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Sramana Samana Srbina Sr.mans Sawi Srna Samana Samaria Samuna Sauna Samana Samaria Saimana Sramana Samana Samana Samana Santana Srainata Sarana Sama Samana Samara Stathana STAR
B2W
Lupa ST.Scudowa an UTONU
Sramana Samana Samana Samana Sauti Sarana Samana Santana Sernana Sranana Sranambia Starmeņa Saunana Samana Samana Samana Samana Santana Samana Sramana Samana Samana Sraunara Sranana
Kireet Joshi*
The ancient Indian tradition looked upon the Veda as a book of knowledge, and it has since been revered as the origin and standard of all that can be held as authoritative and true in the Brahmanas and the Upanishads, in Tantras and Puranas, in the tradition of great philosophical schools and in the teachings of famous saints and sages. The composers of the great mass of Vedic inspired poetry were given the name Kavi, which had the sense of a seer of truth, the Veda itself describes them as "kavayah satya shrutah”, seers who are hearers of the truth and the Veda itself was called, Sruti, a word which came to mean “revealed Scripture".
It is true that the ritualistic commentators, Yajnikas, tried to explain everything in the Veda as Karmakanda as distinguished from Upanishads, which came to be identified as Jnanakanda, but both Upanishads and the Gita look on the Veda as a “Book of Knowledge". The seers of the Upanishads frequently appealed to the authority of the Veda for the truths themselves announced and these two (Vedas and Upanishads) afterwards came to be regarded as Sruti. All the orthodox systems of Indian philosophy accept Sruti as a supreme authority for spiritual knowledge. According to the current interpretations, however, the hymns of the Veda are nothing more than the naive superstitious fantasies of materialistic barbarians concerned only with the most elementary moral notions or religious aspirations, although it is admitted that there are occasional passages of profound wisdom. These interpretations look upon the Upanishads as a true foundation or starting-point of the later religions and philosophies. And they point out that the Vedas were a revolt of philosophical and * President, Dharam Hinduja International Centre of Vedic Research,
C-141, Preet Vihar, Delhi-110092.
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