WRITTEN BY LONDON SWAMINATHAN

Post No. 10,485

Date uploaded in London – –   25 DECEMBER  2021         

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Let us continue our detailed analysis of Hymn to Earth (Bhumi Sukta) in the Atharvana Veda (AV)

This is part 2 of Bhumi Sukta Commentary by me

I suggested that it (AV. XII) should be made compulsory to all students in the world. It has a message to appreciate and preserve Mother Earth. Through out the Vedas we see Earth praised as Mother. Greeks stole this idea from us (Gaia). Europe has to wait for 3000 years to get a Wordsworth, but Hindus have not only Bhumi Sukta but also beautiful description of Nature in the oldest book on Earth, the Rig Veda (RV-dated between 4000 and 6000 BCE by B G Tilak and Herman Jacobi). Professor Wilson and Winternitz placed it before 2000 BCE.

Wordsworth began his famous poem on Daffodils with the lines

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o’er vales and hills

He followed AV in many respects. AV Bhumi Sukta has the lines in its Second Stanza or Mantra

Earth which has many heights, and slopes and

The unconfined plain that binds men together,

Earth that bears plants of various healing powers

May she spread wide for us and thrive.

(Heights and Slopes= Mountains and Valleys; plants with healing powers= Oshadi in Sanskrit)

Origin of Ayurveda is in the RV which even speaks about 107 different herbs. Here we come across Oshadi. We have a proof to support our views. Hanuman brought the Sanjeevini Parvath from the North to Sri Lanka in the South several thousand years ago. The Parvath/Hill full of herbs revived Lakshmana. So we have practical application of herbal treatment in the Hindu Epic Ramayana.

Another Sanskrit word ‘Maanavaanaam’ in the second stanza is worth of our notice. No one can speak English or Tamil without a Sanskrit word even for five minutes. Word MAN is derived from he first man of earth after the Great Deluge, Manu.

This raises another interesting point. Manu and his descendants are mentioned in the Rig Veda itself. So the Great Deluge mentioned in all religious books happened before the Rig Veda.

xxx

Let us move to Stanza 3

Earth, in which lie the sea , the river and other waters,

In which food and cornfields have come to be,

In which live all that breathes and that moves,

May she confer on us the finest of her yield.

There are very important words in this third stanza or mantra. Please note the word US. Throughout the Vedas, Hindus pray for the entire humanity. They always say ‘we’ or ‘us’ instead of ‘I’. They prayed in groups. The WE comprise all the four castes which we see in the famous Purusha sukta hymn of RV (10-90)

That is the reason for Indian kings donating vast lands to Brahmins through out South Asia. We see it even in the Mulavarman Inscription of Indonesia. Tamil kings donated huge lands to Brahmins for cultivation

The second point is the geographical knowledge of Vedic Hindus. Earth is always mentioned with the epithet circled with ocean waters or ‘Ocean Dress worn by Mother Earth’. Tamils also followed this in their poems.

Two other points in this stanza are noticeable. Max Muller gang and Marxist gang wrote that Aryans were nomads. But here and in the RV, we see very clear reference to cultivation of food plants and praying for abundant yields. Another matter is talking about all living beings. We see the words Flora and Fauna of every country in the encyclopaedias. In the Second stanza, Flora is mentioned and in the third stanza Fauna is mentioned. Hindus are always conscious of these two things. They always prayed for all living beings. This view is reflected until modern days in the poems o he greatest Tamil poet of modern era Bharatiyar and his predecessor Vallalar Ramalinga Swamikal.

Bharati said that Crows and swallows are our own kins; Vast Ocean and Hills belong to our own group. Vallalar said that he withers away  whenever he saw withering plants. There we see the continuity and unity in thought from the Vedic days.

The crow and sparrow our kin;

One with us mountain and sea

Wherever we glance ourselves a – dance

In a whirl of ecstasy – Subrahmanya Bharati

Sanskrit words Samudra, Sindhu, Annam, Prana and Bhumi are all known to all Indians. That shows Sanskrit is a living language. In the very first mantra we already saw (in this first part of the article) common words such as Sathya, Rta, Tapa, Brahma, Yajna and Deeksha.

Please see the attachments: –

–subham–

tags- Bhumi Sukta, Hymn to Earth-2, Wordsworth