[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]
Re: Vedic scholarship in India
Sankar Jayanarayanan <kartik@Eng.Auburn.EDU> wrote:
>I have come across some references to the Sama Veda in the Vishnu Purana.
>It extols the Saman as the greatest among the Vedas. Today, there are only a
Yes, both the shiva sahasranaama and the gaNapati sahasranaama praise the
respective Gods as "saamapriya". It is always given a special place.
>handful of people who can chant the Sama Veda, let alone understand the
>philosophy contained within. Recently, there was a function held in Madras
>during Navaratri when some Sama Vedins were requested to recite in the
>Temple. They chanted for sometime, and not ten minutes later, silence followed.
>It was then discovered to the embarrassment of everyone that that was all that
Actually, there are are quite a few people who can chant the saama veda (no not
me, I am a yajur vedin :-)). If you go to the kapaaleeshvara temple on
pradosham (once in a fortnight), you can see scores of yajur vedins, fewer rig
vedins and sama vedins chanting. It sounds very wonderful. There are usually
around 15-20 sama veda scholars. So there must definitely be many more who can
chant the saama veda.
There is also a paatashaala somewhere near KumbakoNam (I think). They have
quite a few students and the books they publish are impeccable. The svaras are
mostly correct and they have an errata for the rest. They publish the books in
grantha script, though. However, I have used those books in India and found
them vastly superior to Ramakrishna Mutt books, which usually have quite a few
mistakes as far as the svaraas go. The ones published by the Sringeri mutt are
also usually quite good.
Also, the only way we can sustain the vedas is to actually learn it ourselves
IMHO and not by anything else. If we don't learn, the next generation definitely
won't, children will follow only by example. Recording the vedas will not be of
too much help.
Ramakrishnan.
--
Sitting quietly doing nothing, spring comes and the grass grows by itself.
http://yake.ecn.purdue.edu/~rbalasub/
