Vedas and Daas

A common perception is that Daas is a synonym for Shudras and Vedas call for subjugation of these Daas.

Let us explore some Vedic mantras containing ‘Daas’ in various forms and see what it actually means.

‘Daas’ as verb

Rigveda 7.1.21
May our noble warriors not become Daas or be destroyed.

Rigveda 6.5.4
One who troubles us by hiding, may he be destroyed (Abhidaasat). Here Daas appears as a verb meaning ‘to be destroyed’

Rigveda 7.104.7
May he never be benefited who wants to destroy us (Abhidaasati) with hatred.

Rigveda 10.97.23
May our enemy be destroyed who wants to destroy us (Abhidaasati).

In all these mantras, ‘Daas’ refers to destruction.

‘Das’ Dhatu or root


Many mantras use another form of Daas with root word ‘Das’

Rigveda 10.117.2
The wealth of a charitable person never gets destroyed (upadasyati)

Rigveda 5.54.7
Never does the wealth and prosperity of a person gets destroyed (upadasyanti) who is inspired by the Supreme God.

In these mantras, again ‘Daas’ refers to destruction.

It is hence clear that ‘Daas’ means something to do with destruction and hence does not mean any caste or race.

Usage of Daas word


Now let us review some mantras that contain ‘Daas’ word directly.

Rigveda 2.12.4
The Daas person or destructive person should be pulled down.

Rigveda 5.34.6
Arya should control the Daas or destructive persons.

Rigveda 6.26.5
Those Daas who destroy peace should be destroyed. Here adjective “Shambar” is used for Daas which means adversary of ‘Sham’ or peace.

Rigveda 7.19.2
Control the Daas, Shushnam (looters) and Kuyavam (terrorists) completely.

Rigveda 10.49.6
The sin-incarnate Daas be destroyed.

Rigveda 10.19.7
The Daas who is fit for being killed should be destroyed

Similarly Rigveda 4.30.15, 4.30.21 and 3.12.6 call for destruction of Daas.

It is thus clear, that Daas here refers to persons with destructive tendencies who deserve to be destroyed in any civilized society. Thus the likes of Osama Bin Laden and Kasab are Daas.

There is no reference to Shudra being a Daas in entire Vedas.

Its a matter of pity that we forgot the original message of Vedas over the course of history and literally swapped the meaning of Shudra and Daas. Thus, today, Shudra is perceived as an objectionable word while Daas denotes humility.

Nothing could be far from Vedas.

This may have happened because in the manner Europeans used to send convicts to Australia who then became a nation in itself, in similar way, when criminals were captured, they were put into various tasks. Over course of history, these Daas or their future generations continued to be called as Daas which started being understood as ’servant’.

This is also similar to the way ‘Arya’ started calling themselves ‘Hindu’ which has no reference in any authentic scripture.

In reality, Daas is synonym of Dasyu or criminal.

And Shudra is a profession category of Arya or those people who are indulged in benevolent acts. There are 36 mantras in Rigveda having ‘Arya’ word in various forms and all refer to noble righteous people.

So all good citizens of the world including Shudras are Arya!

Vedas and Shudra

A commonly held perception regarding Vedas is their prejudice against Shudras. Vedas are accused of being Brahminical texts designed to subdue the Shudras. They are considered to be the source of caste-based discrimination that is touted as the primary characteristic of Hinduism/ Sanatan Dharma or Vedic Dharma. The entire pro-Dalit movement also has its foundation on this baseless notion.

Unfortunately, nothing could be far from truth. In this series of articles, we would provide evidence from Vedas and related texts to establish the following:

a. The meaning of four Varnas and Shudra in particular is completely different from what the Macaulay inspired intellectuals would want us to believe.
b. There is absolutely no element of birth-based discrimination or denial of opportunity for any human being in Vedic way of life.
c. If there is one text that provides evidence of highest level of meritocracy and equal-opportunity, it is the Vedas. Even the most contemporary texts on human rights cannot come closer.

Before we begin our journey of solving the caste-puzzle through Vedas, let us start with certain worship mantras from Vedas that mention Shudras:

Yajurved 18.48:
O Lord! Provide enlightenment/ compassion to our Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras. Provide me also with the same enlightenment so that I can see the truth.

Yajurved 20.17:
Whatever crime we have committed against my village, forest or committee; whatever crime we have committed through our organs, whatever crime we have committed against Shudras and Vaishyas, whatever crime we have done in matters of Dharma, kindly forgive us relieve us from the tendency of the same.

Yajurved 26.2:
The way I gave this knowledge of Vedas for benefit of all humans, similarly you all also propagate the same for benefit of Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Shudras, Vaishyas, Women and even most downtrodden. The scholars and the wealthy people should ensure that they not deviate from this message of mine.

Atharvaved 19.32.8:
O Lord! May I be loved by everyone - Brahmin, Kshatriya, Shudra or Vaishya. May I be admired by everyone.

Atharvaved 19.62.1:
May all noble people admire me. May kings and Kshatriyas admire me. May all look at me with admiration. May the Shudras and Vaishyas admire me.

It is clear from these mantras that a Vedic person:
- seeks to be forgiven for crimes against all including Shudras
- seeks to propagate Vedas to all including Shudras
- considers all Varnas - Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra to be equal and respects them equally.

Thus it is clear that as per Vedas, Shudras deserve the same respect as other Varnas and as per Vedic prayer, Shudras are accorded great esteem.

It is also interesting that in all of these mantras, the word Shudra comes before Vaishya. So one cannot counter-argue that Shudras are given last mention or least preference.

These are sufficient evidence to conclude that Shudra, as per Vedas, imply something quite different from a caste or community that has to be discriminated against. We shall explore the meaning of Shudra and associated terms like Daas, Dasyu and Anarya, which are often confused to be synonyms, in subsequent articles.

May the truth prevail!

Science in Vedas

The core foundation of Hindu belief is that Vedas contain source of all knowledge - physical or metaphysical. However in last 100 odd years, this belief has come under scrutiny due to the advances that modern science claims to make.

An entire group of Vedic 'experts' have stood up to prove that Vedas contain early man theories and are not compatible with modern discoveries. These include communist historians propelled by commentaries on Vedas by western indologists like Max Muller, Griffith et al and a new breed of intellectuals who initiate all research with assumption that 'old means defective'. However in modern era of religious marketing, another group has come up which would go to any length to discover scientific errors in Vedas. This is the group which would want 800 million Hindus to lose faith in Vedas and their religion and embrace what they believe is the final message of God. Yes I am referring to Islamic and Christian evangelists.

While both these groups of evangelists are propelled by vision of making everyone in world a follower of their respective Holy Books, the situation is even more desperate for Quran zealots. This is because a bulk of Islamic evangelists believe that Jesus will come again towards end of the world after which they would reach Paradise forever. And an important sign of Jesus' coming is conquest of India. I do not know the original source of this superstition, but this remains a primary motivator for most Islamic evangelists today.

Thus every now and then, we would see references to 'Scientific Errors in Vedas'. The typical pattern would be english translation of some mantra followed by a Veda Mantra reference. For example
"Earth is flat" - Yajur Ved 32.8

Often the reference and English translation are both pointing to sources best known to authors of these works. But for layman, these create a lot of confusion and doubt over relevance of Vedas. While I would shy away from thrusting my personal faith on Vedas, I would like to provide some excerpts from Vedas that provide clues to deep scientific concepts hidden within them.

Unfortunately, due to thousand years of slavery, burning of our universities and libraries by barbarians and then demands for tackling issues of survival first, there remains a lot of work to be done to rediscover the Vedic sciences. However, sufficient clues exist to justify why this rediscovery would be worthwhile. In this article, I shall provide some brief snippets of such clues.

A point of note: Vedas not being dogmatic in nature and containing eternal truths, do not try to spoon-feed us. Thus Vedas would contain seeds for all forms of knowledge and would urge humans to explore further. Because in the Vedic framework, its our efforts that can provide us bliss.

You can refer to original mantras at http://www.aryasamajjamnagar.org

MOTION OF EARTH


Rig Veda 10.22.14
"This earth is devoid of hands and legs, yet it moves ahead. All the objects over the earth also move with it. It moves around the sun.

In this mantra,
Kshaa = Earth (refer Nigantu 1.1)
Ahastaa = without hands
Apadee = without legs
Vardhat = moves ahead
Shushnam Pari = Around the sun
Pradakshinit = revolves

Rig Veda 10.149.1
"The sun has tied Earth and other planets through attraction and moves them around itself as if a trainer moves newly trained horses around itself holding their reins."

In this mantra,
Savita = Sun
Yantraih = through reins
Prithiveem = Earth
Aramnaat = Ties
Dyaam Andahat = Other planets in sky as well
Atoorte = Unbreakable
Baddham = Holds
Ashwam Iv Adhukshat = Like horses

GRAVITATIONAL FORCE

Rig Veda 8.12.28
"O Indra! by putting forth your mighty rays, which possess the qualities of gravitation and attraction-illumination and motion - keep up the netire universe in order through the Power of your attraction."

Rig Veda 1.6.5, Rig Veda 8.12.30
"O God, You have created this Sun. You possess infinite power. You are upholding the sun and other spheres and render them steadfast by your power of attraction.

Yajur Veda 33.43
"The sun moves in its own orbit in space taking along with itself the mortal bodies like earth through force of attraction."

Rig Veda 1.35.9
"The sun moves in its own orbit but holding earth and other heavenly bodies in a manner that they do not collide with each other through force of attraction.

Rig Veda 1.164.13
"Sun moves in its orbit which itself is moving. Earth and other bodies move around sun due to force of attraction, because sun is heavier than them.

Atharva Veda 4.11.1
"The sun has held the earth and other planets"

LIGHT OF MOON


Rig Veda 1.84.15
"The moving moon always receives a ray of light from sun"

Rig Veda 10.85.9
"Moon decided to marry. Day and Night attended its wedding. And sun gifted his daughter "Sun ray" to Moon."

ECLIPSE

Rig Veda 5.40.5
"O Sun! When you are blocked by the one whom you gifted your own light (moon), then earth gets scared by sudden darkness."

"SCIENCE OF BUILDING SHIPS AND AIRPLANES"
Swami Dayanand has detailed Mantras regarding these in his Vedic commentary and Introduction to Vedas" (1876). The scientists of IISc concluded that the mechanism of airplane as suggested by Dayanand is feasible. The first manned plane was built 20 years after death of Swami Dayanand.

The verses are difficult to translate in English here, but readers are advised to review "Introduction to Vedas" by Swami Dayanand or interpretations of following mantras: Rig Veda 1.116.3, 1.116.4, 10.62.1, 1.116.5, 1.116.6, 1.34.2, 1.34.7, 1.48.8 etc.

SCIENCE OF TELEGRAPHY

Rig Veda 1.119.10
"With the help of bipolar forces (Asvins), you should employ telegraphic apparatus made of good conductor of electricity. It is necessary for efficient military operations but should be used with caution."

I am also attaching a few pdfs of the scientific advancements of ancient India. These are developed by Indian Institute of Scientific Heritage

I hope this would be sufficient to at least drive the need for further exploration of our scientific heritage originating from Vedas.

Scientific And Technological Heritage

We claim these are indian discoveries