My book "Our Heritage Revisited: A glimpse into ancient Indian texts" is now downloadable on the sites of amazon across several countries. I thought of uploading bits of it on my blog. Here starts the first.
When asked which are the main
religious texts that we Hindus follow, many of us draw a blank. These are not
the commonly known Ramayan or Mahabharat which, though great expositions of
Hindu religion, are epics or stories, not pure religious texts.
The primary reason for the
confusion is that there is a vast multiplicity of thoughts and their resultant
scriptures (texts) that have coexisted over centuries, giving rise to the
inability or difficulty in mentioning a single or even a limited number of
texts describing the Hindu religion and its associated practices and beliefs.
Hinduism has emerged as a way of life, a philosophy encompassing varied
traditions rather than a set of directives on which our religion is based.
Hinduism does have some tenets and pillars but allows for many variations and
viewpoints.
No single book leads to the
principles of our religion. There are many sacred writings that are sources of
Hindu doctrine. Ancient Hindu philosophy is represented in a corpus of texts
where the authors and dates of the composition are typically unknown. The
earliest knowledge that we have is of deep-thinking philosophers, and their
literature is characterized by a deep and constant concern with man’s spiritual destiny as
manifested by their rich philosophical concepts and the great epic poems
written subsequently. Chief among these texts are those collectively known as
the Veds (वेद), perhaps the oldest religious texts in the world. They consist mainly
of praise / hymns to the gods of Nature as also instructions for the rituals of
worship. The latest works within the class of texts known as the Veds, are the
Upanishads and these are generally more philosophical. These Indian scriptures
very loosely laid the foundation for most of India's philosophical schools.
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