They contain views which, if not wholly convincing, are highly interesting and suggestive.

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Rig Veda: Download (PDF 13 MB) Yajur Veda: Download (PDF 1.8 MB) Atharva Veda: Download (PDF 1.6 MB).

It is, therefore, not a little strange to find that Rig Vedic studies should evoke, even in the present restless century of research and investigation, of excavation and revaluation, so little genuine interest in India, the cradle of these songs, the country where these very hymns have in time by-gone been studied and taught with such meticulous care and deep-rooted attachment, and even reverence.

The only Indian scholar who in recent years had seriously studied the Vedas and tried to arrive at an independent conclusion as to their meaning and value was my Guru, the late Professor Rajaram Ramakrishna Bhagvat.

His researches have suffered underserved neglect at the hands of his countrymen, and, owing to their being written in Marathi, have after barely twenty years, passed into unmerited oblivion.

Handed down through untold vistas of centuries exclusively by oral tradition the Rig Veda Samhita has in the mouths of the devout reciters not entirely escaped that fate which is uniformly shared, in all- climes and all ages, by similar works which have originated in some early historical epoch and have continued to live on through succeeding epochs of linguistic and literary development.

Nevertheless, it cannot be gainsaid that the tradition of the Rig Veda is unique for its antiquity, purity and continuity in the history of world literature, and particularly in the history of the literatures of the Indo-germanic family.

The early history of Greek has to be pieced together laboriously from imperfectly preserved inscriptions; the language of the Homeric poems, which are considerably later than our Rig Vedic hymns, is regarded by competent critics as an artificial dialect.

Gothic, the most archaic language of the Germanic group, is known to us chiefly through the translations of the Bible made by Bishop Ulfilas in the fourth century of the Christian era.

Of the Balto-slavonic branch, Old Prussian died out in the seventeenth century; only some few imperfectly recorded specimens of Old Prussian have been preserved to us and they date from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

The literary record of Gaelic, the most important branch of the Celtic group begins in the eighth century A.

D. and only from the commencement of the twelfth century do we find any manuscripts which contain sagas and theological literature.

It is not an exaggeration to say that the imposing structures of Indo-germanic Philology and Mythology have been reared onand would have been impossible to rear without the solid and broad foundation of Rig Vedic tradition And this Rig Veda is our heritage.

Furthermore it is improper to impose on European scholars the burden of interpreting our literature, our past We must fit ourselves to shoulder our own burdens.

And for that we must equip ourselves with all the paraphernalia of the technique of modern philological and historical research.

It is anticipated that the arrangement will be a permanent one.

Here is, an opportunity for young Indians to learn, under competent guidance, the correct method and the results of latest researches in the interpretation of the Rig Veda.

It may be confidently hoped that the new scheme launched by the University will meet with ready response from the student world, and, in the fullness of time, will fructify in reawakening in India the interest in Vedic studies.

It has servedand served wellthe needs of the graduate students for over a decade and a call for a second edition is a clear indication of its just merits end well-deserved popularity.

The lectures have been re-printed here, with the exclusion of what appeared to the editor as superfluous matter: the correction of some minor errors and inaccuracies: and finally addition of an index (compiled by Mr.

N. N. Kulkarni, B.

A., of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute) and of some supplementary matter, chiefly in the shape of foot notes.

These latter are mainly intended to draw the attention of the student to important works in this field which have appeared since the book was written.

For the convenience of Indian students, with a view to facilitate reading and study, Sanskrit words and names have throughout been printed in Devanagari characters.

Berriedale Keith on the age of the Rig Veda and the period of the later Samhitas in the Cambridge History of India, volume II (1922).

Vedas In Hindi Pdf