The Deciphering of Vedic Knowledge Systems over Middle Ages and Beyond

Abstract

The Ṛgveda is not among the defunct relics of a past, rather it lives in the daily rituals performed by the Hindus. The true strength of the Vedic text, as both Bankim Chandra and Sri Aurobindo noted, lies in the inclusiveness, the integration of the many and different levels of experimental perception into an integral vision. Swami Vivekananda named Veda as a “knowledge series”. The sources of ancient history of India lies deeply embedded in the Vedas. In the Middle Ages, due to the political reasons, the outside flow of knowledge from India got interrupted due to disruption of oceanic travel but otherwise the flow had been quite continuous over ages. The Western world also took a lot of interest in the 18^th-19^th centuries to study Sanskrit texts, some of the prominent names being Max Muller and William Jones. Max Muller has written on Vedas that ‘These ancient hymns represent the lowest stratum in the growth of human mind which can be reached anywhere’. The bridge of thoughts and sights that spans the whole history of the Āryan world has its first arch in the Veda, its last in Kant’s critique of Pure Reason. In the Middle Ages we can see development of the vernacular languages in a big way. This also led to the deciphering of the Vedic thoughts and knowledge systems and played an important role in congregation and segregation of Vedic thoughts. This paper intends to draw references to the literature of the Middle Ages and study how the Vedic thoughts and knowledge systems got deciphered through them.