Wednesday, January 03, 2024

musings 221



A query…
Kindly elaborate the linkages between Ved, Purana and Upanishads. Other day, I had met once swamiji from Hyderabad, who was telling that a lot has been forever lost.
My response..
Must be true. We have not retained all vedas. Even traditional sages admit that. The upanishads, the offshoots and elaborations on vedas have appeared in huge numbers from time to time. Traditionally some upanishads are tagged to some particular Vedas. Some upanishads like Taittireeya, Mahanarayana etc are part of vedas themselves. Ramayana and Mahabharatham are semi historical and semi fictional narratives of epic dimensions. Puranas have developed perhaps as offshoots mostly of epics and often the characters are shadows or clones of the heroes of epics or the characters dealt with in vedas. Puranas evolved in all regions in India and in all time frames. Some 18 puranas and 18upa puranas spread over wide spectrum of time are taken or preferred as more important by general reckoning. All these go by majority perceptions. If anyone feels he would follow a different set of literature either temporal or religious, there is no taboo. Hinduism is wide spectrum and catholic. Every assent and dissent has place within it

No comments:

Post a Comment