I feel extremely proud to write a few words in appreciation of contributions of Pandit Professor Veera narayanacharya Pandurangi to the Vedic commentary literature. In the Vaishnava tradition, this addendum to Vedic commentary corpus carries a higher significance as it is happening after a long pause. The last few centuries have seldom seen such commentaries. Due to the entry of Western scholarship into this field, the Vedic Mantras have been introduced to the modern world with undue and misleading commentaries in English & other languages. This has lead to a great disruption and discontinuity in the tradition of faithful interpretation method. The Sanskrit commentary tradition ceases to continue the legacy of proper interpretation following the Vedangas, Smrtis and other sources.

In the Vedic tradition, it is known to the scholars that the Vedic Mantras have three dimensions of meaning Adhibhautika (Meta-physical world), Adhidaivika (Su-per-natural world) and Adhyatmika (Spiritual world). These levels could be revealed only with the proper ap-plication of interpretation schema. This was lapsed due to discontinuity of teaching of Veda Bhashyas even in Gurukula system. In order to revive that tradition, the efforts undertaken by Pandit Professor Pandurangi by authoring a well-researched commentary on the Vedic suktas are praiseworthy.

I have known Prof. Veeranarayanacharya for his sharp intellect, wide reading, exposure to ancient & modern methods of research, and his commitment to the knowledge since my Gurukula days. I am overwhelmed to see this gigantic work by him in the form of a rare commentary produced in such a short span of time.

He follows Sri Madhvacharya's method of Vedic interpretation like Acharya Bannanje does in his Veda Bhashyas. However, he utilises every single opportunity to bring new interpretation in the light of his predecessors. He is not just a shadow. He is a pathbreaker. This brave exposition of Adhyatmik Angle of Vedic purport is a welcome step among modern Sanskrit scholarship. miliano

I hope and I am confident that Sri Pandurangi will soon complete this bulky work in the years to come.

I have all pleasure in writing few words about the new Bhashya recently composed by young and committed scholar Prof. Veeranarayana Pandurangi, a rare scholar equipped with many qualities that are required for taking up such a great and herculean task. I offer my humblest regards to Prof. Pandurangi.

The Veda is eternal according to the tradition and the most ancient recorded document of human intellect, ac-cording to the modern scholars. Whatever may be its antiquity, the Veda has been the very identity of our nation and deserves to be the official text of our nation to be preserved by thorough study and research for future generations.

There has been a long tradition of interpreting the Veda aimed at bringing out the true import of it. The ancient as well as modern commentators, both Western and Indian, have made several efforts to bring out the essence of the Veda.

What is the essence of the Veda?

People who believe in the Veda and those who do not, both aspire for such essence of the Veda. According to the Mimamsaka, the performance of rituals is the essence and to others like the Vedantins, it is the Brahman. The word "Vedanta" is derived in the sense of essence of the Veda, and Vedanta is none other than the Brahman. Thus, the Veda focuses on the exposition of the Brahman, according to the Vedantin.

There has been a conflict of interest among the interpretation of the Veda, with regards the essence of the Veda. Huge amount of literature has since been produced in support of one or the other theory.

Even in the time of Yaska, there were different interpretations provided by Kautsa and others. Sayanacarya too had felt that the Veda cannot be explained in a particular single sense as the mantras are of varied nature. Thus, the Veda has been explained from the perepective of अधिभूत, अधिदैव, अधियज्ञ, अध्यात्म, आख्यान, ऐतिहासिक, नैरुक्त and other senses.

Need of present commentary

As has been made by the author of the present commentary, the purpose of this commentary is very clear. In spite of learned commentaries on the Veda, the sentential uniformity is missing. Prof. Pandurangi has very aptly remarked in his introduction to the commentary that the Sruti and Smrti endorse the essence of the Veda as the Brahman and the earlier commentaries had conspicuously neglected this, leading to a defect called "split of sentence". The Veda needs to be interpreted, keeping in view the sentential uniformity, in the sense of Visnu, the Supreme. This is a very pertinent observation.

When the entire Veda is explained expounding the Visnu then there will be no clash of interest, since the whole of Veda will be equally authentic. No part of the Veda will hereafter be relegated to secondary position as gauna. Thus, the Indian Vedic tradition and culture also will be fortified.

Veda being explained on the strength of sentential uniformity, the Vedanta too will subsequently be ex-pounded on the same strength. This is the main objective of this commentary. Though Karma is a sense of some Vedic incantations, Karma alone is not the sense.

Special feature of this commentary

This present commentary by Prof. Pandurangi is dis-tinct from the other commentaries, for the reason that it aims at achieving sentential uniformity within the Veda, thus indirectly contributing to such uniformity in the Vedanta too.

Another important feature of this commentary is that it surveys many of the views of Indian and Western Scholars regarding the Veda, refers to them and offers A befitting reply to them, wherever there is such requirement.

Uprooting Indian sacred culture by distorting the Vedic lore has been the motto of many of the Western and Indian perverts, who ventured on commenting the Veda, despite their sheer ignorance of both the Samskrit language and the long tradition. This gloss will be a be-fitting reply to such perverts.

This commentary explains the Vedic mantra providing the rules of grammar, Nirukta, purana, Brahmana and other texts, wherever necessary, to facilitate easy understanding of the mantra.

This is indeed a unique contribution, historical in nature. In the field of Vedic Interpretation that will definitely inspire many to take up the study of the Veda afresh either to understand the Veda or to understand the sacred legacy of India.

Though I am not an expert on the Veda, Prof. Pandurangi's work has inspired me to share my views about this great work. I again offer my regards to Prof. Pandurangi.

I am most happy to place these two volumes of my commentary Vishnvarchana into the hands of learned readers. It is third commentary from my family on Rgveda after Sri Vidyadheeshatirtha and Keshavabhattaraka between the early to mid 1600's. it is the grace of Acharya Madhva that Pandurangi family is still serving his philosophy.

It was a long cherished dream coming true of writing the commentary on Rgveda. It was in 1990 that Pandit Gururajacharya Mathada, my senior in Poornaprajna Vidyapeetha, prompted me to study Vedas to clear off the confusions created by Western Indologists. I began to study Veda bhashya of Sayanacharya and Madhvacharya. That study went on for many years before I became too busy with studies of Vedanta and Nyaya. I planned to come back to the Vedic studies at the age of 35. However I am happy I am able to come to Vedic studies even at the age of 45 that too with a lengthy commentary on Rgveda. But this is the apt time. We have now all the instruments to carry out more rigorous re-search with the modern facilities like Internet etc.

Initially my interest was in understanding what Western Indologists have written on Rgveda and review their writings to remove confusions created by them whatsoever. However reading Rgveda afresh along with the commentaries of Skanda Sayanacharya, Ven-katamadhava etc. made me cry aghast. Most of the commentators did not spare much energy and attention to understand what is meant by Rgveda, the purport of Rgveda, underlying meaning between lines of Rgveda. How can we blame Western Indologists for creating confusions when we have such people in our own tradition? Most of the commentators were carried away by so apparent meaning not driving deep into the intention of seers. The rigorous methodology and hermeneutics used by Vysyatirtha, Madhusudanasarasvati etc. to dis-cuss various upanishadic sentences were not used even sparingly in dealing with Rgveda Samhita. I felt need of creating new methodology for writing new commentaries on Rgveda. Here is the result. Part one of Vishnvarchana deals with methodology and first three suktas of Rgveda. Second part already published called Purusha-Vishnu suktani deals with elaborate interpretation of Purushasukta and nine Vishnusuktas found in Rgveda. It is up to readers to judge whether I have succeeded or not.

Earlier I thought that these Western Indologists have not understood even a single sentence of Rgveda. While commenting freshly on Rgveda I have gone through the newest translation of Rgveda in last 100 years, i.e. by Stephanie Jamison and Joel Brereton and now what most I can say is that these Western Scholars may have understood partial meaning of few Vedic words after putting efforts for nearly 250 years into the study of Ve-das. It can be stated without any hesitation that these people have not understood even very first sentence of Rgveda.

Vedas are the base of Indian culture. India stands firmly on the Vedas. India is the only country in the world to have continuous civilization for atleast 7000 years. Bauddhas, Jainas, Charvakas, Shakas, Hoonas and Mohammadans have tried their hand to destroy the Vedic civilization by discrediting Vedas from the very beginning. These systems fought intellectual and physical wars on Indian philosophies and State. They were fiercely countered by both scholars and warriors. It is famously said that "the Ship of Islam sunk in the River Ganga" both physically and philosophically. These systems did not succeed because they failed in creating a general disregard for Vedas in Indian masses. However, Christians have succeeded where Bauddhas, Jainas and Mohammadans had miserably failed. It is more easy to destroy a system from inside than from outside. Chris-tians entered inside Vedas and woven a net of misinter-pretation and mispropogation in the guise of interpreting them. Most of the Samskrit scholars of India were not aware/capable of rebutting such theories, not to mention the laymen. This is where we Indian scholars have failed. Our Scholars could have kicked Indologists out had they put at least ten percent of their energy in the refutation of these Western Scholars. But they did not venture into it. Instead, they welcomed Indologists' efforts in Vedic interpretations. Western Indologists posed themselves as new Brahmanas. Max Mueller was rechristened as Moksha Mullara Bhatta (Satawalekar 1940). He was considered as a Pandit. I have no doubt about of his scholarship of whatever extent. But I have hesitation to call him Pandita Moksha Mullara Bhatta. Everyone is aware of his real intentions. Such was the moha of Indian scholars at that time. But the result of Western Indologists' effort was devastative. All the English-educated neoenlightened(?) accepted what these people wrote, because they no longer got entrance in Samskrit Language. We Indian scholars were not able to counter our western counterparts either because we did not work out in English or our countrymen fell in the traps of colonial power. We did not try to correct this situation even after the independence. Nobody knows what to do to reverse the trend. All the scholars are running for the Western recognition. These people want to be international at any cost. This is a pathetic situation we are facing now. I have dealt this issue elsewhere. It is for at least this reason I had to venture to write my commentary. I am not worried about what Western counter-parts think or write about my new comprehensive commentary. I expect my countrymen should try their hands in writing reviews of western interpretation. We have both Right and Might to do it. However I have not refuted the western interpretation very much in Samskrit version of Vishnvarchana because they will not look into what is written in Samskrit. It is not their capacity to understand what is written in Samskrit. Stephanie Jamison has not bothered to refer to the commentary of Madhvacharya or Kapali Shastri even once in the intro-duction to her translation of Rgveda. English version of my commentary will contain all that material. That is best suited for them. Our only mistake in the past was that we have not written in their language. Now it is time for that work.

अथ चेत्त्वमिमं धर्मं संग्रामं न करिष्यसि ।

ततः स्वधर्मं कीर्तिं च हित्वा पापमवाप्स्यसि ।।

तस्मादुत्तिष्ठ कौन्तेय युद्धाय कृतनिश्चयः ।

हतो वा प्राप्स्यसि स्वर्गं जित्वा वा भोक्ष्यसे महीम् ।

निराशीर्निर्ममो भूत्वा युध्यस्व विगतज्वरः ।। (भ.गी.)

ऊर्ध्वबाहुर्विरौम्येष न च कश्चिच्छृणोति मे ।

युद्धाज्जीवश्च धर्मश्च तद्युद्धं किं न सेव्यते ।।

Here I have written a lengthy account of the method ology of my commentary on the first three suktas of Rgveda which constitute first volume. Second volume contains my commentary on Purusha-vishnusuktas.

This commentary tries to interpret each and every Rk Mantra to mean Vishnu as name suggests, without side-lining the Adhiyajna and Adhyatmika meanings. Each word is subjected to a close examination in the context of Vedic texts and allied literature. Special care has been taken to understand the nature of each Rshi and Devata. Sayanabhashya too is appended to clearly show the difference between Sayanacharya and Me.

I here point out some of salient features of this commentary.

1. While so far rigorous discussions were carried out on interpretation of certain Upanishadic sentences like Aham Brahmasmi, and many sentences in both Purvams imamsa and Uttaramimamsa, no such rigorous interpre-tation methodology is applied to Rgveda. It is the first time that it is followed here.

2. Techniques developed by Brahmasutras for the in-terpretation of Upanishads are applied to Samhita for the first time.

3. Itihasa Purana sentences are used for the first time to substantiate the purport.

4. There is no effort on understanding the underlying meaning of Rgveda. All Indian as well as Western people have discussed all "about the Rgveda" but not "in the Rgveda". Here it is tried to bring forth the inner secret meaning of the Rgveda.

5.Historical as well as cosmological aspects were sidelined in traditional commentaries. Here these too are considered for the understanding Rgveda.

6. No commentary has tried to interpret Rgveda in the light of holistic Vedic contexts. It is tried here.

7.findings of recent scientific studies have been incor-porated here. 8. Rishi Devata etc. have been subjected to rigorous examination to result in discarding commonly held views.

All these lacunae are being corrected here for the first time in the history. This commentary is the result of close examination of both western and eastern scholarship of Vedas. This is happening for the first time since Madhvacharya's commentary in thirteenth century. All these things are detailed in my Samskrit Bhumika and Upodghata. I look forward to seek blessings of learned people in this country and continue to write my commentary for rest of the Rgveda.

Rgveda is the oldest literary monument existing on the surface of the earth, And there lies its value. No other work in the world can claim the antiquity Rgveda (RV) enjoys. While the European Scholars maintain that the RV is a compilation of the compositions of various sages and even assign a date of around 3500-3000 B.C. for the same, the Vedic systems of philosophy hold that the hymns are 'Apaurusheya' which means that they are not composed by any human being or even God as a matter of fact for that matter. that they were composed by God and this theory is refuted by the traditional Vedic schools of thought. NyayaVaisheshika Systems hold

The RV as it comes to us today consists of a little more than ten thousand individual mantras or Rks. They are distributed over ten Mandalas which are further divided into Anuvakas and Suktas. There is another classification of RV into Ashtakas, Adhyayas, and Vargas. The Mandala etc. arrangement is said to be most systematic and appealing of these two types of arrangements.

Division of Vedas

There is a lot of editorial activity in the RV. This is observed by both the Western and Indian Scholars. While many scholars do not give the details of this activity, Sri Madhva, on the basis of scriptural evidence gives the details. It is like this-Initially all the Vedas were in a single heap as it were without being classified as Rgveda, Yajurveda, Samaveda and Atharvaveda. Later as it became difficult to understand and comprehend this, they were classified into for different Vedas. These were called the original RV (Mula RV) original YV (Mula YV) original Sama Veda (Mula SV) and the original Atharvaveda AV (Mula AV),

In course of time, these texts also became too much for the intellectually weaker later generations and had to be abridged which was eventually done. These abridged texts were called 'Upavedas". So they are Upa RV, Upa YV, Upa SV and Upa AV. This was the second editorial activity and the first abridgment of the Vedas. And in the course of time, when these too became un-manageable for people of lesser physical and intellectual prowess, they were again abridged and the Vedas thus obtained were called 'Avaantara Vedas' meaning Intermediate Vedas. As times passed by these Vedas were again edited and abridged by individual Sages into many "Shaakhas" or recensions. Of the twenty-four recessions RV which once existed, we have only the. "Shakala, Ashvalayana and Shamkhayana Shaakhas" come down to us now. So the RV as it has come down to us has been edited at least four times. While abridging the original, the principle that was followed was that the mantras related to a particular ritual or Deity should be available together at one place.

Editorial activity This editorial activity is also borne out by the internal evidence of the RV as it is today. An example- Shunasshepa Sage is said to be a 'Shatarchin'- a seer who perceives not less than a hundred mantras at a single point of time. But in the first Mandala we have only nine-ty-seven mantras attributed to him while the other three mantras are to be found in the fourth and fifth Manda-las. The order of the these ninety seven mantras is different in the Aitareya Brahmana and the present RV texts, the Brahmana order only being the correct order of mantras as they were visualised. Shaunaka's Brhaddevataa and Katyayana's Anukramani give a list of all the Sages of the first Mandala. But there are no mantras of some of these Sages in the first Mandala. All the mantras connected with Soma are transferred to the ninth Mandala from their respective places. These and many other things prove the editorial activity in the RV.

Sukta and Anuvaka

The terms Sukta and Anuvaka have not been proper- ly understood by most Scholars. Anuvaka is the bunch of all the mantras perceived by a Sage at a single point of time. And when the abridgement and editing took place, they removed some mantras here and there according to the exegesis of a particular ritual or Deity and some-times brought in new mantras from other Anuvakas in their place. This was done with the sole purpose of get-ting all the mantras related to a particular ritual or deity, together at a single place. So when the mantras were re-moved, the Anuvakas were split. The mantras in the abridged text which are in the same order as in the original text constituted a "Sukta". Mantras occurring in the same Anuvaka but related to another ritual or deity were removed from there. So an Anavaka became to be split into many 'Suktas'. This is the explanation, based on scriptural evidence, given by Sri Madhva and it is in variance with what the earlier authors said viz. "The complete sentence of a Sage is called a Sukta". This latter definition is inappropriate as the term completion can be related to a single sentence (Mantra) or a bunch of Mantras.

Chandas The individual mantras in the RV are set to metres, RV being a metric composition. The primary metres are Gayatri, Ushnik, Anushtup, Brhati, Pankti, Trishtup and Jagati, each one having four letters more than the immediate previous metres. So while Gayatri has twenty four letters, Jagati has forty eight letters (syllables). Each metre consists of four padas or quartets. Jagati has twelve letters in each of the four quartets.

There are metres which are longer than Jagati and though they have individual names as 'Atijagati', 'Ashti' 'Atyashti' they and so on all of them are commonly called as" Atichandas" (Super metres). Each metre has one or more governing Deities the details regarding which are given in RV 10.130. Pingalanaga's Chandas-sutra is the only ancient work regarding the metres. But he has erred in interpreting the above RV reference, because he did not take cognisance of fact of 'Abhimaani Vyapadesha' in Vedic literature. The governing Deities of a certain thing or principle are denoted by the words which denote the thing itself. 'Mrt abravit' is a stock example where the word 'Mrt' stands for the Deity governing mrt. This principle is called 'Abhimani vyapadesha'. In the above men-tioned RV mantra it is said "Gayatri joined Agni" which has led Pingalanaga to deduce that Agni is the governing deity of the Gayatri metre. This is not true. Here Gayatri means 'Svadha' Agni's wife. If it were not the case it should have been "Gayatri is Agni". All these facts are brought to light by for Sri Madhva in his short gloss of on RV and incidentally Sri Madhva has given the correct interpretation of the above RV reference.

Padapatha and Samskrit Grammar As mentioned earlier, the RV is the oldest literary mon-ument available on the surface of the earth. It is hence important in many ways - We have a 'Pada patha' a word by word reported reading of the RV for almost all the mantras occurring In RV. It is evident that the study of the language and grammar has started from here. We have simple words and compound words. We have nouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions and conjunctions. The Concept of the stem and suffixes is clearly visible here. The verbs derived from roots, the active and passive voices, the present-past-future tenses, potential participle, the variety of infinitives and so many other things can be discerned in these word-by-word renderings. The Samhita patha is embellished by many figures of speech like the simile, metaphor and so on. There are accents, each syllable of a word having a particular accent. This has a bearing on the meaning of the particular word. The concept of a main clause and subordinate clauses of a sentence are clearly visible. All these point to an earlier and continued tradition of the analysis of a sentence and its purport. We owe a lot to RV.

Linguistics

When Europeans came to India in the sixteenth century, they recognised that without studying Sanskrit they could not do their business or governance in India. As they started studying the language, they discovered the striking similarities between the Greek and Samskrit languages. This led to the genesis of a new branch of knowledge "Linguistics" or the Science of Language. The study of RV contributed a lot to the study of linguistics.

The richness of a language lies in the roots of verbs in that language. No other language in the World can compete with Sanskrit in this regard while there are around three thousand roots in classical Sanskrit, the RV contains many other roots which are not found in the classical texts. Active and passive voices, the intensives. and desideratives of these roots, verbs derived from these roots give enormous richness to the language. As a counter example we can compare this with the English Language which is said to have around four hundred roots and forty two thousand words in all. The number of words in RV and classical Sanskrit is infinite.

Interpretation

A word about the interpretation of the individual mantras. There are many attempts in this direction and all of them stop short at giving the meaning as related to the particular Deity praised in that Mantra. Sri Madhva stands out among these commentators and quoting from Mahabharata, he says that every mantra has at least three meanings- one related to the Deity praised, the second related to Vishnu the inner controller of that Deity, and a thing which refers to the Spirituality of the individual self, Adhyatmartha as it is called. Thus the Yajna often referred to in the RV is jnana Yajna only. The word 'War' often mentioned and misinterpreted by Western Scholars as the war between the native Dravidian people and the invading Aryans and this theory stands totally refuted today with the advent of the Science of Genetic engineering- actually stands for the struggle of the individual self to get over his vices and attain his perfection. These interpretations of Sri Madhva have been lauded by many Scholars of late like Kapali Shastri etc. Sri Madhva Points out that the same symbolism is to be seen even in Mahabharata.

Unlike other commentators who rely upon mainly Panini's Grammar and the extant lexicons in their at-tempt to explain the meaning of mantras, Sri Madhva dives deep into the etymology of each word and brings out an astonishingly cogent meaning of the words. To explain a text with the help of works much later than the original will be faulty, he opines. He quotes from Mahavyakarana, Vyasa Nirukta and other relevant ancient texts to prove his position.

Vishnvarchana

Our young friend and an erudite scholar Veeranarayana Pandurangi, the author of the present work, has ventured to write a gloss on some of the hymns of RV and intends to cover the entire RV in this manner. In this effort he has relied heavily on the entire Vedic and allied literature. It is a really painstaking effort. He has already a few books to his credit and the present one is another addition to that series. Coming from a family of many illustrious scholars he has got a lot of research potential and hence capable of achieving his ambitions in this regard. At the beginning of this work, he has given an elaborate introduction covering all aspects of the Study of RV. The introduction itself resembles a thesis worth studying.

I wish him well. I hope and pray that many such works may emerge from his golden pen.

Prof. C H Shrinivasamurti Acharya Mysore

"ता वा एताः सर्वा ऋचः सर्वे वेदाः सर्वे घोषा एकैव व्याहृतिः प्राण एव प्राण ऋच इत्येव विद्यात्' (ऐतरेयश्रुतिः) सर्वे वेदा युक्तयः सुप्रमाणाः ब्राह्यं ज्ञानं परमं त्वेकमेव ।

प्रकाशयन्ते न विरोधः कुतश्चिद् वेदेषु सर्वेषु तथेतिहासे ।।

(पैङ्गिश्रुतिः) सर्वे वेदा यत्पदमामनन्ति तपांसि सर्वाणि च यद्वदन्ति ।

यदिच्छन्तो ब्रह्मचर्यं चरन्ति तत्ते पदं सङ्ग्रहेण प्रवक्ष्ये ।। (कठोपनिषत्)

वेदैश्च सर्वैरहमेव वेद्यो वेदान्तकृद्धेदविदेव चाहम् । (महाभारतम्)

These Vedic texts aver that Vedas proupound the supremacy of the Brahman i.e. Vishnu in one voice. They reveal other verities also as dependent ones. Vedanta sutras reveal these very tenets in the light of Vedic texts. Revered Madhvacarya, the founder of Tat-vavada school of Vedanta has proved these views with the powerful instruments of interpretation. Prof. V.N. Pandurangi has authored an explanation cum exposition of Purusasukta and nine Visnusuktas. He has field-ed an array of sentences from Samhitas, Brahmanas and Aranyakas in support of his interpretations. Many topics and verses in Puranas clarify Samhitas Brahmanas and Aranyakas. Prof. V.N Pandurangi has aptly brought in such portions of puranas to justify his views. This was the way of ancient Indian Scholars. This way has been almost lost due to the colonial mindset of recent students of and writers on Vedic literature.

Of late We are seeing a global venture to decolonise the minds of researchers and the authors to bring home original views. Prof. VN Pandurangi is a prominent member of this group. In his enthusiasm to field a volume of supporting literature he has not lost sight of the property of consistency of one voice in Purusa sukta and Vishnu suktas. It shines very much rather! Every mantra is a treasure of meanings and Prof VN Pandurangi has brough out many of them. This feat illumines the richness of the Vedas. Seventeen meanings of the word 'dashangula' and the description of multidimensional possibilities and near omnipresence of caturvarnya (four varnas) are just two examples. The latter enables the reader of the verse 'caturvarnyam maya srstam gunakarmavibhagasah' in the Bhagavad Geeta to appreciate it on a very broad canvas. This verse can be relevent in this perspective.

The pre-colonial path of interpreting Vedas is being revived by Prof.VN Pandurangi by traversing the path of the revered Madhvacharya of the Tattvavada school of Vedanta. Admirable initiative. The time for revival of noble thoughts has come. Welcome for the views free from blemishes. I believe that Prof. V.N Pandurnagi has the blessings of his teachers and Almighty abundently to succeed in his endeavor.

A brief review of Vishnvarchana

Rg-Veda is universally accepted to be the oldest of all the literary works known to the humankind. The Samhita part of it is a collection of about ten thousand six hundred compositions called the Mantras set to several metrical forms. It has caught and continues to catch the attention of a plethora of scholars across the globe, both ancient and modern, Indian, and Western. Such is the magnanimity and mysticism of its contents. While most Indians hold the Vedas at the pinnacle of their culture and tradition, many Westerners studied them from a historical perspective. It formed the heart and soul of multiple cultures of Indians, generation after generation for the last five millennia. Vedas are said to be at the helm of all the philosophical and spiritual schools that emerged in Indian subcontinent. As per the very etymology, they are believed to the ultimate source of all knowledge. As of today, available mantras are categorized majorly into four parts Rg, Yajus, Saama and Atharva. Each of it are further categorized into the Samhita, Brahmana, Aranyaka and Upanishads. Amongst them all, the Samhita part of the RgVeda called RgVeda Samhita (RVS) is the subject matter of the present book.

RVS warranted several commentaries for a better comprehension albeit composed in the Sanskrit language. This could be ascribed to several reasons of which a few are listed below:

There exists a significant difference between the style of the Sanskrit language of the RVS and other classical texts, both syntactically and semantically.

The apparent mysticism present in the text leading to the possibility of several (at times contradictory) interpretations of the same text.

There is a difference in the perceived central theme of the RVS. For instance, some claim it to be pertaining to the rituals, some hold that it embeds spiritual secrets and others propose that it majorly holds the qualities of the supreme Brahman.

Attempts by Western scholarship to the decode the most ancient Indian texts.

Owing to these, there have been multiple commentaries that have emerged from both traditional and Western scholars from time to time. The oldest of them is the Nirukta which is a text ascribed to the Sage Yaska, describing the nuances of interpreting the RVS. After a significant temporal gap, a few other commentaries sparsely emerged from many eminent scholars of which Skandaswami, Venkatamadhava and Sayanacharya are a few prominent ones. Amongst them all, Sayanacharya's commentary is comprehensive in that it covers not only the RVS but many other Vedic texts and therefore considered the go-to text for Vedic comprehension. Alternatively, there emerged a brief, yet unique tradition of commenting on RVS, proposed by Madhvacharya. He hypothesizes that the entire plethora of Vedic texts have a single purpose of conveying the qualities (Gunas) of the supreme Brahman whom he equates to Vishnu. He derives multiple novel ideas to validate this hypothesis and successfully answers questions that arise thereof. Some of his radically unique ideas include: (i) the presence of three-layered semantical structure in the Vedic texts, referring to the apparent Deity, a spiritual idea and Vishnu, (ii) the presence of onevoicedness of all the Vedic texts including the Brahmanas and Aranyakas, (iii) an inherent gradation of Vrttis (a deterministic mapping between the words and their meanings) to accommodate the aforementioned three-layered meaning approach, (iv) alignment (Samanvaya) of every single word in the Vedic texts to Vishnu. Many scholars in his lineage continued this tradition on various subsets of RVS. A few famous among them are Raghavendra Teer tha and Raghunatha Teertha.

This era is again followed by a draught for a couple of centuries, after which came a few commentaries from the likes of Dayananda Sarasvati and Kapali Shastry. While the former mostly disregards the traditional meanings pertaining to Karma, the latter, influenced by the ideas of Arabindo, and Madhvacharya ascribes spiritual inner meanings to mantras notwithstanding the traditional karmic meanings.

I opine that this sparsity in the commentaries for RVS is perhaps due to the inherent difficulty associated with the task itself. However, a few blessed souls with rigorous scholarship attempt in accomplishing this herculean task, of which the Author of this present work, Veeranarayana Pandurangi (VP) occupies a significant position. He has attempted a scholastic commentary named Vishnvarchana on the parts of RVS which is largely based and influenced by the aforementioned thesis of Madhvacharya. This book too assumes a three-layered semantical structure on RVS and tries to unravel all the levels of meanings to each mantra. While it is akin to Madhvacharya's commentary in spirit, one can find a plethora of novel contributions. The below is a non-exhaustive list of salient features of the present commentary of VP:

Well-researched methodology: The very methodology of this commentary stands on a very strong footing. The premise and the central theme are well established and backed up with sound logical arguments derived from several traditional sources such as the Bramha-sutra as well as multiple internal evidences.

Novel heretofore unseen meanings: One of the most appealing features of this commentary is that the meanings described are completely novel and are not dis-cussed by any of the previous commentators.

Backing of appropriate evidence: The Author has at-tempted to support each and ever of his ideas with plausible evidence, from a gamut of sources which includes internal crossreferences, Samhitaas, Upanishads, Itihasa and Puranic texts, Sutras and Bhashyas. This makes the commentary devoid of any possible dogmatism.

Orientation to detailing: The Author presents a very detailed and exhaustive explanation to each and every aspect of his claim. The mantra is looked upon in per-haps every possible angle and sense while commenting.

A comprehensive preface: The book comes with a highly comprehensive preface called the upodghata which holds many gems required to be known to any student of RVS. It encompasses an abundance of pertinent issues ranging from the need and historical significances of Vedic commentaries, discusses the pros and cons of existing prior works, establishes the central claims with several worked examples, explains the essentials of Vedic epistemology, enlists anaphoras, answers many questions put forth by western Indologists and the list the goes on. It essentially forms a must-read monologue for any serious seeker of RVS and allied branches.

Broadness in the topic consideration: The commentary does not only outline the meanings of the mantras but also examines a range of related topics from historical myths such as Aryan invasion theory to the sociological issues such as the varna system.

In summary, this book and the upcoming series in this set is going to be an asset to the fraternity of the Vedic studies. I congratulate and wish the Author Veeranarayana Pandurangi for composing such a marvelous piece of scholastic opus. I am sure that the students of coming generation would benefit a great deal from this work.

With sincere Regards to the Author and Readers.