Tuesday 4 June 2013

Vedic antiquity

Vedas form a body of astounding knowledge. So, sophisticated is the wisdom and technology in the Vedas that their origin and aniquity is much debated. If we refer to the Vedas themselves, they declare to be existing since the time of creation. Vedic knowledge is also called shruti because it is traditionally handed down in generation by the process of hearing and repeating. Scholars however will not agree to the Vedic claim and would like to use their conventional tools to put a date to the writing of the Vedas.

Linguistic analysis: The sanskrit language is most systematic among all the languages of the world. For a long time due to scant archaeological records Sanskrit was the only way to understanding the antiquity if Vedic India. Early German scholars were astonished at beauty of the sanskrit language. In 1786 Sir William Jones, a brilliant Oxford linguist commented:
       " The sankrit language, whatever its antiquity is more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin and more exquisitely refined than either; yet bringing to both of them a stronger affinity than could have been produced by accident; so strong that no philosopher could examine all three without believing them to have sprung from some common source, which perhaps no longer exists."                                                                    They concluded that languages like latin, greek, gothic, celtic and sanskrit have a common origin. Despite rigrous research on the common language conjecture, the common language has not been traced. Could sanskrit be the common origin of all the major languages of the world. Skeptics would not like to accept the supremacy of a foreign language.

Archaeological records: The civilizations of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro is found to be the oldest civilisation in the world. These civilizations were discovered on the banks of river Indus in 1924. The life-style, culture and artifacts of the Indus civilisation conformed to the descriptions of the Vedas, and resembles the practices in India even today. A 5000 year old dam was discovered in Dholavira amid a desert. Another finding on thebank of the Indus river-- an agricultural community dated between 7000 and 6500 B.C.

Vedic India as seen from the Space: In 1986 the National Center for Space Study in France designed a techonology to take specialized pictures of earth from the space. India collaborated with France. The SPOT satellite ascertained that the Sraswati River as described in the Vedas is a fact, not mythology. Excavations on the saraswati river bed have been found to be 5000 years old. Thus, the river must have dried much before that. The Vedas distinctly mention the Sraswati river. Thus they must have been written before its appearance. 

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