Sayana : brother of Madhavāchārya, prime minister of Vijayanagara. Over a 100 scholarly works, commentaries on the Saṁhitās & Brāhmaṇas of the Vedas & original treatises on grammar & law are attributed to them.
... least no Indian has really understood the Vedas. Or if they have been understood, if Sayana holds for us their secret, the reverence of the Indian mind for them becomes a baseless superstition and the idea that the modern Indian religions are Vedic in their substance is convicted of egregious error. For the Vedas Sayana gives us are the mythology of the Adityas, Rudras,Maruts, Vasus,—but these gods of... ádhiyá, with a bright-flaming strength of intelligence in the understanding. The idea of bounteous giving, suggested by Sayana in dravatpání and certainly present in that word if we accept páni in its ordinary sense, appears in the dasr´a of the third rik, “O you bounteous ones.” Sayana indeed takes dasrá in the sense of destroyers; he gives the root das in this word the same force as in dasyu, an enemy... be “he gave a car”, but would run better “he fashioned for us a brilliant car”, unless with Sayana we are to disregard the whole structure & rhythmic movement of Śunahśepa’s sentence. The other epithet Násatyá has long been a puzzle for the grammarians; for the ingenious traditional rendering of Yaska & Sayana, na asatyá, not untruthful, is too evidently a desperate shift of entire ignorance. The word ...
... body of the sacrificer in a physical sacrifice? Therefore Sayana does well to suggest another rendering. But तन्वं always means body in the Rigveda. शमाये. For his alternative rendering "praise"—note how every word has to be forced into a ritualistic sense, praise, food, Page 610 priest etc, which it does not naturally bear,—Sayana quotes Rigveda VI.1.9 सो अग्न ईजे शशमे च मर्तः, but there... सप्त वाणीः ॥६॥ Sayana. Agni went from every side to the waters which are children of heaven, which neither devour him (as water quenches fire) nor are hurt by him (as fire evaporates water), are neither clothed nor naked; these seven rivers who are immortal & young (immortally young, always grown up) and have one place of residence (the mid-air) held one Agni in their wombs. Sayana thinks the Rishi... सूनो सहसो व्यद्यौद् दधानः शुका रभसा वपूंषि । श्चोतंति धारा मधुनो घृतस्य वृषा यत्र वावृधे काव्येन ॥८॥ Sayana. O son of force, held by all, thou shinest holding bright & speedy rays.Where (for whatever sacrificer) Agni increases by the hymn, there streams of very sweet water flow out. Sayana explains the passage to mean that when Agni is pleased with Page 620 the hymn of the sacrificer ...
... words, these seemingly magical superstitions are not superstitions according to Sayana — these are magical mantras which can be recited, which can produce results in your life: results in terms of materialistic gains, progeny, wealth and so on. Such was the meaning of the Veda according to Sayana. It was on the basis of Sayana that Vedic Page 48 scholars of the West made their interpretations... interpreters of the Veda. And this line ended with a great scholar of the fourteenth century AD called Sayana. He was himself the Prime Minister of a state in south India and also a great Vedic scholar, and he had the possibility of employing a whole huge mass of scholars to assist him. And Sayana interpreted all the four Vedas — a huge task! To study them requires a long lifetime and therefore to differ... Vedic Rishis and the greatness of the Vedic Rishis and the claim that Vedic texts contain knowledge is a colossal fiction. If you read Sayana, you would be obliged to conclude that his own claim that Veda contains knowledge, is a proposition that cannot be sustained. Sayana himself was a ritualist, who believed that the Vedas were written for ritualistic purposes. He revered the Veda; he was not like the ...
... dasma krishtayah syámed Indrasya sarmani. Sayana renders: “O sacrificer, do thou approach Indra the intelligent and uninjured, and ask of me the clever priest (whether I have praised him well or not),—Indra who gave perfectly the best wealth to thy friends, the sacrificial priests. Let (the priests connected) with us praise Indra (so Sayana amazingly interprets uta no bruvantu), also, O our... that sense. Apart from the questionable interpretation of particular words, Sayana drags into the fourth verse a non-existent mám, which unnecessarily disturbs syntax & sense, for vipaschitam can only refer like the other epithets to Indra and, indeed, if it did not, the relative yah could not refer back to the god, as Sayana would have it, over the head of this new antecedent. In the fifth rik equally... be seen = visible. It may even be active = having sight, ie having the power or faculty of the द्रष्टा—cf यजत, भरत. The latter has clearly an active sense. अरंकृताः. Not another form of अलंकृत as Sayana wrongly supposes, but from अर् which means among other things to work at, so to elaborate, prepare. २. वाय उक्थेभिर्जरन्ते त्वामच्छा जरितारः । सुतसोमा अहर्विदः ।। O Vayu, thee-wards with ...
... विवाससि. Sayana abandons his favourite परिचरसि and interprets गमयितुमिच्छसि—प्रापयसीति यावत् basing himself on the sense of वा to go. वास् (वस्) means either to dwell or to shine. विवाससि means either thou makest to dwell or thou makest to shine widely in all the being. It is difficult to decide, for दयुमत् favours "shine" and बृहत् favours "dwell". देव. Sayana द्योतमानाग्ने. Sayana feels that... the result of Agni's journeying) passes forward on his journey." प्र अस्थात्. Sayana takes अभि = ऐश्वर्यमभिप्राप्य and प्रास्थात् = प्रतितिष्ठति सर्वोत्कृष्टो भवति. Neither can stand. Too much is read by him into अभि and the second preposition is प्र not प्रति; the verse speaks of प्रस्थान not प्रतिष्ठा. Sayana quite missed the Vedic image of the sacrificial journey or ascent to Swar and is therefore... 9) उत द्युमत्सुवीर्यं बृहदग्ने विवाससि । देवेभ्यो देव दाशुषे ॥ सुवीर्यं. Sayana takes शोभनवीर्योपेतं धनं. I see no धनं anywhere in the verse, and therefore take सुवीर्यं as a noun, सु + वीर्यं as in सुनयः, सुप्रयोगः, सुपथ् etc. Even when सुवीर्यं occurs entirely by itself as in I.94.2, Sayana renders it as शोभनवीर्योपेतं धनं; yet nothing is commoner in the Veda than the idea of strength ...
... branchings & foliage. The ritualism of Sayana is an error based on a false preconception popularised by the Buddhists & strengthened by the writers of the Darshanas,—on the theory that the karma of the Veda was only an outward ritual & ceremony; the naturalism of the modern scholars is an error based on a false preconception encouraged by the previous misconceptions of Sayana,—on the theory of the Vedas [as]... necessity for an exaggerated deference to his authority as an interpreter. Nor, indeed, were Sayana an ideal commentator, could he possibly be relied upon to give us the true sense of Veda; for the language of these hymns, whatever the exact date of their Rishis, goes back to an immense antiquity and long before Sayana the right sense of many Vedic words and the right clue to many Vedic allusions and symbols... persisted in the popular mind even after the decline of Buddhism and the revival of great philosophies ostensibly based on Vedic authority. It was under the dominance of this ritualistic conception that Sayana wrote his great commentary which has ever since been to the Indian Pundit the one decisive authority on the sense of Veda. The four Vedas have definitely taken a subordinate place as karmakanda, books ...
... interpreter Sayana, the phrase dhiyarh ghrtacim means the rain that pours water! In some other context (1.14.6) Sayana himself says that the root ghr may also mean "to make something shine"; so the plain meaning of dhiyarh ghrtacim is the “enlightened intellect.” But Sayana preferred to interpret the word ghrta (lit. clarified butter) as water and rains. If we refer to the context where Sayana explains... Be that as it may, Sayana was committed to the ceremonial interpretation. He made it a rule to bring in this interpretation in order to show how a particular sacrifice was to be performed; he has recourse to the Veda only to establish sacrificial ceremonies in society. In fact, he had a particular end in view in accordance with which he went along his way. Not only in Sayana, but also in the ancient... the Vedas than the Vedas proper. The grammar of Panini, Nirukta, the science of derivation of meanings from the roots, Mimamsa, the commentaries on the Vedas and, above all, the commentaries made by Sayana Acharya made it so difficult to understand the text of the Vedas that it looked like the peak of a mountain that could hardly be reached through deep and intricate forests. Whenever we heard the name ...
... and put it between themselves and knowledge. The orthodox are indignant that a mere modern should presume to differ from Shankara in interpreting the Vedanta or from Sayana in interpreting the Veda. They forget that Shankara and Sayana are themselves moderns, separated from ourselves by some hundreds of years only, but the Vedas are many thousands of years old. The commentator ought to be studied, but... All other interpretation is to them superstitious. But to me the ingenious guesses of foreign grammarians are of no more authority than the ingenious guesses of Sayana. It is irrelevant to me what Max Miller thinks of the Veda or what Sayana thinks of the Veda. I should prefer to know what the Veda has to say for itself and, if there is any light there on the unknown or on the infinite, to follow the... indeed, to abandon authority, to revolt against custom and superstition, to have free and enlightened minds. But they mean by these sounding recommendations that we should renounce the authority of Sayana for the authority of Max Muller, the Monism of Shankara for the Monism of Haeckel, the written Shastra for the unwritten law of European social opinion, the dogmatism of Brahmin Pandits for the dogmatism ...
... concealed (opened the doors that had been closed). मनवे. Manu, the typical मनस्वी or मनोमयः पुरुषः or simply “man” with a stress upon the root idea of the word, “man the mental being”. अपिहितेव. Sayana says अन्नेवशब्दश्चार्थे. इव means originally, “thus”, “thus indeed”, “so”, and is identical with एव. It may, therefore, have like एव the sense of emphasis, or like एवं in Bengali the sense “and”, or... uncovered waters to doors that have been shut or curtained over, is possible, for the figure of uncovering the concealed waters is common enough in the Veda; but it would be strained and inappropriate. Sayana renders “and he opened the concealed doors of the waters”; but इव coming after अपिहिता seems specially to affect that word. We may take Sayana’s rendering or else render it, either, “doors indeed ... concealed”, or “opened doors that were, as it were, concealed.” त्वा युजा नि खिदत्सूर्यस्येंद्रश्चक्र सद्य इंदो ष्णुना बृहता वर्तमानं महो द्रुहो अप विश्वायु धायि ।।२।। Page 414 चक्रं. Sayana takes the image to be that of Surya’s wheel, one of two in his chariot, which Indra violently cuts off,—the wheel that moves in the wide air above us & goes everywhere. But there is no allusion to ...
... gives the transformation, the attainment. रंसु. Sayana takes as locative plural, in the pleasant things, ie ghee, etc; this seems to me forced & improbable. I believe रंसु must be taken as an adjective, formed from the root रस् nasalised + उ or the root रम् + सु = that which is delightful as प्रियं is used for pleasure in general. चिकिते. Sayana takes as passive, "he is distinguished by his m... Mandala Two Hymns to the Mystic Fire [18] RV II.4.1-5 II.4. Hymn to Agni attributed to Somahuti Bhargava. 1) सुवृक्ति. Sayana gives his two alternatives, "released from sins" (सुवर्जितं पापैः) or "having good praise". Both of these senses are artificial. सुवृक्ति (not वृक्ति as Sayana's interpretation would demand) is undoubtedly... who has to be held in man as Mitra. This is better as it gives a better connection in sense with the verses that follow. Page 603 देव आदेवे जने. Divine in man who reflects the divinity. Sayana says "in all creatures up to the gods"; but cf IV.1.1. मर्त्येष्वा देवमादेवं जनत प्रचेतसं विश्वमादेवं जनत प्रचेतसं, "They gave being in mortals to the god as the reflected divinity who has the prajnana ...
... the first verse of I.100 , with many references to Sayana. Translations of Suktas 94 – 97 and a commentary on the first ten verses of Sukta 94 are published in Hymns to the Mystic Fire , Parts Two and Three. [7] Circa 1917 – 20. Text and translation, pāda by pāda , of the first two verses of RV I.100 , with notes referring to Sayana. [8] Notes on RV I.152 – 54, found in a notebook... grammatical notes on RV VI.1 , often with reference to Sayana (usually abbreviated “S.”). Sri Aurobindo’s translation of this Sukta is published in Hymns to the Mystic Fire , Part One. [18] Circa 1914. Notes on a few words and phrases in RV VI.45 . Mandala Seven [19] Circa 1914. Brief notes on RV VII.41 – 45, often with reference to Sayana (abbreviated “S.” or “Sy.” and in one instance cited... to Indra / Hymns of Gautama Rahugana” around the same time as the preceding items. Sri Aurobindo left space at the bottoms of the pages for footnotes on both hymns, but added the notes (abbreviating Sayana as “S.”) only for Sukta 81. Suktas 90 – 92 . Rishi: Gotama Rahugana. Entries of 23 and 24 May 1914 in the Record of Yoga mention that these hymns were translated on those days. The translation ...
... देवदर्शने वा) रणयंत they took delight (अरमयन् आनंदं चक्रुः). 1) त्वं ह्याग्ने प्रथमो मनोता. अग्ने (O Agni) त्वं हि (त्वं खलु thou verily) प्रथमः मनोता (art the first or supreme thinker). Sayana here differs only in the sense of मनोता which means in his view देवानां मनो यत्रोतं भवति तादृशः he on whom the mind of the gods is sewn. मनोता is therefore मन + ऊत (वे]) or else मन् + ओत (आवे), a very... Brahmana. This is chronologically impossible. अस्या धियो अभवो दस्म होता. दस्म (O active, or, O powerful) अस्याः धियः (of this thought) होता अभवः (thou hast become the priest of invocation). दस्म Sayana takes as दर्शनीय beautiful. दस् means to cut, divide, bite (like दंश्), injure, rob, destroy; give, (like दा, दाश्, दत्); to see (like दृश्); to shine. It may therefore mean (1) robber, destroyer,... develop the sense of strength, force, power.We have then two other possible senses, active, and powerful or forceful, both of which come in perfectly wherever दस्म or दस्र occurs in the Veda. धियः Sayana takes = कर्मणः. I see no reason for attaching this sense to the word in the Rig Veda. S. himself frequently admits for धी the sense thought or understanding. At most times he renders it स्तुति prayer ...
... text in transliteration and notes referring to Sayana. Written after the preceding item, in the same notebook. [24] Translation of RV IV.3, with the text in Devanagari and notes referring to Sayana. Written after the preceding item, in the same notebook. [25] Translation of RV IV.4, with the text in Devanagari and notes referring to Sayana. Written after the preceding item, in the same... pages 115 - 16). [21] Text and translation of the first verse of RV IV.1, with notes referring to Sayana ("S."). Written in a notebook with calendars for 1913 and 1914 printed inside the front cover. [22] Translation of RV IV.1, with transliterated text and notes referring to Sayana (usually "Sy."). Written in a notebook of a type that Sri Aurobindo was using mostly in 1913 and early 1914... notebook. [26] Translation of RV IV.5, with the text in Devanagari and notes referring to Sayana. Written after the preceding item, in the same notebook. [27] Translation of the first three verses of RV IV.6, with the text in Page 759 Devanagari and notes referring to Sayana. Written after the preceding item, in the same notebook. Sri Aurobindo copied the Sanskrit ...
... modern theory of the Veda starts with the conception, for which Sayana is responsible, of the Vedas as the hymnal of an early, primitive and largely barbaric society crude in its moral and religious conceptions, rude in its social structure and entirely childlike in its outlook upon the world that environed it. The ritualism which Sayana accepted as part of a divine knowledge and as endowed with a mysterious... Veda Chapter III Modern Theories It was the curiosity of a foreign culture that broke after many centuries the seal of final authoritativeness which Sayana had fixed on the ritualistic interpretation of the Veda. The ancient Scripture was delivered over to a scholarship laborious, bold in speculation, ingenious in its flights of fancy, conscientious according... of Europe has really founded itself throughout on the traditional elements preserved in Sayana's commentary and has not attempted an entirely independent handling of the problem. What it found in Sayana and in the Brahmanas it has developed in the light of modern theories and modern knowledge; by ingenious deductions from the comparative method applied to philology, mythology and history, by large ...
... produce results of a high importance. Another a priori objection comes from the side of orthodox Page 681 tradition. What it amounts to is an objection to go behind the authority of Sayana, who belongs to an age at least two or three thousand years later than the Veda, and of Yaska, the ancient lexicographer. Besides, the Veda is currently regarded as karmakânda , a book of ritual works... more moderate form the argument be that when there is an unbroken and consistent ancient tradition, there is no justification in going behind it, then the obvious reply is that there is no such thing. Sayana moves amidst a constant uncertainty, gives various possibilities, fluctuates in his interpretations. Not only so, but though usually faithful to the ritualistic and external sense he distinguishes... of the most extraordinary ingenuity, each attempt arriving at widely different results, and mine is only one ingenuity the more. If it were so, then I stand in good company. The interpretations of Sayana are packed with the most strained and far-fetched ingenuities, which not unoften light-heartedly do violence to grammar, syntax, order, connection, on the idea that the Rishis were in no way restrained ...
... And when Yaska follows these methods, we are obliged to part company with him entirely. Nor in his interpretation of particular texts is he more convincing than the later erudition of Sayana. The commentary of Sayana closes the period of original and living scholastic work on the Veda which Yaska's Nirukta among other important authorities may be said to open. The lexicon was compiled in the earlier... long-unquestioned authority of his work. The first element with which Sayana had to deal, the most interesting to us, was the remnant of the old spiritual, philosophic or psychological interpretations of the Sruti which were the true foundation of its sanctity. So far as these had entered into the current or orthodox 4 conception, Sayana admits them; but they form an exceptional element in his work, ... and novel combination, but work of quite this general, massive and monumental character has hardly been possible. The commanding merits of this great legacy of the past are obvious. Composed by Sayana with the aid of the most learned scholars of his time, it is a work representing an enormous labour of erudition, more perhaps than could have been commanded at that time by a single brain. Yet it ...
... ।। O Aswins, come with a force full of impetuosity and vital energy, O givers of a radiant & brilliant wealth. रत्न. Cf 41.6. स रत्नं मर्तौ वसु विश्वं तोकमुत त्मना । अच्छा गच्छति अस्तृतः ।। Here Sayana says रत्नं रमणीयं. That mortal moves unfalling towards every delightful possession & even the little he possesses with continuity. ऋतं. Cf 41.4. सुगः पन्था अनृक्षर आदित्यास ऋतं यते । नात्रावखादो... Helpful passage to decide the meaning. (2) धरुणेषु. Say. सर्वस्य धारकेषूदकेषु । (3) Say. wholly unacceptable. (4) बहिर्षः. Decisively proves that बहिर्ः need not mean Kusha grass. सुभ्वः Sayana. नद्यः । अहुतप्सवः Say. अकुटिलरुपाः । ऊतयः. Say. अवितारो मरुतो । He takes अभिष्टयः with ऊतयः. Page 445 (5) रघ्वीः Say. गमनस्वभावा आपो । Tritah. Elaborate legend. स्ववृष्टिं... परिभाषणहिंसादानेषु । वृत्रादेर्वधरुपा । (12) अपः स्वः Decisive for अपः उरु in I.36.8. (14) व्यचो Say. व्यापनं । (15) भृष्टिमता. Say. भृष्टिरश्रिः । [3] [RV I.58] Hymns of Nodha Gautama Sayana 58. (1) होता either. नि तुंदते नितरां व्यथयति—तुद व्यथने—उत्पन्नमात्रस्याग्नेः(?) स्प्रष्टुमशक्यत्वात् यद्वा निर्गच्छति. नू चित् क्षिप्रमेव साधिष्ठेभिः समीचीनैः रजो वि ममे. निर्ममे—पूर्वं वि ...
... दधाना भवामः । स्तुयमानो हींद्रोऽसुरवधाय वज्रमादत्ते ।। शुभ्रस्तेजसा युक्तः ।। अस्मे । अस्माकं।।दासीः । उपक्षपयित्रिर्विश आसुरीः । प्रजाः ।। सूर्येण । सुष्ठु प्रेरयति त्वं युध्यस्वेति ।। शुभ्रं. Sayana not understanding how strength can be bright, makes शुभ्र here = शोभन but in the other three cases (v. 3 & 4) bright. This is hypercritical as well as inconsistent, for he has already admitted “shining... passage for the right interpretation of Indra’s brilliant pair of horses. उशंतं—or the lighting that gleams; but if so, why should not उशिजः as applied to the gods mean the Shining Ones & not as Sayana interprets it always, “desiring”? 7) वाजयंता । वेगं कुर्वंतौ ।। घृतश्चुतं । उदकस्य च्यावयितारं ।। नु । क्षिप्रं ।। स्वारं । मेघध्वनिं । स्वरतिः शब्दकर्मा ।। सामना । समस्थाला यद्वा सामना सर्वतो ... g (or thinking) Indra killed Vritra who had no man (or who thought he was not human). Drinking the Soma offered he obstructed the words of the deceitful Danava. वृष्णः । I do not understand why Sayana should suddenly change the rainer of rain of the last few verses into a rainer of desires. मानुषः । Sayana’s dealings with मानुष & अमानुष are truly amazing. It is Indra as the human or mental being ...
... over-short modern chronology. Nor is it Yaska alone who has pressed the adhyatmic view. In the 13th century A.D., a hundred years before Sayana, Anandatirtha, more popularly known as Madhwacharya, wrote in a spiritual vein on the first 40 hymns." Sayana himself yields evidence of a spiritual, philosophical or psychological interpretation. "He mentions, for instance, but not to admit it,... of Vritra as the Coverer who holds back from man the objects of his desire and his aspirations. For Sayana Vritra is either simply the enemy or the physical cloud-demon who holds back the waters and has to be pierced by the Rain-giver." 19 . After Sayana we have Raghavendra Swami amplifying Madhwacharya and even quoting an ancient Puranic text which declares the Vedas to... completely at odds with Sri Aurobindo over the Veda. Walking in the steps of Indologists like Louis Renou, he subscribes to the theory that the Veda is, as the mediaeval Indian commentator Sayana held, a manual of ritual practices and that in it natural phenomena are invested with life and worshipped as superhuman powers and that its terms are to be taken literally as part of a primitive ...
... tradition. And when in our age the Veda was brought out of its obscure security behind the purdah of a reverential neglect, the same phenomenon reappears. While Western scholarship extending the hints of Sayana seemed to have classed it for ever as a ritual liturgy to Nature-Gods, the genius of the race looking through the eyes of Dayananda pierced behind the error of many centuries and received again the... case, we have to make one choice or another. We can no longer securely enshrine the Veda wrapped up in the folds of an ignorant reverence or guarded by a pious self-deceit. Either the Veda is what Sayana says it is, and then we have to leave it behind for ever as the document of a mythology and ritual which have no longer any living truth or force for thinking minds, or it is what the European scholars... the text into the Procrustean bed of preconceived theory, it is surely this commentary, otherwise so imposing, so useful as first crude material, so erudite and laborious, left to us by the Acharya Sayana. Nor does the reproach lie in the mouth of those who take as final the recent labours of European scholarship. For if ever there was a toil of interpretation in which the loosest rein has been given ...
... to serve as the seed of a deeper understanding of the Veda. Sayana feels that he has to turn the difficulty at any cost and therefore he gets rid of the sense of seer for kavi and gives it another and unusual significance. He then explains that Agni is satya , true, because he brings about the true fruit of the sacrifice. Śravas Sayana renders "fame", Agni has an exceedingly various renown. It... ṛtasya dīdivim; vardhamānaṁ sve dame. In this passage we have a series of terms plainly bearing or obviously capable of a psychological sense and giving their colour to the whole context. Sayana, however, insists on a purely ritual interpretation and it is interesting to see how he arrives at it. In the first phrase we have the word kavi meaning a seer and, even if we take kratu to mean... the giver of the sacrifice he surely gives good in return. The seventh verse offers no difficulty to the ritualistic interpretation except the curious phrase, "we come bearing the prostration." Sayana explains that bearing here means simply doing and he renders, "To thee day by day we, by night and by day, come with the thought performing the prostration." In the eighth verse he takes ṛtasya in ...
... chants were written to be sung at public sacrifices and refer constantly to the customary ritual and seem to call for the outward objects of these ceremonies, wealth, prosperity, victory over enemies. Sayana, the great commentator, gives us a ritualistic and where necessary a tentatively mythical or historical sense to the Riks, very rarely does he put forward any higher meaning though sometimes he lets... contained in the Riks. This last development was left to our own times and popularised by occidental scholars. The European scholars took up the ritualistic tradition, but for the rest they dropped Sayana overboard and went on to make their own etymological explanation of the words, or build up their own conjectural meanings of the Vedic verses and give a new presentation often arbitrary and imaginative... than all outer light; the great formula of the Upanishad, "He am I", corresponds to That One, tad ekam , of the Rig Vedic verse; the "standing together of the ten hundreds" (the rays of the Sun, says Sayana, and that is evidently the meaning) is reproduced in the prayer to the Sun "to marshal and mass his rays" so that the supreme form may be seen. The Sun in both the passages, as constantly in the Veda ...
... 8 On the Veda, P. 277 9 Ibid P. 278 10 Ibid P. 278 Page 165 The Western scholarship almost, entirely relies on Sayana and it is not so much interested in finding the meaning of the hymns as in interpreting the meaning assigned to them by Sayana. But as I have just shown, the meaning of the hymns had become vague and uncertain even in Yaska's time. Sayana's Bhashya could hardly... with vani, speech : gives the seed, the Bull of Immortality, in whom rests the self the moving and the unmoving. 'Ghrita' is symbolic. Even Sayana at times accepts the symbolic sense e. g. VI. 55.1. Sayana Words formed from showing the various symbolic appli : Page 168 A small list of psychological words5 used in the... body of profound psychological thought lying neglected in these ancient hymns. "5 { III } " I was helped in arriving at this result by my fortunate ignorance of the commentary of Sayana. For I was left free to attribute their natural psychological significance ____________________ 4 On the Veda, P. 45 5 Ibid, P. 45 Page 163 to many ordinary and current ...
... is connected with dhiṣaṇā , intellect or understanding, and is rendered by Sayana "intellectual", buddhimantau . Again the Ashwins are described as "effectual in action, powers of the movement, fierce-moving in their paths", dasrā nāsatyā rudravartanī . The Vedic epithets dasra and dasma are rendered by Sayana indifferently "destroying" or "beautiful" or "bountiful" according to his caprice... upholders of his labour and effort in the work, the sacrifice,— omāsaś carṣaṇīdhṛto . Sayana renders these words protectors and sustainers of men. I need not enter here into a full justification of the significances which I prefer to give them; for I have already indicated the philological method which I follow. Sayana himself finds it impossible to attribute always the sense of protection to the words... sense of "man" to the two kindred words carṣaṇi and kṛṣṭi when they stand by themselves, this meaning seems unaccountably to disappear in compound forms like vicarṣaṇi, viśvacarṣaṇi, viśvakṛṣṭi . Sayana himself is obliged to render viśvacarṣaṇi "all-seeing" and not "all-man" or "all-human". I do not admit the possibility of such abysmal variations in fixed Vedic terms. Av can mean, to be, have ...
... by Ayasya), by which the Navagwas passed through the ten months; by this thought may we have the gods for protectors, by this thought may we pass through beyond the evil." The statement is explicit. Sayana indeed makes a faint-hearted attempt to take daśa māso in v. 7, ten months, as if it were an epithet daśamāso , the ten-month ones i.e. the Dashagwas; but he offers this improbable rendering only... of the lost Sun and the lost cows is effected, for we have the explicit statement in X.62.2, ṛtenābhindan parivatsare valam , "by the truth, in the revolution of the year, they broke Vala," or, as Sayana interprets it, "by sacrifice lasting for a year." This passage certainly goes far to support the Arctic theory, for it speaks of a yearly and not a daily return of the Sun. But we are not concerned... that the names given them by the Purana need be those which the Vedic tradition would have given. × Sayana takes it to mean, "I recite the hymn for water" i.e. in order to get rain; the case however is the locative plural, and dadhiṣe means "I place or hold" or, with the psychological sense, "think" or ...
... , V.79.8. Sayana explains that this means "shining foods", but it is obviously nonsense to talk of radiant foods being brought by Dawn with the rays of the Sun. If is means food, then we have to understand by the phrase "food of cow's flesh", but, although the eating of cow's flesh was not forbidden in the early times, as is apparent from the Brahmanas, still that this sense which Sayana avoids as... word go in the Vedic hymns. If it proves to be symbolic, then these other words,— aśva , horse, vīra , man or hero, apatya or prajā , offspring, hiraṇya , gold, vāja , plenty (food, according to Sayana),—by which it is continually accompanied, must perforce assume also a symbolic and a kindred significance. The image of the Cow is constantly associated in Veda with the Dawn and the Sun; it also... Now even the most superficial examination of the Vedic hymns to the Dawn makes it perfectly clear that the cows of the Dawn, the cows of the Sun are a symbol for Light and cannot be anything else. Sayana himself is obliged in these hymns to interpret the word sometimes as cows, sometimes as rays,—careless, as usual of consistency; sometimes he will even tell us that go like ṛtam , the word for truth ...
... quite as easily. But स्नू here = सनू, procuring or giving abundantly, and I use dripping concretely as a figure of abundant giving. ऋतस्य is for Sy. सत्यभुतस्य तव. It is possible. मन्ये = स्तौमि says Sayana. I demuṛ There is an obvious connection in sense between मन्ये & मनसा which necessitates some such rendering as I have given. It means really I meditate on in my thought so as to possess in mental... sacrifice of a mortal, that well-established, thou full of delight, glad indeed becometh that Lady of the offering, O young & vigorous god, of whom disposing the action may we be the increasers. Sayana with startling coolness explains the feminine सा होत्रा as स होता! यस्य surely refers to Agni, who is alone mentioned in this line & to whom & not to a man the expression vṛidhásah could appropriately... the Knowledge and the Ignorance like wide open levels and those that hamper mortals; and, O god, for our felicity fruitful of its works enrich for us the divided being and widen the undivided. Sayana explains "like the beautiful backs of horses & those that are unfit to carry", takes martán = पुण्यकृतोऽपुण्यकृतश्च मनुष्यान् after विचिनवद्,—a stupendous extension,—creates a कुरु after राये & interprets ...
... Sayana takes the two words jarataḥ karṇa as if they were one indicating the name of the Rishi "Jaratkarna". × Sayana renders jarūtha "a demon". × Sayana renders "in the hot cauldron... cauldron in the earth". × Sayana readers "gave progeny to the Rishi Nrimedha". ...
... due course, the ritualistic interpretation of the Veda tended to become more and more predominant, and when we come to Sayana, whose commentary closes the period which began with Yaska, we find his interpretation obsessed always by the ritualistic formula. It is true that Sayana admits the spiritual, philosophical or psychological element in the Veda, but this element is insignificant in bulk and... in the writings of Pandit Madhusudan Ojha, who has relied Page 4 largely upon the interpretations of the Brahmanas. In many respects, this interpretation seems to coincide with that of Sayana but also departs from it significantly and is able to throw light on the inner and spiritual meaning of the Vedic texts. The hypothesis that Sri Aurobindo has put forward proceeds from a basis that... esoteric systems. In developing the psychological theory, Sri Aurobindo has taken the help of ancient and modem systems of Page 5 interpretations. As Sri Aurobindo points out: "Sayana and Yaska supply the ritualistic framework of outward symbols and their large store of traditional significances and explanations. The Upanishads give their clue to the psychological and philosophical ...
... bidding. Apropos of Sayana, Sri Aurobindo said in a talk, "Sayana in spite of his many mistakes, is very useful, though it is like going to Ignorance for Knowledge." I added, "Purani with his shining bald head, some locks of white hair, his glasses resting on the tip of his sharp nose and fat volumes by his side, looks very much like Sayana!" Sri Aurobindo replied, "O Sayana came back to undo his ...
... of his labour and effort in the work, the sacrifice " omasas carsanidhrtaW'. Sayana renders these words protectors and sustainers of men. I need not enter here into a full justification of the significances which I prefer to give them; for I have already indicated the philological method which I follow. Sayana himself finds it impossible to attribute always the sense of protection to the... words, the effective symbols of a spiritual experience and knowledge and a psychological discipline of self-culture which were then the highest achievement of the human race. The ritual recognised by Sayana may, in its externalities, stand the naturalistic sense discovered by European scholarship may, in its general conceptions, be accepted; but behind them there is always the true and still hidden secret... "Man" to the two kindred words ' Carsoni' and ' Kristi' when they stand by themselves, this meaning seems unaccountably to disappear in compound forms like vicarsani visvacarsani, visvasristi. Sayana himself is obliged to render visvacarsani, "all-seeing" and not" All-man". I do not admit the possi- bility of such abysmal variations in fixed Vedic terms. AV ______________________ 8 On the ...
... kratu is sacrifice—Sayana often prefers "work"—then Agni is the priest whose sacrifice is that of the seer, therefore the sacrifice over which he presides is that over which the divine knowledge presides; if work, then he is the god of the inspired workings; if power of workings, then the god whose power for works is guided by divine knowledge. I suggest that kratu which Sayana sometimes interprets... power-ofworks is a seer's), the true, who has most richly-varied (inspired) knowledge, may he come, a god with the gods." In this verse we have two words of doubtful meaning, ҫravas and kratu . Sayana wherever he can, renders ҫravas food, elsewhere fame, or where neither of these will do, ҫravas (also ҫrushti ) is for him wealth Page 546 or rarely hymn. But there is the word satya... sacrifices, shining etc." This in the ritualistic sense must mean that the priests offer sacrifice daily both during the day and during the night by means of the Page 548 hymn or the work (Sayana interprets dhî sometimes in one sense, sometimes in the other according to his pleasure, but sometimes admits the significance "thought" or "understanding"), bringing, that is to say, doing obeisance ...
... × The logs of the sacrificial fire, according to Sayana. × Shave the hair of the earth, according to Sayana. × Cf. the description... higher level of the Various-coloured (the cow, Prishni, mother of the Maruts). Then doubly (in earth and heaven?) thy tongue leaps forward like the lightning loosed of the Bull that wars for the cows." Sayana tries to avoid the obvious identification of the Rishis with the flames by giving navagva the sense of "new-born rays", but obviously divyā navagvāḥ here and the sons of Agni (in X.62) born in... consciousness, of the supramental Truth. In another passage, VI.11.3, we have mention of the "seer most illumined of the Angirases", vepiṣṭho aṅgirasāṁ vipraḥ , where the reference is not at all clear. Sayana, ignoring the collocation vepiṣṭho vipraḥ which at once fixes the sense of vepiṣṭha as equivalent to most vipra , most a seer, most illumined, supposes that Bharadwaja, the traditional Rishi of ...
... than the ingenious guesses of Sayana. It is irrelevant to me what Max Muller thinks of the Veda or what Sayana thinks of the Veda. I should prefer to know what the Veda has to say for itself and, if there is any light there on the unknown or on the infinite, to follow the ray till I come face to face with that which it illumines. There are those who follow neither Sayana and Shankara nor the Europeans... and put it between themselves and knowledge. The orthodox are indignant that a mere modern should presume to differ from Shankara in interpreting the Vedanta or from Sayana in interpreting the Veda. They forget that Shankara and Sayana are themselves moderns, separated from ourselves by some hundreds of years only, but the Vedas are many thousands of years old. The commentator ought to be studied, but ...
... sustains our works. Text. Sa bhrátaram Varuṇam Agna á vavṛitswa deván achchhá sumatí yajnavanasam jyeshṭham yajnavanasam; Ṛitávánam Ádityam charshaṇídhṛitam rájánam charshaṇídhṛitam. Sayana takes deván = देवनशीलान्स्तोतृन्, सुमती with चर्षणीधृतं, ṛitávánam = अदकवंतं and explains charshaṇídhṛitam as मनुष्याणा - मुदकप्रदानेन धारकं. सुमती can by its order in the sentence belong either to... and brings in an otiose epithet. दस्म may be either "bounteous" or "active, formative", cf दंस् in दंसना, दंसः etc. Page 635 Sy. मृळीकं—सुखकरं हविः. There is no mention of any havir. Sayana gets it from verse 5, मृळीकं वीहि. The prayer for a gracious mood in the gods, मृळीकं or मार्डीकं and not wrath, हेळः, is a common feature of the Veda. Sy. तोकाय—तुज्यते पीड्यते माता गर्भवासेनेति... Vanished darkness oppressed, Heaven shone out, up the lustre of the divine Dawn arose; the Sun entered the fields of vastness beholding in mortals their straight things & their crooked. दुधितं Sayana takes in the sense of "driven; propelled". The sense of the दु roots is, more often, to press, hurt, crush, compress, push; eg du, to hurt, torment, afflict, burn; also to grieve; दुःख pain; दुध् to ...
... never a primary sense of any root, but derived figuratively from the physical sense "to go, seek, approach".We may therefore render ईळे either "seek", "desire", "adore" or "pray to". पुरोहितं. Sayana, "Purohit", or else "placed in the front of the sacrifice as the Ahavaniya fire". The Purohita of the Veda is the representative power in the sacrifice who stands in front of the consciousness and... therefore no inappropriateness or violence in rendering it "enjoyment that attains" or "a victorious riches". वीरवत्तमं. Sy. अतिशयेन पुत्रभुत्यादिवीरपुरुषोपेतं. It is absurd to take वीर = पुत्र as Sayana does; it means "men, heroes, strengths" and is often the equivalent of नृ which is never used for servants in the Rigveda. रयिं. There are two words रयि, from रि to go and from रि to attain, enjoy... sacrifice on the path thou encompassest with thy being on every side, that indeed arrives to the gods. 5) अग्निः । होता । कविकतुः । सत्यः । चित्रश्रवस्तमः । देवो । देवेभिः । आगमत् ॥ कविकतुः. Sayana takes कवि here = क्रांत and क्रतुः = either knowledge or work. It means then "the priest whose work or whose knowledge moves". But there is absolutely no reason to take कवि in any other than its natural ...
... to hazard a psychological sense, justified by more extensive study, for words like dakṣa which for Sayana means strength and śravas which he renders as wealth, food or fame. The psychological theory of the Veda rests upon our right to concede their natural significance to these vocables. Sayana gives to the words dhī , ṛtam , etc., very variable significances. Ṛtam , which is almost the key-word... previously, I could attach no exact meaning and gave at the same time a new sense to much in the Puranas. I was helped in arriving at this result by my fortunate ignorance of the commentary of Sayana. For I was left free to attribute their natural psychological significance to many ordinary and current words of the Veda, such as dhī , thought or understanding, manas , mind, mati , thought, feeling... , is rendered by him sometimes as "truth", more often "sacrifice", occasionally in the sense of water. The psychological interpretation gives it invariably the sense of Truth. Dhī is rendered by Sayana variously "thought", "prayer", "action", "food", etc. The psychological interpretation gives it consistently the sense of thought or understanding. Page 39 And so with the other fixed terms ...
... chapter-epigraphs. He came with big volumes of Sayana and others. SRI AUROBINDO: Sayana, in spite of his many mistakes, is very useful-though it is like going to ignorance for knowledge. NIRODBARAN: Purani, with his glasses hanging on the tip of his nose and fat volumes under his arm, looks like Sayana, doesn't he? SRI AUROBINDO: Oh, Sayana come back to undo his misdeeds? (Laughter ) ...
... verses by that natural logic which all except children and the most rudimentary intellects observe. In the light of this conception they interpret Vedic words & evolve a meaning out of the verses. Sayana and the Indian scholars perceive in the Vedic Rishis ceremonialists & Puranists like themselves with an occasional scholastic & Vedantic bent; they interpret Vedic words and Vedic mantras accordingly... may possess our souls in peace & say to ourselves that we have discovered the meaning of Veda; its true meaning if not all its significance. Nor need we be discouraged, if we have to disagree with Sayana & Yaska in the actual rendering of the hymns no less than with the Europeans. Neither of these great authorities can be held to be infallible. Yaska is an authority for the interpretation of Vedic... in his own age, but that age was already far subsequent to the Vedic & the sacred language of the hymns was already to him an ancient tongue. The Vedas are much more ancient than we usually suppose. Sayana represents the scholarship & traditions of a period not much anterior to our own. There is therefore no authoritative rendering of the hymns. The Veda remains its own best authority. But all this ...
... pause only for a moment [at] the word avakhádah , over which Sayana gives himself very unnecessary trouble,—for it means clearly a pitfall or an abrupt descent, and the sense of dhítaye, taken by Sayana in the ritualistic significance, “for your eating”, and by myself, following my hypothesis, in the psychological sense conceded by Sayana in a number of other passages; dhíti means literally holding ...
... positive or dogmatic. For although the position I take, that the Veda contains the foundations of Brahmavidya, is old & hoary in Indian tradition, it is an audacious novelty to the modern intellect. Sayana does not establish it for us. Shankara acknowledges only to turn away from it and take refuge in the trenchant division of Karmakanda from Jnanakanda. The Europeans believe themselves to have shattered... of its principles, but simply expose their application in the different & more antique language of the Veda. Nor shall I trouble myself, more than is necessary for clearing the ground, either with Sayana or the Germans. My process being constructive and synthetic, its defence against other theories must necessarily be left aside until the construction is complete and the synthesis appreciable in its... of our own vain aspiration towards perfect strength, beauty & happiness and, if God did not make us in His image, we at least atone for His failure by making Him in ours! The Indian Pundits, with Sayana at their head, give us little help against these ideas which attack so fatally the ancient bedrock of our religion; servant & passive minds, they make no inquiry of their own, but preserve for us the ...
... for the benefit of the soul itself and of the gods who work in him, a complete and utter heroic energy, vast with the vastness of the Truth & luminous with its light. 1) अध्वरं. According to Sayana, the word is अ-ध्वरं from ध्वृ to hurt, and means unhurt by the Rakshasas etc. But the word unhurt thus used could never have become by itself a synonym for sacrifice, as अध्वर has done. Throughout... Yajna see Appendix I. उपप्रयंतो अध्वरं. Coming to the sacrifice of the path with Page 557 the progressive movement which belongs to the sacrifice, प्रयाति अध्वरे. आरे अस्मे च. Sayana takes च rather unnaturally with the whole phrase because he could not understand the distinction "afar and in us". There is always the distinction in the Veda between the far and the near, दूरे ..... . See I.10.4, एहि स्तोमाँ अभि स्वर । अभि गृणीह्यारुव । ब्रह्मा च नो वसो सचा । इंद्र यज्ञं च वर्धय ॥ which gives in a few words the theory of the divine acceptance of the Mantra. 2) सनीहितीषु. Sayana takes as "slaying", "those who slay" and he explains that Agni protects the sacrificer's wealth गय when the peoples who hurt come together in the battle to destroy or plunder. His note is वधकारिणीषु—ष्णिह ...
... Soma for life's sacrifice; brightening towards the gods I yoke to them my settled being and tranquillise it; cleave, O Agni, to my body. वक्षि Sayana. कामयस्व- but elsewhere [वह] अद्रिं Sayana ग्रावाणं युंजे । अभिषवणाय युनज्मि । शमाये Sayana शाम्यामि च । तथा च मंत्रातरं । ऋतेन देवः सविता शमायते । ऋग् ८.८६.५। यद्वा स्तौमि । शशमानो जरतीति स्तुतिकर्मसु पाठात् । तथा च मंत्रांतरं । सो अग्न ...
... with the Brahman—the Eighth Ray in man the mental being. The Seven Rays & the (Seven) Cows—(sisters) ascending from the domains of the three to the Highest (Varnam .. Varam) भुवनं is interpreted by Sayana in its etymological significance, a becoming, creature, भुतजातानि; he does not accept the ordinary sense, world. But to arrive at this original poverty of meaning we have to get rid of the plain &... is the Deva as Maker, Lord and Enjoyer of the world through the female energies, ग्नाः—the image of the Vrishabha & the Cows, the Lord and the Wife or Wives always present in the Veda. “पुरंधिः”. Sayana takes as an epithet of पूषा; but it seems rather to be the wife of the Aςwins, Suryâ. Otherwise there is no meaning in the अश्विनावधा पती; the Aςwins, the two husbands, being a hardly possible locution... सा, (the house is the embodied being of man). 5 The next three verses present more than one difficulty of both sense & syntax, but Sayana’s solutions seem to be Page 474 unacceptable. Sayana supposes the hymn to be a prayer to the Viςvadevas to join in and favour with their impelling force an armed expedition with “food” as its object. He takes वाज, चनः, वयः, श्रवः all in the sense of ...
... and carṣaṇi , interpreted by Sayana as "man", have as their base the roots kṛṣ and carṣ which originally imply labour, effort or laborious action. They mean sometimes the doer of Vedic Karma, sometimes, the Karma itself,—the worker or the works. × Note that Sayana explains vājinam in v. 8 as "fighter... make it intelligible. Even the reader unacquainted with Sanskrit will be able, I think, to appreciate from this single example the reasons which justify the modern critical mind in refusing to accept Sayana as a reliable authority for the interpretation of the Vedic text. ...
... es of interpretation. Sayana ignored none of them but placed the main emphasis on the ritualistic conception. The observation of the various rituals was to lead to specific material rewards like wealth, food, strength, power, progeny, horses, cows and servants, and also to the discomfiture and destruction Page 451 of the "enemies". The broad effect of Sayana was to shut in with a... least it opened "the antechambers of Vedic learning" to posterity. 12 Many centuries later, the Western scholar and his modern Indian counterpart tackled the Veda again, making full use of Sayana no doubt, but arriving at somewhat different conclusions: In this new light the Vedic hymnology has come to be interpreted as a half-superstitious, half-poetic allegory of Nature with an important ...
... the plenitude of the wealth." If we are right in our interpretation of this symbol of the Panis, these ideas are sufficiently intelligible without depriving the word of its ordinary sense, as does Sayana, and making it mean only a miserly, greedy human being whom the hunger-stricken poet is thus piteously importuning the Sun-God to turn to softness and charity. The Vedic idea was that the subconscient... born from the law of the Truth the immortality to which the Aryan soul by its sacrifice aspires. Page 240 × Sayana takes paṇ in Veda—to praise, but in one place he admits the sense of vyavahāra , dealing. Action seems to me to be its sense in most passages. From paṇ in the sense of action we have the earlier ...
... ṛtāvṛdhāv ṛtaspṛśā; kratuṁ bṛhantam āśāthe. Kavī no mitrāvaruṇā, tuvijātā urukṣayā; dakṣaṁ dadhāte apasam. In the first Rik of this passage we have the word dakṣa usually explained by Sayana as strength, but capable of a psychological significance, the important word ghṛta in the adjectival form ghṛtācī and the remarkable phrase dhiyaṁ ghṛtācīm . The verse may be translated literally... certain fresh precisions which throw further light on the central ideas of the Rishis. The word dakṣa , which alone in this passage admits of some real doubt as to its sense, is usually rendered by Sayana strength. It comes from a root which, like most of its congeners, e.g. daś, diś, dah , suggested originally as one of its characteristic significances an aggressive pressure and hence any form of ...
... in his next three verses. "O Agni," cries the Rishi, "increase in us the attainment of light & the full plenty of these active gods of the solar illumination." Gayam pushtim cha. The word gaya, Sayana tells us, means that which is reached or attained; it is dhanam, wealth. But gaya, as is usually the case with these early Sanscrit vocables, is capable of several shades of significance. It may mean... to feel an unmixed sense of pleasure & well-being in all Agni's self-expressions in man,—this, I think, is the meaning of śumbhanti in this passage. Or, if it has an active sense, it must mean, as Sayana suggests, that they make those expressions entirely auspicious & pleasurable, śobhanáh kurvanti; free from the touch of pain & suffering or the ill-results which may come from a premature activity ...
... move to thy encounter. योनिः. There is here the double sense, the woman's yoni & the receptacle, symbolically the altar, psychologically the human heart. परिवीतो. Not "surrounded by the gods" as Sayana would have it, but either "widely manifested" or "encompassing, going all round, pervading" = परिणीतः. इमाः either "these energies" of action in the human being or these mantras expressing the sense... entered into the blissful dawn (the bliss, the dawn), Heaven was revealed because Agni was born. शुनं. Sy. सुखेन. It means properly सुखं & may be either a noun or an epithet qualifying उषासं or as Sayana takes it an adverb. स्वर्. Sy. सूर्यः. It suits Sayana's naturalistic & ritualistic theory to take स्वर्, wherever possible, as the Sun; I take स्वर् always = Heaven, the third vyahriti, & सूर् or ...
... summoning priest of this sacrifice, all-knowing, right-willed. विश्ववेदसं. Sayana सर्वधनोपेतं. विद् = to find, know, get. वेदः = knowledge or the thing got or possessed. Hence it may mean either knowledge or possession. The exoteric sensemay be "having all wealth"; the esoteric is omniscient. कतुः See I.1 under कविकतुः. Sayana सुकर्माणं सुप्रज्ञं वा. Rather सुकर्मप्रज्ञं. The right-willed or rightly ...
... the following footnotes to his translation: "Sayana says that the two Birds are the vital and the Supreme Spirit, dwelling in one body. The vital spirit enjoys the fruit or rewards of actions while the Supreme Spirit is merely a passive spectator. The fine Birds are perhaps the priests, and the Keeper of the Universe may be Soma. Sayana explains suparnā , well-winged, in this and ...
... secret."² Sri Aurobindo proceeded, in due course, to study Brahmanas and the Upanishads, and various other interpretations of the Veda. He examined Vedic scholars, beginning from Yaska ending with Sayana, studied the mythological, legendary and historical elements, tested the modern theories and other reliance on comparative philology, Studied Tilak's contributions, Swami Dayananda's interpretation... Edition, p. 4 ³ Sri Aurobindo: The Secret of the Veda, Centenary Edition, p. 30 Page 56 interpretation and found in each of them an indispensable assistance. He found that Yaska and Sayana supplied the ritualistic framework of outward symbols and the large store of traditional significances and explanations. In the Upanishads, he found various clues to the psychological and philosophical ...
... looking it up, I found it was the three supreme births. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, it is the birth of Agni above in the Infinite. PURANI: He referred to Sayana and found that the three are Indra, Vayu and Agni. SRI AUROBINDO: Oh, if he goes by Sayana, he will be finished. PURANI: He says people won't accept your interpretation of the Veda.. SATYENDRA: Everybody has interpreted the Veda according ...
... ancient litanies. One of these is prehistoric in time and exists only by fragments in the Brahmanas and Upanishads; but we possess in its entirety the traditional interpretation of the Indian scholar Sayana and we have in our own day the interpretation constructed after an immense labour of comparison and conjecture by modern European scholarship. Both of them present one characteristic in common, the... the effective symbols of a spiritual experience and knowledge and a psychological discipline of self-culture which were then the highest achievement of the human race. The ritual system recognised by Sayana may, in its externalities, stand; the naturalistic sense discovered by European scholarship may, in its general conceptions, be accepted; but behind them there is always the true and still hidden secret ...
... protect Soma in a battle, a Soma that itself fights. 9 जनेषु पंचसु इंद्रियाणि या ते. The five worlds: according to Sayana Gandharvas, Fathers, Gods, Asuras, Rakshasas or the five castes. 10 अगत्. गच्छतु S. Can it not be past sense? उत् तिरामसि Meaning of तृ not to increase as Sayana, but Page 480 pass through in the battle. [11] उ लोकः S. उत्तमो लोकः. Here distinguished from अर्वावतः ...
... recovery of the Sun and the Dawn is a frequent subject of allusion in the hymns of the Rig Veda. Sometimes it is the finding of Surya, sometimes the finding or conquest of Swar, the world of Surya. Sayana, indeed, takes the word Swar as a synonym of Surya; but it is perfectly clear from several passages that Swar is the name of a world or supreme Heaven above the ordinary heaven and earth. Sometimes... by his illumination. We have seen that the waters which descend from Heaven or which are conquered and enjoyed by Indra and the mortals who are befriended by him, are described as svarvatīr apaḥ . Sayana, taking these apaḥ for physical waters, was bound to find another meaning for svarvatīḥ and he declares that it means saraṇavatīḥ , moving; but this is obviously a forced sense which the word ...
... now once for all. It has only to be progressively intensified & cast more & more into the Mahakalibhava. It still Page 505 keeps too much of the Maheshwari-Mahasaraswati bhava. St . Sayana Bhur—ie the physical consciousness has now to be solarised (moulded into the ideality). N.B. Before seeing, it was intimated to the thought-perception that today's sortilege would be a repetition... frequent than the correct reception of the truth from above. The latter occurs rarely; nor are the perceptions as a rule illumined, but belong to the physical consciousness. The sortilege of the 21ṣṭ, Sayana Bhur is being fulfilled as the preparation for those of the 13ṭḥ. The सुवृक्ति is going on in the physical consciousness which is being prepared as the lowest layer of the barhis . In Tapas, the ...
... Muller has understood one thing by the Vedic mantras, Sayana has understood another, Yaska had his own interpretations of their antique diction, but none of them understood what Yajnavalkya and Ajatashatru understood. We shall yet have to go back from the Nature-worship and henotheism of the Europeans, beyond the mythology and ceremonial of Sayana, beyond even the earlier intimations of Yaska and recover—nor ...
... fall into a sacred neglect and almost into a revered oblivion. Only those whom a strong and unquestioning orthodoxy dispenses from the obligations of the critical spirit, can for a moment imagine that Sayana holds for us the key to their meaning. The advent and labours of European scholarship have rescued these divine hymns from a long secrecy and neglect, but have thrown no trustworthy illumination on... the most extravagant gambols of his ingenuity; but more serious results need not be expected from his labour. After the ingenious toils of Roth & Max Muller, as after the erudite diligence of Yaska & Sayana, the Vedic mantras remain for us what they have been for some thousands of years, a darkness of lost light and a sealed mystery. Driven from its ancient reverence for the mystic Veda, Indian sp ...
... humanity's outer existence is bound to be baffled again and again and driven — as is the greatest traditional commentator, Sayana — to give different meanings to recurring turns of speech in order to make some head or tail of the strangely moving body of an antique religious poetry. Thus Sayana explains one of the key-words, rtam, which connotes "truth" or "right", as "truth", "sacrifice", "water", "one who ...
... is offered. The Puranas, obviously, only continue in this respect the original Vedic tradition. × Sayana takes a-dhvara yajña , the unhurt sacrifice; but "unhurt" can never have come to be used as a synonym of sacrifice. Adhvara is "travelling", "moving", connected with adhvan , a path or journey ...
... it in VII.81.3, yā vahasi puru spārhaṁ ratnaṁ na dāśuṣe mayaḥ , "thou who bearest to the giver the beatitude as a manifold and desirable ecstasy." A common Vedic word is the word sūnṛtā which Sayana interprets as "pleasant and true speech"; but it seems to have often the more general sense of "happy truths". Dawn is sometimes described as ṛtāvarī , full of the Truth, sometimes as sūnṛtāvarī ...
... , 93, 94, 145 see also Hinduism Sannyasin, 69 , 106,219 Sanskrit, 12, l00 (fn), 107, 109 , 118, 157 Saraswati (river), 10 1(fn) Satyagraha, Satyagrahi, l SI , 166, 180, 209 Satya Yuga, 91 Sayana, 94 -96, 105, 116 scholarship, in Europe, 12, 80 , 95 -96, 97 (fn), 98(fn), 107 , 115, 116 in India, 12,98(1"), 115-116 science, 49 , 59 , 77 -78 , 80, 110 , 127 , 134 , 135 , 137,235,249 ...
... Vb forms. ततंथ विभाहि Syn. अस्मे (12) नृवत् . S. मनुष्यैरुपेतं धनं. अस्मे = अस्मासु —in 11 अस्मदर्थं पूर्वीः. S. पूरयित्र्यः कामानां बह्व्यो वा Vb forms धेहि. Nom. पश्व Syn. भूरि .. पश्व (so Sayana) (13) पुरूधा. गवाश्वादिरूपेण बहुप्रकाराणि. वसुता. वसुतायै वसुमत्त्वाय. ते with वसूनि Bharatswami सप्तम्यंतं चकार भट्टभास्करमिश्रोऽप्येकपदं संबुद्व्यंतं चकार अश्यां. व्याप्नुयां भुंजीय वा राजनि ...
... प्रसितिं may mean a path, but literally it seems to mean an assault or a march & that sense is most appropriate here. In any case the sense of the rik is perfectly lucid & simple & it is painful to see Sayana stumbling about it under a clumsy load of laborious & inapplicable learning. 2) तव भ्रमास आशुया पतंति अनु स्पृश धृषता शोशुचानः । तपृंषि अग्ने जुह्वा पतंगा- नसंदितो वि सृज विष्वगुल्काः ॥ ...
... I do not understand S's आगंतारं. विश्वं. S's व्याप्तं = present all over the world in various sacrifices is a ritualist ingenuity. विश्व simply means all-pervading or universal. प्रचेतसं. Sayana thinks this means "knowing the ritual". प्रचेताः is the later प्रज्ञः. Agni is the Wise One, the Knower or Perceiver of all objects of knowledge. There is nothing in the text or in the Veda to limit ...
... position .. eg to climb, to fight, to row, to cultivate. In the Veda it seems to indicate at least in its surface sense Agni as one who travels between heaven and earth through the mid air. 2 ऋष्व Sayana. 1. beautiful. 2. great. Apte. Ved. great, noble, high. But cf kindred words. ऋष् = 1. to go, approach, flow, glide —movement 2. to push —movement, pressure 3. to kill, injure ...
... effort that seemed formerly to be constantly broken & lead to nothing begin to prepare their fulfilment. The Veda is taken up in two parts—Vamadeva's hymns on which notes are being taken from Sayana & the Ninth Book which is being copied and annotated. The work of the Review must now be systematised as also the preparation of a statement of the Yoga— Page 821 The rest of ...
... ritual of sacrificial prayer to mighty supra-terrestrial Gods for the sake of cattle and gold and children and intoxicating drinks and the defeat of enemies: this is the essence of the Rigveda for Sayana and his school. On the basis of the word "pusti", a Rishi has even been taken to have prayed: "May I grow fat!" Sri Aurobindo has swept away all this nonsense as well as the nonsense of the European ...
... indeed, to abandon authority, to revolt against custom and superstition, to have free and enlightened minds. But they mean by these sounding recommendations that we should renounce the authority of Sayana for the authority of Max Muller, the Monism of Shankara for the Monism of Haeckel, the written Shastra for the unwritten law of European social opinion, the dogmatism of Brahmin Pandits for the dogmatism ...
... depend on its discovery and on its application, not to the renunciation of life, but to life in the world and among men.” 16 – “It is irrelevant to me what Max Müller thinks of the Veda or what Sayana thinks of the Veda. I should prefer to know what the Veda has to say for itself and, if there is any light there on the unknown or on the infinite, to follow the ray till I come face to face with that ...
... languages, 273 Satapatha Brāhmaṇa, 235, 297, 299, 301 satpati, 406, 410 satabhuji, 193, 300, 304-5 Sauma Aryans, see Aryans, Sauma Savitar, 301 Sayana, 194, 258, 288, 302, 347, 398, 407 Sayu, 296 scarlet ware, 252, 253 Schleicher, 273 scripts Brahmi, 202 Indus, 156, 184, 202 post-Harappān, 201 ...
... from pooh-poohing a different meaning. They are prepard for it by another break-up of the Sanskrit word than a-nās. They write: "The sense of this word is not absolutely certain: the Pada text and Sayana both take it to mean 'without face' (an-as)." 24 And they add the footnote: "This sense allows of two interpretations: 'misfeatured,' which seems that of Roth, St. Petersburg Dictionary, s v., and ...
... of the lost Sun and the lost cows is effected, for we have the explicit statement in X.62.2, rtenābhindan parivatsare valam, 'by the truth, in the revolution of the year, they broke Vala', or as Sayana interprets it, 'by sacrifice lasting for a year'. This passage certainly goes 5. Ibid. pp. 430-31. Page 80 far to support the Arctic theory, for it speaks of a yearly and not a ...
... tradition that we should see his discussion of the Triple Purusha of the Gita. Here we may also mention en passant that Maharashtra produced great Yogis or devotee poets, but has given no Shankara or Sayana or Ramanuja or Madhva or Vallabha bringing with him the originality and power of intellectual penetration which we find with remarkable abundance in the Southern spirit. Part C Apropos ...
... Vidya Bhawan, Bombay, 1968. Renoir, Louis, Religions of Ancient India, New York, 1968. Renou, Louis, Bibliographic Vedique, Adrein Maisonneure, Parise, 1931. Rigveda Samhita with Sayana Bhas.ya, Volumes 1-5, Poona, 1933 1951. Rorty, R. , Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature, Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J., 1979. Sanyal, B.S., Ethics & Meta- Ethics ...
... understand where this Basanta Chatterji found me denying them. NIRODBARAN: Satyendra has also shown me what you have written. SRI AUROBINDO: I don't remember if I have written anything against Sayana in my introduction to The Secret of the Veda . I have to ask Purani. When Purani came in, Sri Aurobindo asked him the question. PURANI: I don't think you have written anything against Sayana's ...
... Vedic elements. The meanings of Vedic words are often extremely disputable & it would be unsafe to rely whether on the significances fixed by the European scholars or on those fixed centuries ago by Sayana or even by Yaska. It is better, & quite sufficient for the immediate purpose, to rely upon the classical tongue with its undoubted & well-ascertained meanings. These are the lines upon which I have ...
... Rahugana 1) कथा दाशेम अग्नये का अस्मै देवजुष्टा उच्यते भामिने गीः । यो मर्त्येषु अमृतो ऋतावा होता यजिष्ठ इत् कृणोति देवान् ॥ कथा. This ancient form follows the analogy of सर्वथा, अन्यथा etc. Sayana thinks that कथा दाशेम is a confession of incompetence. This is possible but not necessary. The question may simply express the seeking, naturally with a sense of difficulty, for the right manner of ...
... in the self of things is the only knowledge; all else is mere idea or opinion,” 50 wrote Sri Aurobindo. And, ever the radical: “It is irrelevant to me what Max Müller thinks of the Veda or what Sayana thinks of the Veda. I should prefer to know what the Veda has to say for itself and, if there is any light there on the unknown or on the infinite, to follow the ray till I come face to face with that ...
... Sargon, 1, 83 Sarkar, S.S., 21-3, 68, 97 Sastri, K.N., 57 Sastri, S. Srikanta, 16 Satapatha Brāhmaṇa, 87 Saurāshtra, 9, 20, 21, 52 Sayana, 114 Schrader, O., 55 Science, 2fn. Scientific American , 4fn. Seal no. 3357, 50-51 Secret of the Veda, The, i, iiifn., 133fn. Semi-Harappān ...
... is to have any coherent or consistent meaning, we must interpret it as a whole. We may escape our difficulties by assigning to svar or gāḥ entirely different senses in different passages—just as Sayana sometimes finds in gāḥ the sense of cows, sometimes rays and sometimes, with an admirable light-heartedness, compels it to mean waters. 1 But such a system of interpretation is not rational merely ...
... to Saraswati and render the verse "Saraswati, the great river, awakens us to knowledge by the perception and shines in all our thoughts". If we understand by this expression, "the great river", as Sayana seems to understand, the physical river in the Punjab, we get an incoherence of thought and expression which is impossible except in a nightmare or a lunatic asylum. But it is possible to suppose that ...
... Blank left by the author to be filled in later but left unfilled, which the editors were not able to fill. [16] [RV VII.41–50] Seventh Mandala. Hymn 41 (2) प्रातर्जितं. P.P. [Padapatha] Sayana separates. Cf other passages. आध्रश्चिद् .. तुरश्चिद् .. राजा चिद्—দরিদ্র ষোতা এবং ধনশালী রাজা. But there are three. “One who holds .. one who makes the passage .. one who is king” or “the grave ...
... constantly glimpsed but so distant even to him who seems to himself almost to have attained. Page 275 × Namas . Sayana takes namas throughout in his favourite sense, food; for "increasers of salutation" is obviously impossible. It is evident from this and other passages that behind the physical sense of obeisance ...
... Riks in which their names occur, whether in hymns to other gods or in invocations to the All-gods, the Viśve Devāḥ , are by no means inconsiderable in number. These four deities are, according to Sayana, solar powers, Varuna negatively as lord of the night, Mitra positively as lord of the day, Bhaga and Aryaman as names of the Sun. We need not attach much importance to these particular identifications ...
... ignorance, all these cleave away like loosened things; then may we be dear to thee, O Varuna. Page 548 × Sayana explains, either the electric fire in the water of the clouds or the submarine fire in the ocean. × ...
... general opinion, it is with these two that I am practically concerned. I am still of the opinion that the method and results of the early Vedantins differed entirely from the method and results of Sayana, for reasons I shall give in the second and third numbers of "Arya". Practically, not in theory, what is the result of Sayana's commentary? What is the general impression it leaves on the mind? Is ...
... required by grammar or sense, and that could be supplied by the editors. 1) ऊर्ध्व ऊ षु णो अध्वरस्य होतरग्ने तिष्ठ देवताता यजीयान् । त्वं हि विश्वमभ्यसि मन्म प्र वेधसश्चित्तिरसि मनीषां ॥ S. [Sayana:] देवताता देवास्तायंते विस्तीर्यंतेऽत्रेति देवतातिर्यज्ञः मन्म मननीयं शत्रूणां धनं चित् पूजायां अभ्यसि अभिभवसि प्रतिरसि प्रवर्धयसि (देवताता Agni on high as Hotri of the Adhwara in ...
... as the sacrifice” or “and the sacrifice”,—neither of which renderings makes any tolerable sense. × Sayana renders “Let none torture thee”; but it refers to the extension in the gross and obscure material of being natural to the covering darkness, as opposed to the luminous subtlety of the divine mind which ...
... sacrifice; but it means also power or strength (the Greek kratos) effective of action. Psychologically this power effective of action is the will. The word may also mean mind or intellect and Sayana admits thought or knowledge as a possible sense..." In Kratu we have the right inevitable accompaniment to or else next-step from bodhi and the basic equivalent of the name of Boudyas's successor: ...
... liberal and democratic societies in contemporary times. Background At the outset, I would like to point out that ancient Vedic texts have been variously interpreted as having ritualistic (Cf. Sayana), naturalistic, philological (Cf. Muller) and more recently, psychological and spiritual meanings. We shall concern ourselves with the psychological and spiritual interpretation, which is relevant ...
... 1940 Talks with Sri Aurobindo 28 JANUARY 1940 PURANI: I have read The Secret of the Veda . There is no pronouncement against Sayana. I don't know if Nolini's introduction to his own madhhuchanda has any reference to him. (Sri Aurobindo read the introduction.) Abhay has come; he had to go to Hyderabad and through the intercession of Sir Akbar managed ...
... May the Fathers give back to us again, may the Divine Page 14 People do the same; may we cling to the Life with its complex (of divine work). NOTES: Vratah = sangha (Sayana), group multitude. (6) May we, O Immortal Delight, install the Mind in our bodily formation; may we, enriched in our progeny, cling to your Divine Work. Page 15 ...
... decades were to elapse before the seeds sown by him were to sprout. In his time it was, as he put it, "After the ingenious toils of Roth and Max Muller, as after the erudite diligence of Yaska and Sayana, the Vedic mantras remain for us what they have been for some thousands of years, a darkness of lost light and a sealed mystery." Yet the Veda has been the bedrock of all Hindu creeds. But the trouble ...
... benevolence she is not a goddess. As a psychological image she is described in the form of benevolence. Similarly, Agni can take the form of Tapas. He can also say that Sri Aurobindo hasn't criticised Sayana's polytheistic interpretation of the Vedas but rather his predominantly ritualistic interpretation. And he can point out that Sri Aurobindo has no Western stamp in his interpretation. At the same time ...
... to worship at the shrines of Comparative Science & Comparative Mythology & offer up on these dubious altars the Veda & Vedanta. The question of Vedic truth & the meaning of Veda still lies open. If Sayana’s interpretation of Vedic texts is largely conjectural and likely often to be mistaken & unsound, the European interpretation can lay claim to no better certainty. The more lively ingenuity and imposing ...
... trunks full of books and papers with him as always. Including, Nolini recalled, "a copy of Max Muller's ten-volume edition of the book (Rig-Veda), only the text. Sometime later he secured a copy of Sayana's 'Commentary' " It was indeed when Sri Aurobindo was living at Sundar Chetty's house that he started studying the Rig-Veda in the original Sanskrit. At Shankar Chetty's house, with nothing to ...
... Arya and Dasyu is not at all a national or tribal or merely human distinction, but has a deeper significance. The fighters are certainly the seven Angirases; for they and not the Maruts, which is Sayana's interpretation of satvabhiḥ , are Indra's helpers in the release of the Cows. But the three persons whom Indra finds or comes to know by entering among the bright cows, by possessing the trooping ...
... linguistic chasm between 'Aryan' and 'Dravidian', 450-51; little 'history' in the Vedic hymns, 450-51; Veda, a treasure-house of spiritual culture, 451; Brahmanas and Upanishads, Karma and Jnana, 451; Sayana's ritualistic interpretation, 451-52;Westem naturalistic interpretation, 452; Dayananda's restoration of Veda as religious scripture, 452; Sri Aurobindo's new look into the Veda, 452; Rishis as poets ...
... animal or animals, or, the "instruments of control". × Or, they did work by their thoughts. This is Sayana's interpretation. × Or, held in their thought ...
... stand but hardly does it add anything spiritual to the contents and Vamadeva, the Rishi of the Hymn, would not have bothered to mention it. However, it is an interpretation which is far superior to Sayana's suggestion in which this Lady is taken to be Sachi; but that would immediately deprive her of the native truth-consciousness she always possesses. Indeed, though the human soul may grow in the ...
... Page 129 it add anything spiritual to the contents and Vamadeva, the Rishi of the Hymn, would not have bothered to mention it. However, it is an interpretation which is far superior to Sayana's suggestion in which this Lady is taken to be Sachi; but that would immediately deprive her of the native truth-consciousness she always possesses. Indeed, though the human soul may grow in the likeness ...
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