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PROF. H.D. VELANKAR’S CONTRIBUTION

TO YEDIC STUDIES

RAM KARAN SHARMA

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The vcry name, Prof. Hari Dam od ar Veiankar still inspires us and will ever continuc to inspire us as a moving Encyclopaedia of Vedic scholarship in all its aspeets.

The Vcdas represent the earliest availablc Thesaurus of human knowledge. The vcry fact that YSska (900 B.C.) refers to a school of thoughl denying the cxislcnce of any meaning-contcnt in the mantras establishes an unimaginable antiquity of this invaluable intcllectual and cultural heritage of the world.

Fortunately for us, the BrShmanas, the six Vedańgas including YSska’s Nirukta, Upavedas, the Great Epics and PurSnas came as guides to us to understand the knowledge-contcnt of the Vedas. Commentators like S&yana availcd thcmsclves of these guides and wrote extcnsive commentaries on the then available SarhhitSs and olher Vedic Texts. It goes without saying that but for the traditional commentators like S3yan9c2rya, the entire Vedic literaturę would havc bccome almost inacccssible to us by now, in so far as their meaning-contcnts are concerned. Evcn the modem school of interpretation bascd on Comparalive or Historical Linguistics, by and large, draws upon the traditional commentaries.

But there are numerous texts which create puzzling situations, both for traditional commentators as well as modem interpreters. Take for example the following mantra from the famous “Asya Vśmfya'' Suk ta (RV. 1.164.45):

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The simple translation of the above mantra, according to SSyana,¹ is as follows: