Indian knowledge System:An introduction

Introduction

Before beginning, we must first be clear about the meaning of the word ‘literature’. The dictionary meaning of literature is given as “written works, especially those considered of superior or lasting artistic merit”. In the context of India, where there is an unbroken living oral tradition with a history of more than at least 5,000 years; the meaning of ‘literature’ for our present purpose has to be extended to mean ‘composition’ to include the works composed and transmitted orally from generation to generation.

Cāṇakya, in his Arthaśāstra, classifies knowledge that one needs to know into four types:

• ānvīkṣikī – used in the general sense of (contemporary) Science, encompassing logic

and philosophy

• trayī – used to refer to traditional knowledge, to the Vedas in particular

• vārttā – used to represent wealth creation (agriculture and commerce)

• daṇḍanīti – used to represent politics and public administration

The classical literature of India is usually described as chaturdaśa-vidyā-sthānas (14) consisting of

• the 4 Vedas (namely Ṛgveda, Yajurveda, Sāmaveda, Atharvaṇaveda)

• the 6 Vedāṅgas (namely Śikṣā, Kalpa, Vyākaraṇa, Chhandas, Niruktam and Jyotiṣa)

• Itihāsa (Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata) and Purāṇa (Viṣṇupurāṇa, Bhāgavata etc.)

• Dharmaśāstra (Manusmṛti, Yājñavalkya-smṛti, Parāśara-smṛti etc.)

• Darśana (Six orthodox and six heterodox systems)

• Nyāya (Logic and Epistemology)

In other places, sometimes the 4 Upavedas, namely Āyurveda (health-care), Dhanurveda (archery), Gandharva-veda (dance, music etc.) and Sthāpatyaveda (architecture) are also added to the list, taking the total to 18 (aṣṭādaśa).

Introduction to the Vedas:

It is well-known that the Vedas are the oldest surviving literary works in the whole

world. The Vedas are also sometimes referred to as trayī since there are three types of mantras in the Vedas; namely those that are metrical compositions, those that are in prose form and yet others that are set to music. Our tradition says that Bhagavān Veda Vyāsa compiled the Vedas largely based on these three forms; so that

 Ṛgveda came to be the collection of mantras in metrical form called Ṛks

 Yajurveda came to the collection of mantras in prose form

 Sāmaveda came to be the collection of mantras set to music

Atharvaṇaveda came to be the collection of mantras due to the Ṛṣis Atharva and Aṅgīras. Each of the above mentioned Vedas are said to consist of two main parts: saṁhitā (also referred to as mantra) and Brāhmaṇa. Some scholars opine that the Brāhmaṇas are elaborations upon the saṁhitā. In few places, we do see that the Brāhmaṇa is said to consist of two more sub-parts, namely the Āraṇyaka and Upaniṣad. As a result, many scholars say that Saṁhitā, Brāhmaṇa, Āraṇyaka and Upaniṣad collectively make up the Vedas.

The experiences of the Ṛṣis poured out in the form of poetry came to be known as mantras, which make up the content of the Vedas. Each mantra is associated with a Ṛṣi (who is therefore known as mantra-draṣṭā, literally seer/discoverer of the mantra), devatā and

Chhandas; although there might be exceptions. The word Veda itself, coming the root vid (to know), means knowledge; and the Vedas as a body of literature came to be revered as the repository of all knowledge (available at that time). Therefore, it came to be considered very important to preserve this knowledge exactly as it was. Hence a mechanism, similar to what is today known as “hashing” among computer scientists, was devised back then; in which the Vedas were learnt, recited and transmitted orally in a number of different ways, to ensure that the different methods of recitation acted as a check on the other. The ways of recitation are preserved even to this day and is transmitted orally to those students learn the Vedas traditionally at a gurukula. Some of the ways of recitations are as follows:

• saṁhitā-pāṭha: continuous recitation bound by phonetic rules and intonation

• pada-pāṭha: a recitation marked by a conscious pause after every word, thereby

restoring each word in its original intended form

• krama-pāṭha: Ex: word1word2 word2word3 word3word4 and so on

• jaṭā-pāṭha: Ex: word1word2 word2word1 word1word2 word2word3 word3word2

word2word3 and so on

• ghana-pāṭha: Ex: word1word2 word2word1 word1word2word3 word3word2word1

word1word2word3 and so on

All this effort in preserving the Vedas shows how much our ancestors cared for knowledge and strived to preserve every letter of it. In the above scheme, even a single letter cannot go in error, even after several millenia pass. It may so happen that, due to natural disasters (such as earthquakes, tsunamis, famines, floods, draught, volcanoes, meteoric collisions) which affect an entire settlement, one entire part of a Vedic text may be lost; but it can never happen that a single letter may become erroneous. Therefore, due to such a perfect preservation of the Vedic texts, the Vedas may be considered as good as archaeological sources of evidence for conducting research.

One is compelled at this point to compare this Indian culture of knowledge preservation with the cultures of other parts of the world. It is said that the Bible was compiled some 400 years after the alleged crucifixion of Jesus Christ at a council headed by Emperor Constantine, where certain gospels were added to the Bible whereas certain other “inconvenient” gospels were omitted. Likewise the Quran was compiled by the Abbasids about 300 years after the death of Prophet Muhammad; and whenever there was multiple conflicting versions, the version with the dialect of the Quraish tribe only was retained and the others destroyed. Once the Bible and Quran were first “frozen”, all other versions were destroyed. Some people under the assumption that the Quran contains all knowledge and truth that is worth knowing went about burning libraries in Alexandria and other places. In India, Bhaktiyar Khilji ransacked Nālandā and Vikramaśilā universities and proceed to burn their libraries; it is said that the library burned for seven days. In addition, most of the people who memorized the Quran were warriors and once they were killed in battle; the knowledge of the Quran and related literature would be lost. But in the Indian culture, people who were into knowledge production and preservation were exempted from military duties.

Veda and Vedāṅga:

As mentioned earlier, the Vedas are a collection of poetic mantras pouring out of the

Ṛṣi’s experiences. Since these experiences of these Ṛṣis varied from an observation of the visible sky (with the Sun, the Moon, the stars, planets, comets, etc), to flora and fauna around,

to the forests, deserts, rivers, seas and oceans, to the people around, to their own physical body, to their breath, to their mind, intellect and ego and the inner Self witnessing this whole thing; the subject matter spoken in the Vedas is vast and its meaning cannot be easily deciphered. This problem is exacerbated in the face of natural calamity, famine, floods, mass migration etc., due to which there will be breaks in the knowledge tradition. Notice that the experiences of the Ṛṣis listed above all are an integral part of nature, as how things ARE and not created by human beings. Therefore, as the subject matter of the Vedas deal with those which are not man-made, the Vedas are said to be apauruṣeya; or in other words, the Vedas are vastu-niṣṭha (in tune with reality/existance) and not vyakti-niṣṭha (one’s emotions, likes and dislikes, orientations). Since the tradition holds the view that the Vedas are ‘revealations’ and for the reason that they have been transmitted orally, the Vedas came to be called ‘śruti’ (literally, heard). The allied literature which does not form a part of the śruti came to be known as ‘smṛti’ (literally, remembered). The śruti represents timeless and eternal values which hold good for all times, while the smṛti codifies these eternal values into codes or rules based on the needs of the time and place for the society at hand. For example, respecting the opposite gender as thinking and feeling beings, and not exploiting them is an eternal value; while the exact number of wives or husbands one can have can vary with time, place and one’s standing in soceity. Thanks to this śruti-smṛti demarkation, Indian society has been able to preserve its core values, yet adapting to the ever-changing situations.

An indication of the breadth of topics covered in the Vedas can be obtained from the Chāndogya Upaniṣad of the Sāmaveda, where Nārada-ṛṣi approaches Sanat-kumāra says that he knows the four Vedas, itihāsa, purāṇa, vyākaraṇa, kalpa, gaṇita, daiva, nidhi, tarka-śāstra, nīti- śāstra, nirukta, dhanurveda, jyautiṣa, sarpa-vidyā, gandharva-vidyā; but is still not free from sorrow. Hence, Nārada seeks ātmavidyā from Sanat-kumāra so that he be free from sorrow. Since the Vedas are a repository of knowledge is such varied disciplines; one must take support of the six Vedāṅgas, namely śikṣā (phonetics), vyākaraṇa (grammar), jyotiṣa (astronomy), kalpa, niruktam (etymology) and chhandas (prosody) in order to make an attempt to decipher the meaning of the Vedic mantras. These branches of knowledge too grew over time thanks to contributions from various thinkers, and here we will briefly mention the big names in each field:

1. Jyotiṣa: Normally the name of Lagadha is associated with Vedāṅga-jyotiṣa; but there are numerous contributions to this field by Parāśara, Vṛddha-garga, Āryabhaṭa (Āryabhaṭīyam), Varāhamihira (Bṛhajjātakam, Pañcasiddhāntikam), Brahmagupta (Brahmasphuṭa-siddhānta), Nīlakaṇṭha Somayājī (Tantra-saṅgraha), Sāmanta Candraśekhara to name a few along with their main contributions in brackets.

2. Vyākaraṇa: Thanks to his Aṣṭādhyāyī, Pāṇini’s name comes first when talking about Vyākaraṇa (grammar). From the Aṣṭādhyāyī itself, we come to know that there had been many grammarians before Pāṇini; but Pāṇini came up with a minimal set of rules that described the Sanskrit language in just about 4000 sūtras (aphorisms).

There are several original contributions of Pāṇini, foremost among them is the use of meta-language (or formal language in today’s terminology) and the concept of kāraka (which has essentially opened up a new field of study called Computational Linguistics enabling machine translation). Further, one can see the seeds of algorithms in Pāṇini’s sūtras.

Based on Pāṇini’s sūtras, Kātyāyana/Vararuci gave vārtikas (additional statements

to describe some cases which were not covered by the sūtras) and Patañjali gave detailed commentary based on critical analysis of language. Other notable contributions include Kāśikā (a brief commentary on Pāṇini-sūtra) and Bhartṛhari’s Vākyapadīyam. About 300 years ago, Bhaṭṭoji Dīkṣita composed a work by rearranging Pāṇini’s sūtras with a commentary to aid the teaching process. But scholars like Smt. Puṣpā Dīkṣit opine that Pāṇini sūtras must be learnt in the same order as composed by Pāṇini and she is striving hard to revive and revitalize the grammatical tradition.

3. Nirukta: The oldest surviving text of Nirukta is by Yāska. Nirukta covers etymology and is the systematic creation of a glossary, discussing how to understand uncommon words. Although not classified under Nirukta, notable later contributions in the general areas of glossary/dictionary/theusaurus are Amarasiṁha’s Amarakośa (serving as dictionary-theusaurus, where synonyms are given in a verse constrained by prosody) and Śabda-kalpa-druma.

4. Chandas: The oldest extant work on Chandas is Piṅgala’s Chandas-sūtra, while a much later work is Kedāra Bhaṭṭa’s Vṛtta-ratnākara. The most exhaustive compilations of Sanskrit prosody describe over 600 metres, the highest for any language with a tradition of metrical compositions.

5. Śikṣā: Śikṣā deals with phonetics and since the Vedas were transmitted orally through a guru-śiṣya-paramparā, śikṣā becomes very important. There could slight differences in utterances of different syllables in the different śākhās (branches) of the Vedas; hence those are covered in what are known as prātiśākhyas. However, Pāṇini’s śikṣa gives a succinct and brief knowledge for most practical purposes. At this juncture, one may note how even the native speakers of the Tamil are unable to correctly pronounce some of the letters unique to Tamil. This could be attributed to a neglect of this branch of knowledge.

6. Kalpa: Kalpa-sūtras includes śrauta-sūtras (which systematizes the Vedic rituals), gṛhya- sūtras (which describes the various rituals to be performed by a gṛhastha by himself along with his wife), dharma-sūtras (which include the various religious duties to be performed) and śulva-sūtras (which discuss the construction of various fire altars, literally śulva means a thread).

Itihāsa and Purāṇa:

A popular saying in the tradition is “itihāsa-purāṇābhyāṁ vedaṁ samupabṛṁhayet” (the Vedic virtues and values are to be communicated through itihāsa and purāṇa). Hence, although the literal meaning of itihāsa is ‘iti ha āsa’ (thus it happened), it is much more than a mere chronicle of dates and events. The foremost work of itihāsa, the Mahābhārata, with 1,00,000 verses is also regarded as the fifth Veda (pañcama-veda), and also as a kāvyam. Unlike the Vedas, there is a single story-line running through the (itihāsas) Rāmāyaṇa and the Mahābhārata, and is therefore much more popular than the Vedas. The Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata have been served as inspiration for numerous kāvyas (poetic literature) and nāṭakas (dramas) in Saṁskṛtam and other Indian languages. Along with the Bṛhat-kathā (which is unavailable for us today), the Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata serve as a great repository of communicating knowledge through the medium of story-telling. We see that over time, these inspired Pañcatantra, Hitopadeśa, Aesop’s fables, Arabian nights and so on.

The Purāṇas are numerous and the tradition identifies 18 main Purāṇas and 18 upa- purāṇas. The most promiment among the Purāṇas are the Viṣṇupurāṇa, Bhāgavata-purāṇa, with Skanda-purāṇa with 81,000 verses being the biggest among the purāṇas. The Purāṇas are not as well preserved as the Vedas and hence there is a possibility that some interpolations may have crept into the Purāṇic texts. The Purāṇas discuss sarga (creation of the universe or cosmology), pratisarga (dissolution/renovation of the universe), vaṁśa (lineage/geneology of Devas, Ṛṣis and kings), Manvantara (reigns of kings called Manus) and vaṁśānucaritam (legends during the times of various kings). In fact, the great Sanskrit poet Kālidāsa drew anecdotes of kings from the Sūryavaṁśa from various Purāṇas and composed his mahākāvyam called Raghuvaṁśa.

With an intention of popularizing their religions among the masses, in time Buddhists and Jains also composed works inspired by the Purāṇas such as Harivaṁśa, Dīpavaṁśa, Jātaka- kathā and Mahāpurāṇa. Itihāsa and Purāṇa have been told and retold many times and in all Indian languages like Adhyātma-Rāmāyaṇa in Saṁskṛtam, Kamba Rāmāyaṇa by Kamban in Tamil, Āndhra-Mahābhāratam by the trio of Nannayya, Tikkana, Errāpragaḍa in Telugu, Kumāravyāsa- bhārata by Nāraṇappa in Kannada, Translation of Bhāgavatam by Bammera Pōtana into Telugu, Rāmacaritamānas by Gosvāmī Tulasīdās in Avadhī and so on. Even in the 20th century, retelling of the Rāmāyaṇa as Śrī-Rāmāyaṇa-darśanam by Kuvempu (Kuppaḷḷi Veṅkaṭappa Puṭṭappa) in Kannada and as Rāmāyaṇa-kalpavṛkṣamu by Viśvanātha Satyanārāyaṇa in Telugu bagged the first Jñānapīṭha awards in those languages.

Dharmaśāstra:

Dharmaśāstras deal with the following four main items:

1. Ācāra – Ācāra deals with those actions/practices that concern only the individual such as sandhyā-vandana, japa, pūjā, yajña, dāna, tapas etc., the benefits of which are not evident here nor can be demonstrated to others, but is very much evident to the practitioner himself and is based upon his convictions.

2. Vyavahāra – Vyavahāra deals with those actions which are to be done (or avoided) while dealing with others in society.

3. Prāyaścitta – Prāyaścitta are the remedial actions which are to be done if the ācāra actions are skipped.

4. Daṇḍa – Daṇḍa refers to punishment or fine levied for slippages in vyavahāra.

For example, sandhyā-vandana is to be performed twice a day at sunrise and sunset (ācāra). If there is a slippage and one does not perform on at a given time, the corresponding meal (breakfast/dinner) is to be skipped (prāyaścitta). Or if performance of sandhyā-vandana gets delayed, one may give an additional arghya as prāyaścitta. Similarly, payment of income-tax and rent are duties to be observed under vyavahāra. If not paid, then the state is bound to levy fine or punish the individual.

In today’s constitution, we only see vyavahāra and daṇḍa but not ācāra and prāyaścitta. If a constitution does not talk about ācāra and prāyaścitta, personal purity will not remain in individuals, and people will have to be policed all the time to ensure that they are indeed doing their duties. That is a healthy society which has the highest number of ācāras practiced by its people. Responsible citizens who are sensitive to their duties and follow them even when unpoliced are a real asset to the nation, and not merely the number of people residing in a nation.

Darśanas:

Although many people translate darśana as ‘philosophy’, it is not really satisfying as

philosophy is etymologically derived as philos (φίλος ‘beloved/loving’) sophia (σοφία ‘wisdom’), essentially meaning ‘love for wisdom’; whereas darśana is much more. Literally, darśana means ‘vision’ and may be called as a ‘system of thought’ which propounds a vision of the truth of existance. Those darśanas which accept the Veda as a valid source of knowledge are six in number and are called āstika-darśanas (orthodox). They are:

1. Nyāya

2. Vaiśeṣika

3. Sāṅkhya

4. Yoga

5. Pūrva-mīmāṁsā 6. Uttara-mīmāṁsā

There are other darśanas which do not accept the Veda as a valid means of knowledge. They are called nāstika-darśanas (heterodox), and six such canonical darśanas are identified thus:

1. Sautrāntika 2. Vaibhāṣika 3. Yogācāra

4. Mādhyamika 5. Svetāmbara 6. Digambara

The first four nāstika-darśanas are broadly classified under Buddhism and the last two under Jainism.

Nyāya:

Although there is a darśana by name Nyāya, the term used in isolation can also be taken to mean logic and epistemology. Epistemology is concerned with the study of how knowledge arises, and discusses which means of knowledge are valid and why. The most important means of knowledge, called pramāṇa (literally evidence, or mā = measure) are as follows:

1. Pratyakṣa (direct perception through the five sensory inputs: sound, touch, sight, taste and smell)

2. Anumāna (inference)

3. Upamāna (example)

4. Arthāpatti (2-stepped inference)

5. Anupalabdhi (non-perception)

6. Śabda (Verbal testimony)

Different darśanas accept various pramāṇas listed above to establish their point of view. There is a unique relationship of revealer-revealed between the pramāṇa and its object, called prameya. One prameya cannot have more than one pramāṇa revealing it. Even if it happens that two pramāṇas reveal the same prameya, then the knowledge arising due to one of the pramāṇas will be the intrinsically true, while the other one will only be incidentally or apparently true. For example, consider the case of a stick partially immersed in a water tank. The eye shows that the stick is bent, whereas the sense of touch reveals that the stick is not bent. We know that although the stick is not bent, it only appears to be bent due to the phenomenon of

refraction of light. So, in this example, the sense of touch is revealing intrinsic truth while the sense of vision reveals only apparent truth.