[brahminseducation] INDIA AND MAXMULLER

[Guest guest]

.. . .

I request the kind indulgence of one and all, when I make the these statements,

with a request that these are not deemed as impertinence or presumption on my

part.

.. . .

Indeed, Max Mueller rendered yeoman's service to the cause of Indology with his

pioneering achievements. But the fact that a darker side of Mueller went,

unnoticed, by and large, underscores his real intent.

.. . .

On the study of Vedas especially the Rig Veda let me say that one of the best

Indian treatises with an English translation, is the publication in 13 Volumes

of Rig Veda Samhita by Swami Satya Prakash Saraswati and Satyam Vidyalankar

These were published by Veda Pratishtana on behalf of Narendra Mohan Foundation

of New Delhi(India). Of course there are many others equally distinct and no

less scholarly. Probably the best amongs these, would be Swamy Dayananda

Saraswati's lucid commentary, a magnun opus along with his Satyarta Prakash

which was a devastating indictment of certain "faiths" based on so called

revelations and angel's narrations. But my knowledge of Hindi is still at its

low ebb, despite a working knowledge of read/write ability in Sanskrit

.. . .

Regarding the western authors and their motives, a particular reference is made

in the foot note of page 117 of Volume I of Rig Veda which says, (Note: Sayana

was a scholar in the imperial Vijayanagar Court in its earlier years. Also note

the word scholiasts

.. . .

Quote from the book

.. . .

Max Mueller, as a true Christian, was convinced of the fact, that his

translation of the Vedic Hymns based on the interpretations of Sayana and other

scholiasts would take away the faith of the Indians Vedas, and in consequence,

Indians would become christians in due coarse. We were told that he wrote a

letter to his wife in 1868, in which he remarked thus, whilst he was busy in

editing the Rgveda:

.. . . >"I hope I shall finish that work and I feel convinced, though I shall not

live to see it, yet this edition of mine(of the Rgveda) and the translation of

the Vedas will hereafter tell to a great extent on the fate of India and on the

growth of millions of souls in that country. It is the root of their religion,

and to show them what the root is, is, I feel sure, the only way of uprooting

all that has been sprung from it during the last three thousand years"

.. . . Of course, the result has been otherwise. Due to Dayananda and people who

have shared his views, the Vedas are much more popular in Indian society today,

than in max Mueller's days, and their teachings have started revitalizing human

mind, and now again they have started exercizing a dynamic impact on our

society

.. . .

End of

quote . . .

When time permits, a perusal of Indian Philosophy by Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, is

suggested in this context. . . . .

On the antiquity of the Vedas and their original home, Lokamanya Bala Gangadhar

Tilak in his great, painstakingly accomplished classic research of more than a

decade, The Artic Home of the Vedas had arrived at remarkable conclusions. On

the basis of the geological evidence he had noted that the period at about 8000

B.C. was an inter glacial period at the polar and circum polar regions when the

climate in those regions was temperate, extremely pleasant and entirely suited

for human habitation. This glacial interval, was after the last but one

glaciation, and the last glaciation in the Artic regions. After the

inter-glacial period, the last glaciation namely the present glaciation began

in these regions making it impossible for human beings to live in the same

regions. The learned Shri Tilak has carefully considered the statements made in

the Vedas themselves and has connected ancient writings of India as well as the

Avesta of the Zoarastrains which

reference to the ice age in the polar and circum polar territories in which the

ancestors of the present day Aryans of India lived at a remote time. After

consulting the versions of the same features in the mythologies of nations of

Northern Europe and various other factors relating to this subject of an ice

age, the author Shri B.G. Tilak had come to the conclusion that the ancient

Aryans must have lived about 10,000 years ago in the polar and circum polar

regions and developed their culture and civilization there and composed the

Vedas, which reflect in a number of ways their ancient culture. And after the

glaciation started, after several centuries in the polar and circum polar

regions, the inhabitants of those regions finding that life was impossible any

further in the said regions, were compelled to move southwards. And so the

ancestors of the present day Aryans of India left their Arctic Home and

traveling south settled in Central Asia and Persia for some time and later

owing

to several causes they moved over to India but carrying with them their

religious compositions and all other features of their Vedic culture. Most

important aspect of the life in the polar and circum polar regions mentioned by

Shri Tilak were in the references in the sacred texts, to the six months of

continuous darkness and sunshine.

.. . . .

Once again, I thank the forumites for their patience and time.

.. . .

Sincerely

Srini Simhan

--- M P Bhattathiry wrote:

> In 1899 Max Müller, the distinguished, philosopher,

> linguist and scholar wrote "The Six Systems of

> Indian Philosophy", offering a clear, simply

> presented summary of the doctrine of the six

> Viewpoints based on their classic texts. His

> treatment of Vaisheshika is brief. This is not

> surprising, since historically the Vaisheshika

> system has been united for much of its history with

> the Nyaaya Viewpoint. > > > > ".. It begins with the usual promise of teaching

> something from which springs elevation or the summum

> bonum, and that something KaNaada calls Dharma or

> merit. From a particular kind of merit springs,

> according to KaNaada, true knowledge of certain

> Padarthas, or categories, and from this once more

> the summum bonum. These categories . embrace the

> whole realm of knowledge, and are: (I) substance,

> Dravya; (2) quality, GuNa; (3) action, Karman; (4)

> genus or community, Saamaanya, or what constitutes a

> genus; (5) species or particularity, Visheshha, or

> what constitutes an individual; (6) inhesion or

> inseparability, Samavaaya; (7) according to some,

> privation or negation, Abhaava. These are to be

> considered by means of their mutual similarities and

> dissimilarities, that is, by showing how they differ

> and how far they agree. Here we have, indeed, what

> comes much nearer to Aristotle's categories than

> Gotama's Padarthas. These categories or predicaments

> were believed to contain an enumeration of all

> things capable of being named, i. e. of being known.

> If the number of Aristotle's categories was

> controverted, no wonder that those of KaNaada should

> have met with the same fate. It has always been a

> moot point whether Abhaava, non-existence, deserves

> a place among them, while some philosophers were

> anxious to add two more, namely, Skakti, potentia,

> and Sadrshya, similitude.

> > SUBSTANCES

> > I. The substances, according to the Vaiseshikas,

> are: > > a.. (I) earth, Prthivi; > b.. (2) water, Apah; > c.. (3) light,

Tejas; > d.. (4) air, Vayu; > e.. (5) ether, Aakaasha; > f.. (6) time, Kala; >

g.. (7) space, Dish; > h.. (8) self, Aatman; > i.. (9) mind, Manas. > These

substances cannot exist without qualities, as

> little as qualities can exist without substance.

> 'I'he four at the head of the list are either

> eternal or non-eternal, and exist either in the form

> of atoms (Anus) or as material bodies. The

> non-eternal substances again exist as either

> inorganic, organic, or as organs of sense. The

> impulse given to the atoms comes from God, and in

> that restricted sense the Vaiseshika has to be

> accepted as theistic. God is Aatman in its highest

> forms In its lower it is the individual soul. The

> former is one, and one only, the latter are

> innumerable.

> > QUALITIES

> > II. The principal qualities of these substances are:

> > > a.. ( I ) colour, Ruupa, in earth, water, and

> light; > b.. (2) taste, Rasa, in earth and water; > c.. (3) smell, Gandha, in

earth; > d.. (4) touch, Sparsha, in earth, water, light,

> and air; > e.. (5) number, SaaMkhya, by which we perceive one

> or many; > f.. (6) extension or quantity, ParimaaNa; > g.. (7) individuality

or severalty, Prthaktva; > h.. (8) conjunction, Samyoga; > i.. (9) disjunction,

Viyoga; > j.. ( 10) priority, Paratva; > k.. ( 11) posteriority, Aparatva; > a..

[Here follow in some lists as 11 to 15,

> gravity, fluidity, viscidity, and sound. The

> remaining Gunas are said to be perceptible by the

> mental organ only, not by the organs of sense.] > l.. (12) thought, Buddhi; >

m.. (13, 14) pleasure and pain, Sukha-duHkha; > n.. (15-16) desire and

aversion, Icchaa-dveshau; > o.. (17) will, effort, Prayatna. > a.. [Here again

some authorities add Dharma,

> virtue, and Adharma, vice, Samskaara, faculty or

> disposition, and Bhaavana, imagination.] > > > ACTIONS

> > III. The principal actions affecting the substances

> are: > > a.. (I) throwing upwards, Utkshepana; > b.. (2) throwing downwards,

Avakshepana (or Apa); > c.. (3) contracting, Akunchana; > d.. (4) expanding,

Utsarana (or Pras-); > e.. (5) going, Gamana. > These actions or movements are

sometimes identified

> with or traced back to the Samskaaras, a word

> difficult to translate, and which has been rendered

> by dispositions and instincts, as applied to either

> animate or inanimate bodies. These Samskaaras have

> an important position both in the SaaMkhya- and in

> the Bauddha philosophies. In the Tarkaditika,

> Samskaara is rendered even by Jaati (jaatih

> samskaaratmika bhavati), i.e. nature or inborn

> peculiarity; and in the Tarka-samgraha it is

> represented as threefold (Vegah, Bhavana, and

> Sthitisthapakah).

> > In the Suutras which follow, KaNaada tries to point

> out certain features which the three categories of

> substance, quality, and action share in common, and

> others which are peculiar to two, or to one only. In

> the course of this discussion he has frequently to

> dwell on the effects which they produce, and he

> therefore proceeds in the next lesson to examine the

> meaning of cause and effect, and likewise of genus,

> species, and individuals. It may be that the name of

> Vaiseshika was given to KaNaada's philosophy from

> the differences, or Visheshhas, which he establishes

> between substances, qualities, and actions, or, it

> may be, from Visheshha as a name of individual

> things, applicable therefore to atoms. But this, in

> the absence of decisive evidence, must for the

> present remain undetermined.

> > CAUSE

> > As to cause and effect, KaNaada remarks that cause

> precedes the effect, but that, in order to be a true

> cause, it must be a constant antecedent, and the

> effect must be unconditionally subsequent to it.

> There is an important and often neglected difference

> between KaaraNa and KaaraNa. KaaraNa, though it may

> mean cause, is properly the instrumental cause only,

> or simply the instrument. An axe, for instance, is

> the KaaraNa, or instrument, in felling a tree, but

> it is not the KaaraNa, or cause. Causes, according

> to KaNaada, are threefold, intimate, non-intimate,

> and instrumental. The threads, for instance, are the

> intimate cause of the cloth, the sewing of the

> threads the non-intimate, and the shuttle the

> instrumental cause.

> > QUALITIES EXAMINED

> > In the second book KaNaada examines the qualities of

> earth, water, &c.; He, like other philosophers,

> ascribes four qualities to earth, three to water,

> two to light, one to air (Aakaasha). These are the

> principal and characteristic qualities, but others

> are mentioned afterwards, making altogether fourteen

> for earth, such as colour, taste, smell, touch,

> number, extension, individuality, conjunction,

> disjunction, genus, species, gravity, fluidity, and

> permanence (ii, 1, 31). Qualities ascribed to

> Iishvara, or the Lord, are number, knowledge desire,

> and volition. In the case of air, which is

> invisible, he uses touch as a proof of its

> existence, also the rustling of leaves; and he does

> this in order to show that air is not one only.

> Curiously enough KaNaada, after explaining that

> there is no visible mark of air (ii, 1, 15) but that

> its existence has to be proved by inference and by

> revelation (ii, 1, 17), takes the opportunity of

> proving, as it were, by the way, the existence of

> God (ii, I, 18) by saying that "work and word are

> the signs of the substantial existence of beings

> different from ourselves". This, at least, is what

> the commentators read in this Suutra, and they

> include under beings different from ourselves, not

> only God, but inspired sages also. It seems

> difficult to understand how such things as earth and

> the name of earth could be claimed as the work of

> the sages, but as far as God is concerned, it seems

> certain that KaNaada thinks he is able to prove His

> existence, His omnipotence and omniscience by two

> facts, that His name exists, and that His works

> exist, perceptible to the senses.

> > Immediately afterwards, KaNaada proceeds to prove

> the existence of Aakaasha, ether, by showing that it

> must exist in order to account for the existence of

> sound, which is a quality, and as such requires the

> substratum of an eternal and special substance, as

> shown before. The question of sound is treated again

> more === message truncated ===

 

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