CHAPTER - 1 THE INTERPRETATION OF RGVEDA `...Enwrapt in misty cloud, with lips that stammer, hymn-chanters wander and are discontented.' RgVeda 10.82.7 Vedas: A Brief Introduction For the last 100 or 150 years, researchers and knowledge seekers trying to interpret RgVeda or the entire Vedic literature for that matter, seem to be going around in circles. Who composed the RgVeda? When and where were these verses composed? What is the mystical and deep knowledge locked in them? Who can find a key to reveal the treasure of knowledge within? Nobody has succeeded in finding clear and universally acceptable answers to these questions so far. The average Indian citizen has very sketchy information about the four Vedas. Those who pride themselves in the rich Indian traditions probably can just tell the names of these Vedas. They believe that some great philosophy is contained in them. They also know that only the Brahmins had the right to learn Vedas and they kept the masses ignorant of the knowledge for centuries or even millennia! Any specific knowledge about the `contents' of Vedas is rarely manifested even among the educated. Those blessed few, who have specifically studied Vedas, can recite the mantras verbatim. However, the usual practice is that, a particular Veda will be recited by only a particular set of Brahmins. The masses ignore the subject with the comment; `Vedas and Vedanta are very hard to understand!' The backward classes of the society probably have a belief that the Vedas, being predecessors of Manu Smrti, are the cause of social and religious disparities and injustices in our society. This belief might have led to apathy towards Vedas. The study of the contents of Vedas has remained the domain of a handful of researchers and students. We intend to give at least some introductory information about the structure and contents of Vedas in the following pages. The word Veda comes from root, `vid' - to know. Veda literally means knowledge. The four Vedas also known as Samhitas are named, Rig, Yajur, Sam and Atharva. For each of the Vedas, there is a set of books of commentaries which include Brahmanagranthas, Aranyakas and Upanishadas. Vedangas are sciences to learn Vedas. These are: Shiksha, Chhand, Nirkta, Vyakarana, Jyotisha and Kalpa. From Kalpa emerge Sutra Granthas. There are Shrouta, Dharma and Grhya Sutras which describe various rituals. From Dharma Sutras emerge Smrtis. Apart from these, there are six volumes of `Darshanas', (namely Yoga, Sankhya, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Meemansa and Vedanta) and four `Upavedas' namely Ayur, Dhanur, Artha and Gandharva. All of this together, is known as Vedic literature and it would easily cover more than 10,000 pages. This literature does not include Mahabharata, Ramayana and the Puranas. This, indeed, is a vast canon of ancient literature and it is supposed to have originated from the four Vedas, as these are considered to be the most ancient. RgVeda is made up of Rchas, which is similar to mantra or shloka. A Rcha can be considered as the smallest unit of RgVeda. Several Rchas put together make one Sukta. A Sukta is composed in praise of a deity or a group of deities by a `Drashta', literally seer. This drashta can be a man or a woman or even a deity. The word `drashta' is used specifically to convey the meaning that the Rcha was `seen' by the `drashta' and not composed by him. Since, `seeing' a Rcha is presumed to be something divine, RgVeda is considered to be `Apourusheya', which means `not created by man'. Each Rcha has an assigned `devata' i.e. deity. For every Rcha the deity is what is described in that Rcha. Hence, the deity can be a God, a human being or any animate or inanimate object. One can have different `devatas' and `drashtas' for different Rchas contained in a single Sukta. A list of `devatas' and `drashtas' is given in a separate index called `Anukramani'. Several Suktas are put together in a larger unit called `Mandala'. RgVeda is comprised of Ten Mandalas. The entire RgVeda contains more than a thousand Suktas and more than ten thousand Rchas. The details are given in Annexure 1.1. The Mandalas from 2 to 8 are considered as belonging to a specific `Kula'. (For details refer to Annexure 1.1). In other words, each of these Mandalas contains Suktas from the clan of one seer or rshi. Mandalas 1, 9 and 10 contain Suktas from several other seers along with those of Mandalas 2 to 8. Mandala 9 is rather unique because although several seers have contributed in its creation, all the Suktas have a single deity, i.e. Soma-Pavamana, `Soma-purified'. RgVeda is considered to be the oldest literature from India or even from the entire world. Although, several written copies are available, there are no different versions. From Kashmir to Kerala and from Gujrath to Bengal, RgVeda is recited in the same manner. It was preserved in its original form, from generation to generation, by oral transmission. There is an agreement on this point amongst all scholars. The disputes surface only when the chronology of different Mandalas is discussed. Although, all the Suktas are ancient, Mandala 10 is considered to be later to other Mandalas. The Rchas and Suktas in RgVeda are mainly in praise of different deities. The relationship between the deities and the seer; and the offering of `ahuti' or `havi' by inviting the deities in a `yadnya', are the main themes. In these Suktas, one comes across dialogues between the deities, or a deity and a seer; traces of prevalent legends, historical references, social customs, and praise of the alms given by the host of the yadnya. However, the structure and arrangement of the Suktas is such that it is well nigh impossible to arrive at any orderly reconstruction of the events or the history of that period. RgVeda is all poetry, while Yajurveda is prose and poetry. Yajurveda deals with rituals for the yadnyas along with praise of deities. Atharva Veda is also poetry and deals with a mix of a host of different subjects. Along with praise of deities it contains mystic mantras for cures, conception, poison antidotes etc. Sama Veda mainly contains Rchas from RgVeda. It may be considered as a lyrical presentation of RgVeda. Statistical Analysis of Deities in RgVeda Now, coming back to RgVeda, in order to find some order in interpretation, a statistical analysis is carried out. Annexure 1.2 gives a chart showing the frequency of occurrence of names of different deities or groups of deities. The hypothesis is that, a deity appearing more frequently must be more important to the people and the seers of that time. The chart in Annexure 1.3 clearly shows that the first group of deities which includes Indra, Agni and Soma has the highest importance (60%) in RgVeda. The deities in the second group which include Mitra-Varuna, Rudra-Maruts and the twins Ashwinikumars; are lesser in importance (20%). However, compared to the twenty odd deities in the third group, the second group can be considered to be more important. In order to get logical inferences from RgVeda, we have to understand what these important deities represented to the people of that period. Did they actually `see' the `devas' (literally, residents of sky) whom they have described so vividly? To get an answer, we have to turn our focus on modern sciences, specifically astronomy. Modern Astronomy and Coherent Catastrophism In my book `Birth of Indra', a hypothesis is put forth that Indra was a bright comet visible in the sky from the eighth millennium B.C. It is necessary to understand and accept that the birth of this God and the terror that he created in the minds of people was a catastrophic event. The proponent of `Coherent Catastrophism' and a noted astronomer, Dr. Victor Clube delivered a speech on the 10^th of February 2008. He said: "My point is that you do not have to dabble first in the mythology and pre-history and geology, as Velikovsky did in order to understand the sky. You first take the modern sky accessible to science, especially during the Space Age and you look at its darker debris with a view to relating its behavior to the more accessible human history which we can, in principle, really understand. And by this approach you discover from the dynamics of the material in space which I am talking about, that a huge comet must have settled in a Taurid orbit some 20,000 years ago whose dense meteor stream for 10,000 years almost certainly produced the last Ice Age." In his speech Dr. Clube further states that around ten thousand years back this comet disintegrated. The result was a huge meteoric storm on earth. A large number of meteors hit the earth at various locations. This, indeed, was a major catastrophic event. The remnant of this comet was still a very bright object named `Kronos' by Dr. Clube. He further states: "The chance of a collision with Kronos, as with any other comet was, in fact, remote. And mankind settled into a golden age. But some time at pre-hellion, around 3,000 B.C. It is likely that Kronos ran very close to Venus and split like Shoemaker-levy. And a trail of new dazzling comets circulated around the Taurid Stream - evidently for centuries. Somewhere in this array still was the Kronos remnant, less bright perhaps. And a new leader Zeus or Marduk, perhaps, much brighter, (emerged) together with a new serpentine Milky Way, the home of chaos." "By 2,000 B.C. due to an orbital precession, things got worse, for the trail was now crossing the Earth's orbit and mayhem ensued." In the next Chapter, we shall have a look at Taurids, a massive belt of asteroids and dust, which is a part of the inner solar system. ***