Hindu Scripture - Vernacular Literature

from Hinduism, Ancient and Modern

Now-a-days, however, it is not Sanskrit but the vast mass of religious literature in the vernaculars of each province of India has done largely towards molding the character of the people. The Ramayana of Tulsidas, who flourished in the seventeenth century, exercises a more powerful influence on the ordinary Hindu man or woman of Upper India than the Ramayana of Valmiki. The songs of Surdass, who lived at the court of Akbar, are more largely sung in Northern Hindustan than the hymns of the Vedas. The Granth Sahib of Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, and the sayings of Kabir, are more largely quoted by ascetics and others in the Punjab than those of the Upanishads. In Bombay, Tukaram and Namdev are more popular than Sankara, while in Bengal Chaitanya exercises a greater influence than any of the heroes or the gods of ancient times. Most of this literature is pure and nonsectarian, and is a protest against the dogmatism of the priestly class and trammels of caste.

It is, however, thought by many that our literature is more transcendental than practical, that we did not look the facts of life straight in the face, that we concern ourselves with speculation than with affairs of everyday life, and that devoted to our traditions, as we are, we cannot hope to compete with the nations of the west. Light, it is said, comes from the east, but till the light of the west has driven out much of what has obscured the light of the east, the India of today cannot rise, nor can the hopes and beliefs and aspirations of the people be made loftier. The east must now adjust itself to its new environments and adapt its religious literature to its present requirements, by making selections of what is suited to present needs and what is not. There is much but not the whole truth in this.

Our ancient Indian literature is a vast sea full of both pearls and shells, and the former must be dived and brought out, and the latter thrown aside. Ancient India had arts and sciences suited to its needs. Not only in poetry, drama, fiction, law, philosophy, but also in astronomy, medicine, chemistry, mathematics and physical science, our people made progress which challenges the admiration of western scientists. The research in Hindu chemistry made by Professor Roy show that in that branch of science the Hindus were never inferior to any nation of antiquity. The medical treatises of Charaka, Sushruta and Vagbhatta have extorted admiration from European doctors. Astronomy was long the forte of the Hindus. The science of numbers in the west owes its origin to India. In architecture, the caves and temples of Bhubaneshwar and other places show the progress made by Indians in this direction. The iron pillar at Qutb, near Delhi built in the time of Prithviraj, was the work of men who did without machinery what modern iron foundries would scarcely be able to do with machinery.

The descriptions of courts and camps of kings, the accounts of houses, streets and markets, and the trade of the country found in our epic and dramatic literature and the writings of Greek and Chinese travelers, show what the Hindus were capable of. The inner world was, however, to them more important than the outer world, and yet even in the latter by observation alone they did things which have yet to be done by the applied sciences of modern times. Had it not been for the depressing influence of repeated foreign invasion and foreign supremacy, the Hindus would not have been left so weak in the domain of science, or as exclusively introspective as they subsequently came to be. The time has now come for taking a more correct view of our literature, and accepting only that portion of it as is authoritative and deserves to be accepted in the light of reason. The problem to be faced is the realization of a single united Indian nationality amidst complexity, the growth of ages, and for that the ideal of the rishis – unity amidst diversity – cannot be too steadily kept in view.

Source: Nath, Rai Bahadur. Hinduism, Ancient and Modern.

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