The Aranyaka is a less studied subject. In fact neglected to a certain extent. It occupies a certain position in the history of Vedic literature as well as in the history of Vedic philosophy. However, in both of these areas, it is just described as the transit period, and that is all. To describe in terms of marks or pages, it is given only 10/15 marks treatment or 8/10 pages treatment.
Normally, the scholars maintain that certain works are called Aranyaka, because they deal with particular topics such as philosophy, mystic explanations, symbolic representation of the ritual, etc., i.e., the topics that are not normally befitting to be discussed in the warm sweet home and hence are supposed to be studied away from public places, and hence in the forest. Therefore, it is assumed that the Aranyaka serves as a link between the Brahmana and the Upanisad. How the Aranyaka-s do this needs to be explained satisfactorily.
I find one more important aspect of the Aranyaka-s, which I call the inwardization of the ritual. This is the contribution of the Aranyaka-s to the history of Indian Philosophy. I have elaborately dealt with this topic in my article. Here I would like to present a few points.
(a) The yajna we find in the Brahmana is in gross form, depending on the external material. It is the Aranyakas that visualize macro and micro aspects of the yajna. It should be specially noted that the Atharvaveda, which is on the periphery of the Srauta yajna, has no Aranyaka, although the Atharvaveda Samhita has philosophical hymns, and the number of the Upanisad-s belonging to the Atharvaveda is considerably higher. To me, it seems that when there is less ritual, there is no scope for the Inwardization of the ritual.
(b) The Idea of philosophizing the Yajna is the novel one that gave a new dimension to the concept of the Yajna, i.e., a complex of intimately interrelated things functioning smoothly and yielding good results. To perceive the yajna differently is the contribution of the Aranyakas, on which we find the philosophy of Karmayoga.
(c) The Aranyaka with the Strength of the Meditative power decontextualized the yajna from the fire altar, fire, oblation, chandas of mantra, and extended the scope of yajna up to adhyayama dana, etc. Brahmayajna Bhutayajna Manusyayajna act serving and devayajna. The very concept that any act serving a noble cause can be yajnaized is the contribution of the Aranyakas, which influenced the culture and philosophy of India.
(d) It is the Aranyaka-s that have proved that it was not running away from the ritual or being fed up with the ritual or as a replacement of a ritual that the philosophy of the Upanisad developed; rather, it is the deep, heartfelt, sincere association that resulted in the contemplation that naturally turned into the development of philosophy.
(e) The Aranyaka-s have provided the models for meditation where there are a lot of equations and several interlinking patterns, e.g., katha-Aranyaka established the functional relation among a dik, a deity, a metre, and a season. The inevitable conclusion of this thought process is the realization that there thrives one and only one principle in all the things which were verbalized by the Upanisadic Seers.
(f) Thus, envisaging the yajna internally has indirectly led to the philosophy of Advaita. So I am eager to know how the mimamasaka-s and the dvaitin-s have understood this issue. The same model is used by Adi Sankaracarya in the Manasapuja.
Well, I have told what I think about the Aranyaka. I sincerely thank those scholars who have honored our request to write on topics related to the Aranyakas. I hope this work will come out with multi dimesional study of the Aranyaka-s.
Our sincere thanks are due to Ms Aditi Pandit and Ms Ketki Gokhale, who very sincerely and meticulously did the type setting of this complete work. We also thank Mr. Jaydeep Jadhav for the artwork of designing the beautiful cover page for our publications. We also thank Ms Vaijanti Dhole Patil and Surekha Wagle of Step in Services for the neat and timely printing of this work.
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