Hymns from the Vedas- Original Text and English Translation with Introduction and Notes (An Old and Rare Book)

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About the Book The Vedas are the oldest source-books of religion in India In this book Dr. Bose has rendered into English selected hymns from all the four Vedas. The original Vedic text" has also been given alongside the translation. The author has been guided in his translation by the work of orient lists, castern and western. Unlike many of them the author shows no preoccupation with the external forms and rituals of Vedic worship. His emphasis is on the poetic and spiritual values, on the inner life of the people and on their contact with the realities of material existence. His Introduction highlights the Vedic ideals which have been a living force in India For countless generations.

The Foreword was written by Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, the then Vice-President of India, who subsequently became the President of India.

About the Author Abinash Chandra Bose was born in Bengal in 1896. Having graduated in English, Sanskrit and Philosophy, he took his Master's degree in English from Calcutta University. He became Head of the English Department in Rajaram College, Kolhapur (under the University of Bombay at the time). He was deputed by his College to Trinity College, Dublin, where he received the Ph.D. degree for his work on Mysticism in Poetry. The record of his interview with W. B. Yeats in 1937 has been utilised as a valuable document by biographers and critics of the poet. For the last twenty years Dr. Bose has been engaged in Vedic studies and research. His books include Three Mystic Poets-A Study of W. B. Yeats, A. E. and Rabindranath Tagore (1945) and The Call of the Vedas, an anthology (1954, 1960).

Foreword DR. A. C. Bosx, who has already written valuable books, The Call of the Vedas, Three Mystic Poets, has now given us a new book where he has selected certain hymns and edited them with Sanskrit text and English verse translation. The book has also an Introduction which explains how the whole Indian culture in based on the fundamental values formulated in the Vedic hymns- the concepts of rita or the order of the world, satya or the truth of the world, tapas or the way of austerity and discipline by which truth can be gained. All these are explained in an appealing way. There is also an account of the rise of the institution of caste. Though it is not relevant to modern conditions, its origin in ancient times is intelligible. It is difficult in a short foreword to give a full account of the many ideas developed in the Introduction. The author has done this work not only with great learning but with great devotion. I hope the book will be read widely.

Preface THE VA, the weeks of Indian esitare and religion, dong to note tiquity. J for the shers in a tendency angwarlars to think more of their etherealsignitase than of the pratili sp Tori attempt has bem male to examine the traditional Indias daim that the moral and spiritual life of the people is rooted in them. Velinli have all been made with a view to unstinting the student with the tabular and grammar of the language rather than with their final and spiritual content. This, certainly, i.e. very unfair treatment for this nokhe Starry heritage of the world.

In this book an attempt has been made to bring together representative hymns from all the four Veles. In order to place them in the proper perspective from the religious point of view, I have classified them in the manner of the Bhagawad Gita into five vogue or ways of approach in religion. There see Junyoga, the Path of Knowledge, Karmayogs, the Path of Action, Bhakti gogs, the Path of Devotion, Vihatiyogs, the Path of splendor (approaching the Divine through the glory of the universe), and Rajayogs, the Mystical Path. I have added two more sections, one on Death, giving the Vedic attitude sowards it (which greatly differs from later attitudes) and the other on the Farth, comprising the long hymn of sixty-three stanzas in the Atharos Vela, which illustrates the Vedic poet's zest for life with deep attachment to spiritual My translation is based on the work of orientaliste, western and eastern, but in the interpretation of the religious significance of the text I have also drawn upon the Indian spiritual tradition. It is not always realised how the later Velar throw light on the earlier, and Upanishads and other Vedic as well as post-Vedic literature offer guidance in finding the meaning of the Veds.

In my translation I have kept close to the Vedic original, rendering line for line as far as I could. I have also tried to suggest the Vedic metrical pattern in the translation, though in quite a loose manner. My attempt has not, however, been to make the translation read like original English poetry (which is possible only for an English poet), but to give a version of the Veda which would convey an impression of the religious and poetic feelings of the worshippers. My difficulty has been increased by my desire to ensure that my work does not overstep the limits of translation.

Like many eastern and western orient lists I have discovered beautiful and passionate poetry-even though the passion is religious-in the Vedas, chiefly in the Hoods, but generally in the other Vedas too. As the passion has been expressed with unusual power and grace, the original text, given in the Sanskrit script side by side with the English translation, is expected to have a special attraction for readers acquainted with that language.

Introduction UNTIL ABOUT a century ago it was not known to the world at large that in different parts of India more than twenty thousand stanzas (or prose units). malong four books called 'Vedas Books of Knowledge, had been passed on from generation to generation for over three thousand years through the process of oral transmission, and were still being handed down through the same process. The rise and fall of political powers, external invasion and internal strife, change of language, racial admixture, and the conflict of sects and creeds could not impede this oral tradition. Owing to the deep reverence in which they were held, the Vedic texts have been free from interpolation and corruption. In fact, few old texts in world literature have been freed from these. In 1899 A. A. MacDonnell said about this oral tradition: "The Vedas are still learnt by heart they were long before the invasion of Alexander, and could now be restored from the lips of religious teachers if every manuscript or printed copy of them were destroyed." What MacDonnell said in 1899 will be found to be true even to-day.

Much valuable work has been done during the last century in analyzing the documents and describing and interpreting their contents with the help of the exhaustive commentary of the great fourteenth century Indian scholar, Savanna. The contribution of orient lists to Vedic scholarship falls into two parts: one, an intensive technical study of the texts, and the other, speculations about their historical and anthropological significance. The textual study has produced excellent results, but the speculations which have engaged much attention among Western scholars, often appear unrealistic owing to the lack of contact with any known body of facts.

Two difficulties have stood in the way of an objective approach to the Vedic texts: one, the Indian theory that, as these were used at rituals, they have only a formal value; and the other, the Western view, that these documents being very old have chiefly an anthropological interest. One has to guard against these preconceptions in forming a right estimate of the documents as literature and as source-books of Indian religion and culture. The four Vedas are:

1. The Rigveda, divided into ten books (mandala) having 1028 hymns (including 11 supplementary ones) and consisting of 10,552 (including 80 supplementary) stanzas. into 2. The Ayurveda (Vajasaneyi Samgita, Madhyandina text) divided 40 chapters, having 1,975 stanzas and prose-units.

**Contents and Sample Pages**