The present volume entitled Vedic Textuo-Linguistic Studies, being a collection of research papers contributed by the late Acharya Dr. Vishva Bandhu to the Vishveshvaranand Indological Journal during the closing years of his life, represents the culmination of one of the important aspects of his studies on Veda. These papers give a definitive idea of his views on the state of Vedic lore as it has come down to us today, set forth his assessment of the work of Oriental as well as Occidental scholars on Vedic exegesis, and explain the methods of exposition which he had formulated on the basis of textual study, comparative linguistics and higher criticism. Inter alia, the theory of Proto-linguistics in Indo-Aryan languages, which he had evolved in order to explain apparently insoluble problems in Indian linguistics, also gets demonstrated in these pages.
In fact, some of the methods of exposition and instances of Proto-linguistic derivations suggested by Acharya Dr. Vishva Bandhu have found expression in the copious footnotes he had added to his 16-volume Vedic Word-Concordance (Hoshiarpur, 1935-1965). But in these footnotes, they had merely been hinted at, let alone being couched in a highly cryptic form, in Sanskrit, and so they have hardly attracted the attention they deserved at the hands of Vedic scholiasts. The present papers, which form an elaborate exposition of the author's lines of thought and methodology of interpretation, should, therefore, be doubly welcome to students of the Veda and Indian linguistics.
Since these papers had been expressly written for the Vishveshvaranad Indological Journal, Shri K. V. Sarma, presently in charge of the Vishveshvaranand Vishva Bandhu Institute of Sanskrit and Indological Studies, Panjab University, in his capacity as the Assistant Editor of the Journal, was closely associated with the author, Acharya Dr. Vishva Bandhu, at all stages of their production, to wit, assembling of the basic material, collection and correlation of earlier writings and references on the subjects dealt with drafting of the papers and assisting in their final presenta-tion. Primarily for this reason, the V.V.R. Institute felt it most appropriate to invite Shri Sarma to edit these papers in book-form, a call to which he readily responded. It goes to the credit of Shri Sarma that he has brought to bear on his job his analytical bent of mind and has enriched the volume with an informative Introduction and five useful Indices which make the volume highly reference-worthy. The Institute greatly appreciates the work of Shri Sarma and is grateful to him for the efficient way in which he has completed the task entrusted to him.
Among the younger scholars who assisted in the production of this volume, especially in the compilation of some of the Indices and reading the proofs thereof, might be mentioned Sarvashri Girish Chandra Ojha, Raj Kumar Sharma, Trilochan Singh Bindra, Dr. Damodar Jha and Dr. Uttam Kamal Jain, Junior Lecturers attached to the Research Section of the Institute. Shri Dev Raj Gupta, a former Research Assistant in the Institute, was responsible for recording two of the papers included in this volume. The thanks of the Institute are due, in full measure, to all these scholars for the painstaking and diligent work they have done in the above regard.
In the matter of the publication of the present volume, it gives the greatest satisfaction to the undersigned that these papers, to which Acharya Dr. Vishva Bandhu of sacred memory had attached the highest importance, could be published in book-form, at least posthumously. It is also highly gratifiying to him that this publication could be prepared within two years of the sad demise of Shri Acharya Ji and got ready for release on the occasion of the celebration, by the Institute, of his 79th Birthday on 30th Sept. 1975.
The contribution of Acharya Dr. Vishva Bandhu to Vedic studies relates, chiefly, to three aspects, viz., editorial, expositional and exegetical. While his edition of the Rgveda with four commentaries, being those of Skandasvamin, Venkata-Madhava, Mudgala and Narayana (8 vols., 1963-65), and that of Atharvaveda with the commentary of Sayaņa (5 vols., 1960-64), form standard critical editions of these texts, his Vedasardela (4 vols., 1925-30), Vedesūra (rev. edn., 1971) and Voldike-sankelpa-sandhya (1970), among several others, reflect his expositional fervour. But the one aspect of Vedic studies to which he attached the greatest importance related to Vedic exegesis, on which the present volume, entitled Vedic Textuo-linguistic Studies, forms his magnum opus.
Vishva Bandhu and Vedic exegesis It was a happy turn of events that directed the course of Vishva Bandhu's academic career towards Vedic studies. The chief idea of the progenitors of the V.V.R. Institute, Svami Vishveshvaranand and Svami Nityanand, was the preparation of a Vedic Lexicon. When the Institute was properly organised at Lahore in 1924 and young Vishva Bandhu was inducted as its Founder-Director, naturally enough, he was entrusted with the task of shouldering the Lexicon project. In pursuance of this, he produced, in 1929, the First Fasciculus of a Complete Etymological Dictionary of the Vedic language (Vaidika sabdartha-parijata), limited to recording the meanings assigned by Indian and foreign scholiasts to the words occurring in the primary texts of the four Vedas. Constructive suggestions by competent Vedists made Vishva Bandhu widen the scope of the dictionary considerably. It was now decided to take into its purview the entire range of Vedic literature, including the Samhitas, Brahmanas, Aranyakas, Upanisads, Vedangas and allied literature. Again, besides recording the meanings and etymologies given by earlier scholiasts, the new dictionary was to include an assessment of the same, besides interpretations and etymologies which Vishva Bandhu himself had to offer, as based upon an intense and comparative study of all the materials ranged before him. This decision changed the entire concept of the Vedic Lexicon as originally contem-plated and launched Vishva Bandhu on the course of full-fledged Vedic exegetical studies.
Vedas (1182)
Upanishads (493)
Puranas (624)
Ramayana (741)
Mahabharata (354)
Dharmasastras (165)
Goddess (496)
Bhakti (242)
Saints (1503)
Gods (1290)
Shiva (370)
Journal (187)
Fiction (60)
Vedanta (362)
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