There is no wonder to say that the new generations of our India believe that ”there was no civilizations to Indians before the coming of Britishers. The English only taught us how to live.We had no culture.The Westerners invented many things like paper, printing machine, news papers, books, medicines to cure diseases etc. Before these inventions all the Indians besides Africans lived like animals”.
Did the whole world come in to existence with the birth of Jesus Christ? Is this true? Is there any need to peep into our past civilization? Are our ancestors lived like beasts? Let us go back to the Vedas.
The Vedas are the literary works which depict the religious idealism of the Aryans. Perhaps these are the oldest written text on our planet today. They are supposed to have been passed through oral tradition for over 100,000 years. They came to us in written form between 4-6,000 years ago.
The Veda is divided into four groups Rigveda,Yajurveda, Samaveda and Atharvaveda. Each group has an original text (Mantra) and a commentary portion (Brahmana). Again these constitute the ritual and the philosophy which are called Upanishads.
- Vedic Literature refers to the whole of this vast group of literarture.
- Rigveda was composed roughly between 1700-1100 BC in the Punjab (Saptha Sindhu) region of the Indian sub continent. Rigveda means the Veda of Adoration and mostly contains adoring or adulating deities like Agni (Fire) Indra (Ruler of Gods), Surya, Varuna etc.
- Yajurveda refers to the acts of worship;
- Samaveda consists of a selection of poetry mainly from Rigveda and some Original matter.It contains verses addressed to the three gods Agni, Indra, Soma. The verses are to be sung in specific melodious musical notes (Sapta swaras) which are called Samagana.
- Atharvaveda is the veda of the wise and the old. It is much of being glorification of the curative powers of herbs and water. Many poems related to diseases like cough and jaundice,to male and female demons that cause diseases to sweet smelling herbs and magic amulets, which drive diseases away.
Thus India guided the whole world in all aspects of knowledge. Besides these Vedas we had vast knowledge of Philosophy which was adopted by the scholars throughout the world from our Upanishads and Aranyakas.
So these generations should keep in mind that we are behind none in inventions. We should not get the idea that we were illiterates before the entry of foreigners . It is our duty to recall the glorious past of Mother India and to lead it into the right track.