Ancient Indian Literature, their Period and Historical importance . Part -4,Vedang.

 

Vedang – There are 6 Vedang. They are - Shiksha (Phonetics), Kalp (Ritual), Vayakarana (Grammar – Panini’s ‘Asthaadhayai etc), Nirukta (Etymology); Chanda sastra (Metrics) and (Jyotish) Astrology. These are the part of Veda. Through them it became easier to understand Veda.

Description of Vedang - 

 Shiksha (Phonetics) – To pronounce Veda properly Siksha came in light. In time Shiksha for each    Veda is composed.

 Kalp – The meaning of Kalp is (Vidhi avam Niyam) ‘Method and Law’. The Sutra in which (Vidhi avam Niyam) Method and Law is (Pratipadan) Rendered is known as KalpSutra. 

Kalpsutra has 3 parts – a. – That ‘Sutra’s or Thread’, which tells about the method and Law of Yajana, is known as “Srautrasutra”. In Yajana generally (Vedi) ‘Platform, Shrine’ is made. These platforms are made with proper scaling. This work of scaling is done under proper ‘Method and Law’; this method is known as “Sulvasutra”. The meaning of “Sulva” is Scaling. These “Sulvasutra are part of “Srautrasutra”. In this Sulvasutra we “get first glimpse” of ‘Rekhaganit’ “Geometry”. 

b. The ‘Sutra or Thread’ which describes about Human beings (Laukik and Parlaukik) “Proverbial and Ultramundane” duties, is known as “Guhasutra”.

c. The ‘Sutra or thread’ - which describes about human beings Religious, Social and Political Rights, and Duties is known as “Dharmasutra”. One we must have to understand is; that many topics of ‘Guhasutra and Dharmasutra’ are common. 

The composer of sutra is –“Baudhayan”, “Apastamb”, “Vasistha”, “Gautam” etc. The ‘Gautam Dharma sutra’ is the oldest one. ’Baudhayan Dharma sutra’ first time mentions the name of ‘Gautam Dharma sutra’. ‘Vasistha Dharma sutra’, ‘Manu Smriti’ and ‘Yagvalkayasmriti’ also mentions ‘Gautam Dharma sutra’. 

‘Gautam Dharma sutra’ is written in prose. ‘Yavana’ race “Indo – Greek “race is mentioned in this ‘Gautam Dharma sutra’. Historians estimates the period of ‘Gautam’ as BC 600 – 400. 

Baudhayan has written ‘Dharma sutra’ and ‘Guha sutra’ both. ‘Guha sutra’ is older than ‘Dharma sutra’. His period is said to be BC 500 – 200.

Apastamb has written the whole ‘Kalp’, which is available. Among them is ‘Sraut sutra’, ‘Guha sutra’ and ‘Dharma sutra’. The period of ‘Apastamb’ is BC 500 – 100.

Vasistha period is BC 300 – 100. “Vishnu Dharma sutra” is another Dharma sutra which is important one.

Vayakarana (Grammar) – the whole system and structure of a language or of languages in general, usually taken as consisting of syntax and morphology (including inflections) and sometimes also phonology and semantics is known as “Grammar”. 

Panini’s ‘Asthaadhayai is a famous grammar in Sanskrit. Panini has described names of 10 grammarians who were his ancestors. In Panini’s “Asthaadhayai” there are 18 chapters and total number of (Sutra) Thread is 3863.

Later on grammarians felt that there is some draw backs in the ‘sutra of ‘Panini’. To short out this drawback another grammarian “Katayanana” has written “Vartika”. 

Again after some time frame another grammarian “Patanjali” after going through the ‘Sutra’ of ‘Panini’ and ‘Vartika’ of ‘Katayanana’ wrote another book, which is known as “Mahabhasaya”. 

This way in the field of Sanskrit grammar ‘Panini’, ‘Katayanana’ and ‘Patanjali’ became a prominent name for ever and became immortal.

Nirukta – Nirukta describes why the meaning of any word is so and so. Nirukta is written by “Yask”. 

Vedic words were described in this book. “Yask” has described 12 Pre scholars in his book.  It seems that before “Yask”; Nirukta was written by 12 more scholars; but unfortunately these books are not available. In “Yask’s” Nirukta there are 12 chapters. There are 2 (Parisisth) Appendix in the book, if we include them than the number of the chapters will be 14. 

In Rigveda the word “Dev” or “Devta” appeared more than 1 time. Nirukta says that the word ‘Dev’ or ‘Devta’ came from the word ‘Dan’, ‘Deepan’, or ‘Dhotan’ or ‘Dhuasthan’.  

This way we see the definition of ‘Dev’ is very broad. In this word ‘Dev’ comes the - ‘Almighty’ to different powers of Nature like (Sun, Moon, Wind, etc), Ancestors, Acharya (learned scholar), Mother – Father and Guest etc.  

Chanda - During Vedic period in Vedic literature “Gyatri”, “Tristup”, “Jagati”, “Brihati” etc chanda were being used. But unfortunately today except one book no other book on Chanda is available.  Available book on Chanda, which is available, is written by “Acharya Pingal”.

Jyotish (Astrology) – 

Sage (Muni) Lagadh is amongst the oldest Sages who wrote books on Astrology. (Muni is a sage who has taken a vow of silence or who has understood the nature of silence that lies beyond all words). 

Narad Sanhita (collection) describes 18 Acharya (Prefessor) and their names. They are – Brahma, Surya, Vasistha, Atri, Manu, Soma, Lomash, Marichi, Angira, Vyasa, Narad, Saunak, Bhrigu, Chayavan, Garga, Kashayap and Parashara. Later on Aryabhatta, Lal, Varahmihir, Brahmagupta, Munjal and Bhaskaracharya took Astrology to a new height and astrology developed during their period.