Ishwa helper Reged: 03/03/02 Posts: 553

Re: Who are the Aryans - Who else but we [Re: priyadarshi] #12975 - 03/05/02 04:03 PM Edit Reply Quote

Dear Priyadarshi, That is very plausible. The Sarasvati was not only the name of the river but became symbol of Wisdom. As such we have the synonyms Bharati and Ila. What is remembered in the Vedas is mainly the Bharata period. Sometimes we get glimpses of remoter times when the Mantradrashta Rishis are talking about the "purvebhih rshibhih", not only referring to "older seers" but also "eastern seers". Indologists of the nineteenth century had a vision of (semi)pastoral Aryan people, and accordingly translated the roots of the language in that direction. And they sometimes missed the point. Gotra doesn't make much sense if translated as "cowshed". The Brahmin evolved out of certain functions: the Purohita was the royal adviser, the Rtvij was the periodical (rtu) peformer of some "ritual" (ij from yaj), etc. Now what has an agricultural function to do with an officiating family? There's another translation for the word "Go" in the RgVeda similar to the meaning of "Deva=light": In RgVeda I-154-6 and VII-36-1 it is used in the sense of "stars". And in the Mahabharata 1-3 it means "rays of light". In the Nirukta 2-6 it means "rays of the sun=Sushumna". Sayanacharya explains "go" as "goe=horse" (from root 1. gai) with reference to RV I-21-9 and IV-22-8. The horse is many times a symbol of the speedy rays of the sun. If the meaning of Go is Light or Enlightment it makes more sense in relation to Gotra. Gotra would be then literally "instrument of enlightenment": a group of people sharing and distributing knowledge or wisdom. The Gotras would be then in the Bharata period of Sarasvata environment an institution to transfer knowledge. Note: As the word "Go" has somehow something to do with cow, and Ashva with "horse" we can see them also in relation with the sun. The same is happening with the word Dhena or Dhenu for cow. This word is related to the root "dhe=to suckle". But it would be more sensible in some meanings to relate it to the root "dhi=to think, reflect". The word Dhena has a counterpart in the Avestan word "Daena" which became in Middle Persian "Din", and was adopted by the Islam as their word for religious thought/religion. What is becoming clear is that we have to take Vedic words and thoughts out of the pastoral contexts. It might be sensible in the pre-Bharata period, but it is doesn't make sense in the Bharata period. Many words have in some way a naturalistic appearance, as for instance Sarasvati, which comes from the root sr=to flow with the suffix 'vat/van=possessing' with a female ending. The idea is again flowing (of thought) from heaven to earth: Sarasvati as a river is in a earthly sense flowing from the divine and mysterious Himalayan Meru-Ilavrta through the earthly India again to the vast ocean of commonness. The most central idea in the Vedas is again and again the dual nature of light and darkness. And in every period the brighter side may shift towards the darker, because of the predominance of another side as new force: Asura was once the supreme word for power. Varuna, Indra, Agni, etc were called Asura= (supreme) Spirit, from asu=to breathe. The Supreme one was Varuna. Then, especially in the Bharata Period, the Deva became supreme with Indra as the foremost. The Dasa and Dasyu became in the end the evil beings, but were in the older days neutral. For Dasyu and Dasa come from the same root as the name of an Ashvin, named Dasra=one who accomplishes wonderful deeds, from the root dans=to accomplish wonderful deeds. This gives us another picture of Vedic Hinduism then we are used to. It is again a way of looking to the past of our ancestors before the discovery of that culture by non-Indians with different agendas.