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Mathomathis would like to present an article on one of the Yajnavalkya Smriti and Ancient Indian Law. The following article was adapted from “Aloysius Michael, Radhakrishnan on Hindu Moral Life and Action, Concept Publishing Company, Delhi, 1979, p. 130”. Jurisprudence or legal system, which is termed as Vyavahara Dharmasastra, is an important portion as far as the Dharmasastra literature is concerned. The development of this Vyavahara dharmasastra can be traced back to the Vedic texts in which certain principles of law are laid down. The term ‘Rta’ that appears in Vedic Samhitas, though it originally meant the uniformity of nature or cosmic order, stands for law and convention, etiquette and moral principles. The concept of Dharma in Vyavahara portion appears to have developed from this idea of ‘Rta’. The special manuals that deal with secular as well as religious laws in ancient India are collectively called as Dharmasutras. They comprise texts of three categories: “The Dharmasutras”, “The Metrical Smritis” and “The Commentaries” and digests called ‘Nibandhas’. These texts are accepted to be the authoritative texts of conducts for the individuals as well as the society. They moulded and governed the moral and social ethics, customs and practices and political laws of Indian society from very ancient times. The Dharmasutras The Dharmasutras, otherwise known as Samayacarikasutras (Samaya means agreement and Acara means custom) form a part of the Vedic supplement called Kalpa Sutras, which include mainly three types of expositions such as Srauta, Grhya and Dharma. The fourth one, Sulba Sutras, can be considered as supplements to the Srauta Sutras as they give geometrical and mathematical patterns of the fire altar and sacrificial sheds etc. in different Yagas. The Srauta and Grhya Sutras exclusively deal with ritual matters while Dharmasutras analyze and interpret the wider relations of the individual to the society. It includes areas of individual and social behaviour and norms as well as personal, civil and criminal laws. Several such texts are referred to or cited by various writers of which only four are actually available now. They are that of Apastamba, Gautama Baudhayana and Vasistha. These texts are not the works of individual authors, but they are traditions of school of thoughts represented by such authors. Though there are differences of opinion regarding the matter which of these texts are earlier or later, generally their dates can be assigned to a period between 6th and 1st century B.C. The central focus of these texts is the religious rites and ceremonies and moral duties of different classes of the community. In connection with these, topics like marriage, inheritance, son-ship and administration of justice are also dealt within them. Different types of marriages, various kinds of sons and their right to inheritance are prescribed in the second book of Apastamba. Kandikas 25 — 29 of the same book deal with several topics like protection of subjects, appointment of security officers, crime and punishment and judicial process. The GDS also covers rules on various matters like marriage, inheritance, partition and Stridhana. The third Khanda of second Prasna of BDS deals with partitioning of the paternal estate, types of sons, inheritance of different sons and inheritance of women. The topics like duties, taxes, crime and punishment and witnesses discussed in this treatise also are noteworthy. Apart from the above mentioned topics, VDS prescribes rules and regulations on adoption, which have been accepted later as the supreme authority in almost all the schools of Hindu law. Quotations from the Dharmasutras of Harita, Vishnu, Sakha and Likhita are available in later Smriti texts. Such quotations prove that those texts also contain prescriptions related to civil and administrative law. It is true that the topics mentioned above contain certain bare references to different aspects of Vyavahara. They do not deal with detailed laws and rules as in later Smriti texts. Still they can be considered as the base for the development of the Vyavahara law in the later Smrti texts. Development of Legal System in Smriti Texts The legal texts composed in Slokas are commonly called as Smritis. In these texts all the legal principles, scattered here and there in Vedic texts and Dharmasutras and the customs and practices accepted by the society, are collected together and arranged in a systematic manner. The earliest representation of such codification is Manusmriti (MS) in which all kinds of religious, social and legal rules are seen described. A more scientific and systematic treatment of these topics is found in YS. The broad division of the text into three parts, Acara Vyavahara and Prayascitta, itself is significant. The Vyavahara dhyaya, which contains twenty five Prakaranas, is devoted to the discussion of the eighteen points of dispute. Here Yajnavalkya does not confine to the eighteen titles of law prescribed by Manu. He states that a Vyavahara arises if any right of any person is infringed or any injury is caused. It can be said that Yajnavalkya inaugurated a new phase in the development of ancient Indian legal system. As far as Narada Smriti is concerned, the entire text is dedicated for Vyavahara portion only. A detailed discussion of the eighteen titles of law, with great clarity, is given there. By omitting Acara and Prayascitta portions, it makes a departure from the earlier works. It also presents some advanced and progressive views regarding juristic principles. Other two important texts related to law are: Brihaspati Smriti and Katyayana Smriti. Both these texts are not traced fully. As regards the Brihaspati Smriti, only a reconstructed text by Prof. K.V. Rangaswami Aiyangar is available now. In the printed text the Vyavahara section covers 228 pages. It is Brhaspati, who for the first time made a clear distinction between civil and criminal justice. The basic concept of law of partnership, laid down in this Smrti, corresponds to the modem concept of the law of partnership. The verses attributed to Katyayana in the commentaries and digests have been collected and published under the title Katyayana Smrti saroddhara by P.V.Kane. These collected verses will convince one […]
In the previous article Cosmo Graphical Mapping | Jambudvipa | 101 author has discussed on concepts of Jambudvipa, saptadvipa, catur dvipa and more. The following article would be a continuity topic on the same. Readers are expected to read the previous article before reading the following one. Figure shown above is a reproduction of the kurmavibhaga from a modem edition of a medieval astrological text, the Narapatijayacarya, which was intended as a guide to divination. This popular work, composed by Narapati in A.D. 1177, “describes various arrangements (cakras) of letters associated with time divisions and astrological entities, magical pictures of animals and objects (also called cakras), and arrangements of nakshatras [asterisms], months, and numbers relative to the directions (bhumis), all of which promote the military victory of their user.” The edition the figure was taken from contains scores of other diagrams that served purposes analogous to that of the kurmacakra. Pingree lists more than a hundred known manuscripts of the Narapatijayacarya, as well as nine published editions over the period 1882 to 1955. How many additional editions have been published since 1955 is not known. But the Narapatijayacaryii is only one among many technical texts on omens and divination (samhitha). The earliest of these is the Gargasamhitha(first century B.C. or A.D.), and the most important is the Brihatsamitha of the sixth century astronomer Varahamihira. A search through the thousands of surviving samhitha manuscripts would surely reveal many diagrams of potential interest to historians of cosmography, but the task is so vast and its scholarly requirements are so formidable that such an undertaking could not be considered in the compilation of the present work. Divination with the aid of almanacs containing diagrams with terrestrial spatial referents-among others is common in India, and practitioners of the art are sought out not only by simple village folk but by members of the elite as well. In the most common form of astrology, casting horoscopes, one “maps” on a chart (of which there are several standardized forms, depending on the system being followed) the position of the sun, moon, and planets at the moment of the client’s birth;. Other types of “mapping” take place on a person’s body. In her work on the village of Pahansu, the anthropologist Gloria Goodwin Raheja describes the process as follows: Settling in a new village or town involves, in the indigenous conceptualization, a matching of the person with these places, and inappropriate matching’s may result in in-auspiciousness. Ordinary villagers do not have a comprehension of the techniques used by the astrologer to determine whether the match will be auspicious or inauspicious, but they are aware of the sort of mapping of village to person that is involved. The mapping is carried out in the following manner. Beginning with the lunar asterism (nakshatra) that corresponds with the first letter of the name of the village, the twenty-eight nakshatras are mapped onto the “body” in the order in which the asterisms appear in the heavens. Thus, taking Pahansu as an example, Buddhu Pandit [the village astrologer] would start with uttara phalguni, the asterism that is associated with the Hindi syllable pa, and map the nakshatras. … [Raheja here provides a table indicating seven asterisms each that are associated with the client’s forehead, back, heart, and feet.] Having constructed the nakshatra “body” in this way, the astrologer then notes the nakshatra that corresponds to the first syllable of the name of the man who wishes to settle in the village. If that nakshatra has “fallen” (parna) on the forehead or heart, then the match between village and person is propitious, and the man’s family will prosper there; if it falls on the back or the feet, inauspiciousness will afflict him if he settles in that village. In this procedure, the lunar asterisms are arrayed in an order specified by the particular village, and this ordering determines where the person’s own name-asterism will fall. It is in this particular matching of the person with the village that the potential for auspiciousness or inauspiciousness lies. Yet another type of mapping Raheja describes relates to the way a farmer would seek to learn of an auspicious time and place to dig a well In this case the astrologer would map the day’s nakshatra onto the space defined by the boundaries of the fields in which the farmer wishes to dig a well. The farmer gives a rough map (naksha) of his fields to [the astrologer, who] superimposes a diagram (cakra) of the directions over this. The squares of the diagram are propitious or not propitious for the digging because of their conjunction with the various asterisms. If the day’s nakshatra falls on a square that is unfavorable, then another day is chosen. In-auspiciousness (kusubh) is produced if one acts in the context of an unfavorable conjunction of times and spaces. Along with this narrative, Raheja includes the diagram, oriented with east at the top. It shows the center, northeast, southeast, southwest, and north as auspicious (though only during the specified times) and the remaining three cardinal directions and northwest as inauspicious. Finally, Raheja describes the procedures followed in the village of Pahansu before building a house. These are analogous to those I have just cited and also relate conceptually to practices described in the final section of this chapter concerning microcosmic analogues of the cosmos. Within the vast corpus of Indian cosmographic literature, references to regions, physical features, and peoples of the real world were not limited to texts on divination. In virtually all the Puranas the sections known as the bhuvanakosas (dictionaries of the world) combined not only accounts of the cosmos in its largest sense and of the general constitution of the earth, but also an abundance of geographical detail of a relatively localized nature. Unfortunately the lines of separation were not clearly drawn, and it is difficult even for the trained Indologist to ascertain when a particular text crosses the threshold between speculative fancy and empirical description. In fact there […]
Mathomathis would like to present an article which was published by author G.C.Tripathi on The Poet and the Poetry in the Rigveda. Among the ancient-most religious texts of literary character, the Ṛgveda occupies the topmost place of pride, not only because of its spiritually inspired religious fevour and its sublime philosophy, but also for an unexcelled beauty of its poetry couched in a wonderfully well structured language with highly artistic literary expressions. The Ṛṣi-poet of the Ṛgveda is an arrived sage and an accomplished poet rolled into one. The Poet – Interrelationship between the poet and the gods The spiritual preceptors of India have always underlined the importance of a direct experience of transcendental reality and have accepted it not only as the basic source but also the very substratum of all mundane reality. The Vedic poet is a Ṛṣi who perceives and directly experiences such a transcendental reality through his inner vision, a vision that transcends both time and space, with the result that he is capable of visualizing the mysteries of the gods and the universe and reveals them to us. His speech is revelation, revelation of the highest spiritual truth. For this unique capability, he is often equated with gods and so the gods with poets. “Our umbilical cord is with gods” (asmākaṃ teṣu [deveṣu] nābhayḥ) says the poet of RV 1.39.9. In RV 7.52.13 the poet exhorts the people to glorify and make obeisance to the brilliant group of Maruts who are ‘kavi” and ‘vedhasaḥ’ (creators) in their own right: God Agni has also been addressed as kavi (kaviṃ samrājamatithiṃ janānām….) because he is jātavedas, i.e. knows everyone who is born in the world, being present in their bodies. The occasional use of the expression kavi (‘visionary’) for a poet in the Vedic hymns, a word which denotes the sense of a person capable of looking beyond time and space (krāntadarśin) and which is meant to be applied primarily and mainly for the Supreme Creator, underlines the importance of the creative activity of a poet in the minds of Vedic literati which was not considered to be lesser or lower in any respect than that of the creator. Kavi: The Creator: The following, relatively well known, sentence from the isāvāsya-Upaniṣad (=YV 40.8) stating that ‘the self-born, all surrounding, wise and visionary [Creator] goes on creating perpetually the worldly objects in their proper from – as they ought to be’, has justifiably been understood as applicable to the literary activities of a poet as well: The expression ‘vyadadhāt’ (created) needs attention here. This is an activity which is connected with its agent Vedhas, the Creator, but which is also a homonym for poet. Vedhas is someone who combines in himself the elements of both knowledge and action. The poet also has both. He has thoughts, emotions, feelings and visions combined with the creative capability of expressing them in a nicely structured verbal form – form which conjures up and recreates the vision of the poet in the mind of the reader/listener. This capability to ‘create’ poetry, not common to all, is the quality which is termed as Śakti by Mammaṭa in his Kāvyaprakāśa (I.3) and is considered to be a divine gift. The Poet and the Poetry in the Ṛigveda The idea of according an exalted status similar to that of the creator god comes down to the classical period where we meet with the following famous statement: Kavi and Vedhas are not the only expressions used for the Vedic poets. There are at least four more terms used for a Vedic poet which are Ṛṣi, Vipra, Sūri and Kāru. Kavi: The Divine Visionary: Ṛṣi is a sage, a person endowed with Intuitive knowledge (prātibha-jñanavān); nothing is hidden from him. He is the one who is in direct touch with the supreme powers and receives inspirations from them. Gods are the protectors of Ṛta (Cosmic order) which is the source of those laws (dharmāṇi) which govern and hold this universe. A Ṛṣi has intimate knowledge of these dharmāṇi which he propagates through his sayings. His words and spells have magical effect. Ṛishi Viswamitra is capable of checking the flow of the rivers Vipāś and Śutudrī at their confluence so that the clan of Bharatas could wade through their beds and cross over to the other side (RV III.33). Kavi: The Inspired One: The word Vipra is derived from the root ‘vepṛ-kampane’, He is the one who gets emotionally charged, stirred up, moved. He is distinguished from others because of for his fervency and enthusiasm, has had experience of spiritual rapture, and enlightenment and is inspired to put his experience in words. A Ṛṣi could be a vipra, but a vipra is not necessarily a Ṛṣi (cf. ṛṣiḥ ko vipra ohate…., RV 8.3.14). Kavi: The Enlightened One: Sūri is a knowledgeable and wise person, an enlightened one. The word is connected with the term ‘svar’ which means light – also the lighted space, the heaven (cf. the word Sūrya). He is mostly given to contemplation and meditation in his quest to discover the mysteries of the Universe (cf. tad viṣṇoḥ paramaṃ padaṃ, sadā paśyanti sūrayaḥ…. RV 1.22.16). Kavi: The Technician: Kāru (=the ‘maker’ from the root kṛ) is simply a ‘composer’, a skillful professional poet who can create poetry on any subject at the behest of his benefactor. The composer RV 9.121.3, declares himself as such (kārur ahaṃ pitā bhiṣak…). Sometimes the activity of such a poet is compared to the work of a craftsman or carpenter (taṣṭā, tvaṣṭā) who fashions a chariot out of wooden material, and as such these two words taṣṭa and tvaṣṭā also occur in the Ṛigveda in the sense of poet and the expression sutaṣṭam (well crafted) is often used as an adjective to a prayer or hymn in the sense of ‘well composed’. The Composition (Poetry) – Synonyms of Poetry A number of words and expressions occur in the Rigveda to denote poetic compositions, some of them are nouns, but many of them are […]
Mathomathis would like to present an article on: Scientology in Evolution of Ancient Indus Thamizh letters written by T.L.Subash Chandira Bose, M.Pandurangan and Anitha Kumar. In the past lot of languages had existed in this material world. All those languages were initially spoken language and in which very few had its own writing system in later period. Those languages with writing system are alive and others are diminished. In those living languages the ancient Indus Thamizh with its writing system is said to be the earliest in Indus valley civilization with its own grammar and literature’s. Later the ancient Indus Thamizh was renamed as Thamizhi (Thamizh Bhrami) and presently called as Thamizh (Tamil). The evolution of Thamizhi letters to Thamizh is known, but the evolution of ancient Indus Thamizh letters is unknown. Because of this is Indus seals are remains as unread. In order to read the Indus seal the ancient Indus letters are to be identified. Hence, a detailed study is essential to find out the evolution of ancient Indus Thamizh-Thamizhi-Thamizh letters with archaeological evidences. Based on various archaeological evidences, we can assume the first stage of ancient Thamizh writing system was in symbolic form, which might have been written on perishable materials viz., leaves, barks of trees and cloths. The second stage of its evolution could be incising on non-perishable objects/materials such as rock art (pictograph / petro glyphs) and graffiti marks. The pictographs were drawn in block, dark red and white colors in cave shelters and petro glyphs are incised on rock surfaces. The graffiti marks are inscribed on unburned or burned clay pottery. The third stage is the pre-matured writing system in combined form of symbols and letters incised on non-perishable materials viz., steatite (soft stones), copper, silver, gold etc., for which the Indus seals are the evidences. The ancient Thamizh letters incised on Indus seals and pot shells are attributed to 5500/3500 B.C.E. The Thamizhi letters incised on cave shelters and inscribed on pot shells are attributed to 1500 B.C.E. Ancient Indus Thamizh began with 12 life (vowels) and 18 consonants (bodies) and few combined forms of vowels and consonants in letters around 2500 B.C.E. Later Thamizhi evolved with addition of 216 (combined forms of Life and Body) letters and remained alive for a period of 1800 years. Finally the present Thamizh came into practice from 3rd century A.D onwards. The evolution of 19th century Thamizh letters from ancient Indus Thamizh had taken almost 7500/5500 years. The outcome of our research and study on ancient Indus Thamizh, Thamizhi and Thamizh letters, show that the ‘ancient geometry had played a big role in the evolution of its letters’ with Scientology (life science) related Soul and Body. Interestingly among 4000 numbers of Indus seals 7-8% are in geometrical shapes. Ancient geometry: The letters of ancient Indus Thamizh and Thamizhi appears similar to geometrical shapes viz., vertical, horizontal, inclined, short, medium long lines, circle, half circle, square, triangle and rectangle etc. The root of evolution of all geometrical shapes is a Point or Dot (Pulli in Thamizh). Two points form a vertical/horizontal/inclined line. Three points form a triangle, four points a square, five points a pentagon, six points oxygen, seven points heptagon, and eight points as octagon… and finally 360 points as a circle. Significance of ancient geometry: The ancient geometry is the divine source ‘to see the unseen and to know the unknown’. On a piece of paper, let us draw a circle and draw 360 lines from the center point to circumference of the circle. There we can observe a cross (plus mark) and concentric crosses one above the other. It is a mystical geometrical vision of ‘The Supreme Power’. Circle is a time, the vertical line is cause (male energy), the horizontal line is effect (female energy), and the combined form of cause and effect within a circle is causation in time. Square is space, the symbol of cross within a square is Causation in space. Let us take a square plain white paper (Universe) and mark a point at its center (Mid of Sky). Let us fold the four corners viz., SW (Earth), NE (Water), SE (Fire) and NW (Air) five times (pentadic order). We could find the fifth folding will be little hard. The diamond shaped folded paper is the first vowel (life) letter ‘Aa (Agaram)’. The Thirukkural’s first poem says ‘Agra muthala ezhuththellaam aathi Bhagavan muthattre ulagu’. Meaning: ‘Bhgavan (supreme soul) remains in all the letter begins from the letter Aa’. When we unfold the folds one by one in reverse order (Sky, Air, Fire, Water and Earth), finally we can observe the impressions of the folds in the form of lines. When the folds (lines) are highlighted with a marker, we can observe 64 squares diagrams similar to Indus seal M-351b. Diagrams: According Mayamatha – an Indian treatise on housing architecture and Iconography there are 32 diagrams. The 64 squares diagram is ‘Maanduka diagram’ and it is used for planning the temples, residential quarters etc. In Manduka diagram the center most 16 squares is Mahapitha diagram. Mahapitha means ‘Great father’. Let us draw five circles and highlight middle zone as shown in the figure-4. It is the universal diagram with four regions viz., region of heaven, region of divinities, region of living beings and region of terrestrial being. For this an Indus seal, Senthamangalam, Indus seal Rhd-157, M-350A and Kunnaandaar temple symbol are the examples. Mahapitha diagram is used as two Indian astrological charts. In which the center most 4 squares in the chart allotted to ‘Param or Bhagavan or the universal being’ and identified as viz., Rasi (constellation) and Amsam (swan/Cygnus) Mandalams / Chakaras. The surrounded 12 squares allotted to 12 constellations in order. Scientology: According to Indian scientology ‘what is there in the universe is there in human body and what is there in human body is there in the universe’. Also says that; ‘a human body with the soul (life) is Udalam (living body) and a human […]
Mathomathis would like to present an article on Purusha Sukta by author Zachary F. Lansdowne Ph.D (who served as President of the Theosophical Society in Boston, has been a frequent contributor to The Esoteric Quarterly. His book The Revelation of Saint John, which provides a verse-by-verse analysis of the entire Revelation, was reviewed in the Fall 2006 issue). The following article is a continuation from the previous article The Purusha Sukta | The Sacrifice of Purusha | 102. Verses 11 through 16 present, for our consideration, some prescriptive models of human evolution. 11. When they divided Purusa, how many ways did they apportion him? What was his mouth? What were his arms? What were his thighs, his feet declared to be? What are the stages of human evolution, and what body parts of the Planetary Logos consist of human beings in those stages? The first, third, and fourth verses include the idea that the physical body of the Planetary Logos incorporates all human beings living on our planet. This idea is similar to the notion in Christianity that the disciples of Christ form his body. For example, the Apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 12:12-27: “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ … Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.” If we accept that all human beings are incorporated into the physical body of the Planetary Logos, then it seems reasonable to think that a group of similar human beings would form an organ or part within that macrocosmic body. Bailey has a similar notion when she says, “The human atom is a part of a group or center in the body of a heavenly Man, a Planetary Logos.” Here, the term “human atom” signifies a human being who is regarded as a unit within a greater body. Assuming that Purusha (or Purusa) corresponds to the Planetary Logos, the above verse says that the physical body of the Planetary Logos is divided into separate parts. Let us suppose that this division is based on the stages of human evolution because evolution is a major theme in the Purusha Sukta. Similarly, the division of the animal kingdom in the eighth verse is based on the stages of animal evolution. Let us also suppose that all people at the same stage of evolution have a function that is analogous to that of a body part belonging to a human being, so we can say that those people form that same part within the body of the Planetary Logos. Given these suppositions, what body parts of the Planetary Logos consist of human beings in their various stages? 12. His head was the Brahmana [caste], his arms were the Rajanaya [Kshatriya caste], his thighs the Vaisya [caste]; from his feet the Sudra [caste] was born. People polarized in their causal body are like priests and act as the mouth of the Planetary Logos; people polarized in their mental body are like soldiers and act as His arms; people polarized in their emotional body are like merchants and act as His thighs; and people polarized in their physical body are like servants and act as His feet. The Purusha Sukta is the oldest extant text that mentions the four traditional castes (or classes) of Hindu society, and it is the only hymn in the Rig Veda that mentions them. These four castes are: Brahmins, or priests; Kshatriyas, or warriors; Vaisyas, or merchants; and Sudras, or servants and laborers. Although discrimination based on caste is against the law under the Indian Constitution, caste distinctions based on birth unfortunately continue to play a socially destructive role in India even today. Paramahansa Yogananda, a teacher and writer on Hinduism, states that the caste system known today is quite different from the system that originated in Vedic times: These [four castes] were symbolic designations of the stages of spiritual refinement. They were not intended as social categories. And they were not intended to be hereditary. Things changed as the yugas [cycles of time] descended toward mental darkness. People in the higher castes wanted to make sure their children were accepted as members of their own caste. Thus, ego-identification caused them to freeze the ancient classifications into what is called the “caste system.” Such was not the original intention. In obvious fact, however, the offspring of a brahmin may be a sudra by nature. And a peasant, sometimes, is a real saint. Yogananda regards the four castes as symbols for the stages of spiritual refinement and provides the following interpretation of them: 1. Sudra. “At his lowest level of refinement, man thinks not only of, but with, his physical body. Tradition typifies him as a farm laborer, though that is simplistic.” 2. Vaisya. “When a person begins to use his intellect, he first does so strictly for personal gain, thinking always, ‘What’s in this for me?’ The obvious example of such a person is a greedy merchant.” 3. Kshatriya. “When one develops further in spiritual refinement, he inclines to use his intelligence for the general good rather than only for his own benefit. Such a person is typified as the soldier—not the marauding sort, but one who readily sacrifices his own life, if need be, for the sake of others.” 4. Brahmin. “Finally, when the individual evolves spiritually to the point where he wants only God, he is like idealized images of a priest.” Bailey describes four polarization of consciousness that are quite similar to Yogananda’s stages: 1. “During this [first] period, the man is polarized in his physical body and is learning to be controlled by his desire body, the body of feeling or of emotion. He has no aspirations save such as pander to the pleasures of the body; he lives for his physical nature and has no thought for aught that may be higher.” 2. “The second period covers a point in […]