The tradition of commentary on Śuklayajurveda

This essay proposes to share with the readers some of the experiences of using commentaries on Sanskrit texts, particularly philosophical texts. No Sanskrit work can be understood properly or adequately without the help of commentaries yet the commentators were not and could not be omniscient. After providing an overview of how ancient texts in India were taught by the gurus and how in course of time commentary writing side by side oral instruction came into being, it is shown that all commentaries cannot be reliable on all occasions. The time lag between the base text and the commentaries thereon often disables the commentators to be certain about the collocation of the words, especially technical words in the base text. Secondly, lack of historical sense often makes the commentators opt for untenable significations of certain terms occurring in the base text. Thirdly, the personal philosophical affiliation of the commentators often misleads them to interpret the text in a way inconsistent with the intention of the original author. All this has been shown with examples selected from various texts, philosophical and otherwise, and their commentaries. The essay concludes that commentaries are doubtless necessary and helpful and should be made use of wherever available; nevertheless it must be kept in mind that ancient commentators were no less, if not more, fallible than we are and their works should be treated with caution, not regarding them as the last word, as some students and scholars still do. Keywords Commentaries · Guru-sishya parampara · Nyaya · Philosophical texts · Reliability · Smrti.

Philological Encounters

What makes a text a "commentary" ? The question is naıf enough to allow a complicated answer. In Sanskrit there is not a single word for "commentary". The present study focuses on an exemplary case-study, that of Venkatanatha's commentary on the Seśvaramīmāṃsā, and concludes that Sanskrit philosophical commentaries share certain characteristics: 1. several given texts are their main interlocu-tors/they are mainly about a set of particular texts; 2. they belong to a genre in its own right and are not a minor specialisation for authors at the beginnings of their careers; 3. they are characterised by a varied but strong degree of textual reuse; 4. they are characterised by a shared interlanguage that their authors must have assumed was well known to their audiences; 5. they allow for a signiiicant degree of innovation. The use of the plural in point No. 1 is discussed extensively within the paper.

Journal of the Indian Council of Philosophical Research, 2010

Self, Sacrifice, and Cosmos: Vedic Thought, Ritual, and Philosophy, edited by Lauren M. Bausch (Primus Books), pp. 22–39, 2019

The fact that the earliest expository prose compositions in Sanskrit came to be treated as Vedic revelation (śruti) — and thus as “primary text” rather than “secondary text” — should not obscure the fact that in form and original purpose they are (at least to a large extent) commentaries on the mantras of the Vedic cult. This paper considers the Vedic brāhmaṇa genre as a species of commentary, outlining its particular purposes (clarification of the meaning and purpose of the mantras, and of their ritual functions), its methods (e.g., simple glossing, paraphrase, the use of illustrative narratives, symbological interpretation), and its conception of the object of analysis. Comparison will be made with later forms of commentary, suggesting some ways in which brāhmaṇa provided an influential first model of arthavāda, introducing techniques that continued to be used in later forms of commentary.

International Journal of Research and Analytical Reviews , 2019

Generally, the culture and tradition of a country mainly depends on its historical background. Vedic culture too had some essence in the Indian subcontinent due to which it truly can be referred as one of the oldest religious pantheons of the World and as the oldest of India. The following article generally a lucid and concise history of the Vedic Age. The article mainly discusses as how certain religious aspects helped in the formation of a greater religious pantheon of Ancient Indian age. It further shows the importance of various literatures that were composed at that time and how they helped in the making of the very essence of the greater Vedic Age or the Vedic culture. The Vedic Age actually reflects the beliefs and practices of a religious aristocracy. The article shows the various Gods or Devas as well as the demons or the Rakshas that clearly find some significant space in the most valuable literature of that Age, the Ṛg-Veda. There is a detailed reference about the most important aspect of the Vedic Age i.e. the Yajña or the sacrificial ritual which was actually religious ceremony for making offerings to the invisible super powers or the Devas like Agni, Indra, Varuna and many more. A STUDY OF VEDISM The cultural heritage of India is to be found primarily in her philosophy and religion; and the source of her philosophical ideas and religious beliefs lie in the Vedas. Each civilization seems to have a genius for some particular aspect of life. Ancient Greece was devoted to art, Rome to politics. But while these civilizations, and others pursuing similar ideas, perished and form now but dead chapters of history, while India stood like a 'Rock of Ages', weathering many a fierce storm, because of her foundations are eternal values of philosophy and religions, and not just the shifting sands of the secular arts of beauty and governance. THE RELIGIOUS TEACHINGS OF THE VEDAS The Hindus traces the original source of their cultural life to the Vedas which they hold to be divine truth revealed from time to time to the rsis (seers) in their supra normal consciousness. Their religions, philosophy, ritualistic practices, civic conduct, and even social relations are guided by certain codes which are known as Smritis, but all of them are based upon the sacred sanctions of Vedic authority. No schools of philosophy will be recognized as orthodox, if it is not supported by the authority of Vedas. The whole life of Hindus, from conception up to the last funeral rite, has to be sanctified by the recitations of Vedic mantras. Thus it can be conceived how profound has been the influence of the Vedas upon this great and most ancient of the civilized nations of the world. TRADITIONAL VIEWS OF THE VEDAS The word 'veda' literally means knowledge and supreme knowledge too. But secondarily it applied to the Vedic literature, comprising, Saṁhitās, Brāhmaņas, Āraņyakas, and Upanishads books which considered being direct revelations from god, embodying the supreme truth that could not be gained by any effort of human mind. The Vedas are called sruti, either because they were directly heard from god or as the traditions goes of studying and getting them by heat is by hearing them recited by the preceptor. According to the Vișņu purāņa, the original Veda, first revealed by the god to the ŗșiș, consisted Ṛg-Veda, Yajur-Veda, Sāma-Veda of one hundred thousand verses, and had four divisions. With the efflux of time these divisions got mixed up and many portions of Vedas felt into obscurity.

Abstract: The Vedānta philosophy has its roots in scriptural sources, specifically, in three canonical texts (prasthāna-trayī), viz. the Brahmasūtra-s by Bādarāyaṇa (BCE), which is called nyāya-prasthāna or tarka-prasthāna; the Upaniṣads (700-600 BCE), which are called the śruti-prasthāna; and the Bhagavadgītā (400 BCE-400 CE), which is regarded as the smṛti-prasthāna. Thus, like the first two constituents of this trio (i.e. the Brahmasūtra-s, the Upaniṣads), the third one (i.e. the Bhagavadgītā or the Gītā) has a tangible legacy of commentarial tradition; as almost all well-known advocates of the Vedānta schools have commented on these three sourcebooks. In this paper, an attempt has been made to give a brief sketch of such commentarial tradition of the Bhagavadgītā, starting with its commentary by Śaṃkara to the other major commentaries available up to the 15th-16th centuries. While each of these commentaries finds support in the text for their respective philosophical doctrines, an impartial evaluation, with support of modern scholars, shows that none of the commentaries can claim to represent faithfully the true intent of the text (i.e. the Bhagavadgītā), and that the true import of it can only be had if the text is judged from its literary and historical point of view.

Theravada Buddhism and the Pali commentarial literature are inseparable. The identity of early Buddhism ended once the origination of Theravada had taken place. The tradition that engaged in the interpretations of the words of the Buddha was denominated the Theravada (Doctrine of the Elders). Different methods of interpretation were applied in the commentarial texts and the employment of such varied methods appropriate to the contextuality of the discourses as well as the capacity of the audience aimed at are justifiable. This research intends to examine the rationale for the application of different methods in Buddhist hermeneutic culture with special reference to the sub-commentary of the Majjhima-nikāya. Keywords: Majjhima-nikāya-ṭīkā, Exegetical Methods, Theravada Buddhism, Commentarial Interpretations, Buddhist Studies

The Pali commentarial literature is one of the most important sources of Theravada tradition in gaining a clearer understanding the Buddha‟s teachings. The history of Pali commentaries is formed with different layers. Particularly, the commentaries that we use currently were compiled by great Pali commentators in the 5th century AD. Because the commentaries were completed during a few centuries, as multiauthored works and in different geographical backgrounds, occasionally, they contain interpretations discrepant with each other. In this case, stratification of the commentarial literature is required in order to make a proper assessment of their value. Through a precise stratification, it is possible to recognize how the cultural, geographical, historical and religious background influenced the varied interpretations in the commentaries. Regarding the authorship and the date of compilation of the Madhuratthavilāsinī the commentary of the chronicle of the Buddha (Buddhavaṃsa), there are a few different views among modern scholars. In this paper, I intend to broadly analyze the external and internal evidence that can be used in terms of stratifying this commentary. In fact, this research will develop a clear framework that can be applied in stratifying all the Pali commentaries.