An Exposition of a Forgotten Sacrificial Calendar of The Vedic Poets, Including an Account of The Origin of The Yugas, Chiefly on The Basis of The Vedas and Contemporary History of Foreign Nations
About the Book
In this book, the exploration of the Vedic era and its calendrical system, particularly the Gavam Ayana, sheds light on ancient Indian reckoning of time. By analyzing references in the Vedas and considering the reigns of historical figures like Manu and Parikshit, the author proposes a timeline spanning around 1,800 to 1,900 years for the composition of Vedic and Brahmanic texts. The Gavam Ayana era, characterized by cycles of intercalary days, emerges as a central focus, personified as the age of a divine child, Agniprajapati. The author's diligent efforts to revive and understand this neglected era signify a plea for a deeper examination of Hindu society's past, aiming to dispel misunderstandings and propel progress.
About the Author
Rudrapatna Shamasastry (1868-1944), a revered Sanskrit scholar and librarian at the Oriental Research Institute Mysore, unearthed and published the Arthashastra, an ancient treatise on statecraft. Born in Rudrapatna, Karnataka, he excelled in classical Sanskrit and obtained acclaim for his extensive linguistic prowess. Apart from his pivotal discovery, he contributed significantly to Vedic studies and edited numerous Kannada texts. His work garnered international recognition and earned him prestigious accolades and awards, leaving an indelible mark on academia.
Preface
THE frequent references made in the Vedas to the year, the seasons and the revolving Yugas led me some years ago to think that the Vedic poets must have had something like an era of their own to count the years, and that the meaning which they attached to Krita and the names of the other Yugas can by no means be what those words bear in the later astronomical works of India. It appeared to me absurd to believe that the Vedic poet meant ten times 4,320,000 years when he said that Dirghatamas grew decrepit in his tenth Yuga. Also the mention made in the Rigveda itself of the names of such Indian kings, as Manu, Mandhatri, Ambarisha and others, who are some of the 153 kings of the Solar dynasty from Manu to Chandragupta, forced me to believe that the composition or, if the phrase be preferred, the gradual revelation of the Vedic and Brahmanic texts began with Manu and ended with Parikshit, the grand-son of Yudhishthira of the Lunar dynasty. This Parikshit who is the last among the kings mentioned in the Brahmanas is the sixth descendant from one, Devapi, who is described in the Kalkipurana as the contemporary of Maru, the ninetieth king in the almost complete list of the Solar kings, descended from Manu. Giving, therefore, an average duration of about 20 years to the reign of each of the 90 Solar kings, we arrive at about 1,800 to 1,900 years as the only historically probable interval, during which the revelation of the Vedas and the Brahmanas may have continued. To my surprise and, perhaps, to the surprise of others, this is the result at which I have also arrived after a careful con-sideration of the Vedic era of Gavam Ayana, as set forth in the following pages. In this era the years are counted in terms of intercalary days occurring once in a Yuga, or cycle of four years; and the era itself is personified as the age of a divine child, Agniprajapati.
Introduction
F all the world's extant literary records, the Vedas have been admitted to be the most ancient and the OF earliest expression of the thoughts of civilized society. No nation outside the limits of India has been found possessing such old records; nor is it likely that the archæological explorations made in different parts of the world will bring to light any such religious literature. As the earliest expression of human thought, the Vedas have been of inestimable service for the correct conception of the first principles of philology, mythology, and the origin and growth of religion.
Admitted as is the antiquity of the Veda, scholars are still puzzled about its age. The vedic commentators such as Jaimini, Sayaņa, Mahīdhara, and others regard the Vedas as coeval with the creation of the world. They hold that the Vedas form part of the Creator's person; that they are manifested or revealed at the dawn of every Creation, and withdrawn into the Creator's body along with the whole world at each destruction of the world, and that the sacrifices and other ritualistic observances enjoined in the Vedas are so many injunctions imposed upon class of the twice-born. But modern oriental scholars, whether Indian or European, regard this theory of revelation as no better than a nursery tale. These scholars are of opinion that, like any other literary work, the Vedas must be a product of civilization and that as civilization itself is of recent growth, the Vedas, as one of its products, must be still more recent.
