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Re: Vedic scholarship in India
I was a bit happy to note that there are many places where RECITATION of the
Vedas takes place.
In Madras,there is competition held called "kalluvechchakaram" or something like
that. There are,I heard,three sizes of stones- big,small,and very small pebbles.
A person picks up one stone from each group. The participant(who can recite the
Vedas) understands that the first stone stands for the chapter, the second
for the ... and the third for the anuvaaka(?), and then begins to recite the
corresponding section of the Veda . He must recite only 250 padas from
where he started off- no more, no less. In the end, there is a prize given to
the best ghanapathi.
But I heard this from a very great scholar of the Vedas who now resides in
Bhadravati. He knows the Yajur Veda completely, all the "Aranyakas" (I don't
know what they are!), eight Upanishads and the Bramha-sutras. And not just the
chanting either.I have personally seen him speak in Sanskrit to the scholars of
the Sringeri Math, and they hold him in high esteem. He was saying how in
present day India, there was really nothing of the scholarship that he had seen
in his youth. I distinctly remember him saying how distressed he was that
Vedic scholarship was degenerating rapidly. He was talking about SCHOLARSHIP,
and not just the chanting. It was to his son that I talked to that day. He was
saying how, in Benaras, most of the Vedic scholars are south-Indian and not
north-Indian. And there aren't many of them - he said that only three were
notable. The so-called pandits are not really pandits. They CANNOT compare
to the standard expected of a Vedic scholar in Sringeri. It is ONLY Sringeri
that has kept up the standards required of a Vedic scholar. In the other
maths, the standards have become diluted.
> 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.
I belong to the Yajur Veda sampradaya. I know very little - barely enough
for a half-hour recital. But I want to know: can I learn the Sama Veda or
the Atharva Veda? I did hear that it was a grave SIN to do so. But then again,
I also heard that it is a sin to write down the Vedas, and that rule has been
broken freely.
Also, I attended a speech given by Paramananda Bharati(of the Sringeri Math),
who had visited Madras some time back : "all the people who know Vedas now are
not scholars, but have just MUGGED IT UP." (He spoke in English, and used the
word "mugged") He even said how,"You people should learn Sanskrit and
then understand what the Vedas are trying to convey.Do not read the translations
given by Max Mueller and others. I have seen many translations by him and have
discovered that he has not stuck to the original well enough."
As for Sama Veda, what I heard was that there aren't many who can even recite
the Sama Veda completely. If there are, as some postings indicate, it only
makes me very happy. Thanks.
-Kartik
