What is the idea of India

by Amartya Sen Reproduced from here Political and cultural developments in India over the last few decades have had the effect of forcefully challenging, in several ways, the broad and absorptive idea of Indian identity that emerged in the days of the Independence movement and which helped define the concept of the Indian nation. If we believe that there is something of value in that inheritance, there is a need to understand more clearly precisely why it is valuable, and also examine how that recognition can be articulated… I shall take as my starting point Rabindranath Tagore's remarkable claim that the "idea of India" itself militates "against the intense consciousness of the separateness of one's own people from others." Note that there are two distinct implications of this claim. First, internally within India, it argues against an intense consciousness of separated culture and the privileging of one religious community over the others, and also more generally, of any one group vis-à-vis the others in any principle of classification (such as caste, class, gender, or region). Second, externally in relation to the world, Tagore's claim argues against the intense consciousness of the separateness of Indians from others in the world, and it also rejects seeing Indian culture as fail and fragile - to be protected through isolation from outside influences. Tagore's claim involves, therefore, an integrative message - internally as well as externally - and it proposes an inclusionary and absorptive form for the idea of Indian identity. This inclusionary claim has been seriously challenged in recent decades through the advocacy of internal as well as external separatism. ********* On the philosophical side, we must first examine, if only briefly, the general nature of identity as a concept. The subject of identity in general, and social identity in particular has been something of a philosophical battleground in recent years, partly because of the global skirmished related to identity politics and communitarian philosophy. The debates have often been so unstructured that I must say that it is not really a delight to enter this battleground. However, these general issues have to be addressed before we proceed to examine the demands of Indian identity in particular. Discretion, alas, need not always be the better part of valour. The importance of the idea of identity can scarcely be doubted. It is of central relevance in understanding a diverse basket of practical problems, as varied as violence in former Yugoslavia or Rwanda, racial discrimination in America or anti-immigrant violence in West Europe, the current controversies surrounding the idea of being British in a multi-ethnic Britain, not to mention the growing appeal of fundamentalism in Asia and Africa. Our behaviour and our commitments are deeply influenced by the way we identify with some people and not with others. It is, however important to be clear about the demands of the idea of identity. In particular, we have to resist, I have argued elsewhere, two unfounded but often implicitly invoked assumptions: one, the presumption that we must have a single - or at least a principal and dominant - identity; and two, the supposition that we "discover' rather than choose our identity. ********* The issues of plurality and of choice are immensely relevant to the understanding and analysis of the idea of Indian identity. In arguing for an inclusionary form of the Indian identity, Tagore or Gandhi did not deny the presence and contingent importance of other identities. Rather, in the context of political coherence, social living and cultural interactions, both emphasised the fact that the Indian identity could nto favour any particular group over others within India. Tagore was different from Gandhi in having a less conventional view of his Hindu identity, and indeed in his The Religion of Man, pointed also to the fact that his family was the product of "a confluence of three cultures, Hindu, Mohammedan and British." Gandhiji's Hindu identity was sharper, and he held regular prayer meetings, in a largely Hindu form (even though other religions were also invoked). But Gandhi did not differ from Tgore in seeing no contradiction between a strongly Hindu identity and an overwhelming commitment to an Indian identity in political and social matters. Indeed, Gandhiji gave his life to a great extent because of his commitment to the latter, in the hands of someone with a simpler view of the congruence of Indian and Hindu identities. ********* I argued earlier that bother philosophical and historical issues are involved in the idea of an Indian identity. It may be thought that the discussion so far has been less historical than would be necessary, in order to resolve such questions as the relation between a Hindu identity and an Indian identity So I must now take up some historical questions I do this with some hesitation, since after my opening address at the last Indian History Congress in January, no less an authority than the Director of the Indian council of Historical research was reported in the papers as having said that I must not speak on history since I am not an historian. I take the point, but I must confess to being a repeated offender, and not just in history. I had to give the opening address also at the last Indian Sociological Congress without having a degree in sociology, have foolhardily lectured in law at Oxford, Yale and Chicago without a degree in law, have shamelessly been a professor of philosophy at Harvard for a decade without a degree in philosophy, and I am afraid I am somewhat determined to speak on history today without a degree in history (but hopefully with the kind indulgence of the ICHR) Those who argue that the Indian identity has to be in some way derivative on Hindu identity point out not only that the Hindus constitute a large majority of people in this country, but also that historically Hinduism has been the mainstay of the Indian civilization. There is clearly some substance in this argument, and the counter arguments can be considered only after the basic facts of the case have been recognised. There are three distinct issues here, of which the first is not concerned directly with history at all. As I have already argued, identity is not a matter of discovery-of history any more than of the present - and has to be chosen with reasoning. Even if it were the case that Indian history were primarily Hindu history, we still would have to determine how a pluralist and multi-religious population can share an Indian identity without sharing the same religion. This, of course, is the basis of secularism in India, and our reasoning about priorities in dealing with competing conceptions of Indian identity need not be parasitic on history. The makers of the Indian constitution recognised that fully, as did the United States in adopting a largely secular constitution for a mostly Christian population. The need to reason and choose cannot be given over to the observation of history, and this point relates to a more general claim I have tried to defend elsewhere - in a lecture to the Asiatic Society entitled 'On Interpreting India's Past' - arguing that while we cannot live without history, we need not live within it either. The second point is more historical. India has been a multi-religious country for a very long time. Aside from the obvious and prominent presence of Muslims in India for well over a millennium (Muslim Arab traders started settling in what is now Kerala from the eighth century), India has had Christians from at least the fourth century, Jews from the time of the fall of Jerusalem, Parsis from the seventh century, and Sikh from the time that religion was born. Also, pre-Muslim India was not, as it is sometimes claimed, mainly a Hindu country, since Buddhism was the dominant religion in India for many hundreds of years and Jainism has also had an equally long history and in fact,a large continuing presence. Since there is so much discussion these days against Hindus converting to any other religion, it is perhaps worth remembering that arguably the greatest emperor of India was Ashoka in the third century BC (the main rival to Ashoka's claim would be from a Muslim called Akbar), and that Ashoka did convert to Buddhism from what would have been the-then form of Hinduism. I come now to the third reason against making the Indian identity dependent on the Hindu identity. Hindus are defined in two quite distinct ways. When the number of Hindus is counted, and it is established that the vast majority of Indians are in fact Hindu, this is not a counting of religious belief, but essentially of ethnic background. But when generalisations are made about, say, the divinity of Rama or the sacred status of The Ramayana, beliefs are involved. By using the two approaches together, a numerical picture is constructed in which it is supposed that a vast majority of Indians believe in the divinity of Rama and the sacred status of The Ramayana. For a large proportion of the Hindus, however, that attribution would be just a mistake, since millions of people who are defined as Hindu in the first approach do not share these beliefs which is central to the second approach… Indeed, by making this attribution, the champions of Hindu politics undermine the rich tradition of heterodoxy that has been so central to the history of the Hindu culture. It is not often recognised that Sanskrit (including Pali and Prakrit) has a larger literature in the atheistic and agnostic tradition than exists in any other classical language. In the fourteenth century, Madhavacharya's remarkable book called Sarvadar-shanasamgraha ('the collection of all philosophies') which has one chapter each on the major schools of Hindu belief, devoted the entire first chapter to arguments in favour of the atheistic position. The route to Indian identity via a Hindu identity does not, I would argue, survive critical scrutiny for each of these three reasons. They point firmly towards a broader and inclusionary understanding of the Indian identity - much in line with the views of Tagore and Gandhi.

Origin of Indian Music: 1400 BC

India 1500 BC << >> India 1300 BC

Fig. a: Forms of Music in Ancient India (as depicted in Natyashastra composed around 1st century AD)

Oldest Legacy of Music

Indian movies are often considered silly and unrealistic in the west because of the excessive song and dance sequences. Even now the most serious movies in India can't be thought without any song. Music, and songs are so much part of our culture and civilization that, irrespecttive of what others perceive of us, we can't do away with it. Everything - from marriages and worships to mourning or victory ceremonies - is incomplete without music, specially songs. For so many thousand years music has been so much a part of everything that it's really impossible to take it out of us. In fact we, as a civilization, have the oldest tradition of music in the world. No other civilization or culture has an uninterrupted legacy of music for close to 4000 years.

Music has been always an integral part of spirituality, religion, art and entertainment in any civilization and culture. But the position, influence and stature of music in Indian civilization is no doubt much more crucial than that anywhere else. Apart from the antiquity the varied hues and colors, that poured into India's palette for the past 4000 years, gave rise to a dazzling and gorgeous plethora of a stunning and matured music. No other civilization ever had such a long and uninterrupted tradition of music. Perhaps that's one of the reasons why music is so deeply rooted into us.

This long tradition of Indian music can be traced back to the early Vedic Age, since the time of Rig Veda.

Like the light and air, music has existed ever since the world was created. It might be preposterous to claim that before the Vedic Age there was no music in India. Music is as old as life and it existed in all civilizations in all ages in some form or other. Any natural sound is melody to ears. The chirping of the birds, the flowing of the rivulets, the sound of the breeze, the roaring of the seas, the falling of the rains - everything is music and has always mesmerized the living beings, both humans and animals. Humans have always endeavored to create the same melody that they have heard around them. But archaeological evidences of all those early endeavors of mankind are mostly lost. The Vedic music, which in turn had imbibed many of the legacies and practices from the Indus Valley and other native civilizations and cultures, may be treated as the most ancient tradition of music that didn't get lost. The present day Indian Classical Music can trace back its origin to the Vedic chants of the Vedas.

Rig Vedic Music

Rig Veda, the first of the four Vedas are thought, though controversially, to have been composed around 1500 BC. Though compiled or written much later, there did exist a strict way of chanting the hymns of Rig Veda. If we consider 1500 BC (16th century BC) as the rough period of composition of Rig Veda, we may assume that in 15th century BC the Rig Vedic chants would have attained a definitive shape. This tradition of chanting, like the complete texts, has been preserved very authentically by successive generations of Brahmins for nearly 4000 years. This chanting style is the earliest form of Indian and world music.

The two earliest treatises on Indian Music - Natyashstra (1st century AD ??) and Naradiyashiksha (5-6th century AD ??) - provide some good information about Vedic chants, specially the Sama Gana or the Songs of Sama Veda.

Three different pitches or accents or swars - udatta, anudatta and swarita - were used for chanting Rig Veda. Even today in Bengali, the language that has retained the maximum words from Sanskrit among all the descendants of Sanskrit in India, the term "udatta kantha" means a voice which can sing freely and loudly without any inhibition. That's exactly what it meant also in the context of chanting the Rig Vedic hymns. Udatta was the principal accent, a raised one, for the chant. Preceded by udatta was the anudatta - which literally means 'that which is not udatta' - an accent not raised. The third accent swarita - meaning sounded - was a transitional one marking the transition from a raised to unraised accent. For many centuries, till the Rig Veda was finally written down, the accents were represented by signs with the fingers of the hands. This is the earliest form of notation in any music in the world.

Much later after the advent of scripts, when the Rig Veda was finally written down, a very simple form of written notation was used. This is again the earliest form of written notation in the world. In Rig Vedic texts udatta (U) is not marked with any notation, anudatta (A) is marked with a horizontal line under andswarita (S) with a vertical line above the syllable as seen in the first verse.

agnim ile purohitann yajnasya devam rtvijam |

hotaaran ratnaghaatamam || 1 001 01

I Laud Agni, the chosen Priest, God, minister of sacrifice,

The hotar, lavishest of wealth.

Fig. b: 1st verse of Rig Veda

The three different accents indirectly correspond to three different pitches. Various recensions use different pitches for these accents. The staff notation of a typical Vedic chant in one of the recensions - whereanudatta has the lowest pitch (G flat), udatta the middle (A) and swarita highest (B flat) - is presented below.

Fig. 1: Staff Notation of a Rig Vedic Chant

This particular style of using three consecutive notes alternatively is perhaps the earliest form of Indian music, the legacy of which can be still visible in the Dhrupad style of Hindustani Classical Music. Though the term 'Dhrupad' is much new compared to Rig Veda, nevertheless, the style remained in some form or other in Indian music. Figure 2 below depicts in staff notation the 'Alaap' or the first movement of three Raagas sung in Dhrupad style. The Rig Vedic pattern of the usage of three consecutive notes is quite visible in these notations

Fig. 2: Staff notation of 'Alaap' in Dhrupad style, as in Sangita Parijata (17th century)

In the early treatises on Indian music (Fig. a), the Rig Vedic chants were classified as natya (drama) ofpathya (recitation) type. Drama was considered an important element of music. So the Rig Vedic chants not only gave form to the earliest Indian music, but also to the earliest Indian drama. Indeed the Rig Veda contains all the elements of drama - characters, events, narration, emotions, actions etc. The pitch modulation through raised (udatta), unraised (anudatta) and the transitional (swarita) accents originated to give expression to dramatization of the Rig Vedic chants. The relation between drama and music has been always very strong in India in all ages and the Rig Veda might have created that close association for the first time.

Sama Vedic Music

The Sama Veda is believed to have been composed between 1400 BC and 1100 BC. The Sama Vedic chants took the proper form of music over time. To facilitate singing of the verses the three accents or pitches or notes of the Rig Vedic chants eventually expanded to a full fledged scale of seven-notes and twenty two intermediate tones (shruti) of varying pitches. The Naradiya Shisksha is a very good treatise on Sama Vedic music. It speaks of the origin of each of the seven notes from natural sounds produced by animals and birds. Apart from the seven notes of the scales there were also the five qualitative types of tonal color (bright, extended, mournful, soft and moderate). Each of the seven notes was assigned one of the five qualitative tonal color and also one of the three Rig Vedic accents. So if you needed to express sadness in a low (unraised) voice then there was a note for you matching your requirement. This can be seen as the earliest foundation of the Indian Raagas, which is a much later concept in Indian music than 1400 BC.

In the absence of any written text of Sama Veda in the initial years, the seven notes were represented by seven signs with fingers - an extension to the three signs used in Rig Vedic chant. When texts came into being, the seven signs were represented by the seven numerals. starting from one. As seen in the Fig. 3 below the first note - referred to as krushta, meaning loud note - was Madhyama or Ma.

Fig. 3: Sama Vedic Swaras (Notes)

A very interesting thing about the Same Vedic scale is that it's a diminishing one in contrast to what we've now in all the styles of music in the world. The scale used to start from Ma and end at Pa instead of starting from Sa and ending at Ni. In later times the scale was changed from 'Ma Ga Ri Sa Ni Dha Pa' to 'Sa Ni Dha Pa Ma Ga Ri' - with the Sa in the higher octave - to allow for the usage of higher notes for better audibility. Also at later times the scale was converted from the diminishing to the present day ascending one.

Fig. 4: Staff notation of a typical Sama Vedic Scale

One very interesting thing of the Sama Vedic music is the modification and addition of syllables to the original texts, which themselves are derived from Rig Vedic verses, to fit into singing styles. In contrast to the rigidity maintained for the pronunciation and accents of the Rig Vedic verses this is indeed a very remarkable change for the sake of music. Such flexibility is perhaps the biggest asset of Indian music till date. No other book, considered sacred in any other religion, has been allowed to be altered so much just for the sake of music!!

The original Sama Vedic texts (known as Samhita) can be chanted in the same way as Rig Veda with the three Rig Vedic accents, which are represented (or notated) in Sama Veda by numerals - udatta is 1, swaritais 2 and anudatta is 3.

namaste agna ojase grinanti deva krishtayah
ameramitramardaya

O Agni, God, the people sing reverent praise to thee for strength:
With terrors trouble thou the foe

Fig. 5: Original text of Sama Vedic Verse 1.1.1.02.1 (Kauthuma Samhita) with 1, 2 & 3 for Udatta, Svarita & Anudatta notes

The Sama Vedic song books had two flavors - Gramageya or 'songs for village singing' and Aranyageya or 'songs for forest singing' both adapted from different portions of the Sama Veda Samhita (texts). Fig. 6 shows the song adaptation (along with numeric notation) of an original Sama Vedic text (Fig. 5). It can be noted that the word 'namaste' in original text (Fig. 5) is converted to 'namastau' (Fig. 6) in the song adaptation. Similarly 'agna' is converted to 'hognaai'. Sylables like 'au', 'ho' and 'vaa' are also added for the sake of singing.

Fig. 6: Notated song 20 of 'Gramageya' song book of Sama Veda, derived from 1.1.1.02.1 of Kauthuma Samhita

I've created a very simplified staff notation (Fig. 7) for the above song in Fig. 6 based on some simple principles of the Sama Vedic notation as follows:

• Numerals 1-7 denote the seven Sama Vedic notes in a diminishing scale (considered here as the C major scale)
• Numerals above any syllable denotes the pitch/note used for pronouncing/singing that particular syllable
• Numerals within the text denote elongation of the preceding vowel
• In general simple vowel has a single beat duration. The compound vowel has a three beat duration by default, but two beat if notated with an additional 'r' along with the numeral on top of the syllable
• A '^' on top of the syllable means a three beat duration

Fig. 7: Simplified Staff notation of song 20 of 'Gramageya' song book of Sama Veda

In contrast to the simple notation of Fig. 7, in reality the Sama Veda is sung in a much more complicated way (with kampan or vibrato) as depicted in Fig. 8 below.

Fig. 8: Detailed Staff Notation of song 20 of 'Gramageya' song book of Sama Veda (as sung in the Ramanna style by Sri Sesadri Sastrigal & transcribed by Wayne Howard)

The sequence and combination of notes in the above notations clearly point to the same in Indian Raagas, developed much later. Starting from the seven notes and scales to the sequence of notes, the legacy of Sama Vedic music is omnipresent in Indian Classical Music in various forms.

Though the Sama Vedic music reached a great height even at such an early stage of Indian civilization around 1400 BC, still the concept of 'taal' or beat was still unknown. The duration of a single beat note was not fixed and changed from syllable to syllable.

Reference & Useful Links

1. Sama Veda
   • 'Gramageya' song book of Sama Veda in Devanagari: It contains fully notated musical adaptation of the Sama Veda Samhita. Perhaps this is the earliest available book of songs with complete notations
   • Sama Veda Samhita in Devanagari: It forms the text of the songs of Sama Veda
   • English translation of Sama Veda by Griffith
2. The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music - South Asia: Indian Subcontinent by James Porter, Timothy Rice & Chris Goertzen: Has good information about the early phases of Indian Music including details of early musical treatises like Natyashastra & Naradiya Shiksha
3. A History of Indian Literature by Moriz Winternitz & V. Srinivasa Sarma
4. The Music and Musical Instruments of North East India by Dilip Ranjan Barthakur: Contains good information about music of Sama Veda and the instruments in Vedic Age
5. Dhrupad by Ritwik Sanyal & Richard Widdess: Has staff notations of Dhrupad styles and references to Rig Vedic Music as the origin of Dhrupad music
6. Ragas in Indian Classical Music by Anupam Mahajan: Good reference for Naradiya Shiksha and other works attributed to Narada
7. The Music of India by Reginald Massey: The chapter on "Vedic Heritage" has good information about Vedic music and early scales
8. Music in Sama Veda - blog by Sreenivasa Rao S with many useful information
9. Artcile by Srini Pichumani

Sudipto's Home | Indian History

Beginning of Iron Age, Atharva Veda: 12century BC

Later Vedas

Like the Rig Veda, the only sources for the post Rig Vedic history of India are the later three Vedas - Yajur, Sama & Atharva Veda. There is no concrete proof of the timelines of these three Vedas. Commonly accepted chronology is that Yajur Veda and Sama Veda, composed perhaps between 1400 BC and 1100 BC, are older than Atharva Veda which was composed perhaps between 1100 and 900 BC. The present forms of all the four Vedas didn't take place for sure within these time frames. It had taken several more centuries before they would have arrived to the present forms. Yajur Veda has reference to fully developed caste systems, considerable advances in art, handicrafts, trade and occupation, which are evidently of much later date of early first millennium.

The four Vedas Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharva are the earliest literatures of mankind. They also form the basis of the way of life that gradually metamorphosed into a religion, commonly and also erroneously at times, known as Hinduism. At their core the four Vedas are just books of knowledge and enlightenment as realized by the learned people of the time and presented in forms of manuals for rituals - mostly worship of natural forces. Rig Veda is the Knowledge of Recited Praise, Yajur Veda the Knowledge of Sacrifice, Sama Veda the Knowledge of Chanted Hymns and Atharva Veda the Knowledge of Prayers, Charms and Spells. Apart from Yajur Veda, all the other three were composed as perfect metrical verses. Many verses of Rig Veda are reused in various forms in all the other three later Vedas.

Almost all the ancient civilizations were worshipers of nature and natural forces. So it's nothing extraordinary or exceptional for the Indians to worship fire, water, sky, wind and earth - the five basic natural forces. At the dawn of civilization, when the human race was still under the spell of the powers and mysteries of the nature, it's very natural that most of her rituals would be centered around pleasing these mysterious forces. Metaphorically each of these forces was given a shape and form of super humans or Gods. All the knowledge, be it about philosophy or environment or mathematics or governance were packaged into the widely respected ritual manuals. Though the Vedas are regarded as religious books, still they have wealth of valuable information and knowledge and tremendous literary value. None other religious books in any other religion has such great value beyond the dogmatic significance. Most of the content in Vedas are relevant even now. That's precisely what makes the Vedas so unique. Most importantly the history of ancient India is impossible to construct without the Vedas.

Yajur Veda

It's quite fascinating to know that some 3000 years ago Indians were equally concerned about the harmony between man and nature. Yajur Veda speaks about being "in accordance with the earth". It also talks about an all inclusive growth of mankind "spreading with a hundred branches".

Shukla Yajur Veda: 5.43

dyaammaa lekheerantarikshammaa himseeh prithivyaa sambhava |

ayam hi tvaa svadhitistetijaanam praninaay mahate saubhaagaaya |

atastvandeva vanaspate shatavalsho viroha sahasravalshaa vi vayan ruhema |

Graze not the sky. Harm not mid-air. Be in accordance with the earth.

For this well-sharpened axe hath led thee forth to great felicity.

Hence, with a hundred branches, God, Lord of the Forest, grow thou up.

May we grow spreading with a hundred branches.

The following verses from Shukla Yajur Veda mention the numbers upto ten raised to the power of 12 in steps of powers of 10, namely ayuta(10 raised to the power 4, or 10K), niyuta(100K), prayuta(1million), arbuda(10 million), nyarbuda(100 million), samudra(1billion), madhya(10 billion), anta (100 billion) and parardha(1trillion).

Shukla Yajur Veda: 17.2

imaa me'agna'ishtakaa dhenavah santvekaa cha dasha cha dasha cha shatancha shatancha sahasrancha sahasranchaayutanchaayutancha niyutancha niyutancha prayutanchaarbudancha nyarbudancha samudrashcha madhyanchaantashcha paraadheshchaitaa me'agna'ishtakaa dhenavah santvamutraamushmilloke

O Agni, may these bricks be mine own milch kine: one, and ten, and ten tens - a hundred, and ten hundreds - a thousand, and ten thousand - a myriad, and a hundred thousand, and a million, and a hundred millions, and an ocean middle and end, and a hundred thousand millions, and a billion. May these bricks be mine own milch-kine in yonder world and in this world.

A similar list is available inTaittiriiya Samhita[Krişhņa Yajur Veda] (4.4.11) and (7.2.20.1), Maitrāyaņi Samhita 2.8.12, Kathaka Samhita (17.10) etc. The Atharvaveda Samhita (6.25.1 thru 6.25.3, 7.4.1) specially emphasizes the common relationship between one and ten, three and thirty, five and fifty, nine and ninety, clearly indicating that the persons of the Vedic age had a good grasp of the basics of decimal system for positive integers.

The number four three two (four hundred and thirty two) million occurring frequently in
Sanskrit works occurs in Atharva Veda (8.3.21).

Yajur Veda also has the first reference to numeric infinity (purna or fullness) stating that if you subtract purna from purna you're still left with purna.

It's quite a unique development in the filed of science and mathematics on the part of the Indians compared to all their contemporaries. At the same time it's quite confusing to know that the same people, who had such in depth knowledge about mathematics lacked the knowledge of technology. The people of Indus Valley Civilization might not have know such level of mathematics, but they were masters in technology of town planning, navigation, ship building and many others.

Sama Veda

Sama Veda is the first book of songs known to mankind. It forms the earliest foundations of Indian Classical Music. It also sets the earliest legacy of using songs as a form of worship, which over the ages has been proved to be the most popular form of worship in all religions. Music and sound not only play an important role in spirituality, but also in our normal lives. Sama Veda uses the sound, lyrics and music in a wonderful way to create the right aura and ambiance for spirituality and divinity.

Sama Veda: 4.9.2.7

namah sakhibhyah poorvasadbhyo namah saakannishebhyah |

yunje vaacham shatapadeem ||

yunje vaacham shatapadeem gaaye sahasravarttani |

gaayatram traishtubham jagat ||

gaayatram traishtubham jagadvishvaa rupaani sammritaa |

devaa okaamsi chaktrire ||

Praise to the friends who sit in front! to those seated together, praise

I use the hundred-footed speech speech.

I use the hundred-footed speech, I sing what hath a thousand paths,

Gayatra,Trishtup, Jagat hymn.

Gayatra, Trishtup, Jagat hymn,the forms united and complete,

Have the Gods made familiar friends.

Atharva Veda

Atharva Veda, the last of the four Vedas, is often criticized for dealing with super naturals. But philosophically it's perhaps much more deeper than the other three Vedas. It, no doubt, deals with topics more complex in nature.

It's the first Vedas that speaks about medicine and physiology. The first book of Atharva Veda speaks of the following:

Hymn 2: A charm against dysentery

Hymn 3: A charm against constipation and suppression of urine

Hymn 4: To the waters, for the prosperity of cattle

Hymn 5: To the waters, for strength and power

Hymn 6: To the waters, for health and wealth

Hymn 11: A charm to be used at child-birth

Hymn 22: A charm against jaundice

Hymn 23: A charm against leprosy

Hymn 24: A charm against leprosy

Hymn 25: A prayer to fever, as a charm against his attacks

Hymn 26: A charm to obtain invisibility

The following verses speak about the importance of Sabha and Samiti, the two popular forms of meetings during the Vedic Age. It's again an early example of argumentativeness of the Indians. The main purpose of these meetings was to discuss things of relevance openly in a common forum. The importance of such meetings is great in the proper governance of a country. It's clear from this verse that these meetings were taken quite seriously by the people. It's being pointed out that everyone should be fair in their words and every man should respect every other man in these meetings.

Atharva Veda: 7.12.1

sabhaa cha maa samitishchaavataan prajaapaterduhitarau sanvidaane |

yenaa samgachchhaa upa maa sa shikshaanchaaru vadaani pitarah sangateshu ||

In concord may Prajapati's two daughters, Gathering and Assembly, both protect me.
May every man I meet respect and aid me. Fair be my words, O Fathers, at the meetings.

The following verse speaks about atoms as the smallest unit of any object.

Atharva Veda: 12.1.26

shilaa bhumirashmaa pamsu saa bhumih samdhrita dhrita |

tasyai hiranyavakshase prithivyaa akaram namah ||

Rock earth, and stone, and dust, this Earth is held together, firmly bound.

To this gold-breasted Prithivī mine adoration have I paid.

Here 'atoms' (Pāṃsu) are described forming the stone, the stones agglutinating to form the rocks and the rocks held together to form the Earth. This is quite a unique realization made by the Indians some 3000 years back.

Most importantly Atharva Veda refers to Iron as a metal for the first time, thus heralding the start of the Iron Age and the end of Bronze Age sometime around 1100BC.

Atharva Veda: 11.3.5, 6, 7

ashvaa kanaa gaavastandulaa mashakaastushaah ||5||

kabru faleekaranaah sharo'bhram ||6||

shyaamamayo'sya maamsaani lohitamasya lohitam || 7||

Horses are the grains, oxen the winnowed ricegrains, gnats the husks. (5)

Kabru is the husked grain, the rain cloud is the reed. (6)

Grey iron is its flesh, copper its blood. (7)

The above hymn is in glorification of Odana or the boiled rice, a staple diet for most Indians even now. It glorifies Odana metaphorically in many ways by saying that Brihaspati is its head, Brahma the mouth, Heaven and Earth are the ears, the Sun and Moon are the eyes, the seven Rishis are the vital airs inhaled and exhaled, and so on.

Atharva Veda mentions the Kuru King Parikshita. The Kuru dynasty would have been an important one in northern India around 1100 BC.

Around the World

Early Vedic Age is contemporary to 18-20th dynasties of New Kingdom of Egyptian Empire. Around 1100 BC Greek City States, Troy being one of the most important ones, came to a spectacular end. The Homeric Trojan War is also believed to have occurred sometime in the 12th century BC.

In west Asia the Kassites have been ruling in Babylon since 16th century BC. Their rule came to an end in 1155 BC when it fell to
Elam (Iran). Finally after five centuries Babylon was conquered back by native ruler Nebuchandrezzar I in 1125 from the Kassites. Around the same the Hittites (Turkey) were
declining and the Assyrians becoming more and more powerful. The first Assyrian Empire was established around the same time. Also Israel was getting formed.

Reference and Useful Links

• Rig Veda: Devanagari Book 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10; English Translation
• Shukla (White) Yajur Veda: Devanagari; English Translation
• Sama Veda: Devanagari; English Translation
• Atharva Veda: Devanagari; English Translation
• Wikipedia
• Discovery of India
• Argumentative Indian