India of The Age of The Brahmanas (Ancient Indian Culture and Civilisation As Revealed in The Brahamanas)

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I had the pleasure to go through Dr. Jogiraj Basu's 'Work Ancient Indian culture and civilisation as revealed in the Brahmans in manuscript. I have been highly impressed by the work which bespeaks ~be author's deep erudition, extensive study of abstruse Brahmans texts in original and power of presentation. His work is a comprehensive one having taken into account the social, economic, political, military, religious, philosophical and miscellaneous aspects of the Vedic culture and eivilisation of the period concerned. The only published work in this field is Dr. Wilhelm Rau's book in German on the social aspect of the Brahmanaa : Rau's book has not been translated into English. Dr. Basu's book is more comprehensive, penetrating and scbolarlv. The work is divided into four books, viz, social and economic, polibical and military, religion and philosophy, and the fourth book deals with miscellaneous materials. At the end of each book the author bas given a ,critical evaluation of the aspect concerned showing how far it has progressed from the Saqthita period and how far it anticipates the civilisation of the Upanisadio age. I am confident Dr. Basu's work is and outstanding original contribution to the field of Vedic research, and fills up I lacuna in the history of ancient Indian culture and civiIisation. This valuable 'Work will be of great help to researchers and Indologiats. I convey my sincere congratulations to the author and "is the book a 'Wide publicity.

This work is the book form of my thesis' Ancient Indian culture and civilization as revealed in the Brahmans ( four- Brs. in parbioular and all Bra, in general) submitted to the University of Jadavpnr for the degree of Ph.D. in 196G. It is an attempt to present a. comprehensive picture of the vedic culture and civilization in all its aspects as recorded in the Br. texts of the four vedas, The work is divided into four books besides introduction and conclusion, viz, social and economic aspect, political and military aspect religion arid philosophy, and miscellaneous. Such topics as flora and fauna, language and types of literature calendar etc. which do not come under the purview of the first three books have been put in the miscellaneous section. At the end of each book a sumrr.ary of the section is given which is a. critical evaluation of the aspect concerned showing how far the civilisation of the Br. period has progressed from that of the Sarnhitii period or early vedic age and how far it anticipates that of the Upanisad io period or the last phase of the vedic age. There is only one book in this line, via, Dr. Wilhelm Rau's book in German on the social aspect of the Brahmans. The book has not been translated into English. I do not know German and bas never seen this book. Dr. Louis Renou in his esteemed foreword on my work remarks that Dr. Rau's book deals with the social aspect only while my book deals 'with all the aspects of culture and civilisabion of the period concerned,

I have given detailed contents. I am indebted to the original vedic texts for collection of materials. I convey my gratefulneas to the examiners of my thesis, Dr. Sankari Mookerji, Dr. A. L. Basham, Dr. R. R. Mukherji, as also to Dr. Friedrich Heilar , Dr. Louis Renon. Dr. U. N. Ghosal etc. for their valuable opmrons, I am thankful to the publisher Messres Sanskrit Pustak Bhandar for undertaking the publication of this book. I am very grateful to Dr. Janskiballsv Bhattacharya, Reader, Dept. of Sanskrit, C. U. whose constant encouragement went a great• wa.y in the accomplishment of my arduous task. I also take this opportunity to convey my sincere thanks to my students Dr. Umarani Chakravarty, Prof. Sudhahsaini Babu and Supadma Nag who extended their sincere co-operation in verifying the type soripts with the original and in putting transliteration marks.

The purpose of this thesis• is to give an account of the ancient Indian civiIisation as revealed in the Aitareya Brahmana and Kausitaki Brahmana of the Rgveda, the Taittirlya Brahmana of the Black Yajurveda and the Satapatha Brahmana of the white Yajurveda in particular, ahd all the Brs. in general. Civili- Staition finds expression through social. economic political, religious and theological cum philosophical aspects. Accordingly the thesis has been divided into several books, each book dealing with a particular aspect and comprising several chapters. Moreover there are certain aspects which do not come under the purview of the aspects mentioned above; such aspects have been discussed in the book captioned 'Miscellaneous'. Thus an attempt has been made to give a comprehensive picture of ancient Indian civilisation as revealed in the A.B., KB., T.B. and the S,B. The plan of the work is given towards the close of the introduction.

Definition and import of the term Veda
The Brahmanas form a part and parcel of the vast Vedic literature and are generally designated as later Vedic literature. Hence for thorough understanding of the import of the Brehmanas we are to discuss first the import of the term 'Veda'. The word 'Veda' means supreme knowledge or know- ledge, pat excellence. In the words of Yiijiiavalkya.-'it enlightens one on the knowledge of supra- sensible matters which lie beyond the domain of perception and inference, hence it is called the 'Veda". Manu calls the Veda 'the repository or fountain-head of all religions and duties".

The term Veda comprises both the Mantra and the Brahrnana . 'Veda' is the name given to Mantra and Brahrnana jointly''.