Development of Hinduism

Author(s): M M Ninan
Publisher: M M Ninan

Page 50

2. DATES OF VEDAS
We are in danger of moving in a vicious circle: of assigning ideas to an epoch because they occur in a certain book, while at the same time we fix the date of the book in virtue of the ideas which it contains."
HINDUISM AND BUDDHISM - AN HISTORICAL SKETCH BY SIR CHARLES ELIOT
1921
ROUTLEDGE & KEGAN PAUL LTD
Broadway House, 68-74 Carter Lane, London, E.C.4.
Thus the general tendency of Linguists and Indologists is to date the Vedas much more recently. Kanchi Kama Koti thus states that:
The Age of Vedas http://www.kamakoti.org
Some of them say that it was done about 1,500 BC;
other suggest that it may have about 3,000 years.
Tilak fixes the date as 6,000 BC
But modern Orientalists are inclined to bring the date nearer
"It is difficult to date the various Samhitas and Brahmanas of the Veda very precisely because of the following reasons -
First, they are primarily liturgical, ritualistic and spiritual texts. Hence, any information on the material aspects of the culture that they belonged to, would be incidental.
•Second, they were composed and transmitted by very elitist classes of Brahmin priests and therefore are not representative of the culture and civilizations of the periods to which they belong. This makes it difficult to correlate them with archaeological data.
Third, they appeared to have been written and compiled predominantly in modern Indian states of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, and therefore, any corroborating information from other parts of India would be of limited utility.
•Fourth, the texts, as available today, are quite heterogeneous and layered and it is often difficult to separate the layers chronologically.
Fifth, we are still in the dark about the precise chronological and cultural relationship between the archaeologically dated Indus Valley Civilization (IVC) and the culture pre-supposed by the Vedic texts.
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