The passage of Indian Poesy

By Dr. TLN Swamy

मां निषाद प्रतिष्ठां त्वमगमः शाश्वतीः समाः। Maa nishaada prathishttam twamaagamah shashwatheeh samaah

यत्क्रौंचमिथुनादेकम् अवधीः काममोहितम्॥Yathkraunchamithunaadekam avadheeh kaamamohitham

Translation: You will find no rest for the long years of eternity For you killed a bird in love and unsuspecting.

This is the very first ‘Shloka’ of Sanskrit Poetry, emanating spontaneously from the tongue of ‘Valmiki’ out of erupting ra and grief, cursing a hunter upon witnessing him arrowing do one of the birds of a cuddling crane couple And thus, born t ‘Aadi Kavi’ of Indian Poetry, Valmiki.

A scene of Sage Valmiki uttering A scene of Sage Valmiki uttering the first sloka. Source the first sloka. Source https://www.pakkapatriot.com/story-of-valmiki-from-a-hunter-to-the-adikavi-brahmarshi/

THE AADI KAVI

Valmiki was born as a brahmin called ‘Lohajhangha’. He wa a devoted family man, but to sustain his hungry family going through a prolonged famine, he was compelled to rob peopl venturing into the forest During one such robbery, he encountered the ‘Saptharishis’ (Seven sages) on their journey.

Pitied at his plight, they offered him a ‘mantra’ to meditate upon The brahmin turned thief sat in ‘tapas’ reciting the ‘mantra’ without even getting up for such a long time that anthills started erecting around him. During their return, the Saptarishis saw him so engrossed in tapas they blessed him to be acclaimed as ‘Maharshi Valmiki’, the one who emerged enlightened from a ‘Valmika’ (ant hill).

The thief turned to Rishi and wrote the first epic poem of India, “Ramayana,” which became the ‘Aadi Kaavyam’ (The First Epic Poem). It depicts the life of ‘King Rama,’ the epitome of goodness and dharma, and his conduct and deeds stand tall as an example of how one could lead one’s life Studded with such high-level morals, Ramayana is revered as the must-read poem for every person, a tradition been followed for generations since antiquity in India.

VYASA THE DIVIDER OF VEDA

The poetic legacy of India could easily be more than four millennia old, right from the era of the ‘Vedic hymns’, which were ‘Mantra’ chantings by the early sages of India called ‘Rishis’ dating back to 2000 BCE. These sacred mantras called ‘Ruks’ were composed with linguistic beauty, auditory rhythm and, most importantly, conveying a profound knowledge subtly and subliminally exuberating all the requisite qualities to constitute an ode These very first sacred hymns or the ‘Ruks’ can unequivocally be said to qualify as the earliest poems of India, probably of the whole of humankind, and the ‘Rishis’ who created these poetic hymns may also be called the very first poets of the civilized world These sacred ‘Mantras’ were compiled into the four distinguished Vedas by ‘Maharshi Veda Vyasa’.

Vyasa was born to a fisherwoman Sathyavathi through Rishi Parashara in a chance meeting when the sage, during a voyage, had to cross the river Yamuna in her boat. The Rishi, attracted by her beauty, went on to have a son with her He took his son Krishna Dwaipayana along with him and tutored him into a highly knowledgeable poet sage. He compiled the ‘Ruks’ into the existing forms of Rigveda, Yajurveda, Samaveda and Adharvana Veda. He is also credited with the creation of the other important epic poem of Mahabharatam, Bhagavatam and the eighteen ‘Puranas’.

THE LONGEST EPIC POEM OF ALL TIME

The Mahabharatham is the longest epic poem of all time, with 2,20,000 lines in about one lakh verses. Mahabharata is a story of a war between good and evil represented by the two groups of cousins, the virtuous ‘Pandavas’ and the vile ‘Kauravas’. The righteous Pandavas were guided by the great soul Krishna in their victory over the wicked Kauravas. Krishna’s motivational discourse on the war to the distressed Arjuna on the battlefield became the BHAGAVADGITA, a poem within a poem Bhagavadgita is considered one of the greatest guides on how to lead a life in the face of adversity and work one’s way through worldly life unattached to its binding obligations, which are the basic cause of suffering in the world. It can be said that Bhagavadgita is one of the cornerstones of the entire Indian philosophy and the most sacred text of Hinduism.

Thus, the epic texts of ancient India are unique in that they do not stop at telling stories but also provide insight into leading a proper way of life through their morals and messages. This property of Indian Poetry with a purpose of providing guidance through propagating morals has been incorporated into the later writings of many Indian poets.

MYTH OR HISTORY?

The ancient Indian poets Valmiki and Vyasa shared one thing in common: they were actually part of the stories they wrote. Valmiki had a role to play in Ramayana as also Vyasa in Mahabharata. Both wrote about the biographical stories of the persons contemporary to them with extreme precision and direct first-hand knowledge. That fact is one of the strongest arguments against modern world skeptics who believe that Ramayana and Mahabharata are mere mythological tales. The accurate depiction of events in their stories perfectly correlating with the current geographical locations provides enough circumstantial evidence to convince us that these epic first-hand accounts are real historical chronicles. And the protagonist of these epics, Rama and Krishna, are historical figures turned into Gods because of their most divine deeds. The Ramayana and Mahabharata are not just limited to a story's portrayal. They are studied in almost every stanza, morals of virtue and valour, ethics of individual behaviour at family and societal levels.

THE THOUGHT EXPERIMENTS OF THE RISHIS

The Vedas are considered a genuinely abundant knowledge of everything, from the consciousness of the Self to the awareness of the almighty - from the concepts of the tiniest atom to the cognition of the astronomic cosmos The regular chanting of these mantras steered the quest of the Indian seers to seek beyond the Vedic extrapolations paving the way for further inventions, be it the decimal system and the number ‘Zero’ in Mathematics or the modern law of ‘Entropy’ as is mentioned in ‘Nasadeeya Suktham’ of Rigveda.

Though these poetic treatises are primarily perceived for their literary and philosophical values, they are believed to incorporate deep scientific knowledge as well The understanding of their true scientific contributions is yet to be fully known. Still, it is thought that many scientific discoveries claimed by the modern world were postulated in these poems many centuries earlier. Many such postulates are considered to be found in the ancient Indian literary works by the poetic Rishis of the post-Vedic era. It is perhaps a failure on our part, the intellectual elite of India, for not being able to fully appreciate and communicate the contribution of Science and knowledge in our ancient texts to the whole world.

The Passage of the Poesy of India does not just end there in antiquity. Its grandeur had endured further by the majestic medieval Indian Bards not just in Sanskrit as by Kalidasa, but also in its daughter language Hindi by the likes of Kabir and Tulasidas, as also in adopted languages of Urdu by the likes of Amir Khusrou and Mirza Ghalib.

Let’s return soon in the next edition to revisit the poetic feats of those remarkable rimers of India.