Article No.1984
Compiled by London swaminathan
Date 9th July 2015
Time uploaded in London: 21-25
Ancient Hindus were very clever. They classified not only plants and animals for the first time in human history but also the books. Since they were mathematical geniuses they used the numbers for all their anthologies, poetry, books, verses etc. They had very high numeracy and literacy skills that was not seen in any other part of the world. They have called their scriptures after numbers Chatur (4)Veda, Ashtadyayi (Eight Chapters or Paniniyam), Sahasranamam (1000 names), Satakam (100 verses), Dasakam (10 verses), Ahtakam (8 verses). Most of the popular books were named after numbers! Each chapter of Mahabharata finisheas with the lines “thus ends the XYZ chapter in the book of 100,000 verses!”
But for two reasons they were not given due credit for their achievements:
1.Western Ignorance
Westerners were ignorant of Hindu scriptures. They did not know about Sanskrit before 17th century. Not only that, Greece was one of the countries which was not ruled or subdued by the big colonial powers. So the Greeks commanded some respect.
2.Constant Updating of Hindu scriptures
Hindu scriptures like Puranas, Charka Samhita, Susruta Samhita, Manu Smrti, and Mahabharata were constantly updated with the latest matters. Westerners who came to India as rulers looked at the latest additions and gave the latest date on the basis of new materials. Only Vedic literature was left untouched by those Hindu enthusiasts.
This type of addition is there in Greek, Hebrew and Latin literature but the westerners ignored the additions and gave them the oldest date. They had absolute loyalty to Old and New Testaments of the Bible. Even the original Bible was in Greek language though Jesus used Aramaic language.
In short, they followed double standards. Max Muller’s theory of “a language changing every 200 years” was not applied to any other literature in any other part of the world. He applied it only for Vedic Samhitas (1200 BCE), Brahmanas (1000 BCE) and Aranyakas (800 BCE) and Upanishads (600 BCE). If we apply the same rule for Tamil literature all the dates in the books will fall flat.
Hindus must start some constructive work like listing all the plants in the Atharva Veda, Saraka Samhita, Susruta Samhita, Vatsyayana’s Sex manual Kama sutra etc. Even Vishnu Sahasranama has three plants belonging to the Ficus family (Asvatta, Banyan and Fig). They were the pioneers of modern classification. In the same way they have grouped Nava Dhanyas, Ten types of Grasses etc. Even the medicines were classified as Tri phala, Tri Katuka, Ashta Churna (all have mostly herbal ingredients). Tamils even named their books after these Sanskrit words Trikatuka, Pancha mula (five roots).
The classification of books show that they had reached the highest intellectual calibre in the whole world. This is supported by the decimal system and highest numbers found in the Vedas.
Chatur (4) Veda
The pioneer in classification of books was Veda Vyasa. Traditional dating is around 3150 BCE and modern scholars’ dating is around 1500 BCE. He was the one who classified the Vedas into four and named them Chatur Veda (Four Vedas) and entrusted the responsibility of spreading it to four of his students. A great administrator! But for him we would have lost all the Vedas. Rik, Yajur, Sama and Athrvana Vedas are the four Vedas.
Prasthanatrayam 3 (Trinity of Books)
Hindus consider three (set of) books as the three pillars of Hinduism: Brahmasutra, Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita
Dasopanishad 10
Ten Upanishads were grouped together as primary Upanishads (Philosophical treatises):- Aitareya, Brihadaranyaka, Chandogya, Isa, Kena, Katha, Prasna, Mundaka, Mandukya, Taittiriya.
They had over 150 Upanishads! But these are the ten important Upanishads.
18 Puranas were grouped together:
Agni, Bhagavata, Brahma, Brahmanda, Brahmavaivarta, Garuda, Harivamsa, Kurma, Linga, Markandeya, Matsya, Narada, Padma, Siva, Skanda, Vamana, Varaha, (Vayu), Vishnu.
Purana means Pura api Nava (Old story but ever New/fresh); great leaders of India Shivaji and Gandhiji were inspired by the Puranic (mythological) stories.
18 Upa Puranas:
Sanat kumara, Narasimha, Brihna Naradiya, Siva Rahasya, Durvasana, Kapila, (Manava, Ausanasa), Varuna, Kalika, Samba, Nandi, Saura, Parasara, (Aditya), Mahesvara, Bhargava, Vasistha, Devi Bhagavata,Ganesa, Mudgala (and Hamsa).
Upa puranas wthin brackets are found in some versions replacing some from the list.
Ashtadyayi /8 Chapters (750 BCE)
Even the world’s greatest grammarian Panini named his book Eight Chapter (Ashta Adhyaya)
Pancha (5) Maha Kavyas
Raghuvamsa and Kumarasambhava of Kalidasa, Kiratarjuniya of Bharavi, Sisupalavadha of Magha and Naisadha Sarita by Sri Harsha.
Tamil Classification
Tamils followed Veda Vyasa and did whatever Vyasa did for Hindu scriptures. They also divided their books into groups and named them after numbers. They also gave some poets some peculiar names after their famous epithets or phrases like Vyasa did in the Rig Veda. They also elevated their poets to divine level like Divine Valluvar. In the North even Panini was called Divine Panini (Bhagavan Panini by Patanjali). All the 450+ poets of the Rig Veda were called sages/seers!
Five (5) Tamil Epics:
Like Pancha Maha Kavyas of Sanskrit literature, Tamils divided their Kavyas into five and used the Sanskrit word Kavya=Kappiyam; they are Silappadikaram, Manimekalai, Seevaka (Jeevaka) Chintamani, Valaiyapathy, Kundalakesi
One can easily notice the Sanskrit words in each of the above five names.
Eight (8) Anthologies:
Part of 2000 year old Sangam Literature; they are Pura nanuru/ 400, Aka nanuru/400, Natrinai/400, Kuruntokai/400, Pathitruppathu (10×10), Kalitokai, Paripatal and Ainkurunuru (5×100)
You can see the numbers in almost all the collections.
Ten (10) Idylls:
Porunar atruppadai,Tirumuruka atruppadai,Perumpana atruppadai,Sirupana atruppadai,Kurinjippattu, Malaipadukatam, Nedunalvatai, Maduraikanchi, Mullaippattu. Pattinappalai
18 Didactic Poetry Books/ 18 Minor Poems:
Tirukkural, Naladiyar 400, Pazamozi 400, Nanmanikadikai, Iniyavai Narpathu 40, Inna Narpathu 40, Kar Narpathu 40, Kalavazi Narpathu 40,Ainthinai Aimpathu 50, Ainthinai Ezupathu 70, Thinaimozi aimathu 50, Thinaimalai Nutraimpathu 150, Tirikatukam 3 , Acharakovai, Sirupancha mulam 5, Mudumozikanchi, Innilai, Elathy
I have already written about the Tamil’s obsession with Numbers, 4, 40, 400 etci.in a separate article a few years ago (I have also submitted two articles at the World Tamil Conference held in Thanjavur in 1995: NUMBERS SANGAM IN TAMIL LITERATURE and COLOURS IN SANGAM TAMIL LITERATURE)
This is the Hindu genius. Most of the books were memorised! Not only the Vedas but also dictionaries! Vedas are themselves world wonders; SPREAD BY WORD OF MOUTH FOR OVER 4000 YEARS! No book with over 1000 hymns is spread like this. I myself knew 200 lines of Amarakosa (Sanskrit Thesaurus) by heart when I was a school student. Later I discontinued studying Sanskrit. Recently I read a professor’s account of memorising a whole book because his Sanskrit teacher never allowed any modern tools in the class room. That book was not available in any library. Later he published it for the use of general public.
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Pictures are taken from various sources;thanks.
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