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The Antiquity of the Vedas

Preface to Summary and Book Review

This book was written by Bal Gangadhar Tilak and published in 1893, is a work of extensive research carried out by him, in giving out his explanation of the antiquity of the Vedas. He was inspired by Lord Krishna’s statement, while reading Bhagwat Gita, which led him to inquire into the ancient Vedic calendar.

He clarifies that this research paper was originally written for the Ninth Oriental Congress held in London in 1892. However the document was too lengthy to be presented and, hence only a summary was inserted in the proceedings. This research paper he later published as a book in 1893.

In the course of his four year research, prior to the publication of this book, he studied and referred the works of numerous scholars, Vedic scriptures, texts, their essays. Tilak in his quest to recognize the Indian Antiquity puts forth his research work way back in 1893 and analysing the very same research scholars who made contributions to the origin of Indian civilization as per their perception and interpretation.

The whole civilizational debate started when west wanted to legitimize their existence. Their perception hovers around Aryan Invasion theory around 2000/1500 BCE and they reconstructed and misinterpreted the archeological evidences and texts. . One must understand that the knowledge flowed down the generations verbally. The written concepts came much later but by then the damage to Indian knowledge was done.

Thus, we are still taught about the Aryan Invasion in 1500BC despite the fact that genetic and archaeological studies find no evidence for any large-scale migration from Central Asia. The date of 1500BC was always arbitrary and we have good reason to believe that climate change caused the decline of Harappan cities five centuries earlier.

The interesting part is that around 65-70 % of these scholars were foreign/Non-Indians. These scholars had studied Indology, Sanskrit, and Indian Literature. (Interestingly they studied these subjects in German, British and other universities). Their views, translation and interpretation of Vedic texts, are, with a backdrop of Western outlook. All these works were available in the late 18^th and beginning of 19^th century. Needless to say, that, their work was considered more authentic as compared to native scholars.

Some of these scholars and their works, Which Mr Tilak, referred to are

1.      Albrocht Weber- “History of Indian Literature”, “Hindu and Chinese systems of Asterisms”

2.      Prof William Dwight Whitney- “Translation and Notes to Surya Sidhanta and Atharv Ved”

3.      Dr Otto Schrader- “Pre historic Antiquities of Aryans People”1890

4.      Kaegi’s Rgved as translated by Aerosmith.

5.      George Cornewall Lewis-“Historical Survey of Astronomy of Ancients”, 1860

6.      Narrien John-“History of origin and progress of Astronomy”, 1833

7.      Henry Thomas Colebrooke- “Essays on Vedas” and translation of other texts. 1805.

8.      Max Muller’s various works. (Do read his details in Wikipedia and anti-Indian stance.

9.      Jean Baptiste François Joseph de Warren-Kalasankalita,1835

10.  Krishna Shastri Godbole, Bhaskaracharya, CR Das, Dr RG Bhandarkar, Dr Dastur Hoshang Jamsap and a few other Indian Scholars.

11.  Bentley-“ Historical view of Hindu Astronomy”

 

 

Tilak does make a case for us to understand the Indian/Aryan Antiquity and correct the misconception of our rich heritage. This treatise shows how Indian culture was incorrectly interpreted by European scholars using our own ancient texts. Mr Tilak uses most of the same references to give his version of interpretation. He gives out his analysis and the logical conclusion.

 

My aim is to generate interest in this subject and motivate you all to read the original text.

 

He has put forward his theory for consideration and further research.

Do read the information on Vedas given in Wikipedia. One can make out the ambiguity and various opinions

Next articles will cover chapter wise summary of the book.