'Veda'
means 'Knowledge'. As we call the first period known to us as Vedic, it
can be thus understood that it was a Knowledge gaining period. For
quite some time, a few scholars believed that this knowledge amounted to
no more than just speculations regarding the self; this is what we are
still told in a few school books, infact in almost all school books. New
insights in Archaeology, Astronomy,
history of Science and Vedic Scholarship have shown that such a view is
wrong. We now know that Vedic Scholarship embraced Physics, Mathematics,
Astronomy, Logic Cognition and many other diverse fields. It is easily
understandable that Vedic Science is the earliest Science which has come
down to us. This has significant implications in understanding of
history of ideas and Evolution of early Civilizations
The
reconstruction of our earliest Science are based not only on Vedas but
also on their appendices called Vedangas. The six Vedangas deal with :
'Kalpa' - Performance of rituals with its basis on Geometry, Mathematics
and Calendrics ; 'Shiksha' - Phonetics ; 'Channdas' - Metrical
Structures ; 'Nirukta' - Etymology ; 'Vyakarna' - Grammar and
'Jyothishya' - Astronomy and other
cyclical Phenomena. There are also naturalistic descriptions in the
Vedas that tell us a lot about Scientific ideas of those times.
The
Vedic Texts present present a tripartite and recursive world view. The
Universe is viewed as three regions of the Earth, Space and Sky with the
corresponding regions of Vishwe Devas. In the Vedic World view, the
processes in the sky, on earth and within the mind are taken to be
connected. The Vedic Rishis were aware that all descriptions of the
Universe leads to a logical paradox. The one category which transcends
all oppositions is/was termed as 'Brahman'. Understanding the nature of
consciousness is of paramount importance in this view, but it doesn't
mean that other sciences were ignored. Vedic ritual was a symbolic
retelling of this world view.
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