Indian Knowledge System lecture at various Institutions

1. Indian
knowledge
system
PROF. (DR.) CHETAN B. BHATT
PRINCIPAL, GOVERNMENT MCA
COLLEGE, MANINAGAR,
AHMEDABAD

2. Presentation Outline
• Indian Knowledge System
• Documents (Shastras)
• Schools (Vidhyapithas/Gurukulas)
• Languages
• Sanskrit
• Prakrit
• Pali
• Culture

3. Civilization
Some old civilization of the World
◦ Vedic Civilization (Sindhu-Saraswati, Indus)
◦ Greek
◦ Sumeru
◦ Ilka
◦ Maya and many more..
Vedic Civilization
◦ Survived over time, migration, and invasion
◦ Because has some potential
◦ IKS is based in Vedas
◦ Single person, single life time it is not possible
Buddhism, Jainism

4. Indian Knowledge System
▪ Systematic transfer of knowledge from generation to generation. It is not simply a tradition but
well structured system and process of knowledge transfer
▪ It is a very vast knowledge system

5. Vedic litrature
Received by Rishis
Compiled by Vyasa

6. Vedic litrature
Veda
Samhita Brahman Aranyaka Upanishad
कर्मकाण्ड ज्ञानकाण्ड

7. Samhitās
• Saṃhitā means ‘Compilation of Knowledge’
• Saṃhitās are also spelled as “Sanhitās” or “Samhitas”. The Samhitas are the
collections of the Mantras or Hymns sung or recited to the devatās without
much ritual.
• Most often, traditionally, the Samhita portion alone is referred to as the Veda.
For example, the word ‘Rigved’ would typically mean the Rigved Samhita.
• Samhitas were taught the very first in the life of a person, right from the
childhood (galthuthi), also called “Brahmcharyāshram” or the learning age in
the Vedic society.

8. Brahmana
• The Brahmanas lay out the precepts, rituals and religious duties. It seems that
the Brahmanas are prescribed for mainly the adult life called “Grahasthāshram.”
• The Brahmanas contain formulas for rituals, rules and regulations for rites and
sacrifices and also outline other religious duties.
• The formulas and rules for conducting extremely complex rituals are explained
to the minutest detail.

9. Aranyaka
• Aranyakas were prescribed for the later period of life of semi-retirement, called
“Vānprasthāshram,” meaning, the age group “towards retirement to the forest” when the
people who had fulfilled their duties of raising and supporting their families and children, and
were on the way to the retirement, usually, to the forests and spend the remaining active life in
meditation and contemplation of God.
• The Aranyakas provide the link between the ritualistic Brahmanas and the philosophical
Upanishads.
• The symbolic and spiritual aspects of the sacrificial religion are meditated upon in the
Aranyakas while philosophical issues are discussed in the Upanishads.

10. Upanishads
• The Upanishads consists of philosophical discussions that examine and propound the wisdom in
the earlier part of the Vedas. Since they appear at the end of the Vedas they are also called
“Vedānta,” meaning, the end (anta) part of the Vedas.
• वेदानार् ् अन्तः इतत वेदान्त
• अन्तः means end, similarly it also means परर्, चरर्, crown, pinnacle
• Not only chronologically comes at the end but also, they are र्ूर्मन्य, शिर्मस्थ, crown
• The Upanishads were prescribed for that period of life known
as retirement, called “Sanyāsāshram,” meaning “renunciation” or
“full retirement.”
र्र्म
अथम कार्
र्ोक्ष पराववध्या
अपराववध्या

11. वेद
ऋग्वेद
ऐतररय
यजुवेद
कृ ष्ण यजुवेद
कठ तैतररय
िुक्ल यजुवेद
ईि बृहदारण्यक
सार्वेद
क
े न छान्दोग्य
अथवमवेद
प्रश्न र्ुण्डक र्ाण्डुक्य
10 main Upanishad
ईि क
े न कठ प्रश्न र्ुण्ड र्ाण्डुक्य तततररय छान्दोग्यर् ् बृहदारण्यक ऐतररय च तत् तथा
दिोपतनर्दः

12. Upavedas
• Upaveda, means “applied knowledge”; a specific application of Vedic teaching
• Ayurveda
• Medicine system (physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual well being)
• Aitareya, Kashyap, Harit, Agnivesha, and Bhedamuni are prominent ancient scholar. Medieval period
Charak, Shushrut, Vaagbhatt are prominent scholars. Three books of them combinedly known as Brihat-
trayi
• Dhanurveda
• Upaveda attached to Yajurveda
• Attributed to भृगु, ववश्वाशर्त्र, भारद्वाज
• Treatise on Warfare, Civil and military defence, politics
पराववध्या
अपराववध्या

13. Upavedas
•Gandharvaveda
• Music, Dance, Drama, Poetry (performing arts)
• Arthaveda
• Social, Economic, and Political systems
• Shilp (Sthapatya Veda):
• Deal with Architecture and various art
• As per the ‘Shukra-Niti’ there are number of arts but 64 are considered to be
more prominent.
पराववध्या
अपराववध्या

14. Vedang
There are six tools/disciplines which help in understand, recite, study, and apply knowledge of
Veda
1. Shiksha (शिक्षा): Recitation
2. Vyaakaran (व्याकरण): Grammar
3. Nirukt (तनरुक्त): Meaning
4. Chhand (छन्द): Pattern (tone, tune and pronunciation method for chanting)
5. Kalp (कल्प): How to perform any Anushthan (action/duty/task)
6. Jyotish (ज्योततर्): Astrology, time measurement, relative positions of astral bodies, Astral
events

15. Vedangs
• ‘Vedangas’ literally means limbs of the Vedas and they are so known because without them the
knowledge of the Vedas would be lost forever as their study would have become impossible in
view of the conditions that arose.
• Paniniya Shiksha illustrates the importance of ’Vedangas’ by comparing them to the limbs of the
human body.
•छन्दः पादौ तु वेदस्य हस्तौ कल्पोऽथ पठ्यते
ज्योततषामयनं चक्षु: तनिरुक्तं श्रोत्रमुच्यते।
शिक्षा घ्राणं तु वेदस्य मुखं व्याकरणं स्मृतम्
तस्मात्साङ्कमधीत्यैव ब्रह्मलोक
े महीयते।।
• All come in the form of Sutra

16. Vedang
• Shiksha (śikṣā):
• Phonetics: how human produce and perceive sound
• Phonology: is a branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically
organize their sounds
• Pronunciation
• This auxiliary discipline has focused on the letters of the Sanskrit alphabet, accent,
quantity, stress, melody and rules of euphonic combination of words during a Vedic
recitation.
• The early evidence (first) of phonology study is appeared in 4th century BCE
‘Ashtadhyayi’ by Panini

17. Shiksha Text
Pratisakhyas are the oldest Shiksha textbooks of each branch of the Vedas.
◦ Later it was prefixed with the author’s name as Naradiya-Shiksha, Yagnavalkya-Shiksha,
Vyasa-Shiksha, Pari-Shiksha and Sarvasammata-Shiksha.

18. Vyakarana (व्याकरण)
• To know the Sanskrit language in a pure form, the study of grammar is done
• The roots of grammar go back to Vedic age India . The practice of grammar is very rich, which
includes Panini's famous book called Ashtadhyayi . 'Grammar' does not mean 'Grammar' only,
but it is closer to Linguistics .
• Panini composed " Ashtadhyayi " for both Vedic Sanskrit and Cosmic Sanskrit . In his about four
thousand sutras, he defined the Sanskrit language forever. Their pratyahara , annexation etc. are
as subtle and scientific as the laws of mathematics.
• There is also a scientific and philosophical side to it as well.

19. Nirukta (तनरुक्त)
• Nirukta is a discussion of the etymology (िब्द व्युत्पत्ती) of Vedic literature. It deals with root of
the words.
• The purpose of Nirukta is to clarify the intractable meaning of Vedic words.
• Yask is considered as father of Nirukta. He is also known as ‘Nirukatkara’ or ‘Nirukrit’
• Yask in his work mentioned his predecessors औपर्न्यव,औटुम्बरायन, वाश्रयार्णण, गाग्यम,
आग्रायण, िाकपूणण, औणमनाभ, तेटटकी, गालव, स्थौलाष्ष्टवव, कौष्टुकी, and कात्थक्य. The texts
of above authrs are not available.
• There is a difference between तनरुक्त and व्याकरण. Nirukt deals with root of the words while
Vyaakaran deals with semantic, structure of sentence etc.

20. chhanda (छन्द)
• In Sanskrit literature, the word chhand has been used to describe the rhythm
• rules relating to specific meanings or the number and location of characters in a song
are called chhands, which bring rhythm and pigmentation to poetry.
• 'Chhandhashastra' composed by Acharya Pingal is the oldest available text which is also called
'Pingal Shastra'. If the criterion of prose is ' grammar' , then the criterion of poetry is 'chhand'.

21. Kalpa (कल्प)
• This field of study is focused on the procedures and ceremonies associated with
Vedic ritual practice.
• There are Stura Grantha on topics like Mathematics also (Salabha Sutra)
• The major texts of Kalpa Vedanga are called Kalpa Sutras in Hinduism. (In Jainism also there is a
text called Kalpa Sutra, on Tirthankar Jivana Charitra).

22. Jyotisha (ज्योततर्)
• In ancient times, the study of planets , constellations and other celestial bodies was called
astrology. Regarding its mathematics part, it can be said very clearly that clear calculations have
been given about it in the Vedas.
• Arundhati-Vashishtha: The pair is considered to symbolize marriage. Vashistha and Arundhati
were a married couple. Arundhati and Vasistha were considered an ideal couple, symbolic of
marital fulfillment and loyalty. (Twin Star System, rotate in synchrony)
यथा शिखाां र्यूराणाां, नागानाां र्णयो यथा ।
तद्वद वेदाङ्ग िाश्त्राणाां, गणणतां र्ुर्र्मनां वतमते ॥
Vedang Jyotish (1000 BC)
Name of Indian Months

23. Vedic Literature
Chronology
Veda Shruti Smriti
Classical Sanskrit
Literature
Vedang Bhashya
• Samrangan
Sutra
• Shalabha
Sutra
• Pingala
Chhanda
Kavya, Itihas, purana, dharma
shastra, artha shashtra,
Darshanas

24. Shruti
Pada path
Krama path
Ghan path
Jata path
Mala path
Dhvaj path
Danda path
Rekha path etc.

25. Smriti
• Darshan Shashtras (Natya Shashtra etc.), Artha Shastra, Vatsayan Kama Shashtra, Mayamata,
Samrangan Sutra (engineering, architecture, botonny, horticulture)
• इततहास (इतत-ह्-अस ्) (Thus indeed happened)
• Kavya (Ramayana), Mahabharat, Purana (18) and many texts

26. Sutra
अल्पाक्षरर् ् असष्न्दग्र्र् ् सारवत ् ववश्वतो र्ुखर् ् ।
अस्तोभर् ् अनवद्यर् ् च सूत्र: सूत्रववदो ववदु: ॥ (वायुपुराण, 500BC)
अल्पाक्षरर् ्- Concise
असष्न्दग्र्र् ्- without any doubt ie unambiguous or should have a singular meaning that is conveyed
सारवत्- meaningful, ie should not contain gibberish
ववश्वतो र्ुखर् ्- Properly applicable
अस्तोभर् ्- devoid of 'stobha' (kind of fillers in Vedic chanting) like hA hU
अनवद्यर् ्- irrefutable (na avadyam - that which cannot be refuted)
Commentary on Sutra is called Bhashya

27. र्ड्-दिमन
न्याय (गौतर्)
Logical Quest of Supreme, Phases of Creation, Science of Logical Reasoning
वैिेवर्क (कणाद)
Science of Logic, Futility of Maya, Vedic Atomic Theory
साङ््य (कवपल)
Eliminate Physical and Mental Pains for receiving liberations, Nontheistic Dualism

28. र्ड्-दिमन
योग (पताञ्जली)
Practice of Meditation and Samadhi for Renunciation, Self Discipline for Self Realization
पूवम-शर्र्ाांसा/कर्म-शर्र्ाांसा (जैशर्नी)
Poorv Mimamsa explaining the Vedas are eternal and Divine; Elevation Through the
Performance of Duty
उत्तर-शर्र्ाांसा/ब्रह्र्सूत्र (व्यास)
Uttar Mimansa (Brahma Sutra) explaning the divine nature of Soul, Maya and Creation;
Conclusion of Vedic Revelation

29. Prashthanatrayi (प्रस्थानत्रयी)
• The Brahma Sutras, known as Sutra
prasthana or Nyaya prasthana or Yukti
prasthana (logical text or axiom of logic)
• The Bhagavad Gita, known as Sadhana
prasthana (practical text), and the Smriti
prasthāna (the starting point or axiom of
remembered tradition)
Prashthanatrayi
Upanishad
Brahma
Sutra
Bhagvad
Gita

30. kavya
Padhya
◦ Maha Kavya
◦ Raghu, Kumar Sambhavam, Kiratarjunam, Shishupal Vadham, Naishadhiya Charitam
◦ Maghe Maghe gatam vayah (र्ाघे र्ेघे गतां वयः, To study Magh and Meghadootam 90
years went no time to study other works)
◦ Khand Kavya
◦ Every shloka is independent (Bhartuhari Shatakam, Gita Govinda)
◦ Sphut Kavya
◦ Subhashitam, Stotra

31. Thank you very much
(र्न्यवाद)
ॐ पूणमर्दः पूणमशर्दां पूणामत् पूणम र्ुदच्यते |
पूणमस्य पूणमर्ादाय पूणमर्ेवावशिष्यते ||