वेदार्थनिर्णय: Veda-artha-nirNaya - determining the meanings of Veda - 2

वेदार्थनिर्णय: Veda-artha-nirNaya - determining the meanings of Veda - 2

This the rejoinder to the earlier writing on the same subject

The Veda since time immemorial followed a "karNa paramparaa" - means shravana, manana, punaruchaarana, paarayana, etc. -

[Even though one of the oldest Rig Veda Manuscript collections in Boorja patra (birch bark), estimated to be the oldest Manuscript in the world by scientists and accepted as the UNESCO treasure and estimated to be 2200 years old found in 1931 by the British in Gilgit Kashmir (PoK). Veda forever will be taught-learnt-and passed on through Guru-Shishya - Chanting-listening-Chanting method only. This is the only correct method of learning Veda. This Gilgit MSS collections contain Rig Veda in parts - some in Brahmi and some parts in Sharada scripts. It is to be kept in mind that Sanskrit as a language had no native script and so far we have over 70 scripts identified in which many Sanskrit works were written time to time and region to region]

The order of importance in determining meaning to a Vedic passage goes like this - First the Varna (phoneme) gets the importance, then Padam (word) and then Vaakyam (sentence). 

Here to understand the emphasis of a varna - we have shiksha shastra - this can't be written down in book form and understood. Here is where the "Svara" or tonal variations determine the meaning of the word. In Sanskrit we have 18 different "अ" 'Varnas' - based on Maatra (duration), Svara (Tone), Naasika (Nasalization) and their mix and match we get 18 different "अ-कार".

For example lets take the word "दक्षिणा" (dakshiNaa) - this word has 3 meanings 

1. Fees/ Donation /Reward /Offering (none of these words give the correct meaning - anyway you get it) to the Purohita
2. Southern direction
3. Intelligence (intuition) 

The word दक्षिणा has 3 aksharas -  द + क्षि + णा. Let us say High emphasis is called उदात्त and low emphasis is called अनुदात्त and normal is called as स्वरित - these 3 are the basic svara.

Now if the first syllable in this word gets emphasis (आद्य-उदात्त) - then this word means intelligence,
If it is second /middle syllable gets emphasis (मध्य-उदात्त) then it is South
and if the last syllable gets emphasis it is (अन्त्य-उदात्त) - then the meaning is fees to Prohita.

The same example can be given with English - but only at sentence level. For example if someone says the following:

"You are coming" - this sentence has only one meaning. Now add a Question mark at the end then the meaning of the sentence changes

"You are coming?" - Still the correct meaning is not understood, because 'where to' emphasize is missing in the written form - whether on Subject or Verb or Object. If I write the following way you will be able understand

" 'You' are coming?" - here the word "you" get emphasis - thus this sentence could mean - You (the person) coming or somebody else coming - this gives doubt about the actor's role.

Instead "You 'are' coming?" would mean - you are coming now or later or will you ever come, etc. here the doubt is about the time (tense).

Where as "You are 'coming'?" - in this - the action is questioned - such as whether the person will come or go or won't come at all, etc.

This kind of pronunciation based meaning changes we witness daily in every single occasion and we also constantly use.

Now imagine this kind of emphasis with in a 'word'  - where the syllables in a word get importance and as a result the word meanings change - every single word in Veda has svara

These svaras are not there in any written forms of Veda in any of old manuscripts. It came only through "PaaraayaNa paddhati".  Thus in the last century, the Westerners,  after finding out that whenever they translate Veda there were grave mistakes - they started putting markings for the Svara. This is called Svara notations. 

These notations are also not standardized because in one method there a small horizontal line above the akshara is marked to denote "udaatta" in another method the same is used to mark "anudaatta" - there were huge confusions on these things. Already there were confusions on transliteration markings standards - Kyoto-Harvard, Roman IAST, ISO 15919, ITRANS, ALA-LC, etc. Now added to these confusions the Svara markings.

Subsequently after computers and word processors came they started digitizing all these Sanskrit texts. Initially when PC computers came it had only 256 character length (8 bit) in ASCII codes - to encode Devanagari characters - people started creating notations. Then after unsuccessful attempts and problems they started using 16 bit long codes - then several other scripts like Chinese, Japanese, Greek, etc. have used up all the symbol spaces of 16 bit. Then there were a lot confusions in standardization till Unicode came into effect. Even now there were standard mismatch between Unicode, Unicode 16, INSCRIPT, ISCII, etc. Adding to this in between there were lot of graphic fonts came into play (not the True Type fonts) - and none had mutual compatibility.  Now we have some ASCII based devanagari script notations like WX, Velthuis, SLP1, etc. - yet none have Svara marking capabilities.

Now imagine, with all these namely - Script, Notation, Svara and technical confusions prevailing, if someone who just know devanagari script keys-in Veda texts in a word processor (data entry operator) and further nobody qualified to cross check and verify - what will be the standard of such a source. The so called Western Sanskrit research students are doing "Research" on these error prone text. Not just that they are producing free flowing translations after translations - which our people take and regurgitate in online forums - pathetic - our so called "jnaana parampara".

They don't know anything about Shikshaa shastra, nor Chandas and can't do Paarayana of one Suuktam - don't know to pronounce even a passage from Vedas properly - these people are the so called Pundits. It takes 5-6 years of Veda-adhyayanam to get the correct pronunciation.

Unless one learns Veda, (to recite) properly one can't pronounce the svaras properly and get the correct meaning.

So for I have only talked of 3 basic Svaras (Udaatta, Anudaatta, Svarita) - Vedas have 10 Svaras. 

Now these Svaras also change according to Paddhati - In Kerala Veda paarayanam follows one kind of Paddhati (SauNaka Paddhati). In Tamil Nadu, Andhra and Karnataka and Southern  Maharashtra another kind of Paddhati (Yaajnavalkya Paddhati) is followed and in the North (mainly UP, Utranchal, Haryana) another kind  of Paddhati (Narayana Paddhati)  is followed, in some pockets there is also Kanva Paddhati is followed. A person who doesn't know this would think that different mantras are chanted when the same mantra is chanted in different paddhati.

Anyway those who are willing to listen will listen and understand that there are numerous issues with respect to Veda-artha nirNaya and don't quote some nonsense left right and center - this is what is blasphemy. If a person who is not a born "Sanaatani" (I avoid the word Hindu). if he/she misquotes Veda I really don't care because they are ignorant. May be I should also don't care about the Mouse-clicking army of pseudo Vedic scholars, who's main guru is Google and Wikipedia. 

I have personally witnessed Veda being misquoted by many of the so called scholars (Ph.D students, Post Doctoral students, Readers and even Professors) from Western universities (even some Indian scholars - who didn't do Veda-adhyayanm from Paatashaalas) while presenting and listening at the recently concluding World Sanskrit conference 2015 in Bangkok.