Post by sarmasastrigal on Aug 16, 2012 17:27:39 GMT 5.5
Are Rishis the author of Vedas?
(Taken from the chapter on Vedas from the book 'The Great Hindu Tradition')
Vedas are Apaurusheya -- not created by a person, even a rishi.
Had Rishis created them, they would have been called Mantra-kartas. Instead Rishis are called Mantra-drashtaas - they discovered the mantras, they perceived the Vedas through their superior wisdom. They listened and understood the ever-present Vedas and passed them on to posterity.
Vedas are the creation of the Sarvagna (omniscient) Sarweswara (the Supreme Lord) as per His own sankalpa, divine resolve. Eswara taught the Vedas first to Lord Brahma not through recitation but by His divine resolve. A detailed description of this could be had from a reading of Srimad Bhagavatam.
A modern-day analogy is transfer of data from one electronic device to another through wireless transmission. After Brahma, Prajapatis standardized the transmission of the Vedas by a particular method known as sandhai and thiruvai that is prevalent even today in Veda pathasalas.
The Vedic language
Sanskrit, the most ancient of all languages, is the language of the Vedas. We have seen that they were born out of the sankalpa of Sarveswara. The Vedas are His very wisdom. Their language is His language.
While on the subject I would like to make a related observation. There is historical evidence to show that Tamil and Sanskrit been in vogue from very ancient times. And like Sanskrit Tamil is independent of all other languages. Sanskrit is even more ancient than Tamil.
One would be able to infer this from the realization that the Vedas have their origin in ageless past, and were recited for the first time in Sanskrit. This alone is sufficient to indicate that Sanskrit is as old as the Vedas. We are aware that most of the languages of the world have expanded and enriched themselves by freely borrowing words from other languages. But Vedic Sanskrit is complete in itself with specific grammar and prosody that have not changed with the times. Here we speak of the Sanskrit of the Vedas, which is different from the Sanskrit that later came to be used as a social language.
How old are the Vedas?
There have been numerous debates and “researches†on the age of Vedas, made both in our country and across the world. It is impossible to determine the exact age of the Vedas. However, we see that many scholars all over the world have assigned various age estimates.
While linguistic experts put the Vedic period as 4,000 years old and the experts in Astronomy by and large concur, archeologists say it could be 5,000 years old. Some German scholars and archeologists including Prof. Maeterlinck say that the Vedic period could be at least a few lakh years old. In his well-known book, Satyartha Prakasam, Maharishi Dayananda asserts that if we consider that 6 manvantaras and 28 chaturyugas have passed by so far, the Vedas should have been in existence for at least 196,08,53,000 years! We can only say that all findings are inconsistent and are at best educated guesses.
Many Western scholars have done their 'research' on the Vedic period, but unlike other religious scriptures the Vedas themselves defy precise declaration of their age. No scholarly research can fix the period because the Vedas are beyond the most sophisticated methods of modern-day sciences.
Vedas are the very breath of Sarveswara. They have no origin that can be defined by man-made coordinates they are omnipresent.
The Vedas are divine.
(Taken from the chapter on Vedas from the book 'The Great Hindu Tradition')
Vedas are Apaurusheya -- not created by a person, even a rishi.
Had Rishis created them, they would have been called Mantra-kartas. Instead Rishis are called Mantra-drashtaas - they discovered the mantras, they perceived the Vedas through their superior wisdom. They listened and understood the ever-present Vedas and passed them on to posterity.
Vedas are the creation of the Sarvagna (omniscient) Sarweswara (the Supreme Lord) as per His own sankalpa, divine resolve. Eswara taught the Vedas first to Lord Brahma not through recitation but by His divine resolve. A detailed description of this could be had from a reading of Srimad Bhagavatam.
A modern-day analogy is transfer of data from one electronic device to another through wireless transmission. After Brahma, Prajapatis standardized the transmission of the Vedas by a particular method known as sandhai and thiruvai that is prevalent even today in Veda pathasalas.
The Vedic language
Sanskrit, the most ancient of all languages, is the language of the Vedas. We have seen that they were born out of the sankalpa of Sarveswara. The Vedas are His very wisdom. Their language is His language.
While on the subject I would like to make a related observation. There is historical evidence to show that Tamil and Sanskrit been in vogue from very ancient times. And like Sanskrit Tamil is independent of all other languages. Sanskrit is even more ancient than Tamil.
One would be able to infer this from the realization that the Vedas have their origin in ageless past, and were recited for the first time in Sanskrit. This alone is sufficient to indicate that Sanskrit is as old as the Vedas. We are aware that most of the languages of the world have expanded and enriched themselves by freely borrowing words from other languages. But Vedic Sanskrit is complete in itself with specific grammar and prosody that have not changed with the times. Here we speak of the Sanskrit of the Vedas, which is different from the Sanskrit that later came to be used as a social language.
How old are the Vedas?
There have been numerous debates and “researches†on the age of Vedas, made both in our country and across the world. It is impossible to determine the exact age of the Vedas. However, we see that many scholars all over the world have assigned various age estimates.
While linguistic experts put the Vedic period as 4,000 years old and the experts in Astronomy by and large concur, archeologists say it could be 5,000 years old. Some German scholars and archeologists including Prof. Maeterlinck say that the Vedic period could be at least a few lakh years old. In his well-known book, Satyartha Prakasam, Maharishi Dayananda asserts that if we consider that 6 manvantaras and 28 chaturyugas have passed by so far, the Vedas should have been in existence for at least 196,08,53,000 years! We can only say that all findings are inconsistent and are at best educated guesses.
Many Western scholars have done their 'research' on the Vedic period, but unlike other religious scriptures the Vedas themselves defy precise declaration of their age. No scholarly research can fix the period because the Vedas are beyond the most sophisticated methods of modern-day sciences.
Vedas are the very breath of Sarveswara. They have no origin that can be defined by man-made coordinates they are omnipresent.
The Vedas are divine.