Indic Knowledge Landscape

Duration of Program

30 Hours

Code: VSF101

Overview of topics: Caturdaśa-vidyāsthānas – Topography of disciplines – Classification of
Indic knowledge disciplines – Basis of classification – Philosophy behind the basis

Credits: 2

L-T-P Ratio: 1-0-1

Course designer: Dr Sushrutha S

Prerequisites: None

Objectives

  • This is meant to be a foundation course, which means this is a common
    prerequisite for any course in Indic knowledge studies.
    To introduce learners to the landscape of Vedic literature with broad taxonomy of Indic
    knowledge systems

Outcome

  • Visualize and articulate what is knowledge in terms of Vedic sciences to an audience understanding knowledge from a contemporary perspective
  • Unlearn the acculturation of the contemporary understanding of knowledge so as to grasp knowledge in vedic sciences from the insider’s perspective.
  • Have the most comprehensive possible bird’s eye view of the vedic side of Indic knowledge systems
  • For a student pursuing a specific area or stream of vedic sciences, this helps to be able to enter one’s own chosen specific area within that big picture.
  • Understand the original context and utility of each Indic knowledge discipline.
  • Gain a critical understanding that the current or potential use of the given Indic knowledge
    discipline need not necessarily be the original context of it.

Details:

  • Words for and concepts related to Knowledge in Vedic literature /Sanskrit: Veda, Vidyā, jňāna, kalā etc.
  • Contemporary words ‘knowledge’ and ‘skills’, ‘Arts’ as in the university titles; semantic change, ‘academic’ and ‘professional’ ‘education’. Education as HRT Vs Knowledge for Knowledge sake (Liberal Arts view)
  • Vedic context of Knowledge and contemporary context of knowledge
  • Contemporary studies of Vedic Knowledge; mapping, researching, validation, application etc.

  • Oral (memory) sources and written (manuscript and published) sources
  • A bird’s eye view of sources: Vedas, Vedāṅgas, Darśanas, Śāstras etc.
  • Gathering /figuring out Vedic knowledge in ‘lost’ sources from the available (oral and written) sources

  • Mantra, Brāhmaṇa, Āraṇyaka, Upaniṣad (Upaniṣads as part of Brāhmaṇas and Āraṇyakas): Brāhmaṇas and Āraṇyakas as meta-Veda (Veda about Veda) and fountainhead of Mīmāṁsaka, Vedānta and other interpretations of Veda (as the earliest texts of interpretative science)

  • Discussion around oral and written

  • Discussion around counting Mantras: finite and infinite Vedas; Finiteness or infiniteness of Knowledge or Vedic Texts


3.1. Classification of Vedas: Implications of classification of Vedas for Indic Knowledge Studies

3.2. Vedas as containers of knowledge (contrast to the view as spells for rituals):

  • Traditional view as revelation /discovery of fundamental principles underlying later developments; guiding spirit for later developments.
  • Modern view (e.g. Arya Samaj Dayananda Saraswati) as a source of all satya-vidyās (true sciences) viewed in the model of modern sciences. Śrī Aurobindo’s view

● Intense mutuality between Vedas and Yajňas
● ‘Use’ of Vedas in Yajňas
● Vedas as motivating factor for Yajňas : Mīmāmsā view;

4.1. ‘Science’ and ‘Technology’ of Yajňa:
● Nature as yajňa (as the life process or processing by Agni in Virāṭpuruṣa’s body;
“yajňena yajňamayajanta devāḥ”), human yajňa as imitation of natural yajňa (“tāni
dharmāṇi prathamānyāsan”)

4.2. Classification of Yajňas:
● Nitya, Naimittika and Kāmya yajňas
● Śāntika (medicinal/healing) and Pauṣṭika (tonic /nourishing) yajňas

  • 5.1. Śikṣā:
    Original Context: Protection of Vedic pronunciation
    Contemporary knowledge: Origin of the contemporary phonetics and phonology; study of phonation/articulatory phonetics; origin of Varṇamālā as a scientific table of phonemes in all Indian languages.

  • 5.2. Chandas:
    Original Context: Protection of Vedic oral text and its prosody
    Contemporary knowledge: Mathematics; binary number calculations; origin of zero; combinatronics etc.

  • 5.3. Vyākaraṇa:
    Original Context: rakṣohāgamalaghvasandehāḥ prayojanam
    Contemporary knowledge: Linguistics; origin of many modern general linguistic notions such as sandhi, internal and external sandhi, morpho-phonemics

  • 5.4. Nirukta:

    Original Context: Protection of semantics of Vedas
    Contemporary knowledge: Origin of many contemporary linguistic ideas, etymologies, theories of origin of words from noun and verb roots, multiple interpretations of the same expression, hermeneutics etc.

  • 5.5. Kalpa:
    Original Context: Protection of Yajňa procedures
    Contemporary knowledge: Mathematics, particularly geometry etc.

  • 5.6. Jyotiṣa:
    Original Context: Protection of space and time knowledge in Vedas
    Contemporary knowledge: Astronomy, meteorology etc.

  • 6.1. Mīmāṁsā:
    Original Context: Interpretation of Vedic texts towards Dharma and Karma (Yajňa)
    Contemporary knowledge: Methods of exegesis, interpretative techniques, a certain approach of Vedic linguistics, linguistic cognition, knowledge organization, knowledge management etc.

  • 6.2. Vedānta:
    Original Context: Interpretation of Vedic texts towards Brahman and Mokṣa
    Contemporary knowledge: Vedic Psychology

Second Pair:

  • 7.1. Nyāya:
    Original context, Contemporary applicability
  • 7.2. Vaiśeṣika:
    Original context, Contemporary applicability

Third Pair:

  • 7.3. Sāṅkhya:
    Original context, Contemporary applicability
  • 7.4. Yoga:
    Original context, Contemporary applicability
  • 7.5. Sphoṭa as the 7 th Vaidika-darśana:
  • Original context, Contemporary applicability

● Direct knowledge in non-narrative sections
● Direct Knowledge in narrative sections
● Indirect Knowledge in narrative sections (Epics and personalities, environmental understandings etc.)
● “Encyclopaedic Literature” –Northrop Frye
● ‘vyavahāravide’ of Kāvyas (contextual discussions of knowledge aspects)

● Artha-śāstra, Kāma-śāstra, Nāṭya-śāstra, Saṅgīta-śāstra, Alaṅkāra-śāstra, Ayurveda,
Vāstu, Citra-sūtra, Dhanurveda etc.

10.1. Catuṣṣaṣṭi-vidyāsthānas model:

10.2. Three cleansing sciences model:
Ayurveda – body cleansing
Yoga – mind cleansing
Vyākaraṇa – speech cleansing

10.3. Upaniṣadic (ādhyātmika/mokṣa-centric) model: Parāvidyā – aparāvidyā, vidyā-avidyā:

11.1. Subjective Sciences:
11.2. Objective Sciences:
11.3. Knowledge Sciences:
11.4. Contemporary classification: ‘Vedic Sciences’ model:

Vedic Health /Wellness Science

Ayurveda

Vedic Linguistics

Language study in Vyākaraṇa

Vedic Mathematics

Mathematics in Chandas, Sulba-sūtras

Vedic Science of Aesthetics

Alaṅkara-śāstra

Vedic Science of Logic

Nyāya

Vedic Science of Public Administration

Artha-śāstra

Vedic Science of Psychology

Ideas drawn from Yoga, Upaniṣhads, etc.

Vedic Science of Ethics

Dharma related ideas drawn from various Vedic sources

Scope for research on Vedic Knowledge systems through fieldwork, ethnography and other qualitative research methods

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