Book 3 Nov 2024 PDF

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A Ht A H,sn,a,,, o, AJJ0riff ""' r. __ ~Y Mr o,,- l r....- AND CONTENT S! LANGUAGE, GENRE, OF LITERARY SOURCE THE CLASSlfJCATJON egort - divided Into cat val Indian texrs can be 0°n the Anciem and e,,rly medie t, age, and the tradition or class of literature~ re, con ren ges ) "'h ic h' of language, gen o sru dy old langua philologistS (scholars wh ~ Lin gui srs and ong ing to t hav e di '."-,, An c belong ed. inro diff ere nt families. l..an8'.'ag cs bel , the languages of rhe wo rld n,licant num ber of he san Pape, hav e cen ain stru ctu ral similarities and share a srg i, Ben gal i, As sa: mtl ar, ~{""'- ily di, Punjabi, Marath Y. So do~i~ti, nat es). For ins tan ce, Hin n fa 'JCs e, Gu· ~''- ··X.' il -..~~,;,, '\. i'--:",.... "{·~~~~ r:r / ·t.,. ·..., ,.........,.,,,.a.1., J..... Ho ~-4~(..~,,~~ :,:a, ::~: -'~ ')~~ -r~ \ Santali ·~.. -....... \ ,_. -., ··~· ~...,.·.-: ,; ~ AS TR O-A SIA TIC......... - ~.. 1.132% t.o%Assamese - ,Manipun 2 8 % Punjabi - Ttbeto-Bunnese Others 3 ;%Oriya.,,.,, IND O·E URO PEA N :·. 75.299% !~.., I ,J,9% Gu jar ati. /...... ·-~ , --~,-~~ ' '.Jo..2% Hindi Ad f-.. '..,cvLJrdu / I'. Sema--- :.J·- '" \ Ao ,; ,,, I 8-3% Bengali 1,5%Marathi Nissf / Karbi I \ I Garo SantaH lushai Tl BETO-BURMESE 1 2 LANGUAG- - ·URE ES SPOKEN IN 1NOIA TODAY 0.965% -- -- -- -  - U'nct an di ng llt er at y d ~t an Atchaeolo gkal Sources ,~7. regional la ng ua ges_ an d dialects ~e ar e [.. t da I 50 0. Th e al lti1ta r W ith o y took sha an d va no U s Ian gu ag es w Se d pe betWeen c. 10 00 t clO separate Wor) els. bu t 0'1er1appin and es er e no m ce ra cn ng on g Lan hi st... gu ag es ha ve e on es and ch~.a ,:ge With th e limes · Th e pre l. it of is di ff Sa ns kr t~e Rtg Veda refie re nt from th e c1.._, cal Sa ,_ , --c ass1ca1 s1caJ Sanskrit' to th I w h ns ~n t or l th e V ed as have the stat (f -e ~t l 1terally,h, 'tha~ which ha th e rishi ~ aditi l se ut 1-reahzed by In th e H in du tr ou gh t to em bo dy an et er na ' xist ent tr d sm nt t ar e th th heard'). T he y ua uo n o r revealed to the1n by e go s.· 1 1:eDhcategoryh of a an d at e o f m ed s tr (seers) in a st b d') texts in. cludes the Vedanga ' Purana , epics, armas as ' 1 em er e (hteraI y, re m ') and means 'k nowledge'. h astra. 'to kn ow N in s d (literally , da contains the \vorld's a co m es fr om th e ro ot vi. T he Ri g Ve T he w or d V ed Athar va pth. as -- R ,g , Sa ma, YaJur, an d y be au ty an d philosophical de There are four V ed extraord inar o th er -t h e , some of it of blend into each ' C oldest su Eac h Ved Samhita, rv a B iv ha ra in s hm g fo po an S et a, am ry A ranyak a, three of w ur parts, the lastand Upanishad. hita is a collecti hich on of 1,028 so m hy , m et m im ns os es (s uk ta s) arranged in tly borrowed from 10 books the Rig Veda, The Rig V ed a 0 ve rs es however, eda consists o f 1,81 al melodies are, C (Mandalas). arranged accord T he Sa in g m co a V th e ne ed s of musical no ta tion ils of the pe. T he rfor or m igin an ce of rituals. The Ath arva spells and V ed a de als with the deta fr om th e R ig Veda), but also C ~ Jost. The Ya ju Veda is the late r st V ed a an d co ntains hymns (s pects o f popula om r beliefs and e pr ac tic es. T he Brahmanas (thi are prose explan s term ations of the hi ch re flec t as a or ca st e) r out- charms w w ith the Brahmana va m ific ial rituals and thei nf us ed of sa cr should not be co give details and explanations al s in a sy1nbolic and philo- rc io ns an d t sa cr ific ia l ritu pal Samhita po (f ores t books) interpre ar c co ns idered the princi n ya k as among whi ch 13 come. The Ara 10 8 Upanishads. The :-e ar e sophical way  ones , The Upan i 5 h d b I a s cont ain a grea t varie ty of philo soph I, oc hY, and the u n lverse, b ut are most ical ideas abou t sacri fice the close ,;: Rlman. Within the Vedic corpus as a wholy associated with the concepts of atma n' and with le, Books 2-7 (known as the family books) of g Veda Samhita are considered the oldest; all the othe r Vedic texts, comprise later the later ponions of this Sam hita, a\ong Vedic literature. There are (cha ranas ) r several reccnslons (shahhas) of the Vedas associated with different schools o Vedic stud y and interpretation, (The term used Interchangeably.) The Shakala shah s shahha and charana aTe often ha is the only surviving recension of the Veda. The texts of the Yajur Veda are divid Rig ed into those of the Shukla (White) school Krishna (Black) school. The recensions of and the Shukla (also know n as Vajasancya) Yaju Veda are the Madhyandina and Kanva. The r Black school is represented by the Kathaka, Kaplshthala. Mailrayant. and Taittiriya recen sions. The main di[[erence between the texts of the two schools Is that the Samhitas of the Whi te school contain only the man (pra yers and sacrificial formulae), while tras in the texts of the Black school the mantras acco mpa nied by a com men tary desc ribin are g and discussing various aspects of the sacri ficial rituals. The Kau thum a, Ranayaniya, - and Jaiminiya (or Talavakara) are recensio of the Sama Veda, and the Shau naka and ns Paippalada of the Atharva Vtda , Referenc insc ripti ons men tion othe r rece nsio ns of es in the Vedas that once existed but are now Vedic texts com pris e a religious liter ature lost. , and references to possible historical even are few. For exam ple, Book 7 of the Rig ts Veda Samhtta refers to a battl e of 10 whic h Sud as defe ated a num ber of adve king s. in rsaries who had conf eder ated agai nst him toria ns have tried to reco nstr uct vari ous. His- aspe cts of the cult ure repr esen ted in the but it is not easy to inte rpre t this vast and Vedas. com plex literature. A maj or prob lem in usin g the Vedas as a sour ce of histo ry is the prob lem o[ dati the Rig Veda. The date s that have been ng sugg este d for the com posi tion of this text from c. 600 0 DCE to 100 0 BCE. Man y rang e histo rian s take c. 150 0-10 00 BCE as the com posi tion of earl y Vedic liter atur e peri od o[ and c. 100 0-50 0 BCE as that of later Ved This chro nolo gy is esse ntial ly base d ic texts. on the tenta tive date s sugg este d by Max the 19th cent ury. Mul ler in. Ved ic liter atur e form s an imp orta nt part of the Brah man ical trad itio n-te xts serv ed and tran smit ted by a sect ion of pre- Brah man a male s. lt reflects thei r relig ious prac tices , and poin ts of view. As a sour belie fs, ce of histo ry, thes e texts are used [or info abo ut life in part s of nort h-w este rn rma tion and nort hern Indi a duri ng the 2nd and nia BCE. But apar t from the que stio n 1st mill en- of date s, as we shal l see late r on, ther prob lem s in corr elat ing the evid ence e are seve ral from the Ved as with arch aeol ogy. A num ber of sup plem enta ry text s kno wn as Ved anga (literally, 'lim bs of a Ved a') aimed at help ing the prop er reci tatio n, use, and und erst and ing of the Ved as. The c~ud e worl ~s OD. p~~ neti cs (shiksha), se in- m~t re (~h,handa)., gram mar (vyaharana), (niruhta), ritua l (kalpa), and astr ono my (jyot e~~ o\~g y"_ , isha). The broad period of composit,on of Vedanga liter atur e is c. 600 -20 0 BCE. Yask a's Niruhta, a wor k on the etymology of wor in the Rig Veda, belongs to the 6th cent ury BCE. ds THE TWO SANSKRIT EPICS: THE RAMAYA NA AND MAHABHARATA The two Sanskrit epics, the Mahabharata and Ram ayana, fa\\ within the category o{ smriti as well as itiha sa (traditional history), althoug h the Ramayana is sometimes c\as sine d as llavya (poetry). Similarities in language and style suggest that they emerged (rom a c~n,- mon cultural milieu. The Mah abh arat a refers to Valrniki and the Ralnayana, and out\,nes the Ran1a story in a section called the Ram opa hhya na. The Ramaya~1a in tum men the Kurus Hastinapura, and Janamejaya, alth t\O\'\S ough it does not menuon the Mahabharata war. The ~wo epics wer e clearly aware of each other, at least in their development. The composition of the Mahabharat later stagesa~~ a can be placed between c. 400 IICE c 400 CE and the Ramayana between the 5th/4th century BCE and the 3rd centu~ ~E. More rec;mly, Hiltebeitel (2~01: 18-20) has sug gested a shorter period o{ com~osm~_n__  \Jftdel'ftand\nt l\~"f anll A1t:ha1a\aqlu\ Sau,cff \ fact that the diUcrent staoe:s c, in the composmon tw'ft'-· and d have spannc · d many ttnturies 'l'lnCcil..l... r--"""1 nm a m·n ~\ol)Tnent of tM "'"\CS mostT'L-.. -r cou\d wen " h tstonans no longa use the ,cnn eptc. aoe ' ennmm. shou\d make it 0 L..__,. '1.JV\aus wh y 11~ epics are magnificent texts h ~ nat1on of millions d.of people ova thwu ~crful e ~tun~ 01i Sloricshthat ha~ aptured \1...- m.,~ \mae,.- necessary to I cnufy their internal ch cording to lTadition. Rama lived in ~:';~~I 1. use t cm as h\storica\ muTCa \t \s 1 layen. whkh \s not an easy task. Ac.- nrned t'--- ~ lateT. in the dvapara yuo.a H charactct'S associated with the Mah-LL. owevet som yuga (age) and the Mahabhanta w.1:r h h· ap-. _ aunarata re 0ea e \Stonans argue that the ncnts and the Ramayana. ThtS 1s because the sett" a l'gh I l ( th s t Y atba ~riod than tho~ o{ and the uppeT Ganga valley. while in,ieo Ra e Mahabharata \s the lndo-Ganget,c div\de dearly shifted eastwards. to the middle Ganmayana. the centre o( political gra'Y\ty had the Mahabharata suggest an earlier stage o( ~~:~ey. The strong women chancters o( subordinated to men compared to lat.eT f ~ e.ve\opment, when women weTC \65 a husband deputes his conjugal rights a:,:~- ~rractice o( niyoga (\ev\rate~ \.e when an heir) in the Mahabharata also suggests T \S ~ e to another man in order to produce ana which reflects much stricter contro'~ SOC\a stagc that \s priot to that of the Rama- '\!) ova women Y The Mahabharata consists of 18 Parvas (books ~ and has Lwo mam n:censions-a northern and souLhem. The core sLory con ins-the J(auravas and Lhe Pandav3S-r.t'lnn noa of one nna. 1·1"'fT Ut! I H ~1Rhnpurnna1 (AH',nl rumn m1) 1 anc\ flt:.\\o n wh\c h \~, mnn y more, I 1 ,n u·rllnRA &lnnd aKI lifll of the \B ~foh ,,pt,m na" 1 m N (~co ,~dn ry runm nfa), 11u, puruAharlhas, l'1 lnl'lr ntr 111 ,h~ Vhfu t