses), sutras (rules), vyakhydna
(comments), and anu-vyakhyana (explanations) which are the titles of
particular Brahmana passages. We shall, therefore, in dealing with each
Vedanga separately, try to trace, however briefly, the beginnings of an
interest in it right from the days of the Rg-Veda Sarhhitd to those of the
Sutras.
I. SIKSA (PHONETICS)
PRE-PRATISAKHYA LITERATURE
As the Vedas were transmitted in the early days by oral tradition, and
not writing, it is but natural that interest in phonetics should be evinced
right from the very beginning. Vac or personified speech is celebrated in
one whole hymn in the Rg-Veda (X.125), where the deity Vac describes
herself, and the major portion of another hymn (.R.V., X.71) is devoted
to the same deity. Particularly interesting is the verse (R.V., 1.164.45):
‘Speech is measured out in four parts (steps, stages, or grades) . . . The
three3 of them which are set in secret, they do not emit (or circulate) ; the
fourth (part) of speech, men speak.’4
* T he three grades of speech, deposited in secret, which move not, are explained in the
Satapatha Brahmana (IV.1.3.16) as being inarticulate (anirukta) and as the three progressively
higher stages represented by (1) the hissing of serpents or the humming of insects ; (ii) the
notes of birds ; and (iii) the inarticulate speech of brutes.
4 This description probably gave the cue to the later mystic division of speech into para,
paSyanti, and madhyama, originating from the navel, the lungs, and the throat, respectively'
i.e. the three unvoiced stages, and the fourth, the vaikhari, expressed through the tongue.
266
T h e vedang as
Geldner5 thinks that the fourfold division of speech is on the lines of
that of the Purusa in Rg-Veda, X.90.3: ‘Three parts of it represent
the immortal portion in heaven and the fourth part of it is all these
creatures.’ He refers to a passage in the Kdthaka Samhita, (II.79.9) which
says that speech entered into men and the gods, and the surplus went over
to the trees and plants. The Maitrayanl Sarhhita (111.70.16) also speaks of
the fourfold division of speech.6
According to Professor Varma,7 three stages in the development of
language are mentioned in the Rg-Veda: (i) inarticulate speech (1.164.45) ;
(ii) primitive articulate speech (X.71.1); and (iii) language proper (X.71.2).
As regards his criticisms that ‘a strict cleavage between inarticulate and
articulate speech may be open to question’ and that ‘the creation of language
by men, if strictly intended, may suggest that language was independent
of natural development’, the writer thinks that the Rg-Veda does not lay
down such a strict cleavage and suggests not the creation but only the
manifestation in an articulate form of (thought) language by men.
T he Aitareya Brahmana says, ‘Vac is verily an ocean ; it is never
exhausted’. It prescribes (XII.73) madhyama vac (intermediate speech) for
the stotriya verses, as refining the soul.8
The Aitareya Arany aka tries to throw light on the distinctive and
mutually distinguishable aspects of sounds through different comparisons.
In II.2.1, it compares first the consonants to nights and the vowels to days;
next the consonants are compared to the body, the voice to the soul, and
the fricatives to the breath. This and similar other passages (III.2.2 and 5)
hinted at the comparative solidity of the plosives as they are compared to the
earth or the bones. When, further, the vowels are compared to the marrow
and the semi-vowels to flesh and blood, the idea seems to be to indicate the
character of the vowel as the basic sound in the theory of syllabification.
Another remarkable passage (III. 1.5.) reveals the advanced stage of phonetic
studies, when sarhhitd is described as a pronunciation of two syllables,
neither entirely separated nor united—a view acceptable to modem science,
namely, that basically syallabic division is a relative one.
The traditional tide for phonetics ‘siksa’ appears for the first time in
the Taittirlya Upanisad (1.2), which gives a bare enumeration of the six
elements constituting it, namely, varna (individual sounds), svara (accent),
>* This sketch is based on Professor S. Varma’s book, the author’s debt to which, in this
article as a whole, cannot be overstated.
270
THE VEDANGAS
of this Pratisakhya are followed, probably because these rules were not
intended for any written literature at all.
The Taittirlya Pratisakhya of the Black Yajur-Veda quotes several
cara^ias of this Veda and alludes in its latest parts to the Mlmamsakas, not
mentioned in any other Pratisakhya. Chapters II, VIII, and XVI of the
work seem to be the older ones, constituting the core, as it were, while
chapters I and XVII-XIX appear to be later additions.
T he extant Pratisakhya of the White Yajur-Veda, though known as the
Vdjasaneyi Pratisakhya belongs to the Katyayaniyas, a subdivision of the
Madhyandina Sakha, which is itself a sub-branch of the Vajasaneyins. Some
siitras of this Pratisakhya are repeated word by word in Panini.
T he Pratisakhya of the Atharva-Veda, called also the Saunakiya
C a tu rd d h y d y ik d is a treatise in four chapters belonging to the Saunakiya
school, a carana of the Atharva-Vedins. T he special references to the
atharuana sacrifices and rituals preclude the supposition that the Saunaka
of the R k Pratisakhya had anything to do with this Pratisakhya, and yet
there is some evidence of a connection with Sakalya and the Sakalas.
T he Rktantra-vydkarana, the Pratisakhya of the Sama-Veda, is post-
Paninian, though not as recent as it is supposed. The Puspa-Sutra, another
PratiSakhya of the Sama-Veda, contains the text and the melodies of the
sdman chants and observations on phonetic and linguistic facts.
277
THE CULTURAL HERITAGE OF INDIA
vedah, ‘knowledge’ ; and (3) patr, ‘protector’ and pair, ‘drinker’. Sometimes,
as in the first example cited above, accent helps to distinguish one from the
other of a pair of homonyms. Homonyms are, comparatively speaking, few
in Sanskrit.
Sometimes there is the transposition of two sounds or the interchange
of two phonemes within a word. Thus prayaja—prajaya and yajna=yanja
(Satapatha Brahmana, 1.5.3.3 ; III 9.4.23) ; kasyapa=pasyaka (Taittirlya
Aranyaka, 1.8.7). Yaska refers to this phenomenon in II.2 : athapi adyanta-
viparyayo bhavati. According to Yaska, forms like stoka, rajju, and sikata
are formed through metathesis from the roots scut, srj, and kas, respectively.
YASKA’S NIRUKTA
T he Nirukta consists of twelve chapters13 divided into two parts, each
containing a sextet (satka) of chapters. T he ‘Purva-satka’ (first sextet) is
further subdivided into two divisions: (i) ‘Naighantuka-kanda’, which
comments on the-first three chapters of the Nighantu in three corresponding
chapters, and (ii) ‘Naigama-kanda’, which also consists of three chapters,
and comments on the fourth chapter of the Nighantu. T he ‘Uttara-satka’
(second sextet) comments on the fifth or last chapter of the Nighantu, and
is called the ‘Daivata-kanda’. Though the two satkas appear to have been
originally two separate works, the blending of the two parts must have
taken place very early, even before the Brhad-devata, which quotes both
the satkas. Evfen in its present interpolated condition, the Nirukta betrays
a unifying hand, and that hand was the hand of Yaska.
T he Vedic Samhita quotations are, as a rule, accented in the Nirukta.
So unaccented citations may be reasonably suspected as later interpolations.
IS The edition published by the Nimayasagar Press, Bombay (1930), contains a thirteenth
chapter consisting of 13 sections as partiista (appendix). T he Bhandarkar Oriental Research
Institute edition (1942) has sections 14-50 in addition, which are either treated as part of the
thirteenth chapter or as a separate fourteenth chapter.
278
THE VEDANGAS
This serves as a guiding principle in the investigation which yields the
following conclusions:
(a) T he influence of the Rg-Veda is the most dominant. Probably,
the original aim of the Nirukta, in pursuance of Nighantu trends, was
to examine certain Rg-Vedic nigamas only.
(b) There are clear traces of the influence of the old yajus, though
no particular school of it can be said to have influenced the oldest form
of the Nirukta. This is probably to be attributed to Yaska and his
successors. T he influence of the Kanva recension of the Vdjasaneyi
Sarhhita seems to have been brought to bear on the Nirukta at a late stage,
a supposition that will satisfactorily account for the phonological peculiarity
that T appears instead of T of the Rg-Vedic nigama, when the word is
repeated in the text of the Nirukta for comment, although T is faithfully
reproduced in the accented citation proper. According to Skold, sometime
or other, the Kanva school must have substituted T and ‘lh’ in positions
where the Rg-Veda has T and ‘lh’, respectively, and this has been transmitted
to the Nirukta.
(c) No influence whatever from either the Sama-Veda or the Atharva-
Veda can be traced in the original (accented) nigamas.
14 T he following remarks of Breal sound like an echo of the observations of Yaska and
other Indian etymologists: ‘Language designates things in an incomplete and inaccurate
manner. It is impossible for language to introduce into the world all the ideas which an
object or entity existing in nature awakens in the mind. Language is therefore compelled to
choose out of the ideas. It can choose one only. It thus creates a name which is not loner
m becoming a mere sign' (Semantics, pp. 171-72).
280
THE VEDASfGAS
Nirukta was'to explain Vedic theology to the Brahmanical schools. W hen
Yaska therefore derived a Vedic word from a verbal root by way of
explaining it, the thing, person, or animal denoted by the word came
(in his eyes) to share in the action of the verb. T he word not only
represented the thing; it was also the thing itself. T he modem word
‘etymology’ hardly does justice to this notion of ‘nirvacana’. T h e whole
background was theological, because theology in India, more than in any
other country, was the mother of all sciences. We should therefore rather
be agreeably surprised at the large number of good and true etymologies
in the Nirukta than be disappointed at the many etymologies which look
absurd to us but were self-evident to Yaska.
l* A_History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature (The Panini Office, Allahabad, 1912), p. 77.
17 Panini: His Place in Sanskrit Literature, pp. 158-70.
18 A History of Ancietit Sanskrit Literature, p. 79.
284
t h e vedangas
V. JYOTISA (ASTRONOMY)
T he Vedanga Jyotisa, propounding the doctrine as taught by Lagadha,
has 36 verses in the Rg-Vedic recension and 43 in the Yajur-Vedic one,
30 being common to both. T he Atharuana Jyotisa of 162 verses dealing
with muhurta (a particular division of time), karana (an astrological division
of day), yoga (leading star of a lunar asterism ; a variable division of time),
tit hi (lunar-day), and vara (week-day) falls outside the Vedic period. It is
important as it treats also of jataka (astrology), a branch of jyotisa. It is,
however, pre-Siddhanta, as it makes no mention of the twelve rasis (zodiac)
borrowed from the Greeks.
The Vedanga Jyotisa helps to determine, for purposes of the sacrifices,
the positions of the sun and the moon at the solstices and of the new and
full moon in the circle of the 27 naksatras or star-groups of the zodiac. I t
gives simple rules and concise formulae for the calculation of tithis, parvans
(new and full moon days), visuvats (equinoxial days), etc.
The basis of calculation is the very convenient one of a five-year cycle
called a yuga, because the solar year is taken to be of 366 days and five of
these (1830 days) accommodate 62 full moons and 62 new moons, i.e. 124
complete parvans, which, with the addition of two intercalary months (one
in the third and the other during the fifth year), turned the cycle from
a lunar into a solar one. The cycle commenced with the coming together
of the sun, the moon, and the naksatra Dhanistha on the first tithi of the
bright fortnight of Magha* at the autumnal solstice (the beginning of
uttarayana). T he Vedanga Jyotisa, with the zodiac divided into 27
naksatras, became obsolete, when the Siddhanta calendar, with the zodiac
divided into 12 rasis, became popular later.
DATE OF TH E WORK
A statement in this Vedanga that ‘in the beginning of 3ravistha, the
sun and the moon turn towards the north’—a conjunction observed
1—37 289
THE CULTURAL HERITAGE OF INDIA
occurring in the days of Lagadha—yields by astronomical calculation the
very early date of 1200 B.C. for the work, a result somehow explained away
by scholars who are sceptical, as the work betrays signs of lateness. But
C. V. Vaidya,24 who points out an earlier position of the uttarayana in the
middle of the Dhanistha division, argues that the statement cannot be
brushed aside as it is accurate and fixes the time of Lagadha, although the
present work may be a late one. It is not, however, as late as it is supposed
to be for (i) it is not composed in sutras, (ii) it uses older names of naksatras
and words like gharma and rasi in their older meanings, and (iii) even some
of the older Upanisads are composed in verse. This work refers to the
custom of naming persons from the naksatras of their birth, as the Grhya-
Sutras do.
26 Incidentally, this fixes the time of the Satapatha Brahmana at 2500 b . c . and of the older
Orion calendar at 4500 b . c . W intemitz, however, is sceptical about this theory.
292