Dictionaries of the Vedas (Set of 3 Books)

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Dictionaries of the Vedas (Set of 4 Books)
A Practical Vedic Dictionary	Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Vedic Terms (Set of 2 Volumes)	Dictionary of Vedas

A Practical Vedic Dictionary About the Book

Almost all the words in the four Vedas have been defined in Hindi and English in this new dictionary. The entries have been illustrated with examples to make their meanings clear, and many words not found in earlier dictionaries are included in this work. In several instances fresh and more accurate meanings (and etymologies) have been provided where those in the traditional and other modern dictionaries seemed misleading.

The work incorporates the results of the latest researches in the field and includes, besides many others, all the words treated in MacDonnell’s great Vedic Grammar (1909). This Dictionary is the first comprehensive Vedic dictionary, for earlier works cover either the Rgveda alone or the whole of Sanskrit literature-in either case they do not adequately meet the needs of the Vedic student.

About the Author

Dr Suryakanta is a celebrated Sanskrit scholar and teacher and the author of several major books in the field, including a Sanskrit-Hindi- English Dictionary (1975). Educated in Lahore and Oxford, he taught in the University of Punjab, Lahore, before 1947. Thereafter, he has been a member of the Legislative Council of Punjab (India), Professor and Head of the Department of Sanskrit and Pali at Banaras Hindu University and Professor at Aligarh Muslim University. In 1966 he moved to Kurukshetra University and taught there until 1969.

Introduction

The word Veda, primarily meaning 'knowledge', signifies the 'sacred lore' treasured in the four poetical collections (called the Vedas for this very reason) and the ancillary literature comprising explanations of Vedic verses, philosophical speculations and legends. The four chief Samhitas or collections were named according to the uses their verses were put to: the Rgveda, the book of prayers or laudatory verses; the Yajurveda, the book of sacrificial formulae, divided into the Black and the White; the Sarnaveda, the book of chants; and the Atharvaveda, the book of magical spells and philosophical speculations.

After the Vedas come their explanations, the Brahmanas, Aranyakas, Upanisads and a variety of sutras, split up into Srauta, Grhya and Dharma.

By far the most important as well as the oldest - for it is the very foundation of the entire Vedic literature - is the Rgveda. The number of hymns in the Rgveda is 1,017, or 1,028 if the eleven supplementary hymns, called Valakhilyas - which are inserted in the middle of the Eighth Book - are added. All these hymns are grouped in the various books, called mandalas, which vary in length, except that the tenth contains the same number of hymns as the first, i.e., 191.

The Rgveda contains a total of 10,600 stanzas, which are repeated with variants in the other Samhitas. It begins and ends with a prayer to Agni, the god of fire; but Rgvedic prayers are also addressed to a number of other gods, the chief being Indra, Varuna, Mitra, Aditya, Yama and Matarisvan. The salient features of these gods are similar and their unity is proclaimed thus :

'They call him Indra, Mitra, Varuna, Agni; and he is the divine Garutmant of fair wings. To the One the sages give many a name: they call him Agni, Yama, and Matarisvan.' (RY. 1.164.46.)

It is clear from RY. II. 1 that this unified god is Agni:

1. 0 Agni, thou art the mighty lndra of the devout; thou the wide-striding Visnu. Thou, 0 Brahrmnaspati (art) Brahman, the wealth-finder; thou, O Sustainer, tendest (us) with wisdom.

2. Thou art King Varuna, 0 Agni, the upholder of law; thou art Mitra, the wondrous, adorable. Thou art Aryaman, the lord of the pious, bestowing agreeable gifts. Thou art Amsa, 0 god, the distributor.

3. Thou art Tvastar, 0 Agni, (imparting) heroism to the worshipper; the divine women enjoy thy kinship, 0 wielder of Mitra's power. Thou of swift impulse bestowest wealth, rich in high-bred horses. Thou of abundant riches, constitutest the might of men.

4. Thou art, 0 Agni, Rudra, the gift-giver of the mighty heaven; thou art the zeal of the Maruts; thou rulest over food. Thou rushest along the ruddy winds (as harbinger of) weal to the dwellings. As Pusan, thou protectest the pious.

5. Bestower of riches on the worshipper art thou; thou art the divine Savitar, giver of wealth. As Bhaga thou rulest over wealth; thou protectest him at home who renders worship to thee.

6. Rbhu art thou, 0 Agni, to be closely adored; thou rulest over food-laden booty and wealth. Thou shinest wide and burnest bright for the patron; a competent guide art thou, perpetually extending sacrifice.

7. Thou, 0 god Agni, art Aditi to him who offers oblations; thou, as Hotra Bharati waxest strong with song. Thou art the hundred-wintered Ila for competence. Thou art, 0 god of riches, the slayer of Vrtra. Thou art Sarasvati.

What constitutes Agni, the supreme Vedic god, the one god into whom all the gods coalesce so willingly? It was his indwelling immanence, his all-pervasiveness, signified by the felicitous epithet Si-rd, the quality of illumination, his power of imparting life to all things that are epitomized in the word Agni, 'the self-revealing one'. Agni, as such, is a synonym for the life-principle, the elan vital that vibrates the entire universe. The Rgveda sings of him and the Satapatha discusses Agni in detail time and again (cf. XI.4.6.4).

The life-giving properties of Agni are signalized by the two words osa-dhi and atas-a, both meaning 'plant'. Osa means fire, while alas may be a cognate of the Persian atis, meaning 'fire'. It is hardly necessary to add that in ancient medical systems the plant symbolizes healing and life, a fact made clear by 'thou art born in the sparkling womb of the plants' (R Y. II .1.14).

The Vedic sage comes again and again to Agni with awe and questioning wonder and is repeatedly told that Agni imparts life to him and activates the entire universe. To track this source of life to its home, to capture it and to wrest from it its magical secrets has been the major ambition of the Vedic sages.

The Rgveda employs ever-new imagery to lay bare the immanence, omnipotence and all-sustaining power of Agni. Agni is Si-ra, lies behind every atom, radiating it; Agni is the indwelling life and energy at work in the depths of every personality; in fact the existence of all things derives from Agni's glory. RY. 1.66-67present this kaleidoscope of quickly changing pictures, with the poet manipulating the marionettes he employs to reveal the countless facets of Agni, the all-refulgent god. Agni is indeed seen in the Rgveda from all angles 'like a dome of many-coloured glass'.

The Veda beckons the devotee to behold this spectacle and learn from it the undying iesson of self-sacrifice for the redemption of himself and for the advancement of society. It moves him again and again, with a push as it were, towards the Primal Loom at which Purusa is busy weaving •the countless patterns of eternal life.

The pattern of life and society that evolves from the pursuit of such an ideal was inspiring and creative. Vedic life was one of ceaseless sacrifice, culminating in the Sarva-Vedasa, that demands surrender of one's entire property, even life itself.

The major symbol of the Vedic man was his horse, which he extols in vibrant verse and imagery. His descriptions of the symmetrical beauty of the horse are revealing, as typified in R V. 1.163.10:

'Full of momentum in the fore and hind legs, sleek and slender in the middle, the fleet divine horses press along like swans, in a line, when they take to the divine course.'

So potent indeed is the appeal of the horse to Vedic man and so passionate the devotion it arouses in him that there is almost no sphere of his intellectual, spiritual or physical activity which has not been deeply touched by this animal. In course of time the horse became a symbol of Vedic culture, so that the moment a Vedic sage sees an orb of sparkling glory he at once recollects his horse. Take for example the die, dangling on the gaming table; it is enough to induce the Vedic sage to sing of the hypnotic power of the die, as a brown horse: 'since he yokes the brown horses (dies) in the morning, he falls down in the evening near the fire, a beggar' (RV. X.34.11).

This identification of the horse with the die may seem a little far-fetched; but it is explicit in this context; indeed the horse is identified with other objects too that bear no physical resemblance to it except that they vibrate and vibrate with force. Nothing can be more instructive in this regard than the identification of the horse with the Soma-drop; and one is struck by the felicity with which this is done in the ninth mandala of the Rgveda, which is exclusively devoted to singing of the glory of Soma. While the glistening Soma-drop earns the sobriquet vajin (the stallion stalwart), the expression occurring one hundred and seventeen times in the ninth mandala of the Rgveda (RV. IX.80.3), the stones that grind the Soma plant are called gravan, i.e., the singers of the beauty and courage and speed of the horse (the word gravan being derived from the root gr meaning 'to sing').

Sample Pages



Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Vedic Terms (Set of 2 Volumes) About The Book

The Dictionary of the Vedic terms is a comprehensive information of vedic terms and terminology w ith a view in making vedic slud> more interesting and research oriented. Numerous books have been written in the Vedas and its subsidiary literature by authors who takes it for granted the reader is already familiar with the significance of important terms and concepts acquiring in the text. But this assumption is not correct. The Vedas is not for scholar or pundit but also for the common man for whom it is not possible to refer to scholarly books. This dictionary has been prepared after consulting dozen dictionaries and encyclopaedias on the Hindu literature, history, science, political life, prepared by imminent scholars.

Preface

An authentic, outstanding and wide informative double volumes “Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Vedic Terms** is compiled, edited and arranged all important terms and terminology of Vedic religio-cultural and literary tradition in alphabetical order by a leading Vedic scholar who has recreated with all the splendour and mystery of vedic literature.

The need for new dictionary on vedic terms and concepts that would meet the requirement of contemporary readers and research scholars, has been recognised. This Dictionary attempts to make a more contribution to the literature on Vedas with a view in making its vedic study more interesting and research oriented. Though numerous books have been writtten on vedas and its subsidiary literature by way of commentaries, translations and other research works by scholars who take it for granted the reader is already familiar with the significance of important terms and concepts occurring in the texts. But this assumption is not correct. The Vedas are not only for scholars and Pandits , but also for the common man, for whom it is not possible to refer scholarly books. My Dictionary, thus, meets a real need of contemporary readers and research scholars.

This Encyclopaedic Dictionary is vast collection of entries dealing with various aspects of Vedas: psychology, philosophy, religion, socio¬ economic aspects, cosmology, ethics, mythology, symbolism, art and architecture, ascetic practices of purification, language and literature-canonical and non-canonical, metapysics and physics, building architecture, fasts and festivals, rites and rituals, tantricism, sacred vedic centres, monks and nuns, cosmic spirit, social, political, economic and cultural geography, eschatological concept chronology and history, solution of environmental crisis and peaceful coexistence of human being.

More than an academic exercise, this encyclopaedic Dictionary represents a vast range of sources of both published as well as unpublished materials. In presenting this work. I can not refrain from expressing my profound gratitude to those scholars whose works made this work easier.

It is a pioneering attempt to provide a compresensive research and study of the Vedic religio-cultural and literary tradition. This Encyclopaedia is vast collection of several renowned scholars. This series is for the benefit of the students, teachers, and research scholars as well laymen who wish to know the key aspects of vedic terminology. The editor has brought here his keen experience in advance research on vedic literature.

**Contents and Sample Pages**

About the Book The Book "Vedas" is considered to be a Sacred books in India, and believed to be the earliest literary record of the Indo-European Race. It is indeed difficult to say when the earliest portions of these compositions came into existence. Many shrewd guesses have been offered, but none of them can be proved to be incontestably true. The Vedas were handed down from mouth to mouth from a period of unknown antiquity, and the Hindus generally believed that they were never composed by men. It was therefore generally supposed that either they were taught by god to the sages, or that they were of themselves revealed to the sages who were "seers" of the hymns. Thus we find that when some time had elapsed after composition of the Vedas, people had come to look upon them not only as very old but so old, that they had theoretically at least, no beginning in time, though they were believed to have revealed at some unknown remote period at the beginning of each creation.

The book Dictionary of Vedas, consists of collections of Vedas, namely Rg, Sama, Yajur and Atharva. Of these the Rg is probably the earliest. The Sarna Veda has practically no independent value, for it consists of stanzas, taken entirely from Rg, which were meant to be-sung to certain fixed melodies and may thus be called the book of chants. The Yajur Veda however contains in addition to the verses taken from the Rg Veda, many original prose formulas. The arrangement of the verses of the Sarna Veda is solely with reference to their place and use in the Soma sacrifice, the contents of the Yajur Veda are arranged in order in which the verses were employed in the various religious sacrifices.

It is therefore called the Veda of Yajus sacrificial prayers. These may be contrasted with the arrangements in the Rg Veda, in this that, there the verses are generally arranged in accordance with the gods who are adored in them. The Dictionary covers all Vedic gods and goddesses in the alphabetical mode, with sufficient general names. The book covers, Sukla Yajur Veda, Krsna Yajur Veda, gemology, time calculation, hymns invoked by the poet to god, hymns addressed to gods by the poets, important dynasty in the Rg Vedic period Conspectus of the chief manuals of Vedic gods and other information. The book is designed as per Dictionary forms in which will be very helpful for the readers.

About the Author Rerigarajan, T. Son of Sri. A.S. Thiruamali was born in 1962, at Srivilliputur, Tamil Nadu. The author completed his graduation in Physics at Madura College, Madurai. He complete his Bachelor of Law from Sri Venkateshwara Law College, Tirupathi. Different publishers in India published his 80 books. The books were mainly associated to Hindu Religion, some books covers in depth knowledge in Hindu Religion.

The author name is under recommendation for different awards based on his works to Hinduism. They were Maharana Mewar award-Best Religious writers, Satish Goyal award-Upanisads-Oz, G.D. Birla award-Best Spiritual writers. The author's name is specified in the Sahitya Academy 'who's who' Indian writers. His name is also specified in the International Biblio-graphic writers in India, London and Asia. The author had received Best Spiritual writers-City Cultural Association, Madurai.

The author is best social workers. He was Secretary of Public Grievance Redressing Society, which is Registered Body under Tamil Nadu Society Registration Act. He actively participated in the Social workers with respect to certain Government policies. The author was practicing Advocate.

Preface The Indian civilization was a concrete unity of many sided developments in art, architecture, literature, religions, morals and science, so far as it was understood in those days. But the most important achievement of Indian thought was philosophy. It was regarded as the goal of all the highest periodical, practical and theoretical activities, and it indicated the point of unity amidst all the apparent diversities which the complex growth of culture over a vast area inhabited by different peoples produced. I always wanted to share the Vedas, with everyone specially those who were interested in Indian culture and literary works. There are a number of difficulties attending this. The most conspicuous of them is, of course, the length of the book. It’s made up in the Dictionary form, which was in early period difficult to read in the poetical form. The language is the next hurdle.

The only alternative is to read translations in a concise dictionary form. I have seen several translation of the Vedas, were literal translation, is not up to satisfactory. A literal translations is like the wrong side of a tapestry, the threads are all there but the pattern is missing. It is so with this Vedas. It is not possible to do full justice to it in a literal translation. The English used by the translator is not 'suited to the elaborate smiles which are common to Sanskrit.

The Dictionary of Vedas, when the Vedas were composed there was probably no system of writing prevalent in India. But such was the scrupulous zeal of the Brahmins, who got the whole Vedic literature, by heart by hearing it from their preceptors that it has been transmitted most faithfully to us through the course of the last 4000 years or more with little or no interpolations at all. The religious is history of India had suffered considerable changes in the latter periods, since the time of the Vedic civilizations, but such was the reverence paid of the Vedas, that they had ever remained as the highest religious authority for all sections of the Hindus, at all times. Even at this day all the obligatory duties of the Hindus, at birth, marriage, death etc. are preformed according to the Old Vedic rituals. For a long time I have wanted to write a book which will rectify these faults. I have wanted to present the book in "Dictionary" form which will capture of readers. Considering all these things, I have rendered the Vedas into English. It is not quite a translation, not in the usual sense of the won One might call it a free translation. I have tried to narrate the history 4 Vedic gods and goddess, Vedas and Vedic related ideology. I have narrated it in simple straight forward English. In this task, if one has to retain to spirit of the Vedas, and the a tm6sphere, one has to fall back upon the quail old fashioned English. This seems to suit the Vedas perfectly. At times, cries clear English does not work. I find the blending of the old and the new to 1 the prefect medium for the narration. So I have deliberately adapted to style, which to my thinking is absolutely perfect.

My aim, as I said before, is to bring out the Vedic significance of too many gods and goddesses in the dictionary mode of writing. Wherever to situation was worth some trouble I have taken the trouble and added a fee touches, a few thoughts of my own, to enhance the dramatic value of two situation. But I have been faithful to the original throughout, except, perhaps in two places or three. Even there, I have not departed from the facts. On: I have tried to intensify the Vedic value of the situation by my embellishment The book which designed in the Dictionary mode readers may find Soil type of difficult to digest certain Vedic characters. If after reading the book a few at least will read the Vedas, in the original, my desire will be fulfilled I say that my book is just a guide into the vast ocean of Vedas.

Before I conclude, I sincerely thanks to Mr. Ravi Amphora, Prop. M/ Eastern Book tinkers, Delhi for accepting and publishing this work wiki commendable. For various type of assistance, I thank to my parents La Abuja Thiru'malai (who brings great sorrows, leaving me in a biased manner), my brother-in-law Sri. S.V.K.S. Srinivasan, Acharya Purush Tirumala Tirupathi Devasanam, Tirupathi, my brothers, sisters, friends are relatives. But for their unfailing enthusiasm, encouragement and co-operatic the work would not have been either written or published.

Dictionary of Vedas Book's Contents and Sample Pages