The ancient literature

The crowning glory of the

Indian civilization.
No other part of the world
has produced such
voluminous literature of
knowledge and wisdom.

The
Vedas
are the most
celebrated possessions
of the Indian
civilization.
reflect the growth and
development of human
thought
picture of the

The meaning of the word Ve

The word Veda
originates from
the Sanskrit root
Vid. The Sanskrit
verb Vid means
to know. The
word Veda
literally means
knowledge.

The Vedic Literature

Shruti literature :
the knowledge attained by the rishis
while doing their Tapasaya or Sadhna
or in their Supra-normal
Consciousness, as Shri Aurobindo
said.

The Vedic Literature (contd.)

Smriti literarure :
Smritiliterature is
concerned with that
what is remembered,
knowledge acquired
through the experience
or the tradition
For instance the Manu
Smriti .

The Vedic Literature (contd.)

The vedic literature has been
derived from Shruti literature.
The Vedasare considerd divine
and eternal.
The Vedas: knowledge par
excellence.

Origin of Vedas
The Vedas are among the oldest
sacred texts in the world dating
from c. 1500-500BCE.
Rigveda : roughly around
1700-1100 BCE
and the last veda
Atharvaveda : 900 BCE

Origin of Vedas (contd.)

However it is
believed that
Shri Ved Vyasa
compiled all
the works of
rishis into four
parts known to
us as the Four
Vedas.

The Four Vedas

The four Vedas are

the Rig Veda;

the Yajur Veda;
the Sama Veda and
the Atharva Veda.

The Rig Veda

The Rig Veda is the oldest of
all
the Vedas.
composed of 10552 mantras.
knower is known as Ritwik
contains knowledge of
science,
matter of the universe like
sun, moon, air etc.

The Yajur Veda

smallest of all the four Vedas.
The knower of this Veda is
known as Adhvaryu.
gives knowledge of all the
deeds and duties to be
performed by men or women,
students, leaders, king,
agriculturist etc.

The Sama Veda

has 1875 mantras.
The knower of this Veda is
known as Udgata.
gives knowledge how to
worship God;
details of Yoga philosophy
is included in this veda.

The Atharva Veda

special place in the field of
philosophy and spiritualism.
knower of this Veda is known as
Brahma.
has 760 hymns, and about 160
of the hymns are in common
with the Rig-Veda.
details of medical science and
of medicine etc. it also contains
Mantras used in marriage and
death rituals, as well as those for
kingship,

Vedanta
The word Vedanta is a compound word made
up of two Sanskrit words: Veda and Anta.
broadly covers the philosophy enunciated by
the holy Scriptural Trinity
the Upanishads,
the Brahma-Sutraand
the Bhagavad Gita.
"The goal, which all Vedas declare, which all
austerities aim at, and which humans desire
when they live a life of continence, I will tell
you briefly it is Aum" (1.2.15)

Vedic Impacts
1.Literature
2. Science
3.Mathematics
4.Music
Religion

5.Practices and

Literature
Eliot:
The Waste Land ends with
the reiteration of the Three
Cardinal Virtues damyata
(restraint), datta (charity)
and dayadhvam
(compassion) and
ends with Shantih shantih
shantih
Prof. Philip R. Headings has
remarked in his study of
the poet, "No serious
student of Eliot's poetry
can afford to ignore his
early and continued
interest in the Bhagavad
Gita."

 Henry David Thoreau:

"In the morning I bathe my intellect
in the stupendous and cosmogonal
philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita."

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

: his poem Hamatreya was inspired
by a passage from the Vedas. He
was concerned with the subject of
illusion maya and wrote a poem on
the same.
Francois Voltaire stated: "...
everything has come down to us
from the banks of the Ganges.
Vishnu Sharmas Panchtantra

Science
Cosmology:
French astronomer JeanClaude Bailly stated "the
movements of the stars
calculated 4,500 years ago,
does not differ by a minute
from the tables of today.
Metallurgical Science:
Cast in approximately the
3rd century B.C., the six
and a half ton pillar has
sustained over two
millennia.

 Vedic sounds and

mantras :
A Clinical Test of the Benefits
of Mantra Chanting was
performed on three groups of
sixty-two subjects .
They chanted the Hare
Krishna Maha Mantra twentyfive minutes each day under
strict clinical supervision.
Mantra reduces Stress and
depression and helps reduce
bad habits & addictions.
These results formed a PhD
Thesis at Florida State
University

Yoga and Ayurveda

Mathematics
The decimal system , the introduction
of zero and the concept of infinity.
Voltaire, the famous French writer and
philosopher) stated that "Pythagoras
went to the Ganges to learn geometry."
Abraham Seidenberg, author of the
authoritative "History of Mathematics,"
credits the Sulba Sutras as inspiring all
mathematics of the ancient world from
Babylonia to Egypt to Greece.

 The speed of light: Rig veda(I-54)

Yojananam sahastra dwe dwe shate
dwe cha yojane aken nimishardhena
krammana namostute.

3.0*10(
places.

8) m/s upto two decimal

Music

 Beatles:
Recorded the
White Album
after their time
with an Indian
mystic based on
the antimaterialism and
the vedic
transcendental
thoughts.

Commonplace practices and

Religion

Culture
Rituals and ceremonies
Prayers
lifestyle and thinking.

Misinterpretation of the
Vedas
Caste system
Irrationality
Mysticism

Conclusion
Vedas:

the unexplored
ocean of
knowledge.

Bibliography
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedas
http://images.google.co.in/
http://indianscriptures.50webs.com/