HISTORY OF INDIA.-FROM THE EARLIEST TIME TO THE SIXTH CENTURY BC

CHAPTER XIV

LAW, ASTRONOMY, AND LEARNING

 

THE punishment of criminals and the proper administration of laws are foundations on which all civilized societies are built, and no nobler concept of the law has ever been discovered than that formulated by the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad in the words: "Law is the power of the kingdom, nor is there aught higher than the law. Therefore even a weak man rules a stronger with the help of the law as with the help of a king. Thus the law is what is called the true. And if a man declares what is true, they say he declares the law; and if he declares the law, they say he declares what is true. Thus both are the same."

The judicial procedure was still crude, however, and, as among other ancient nations, criminals were often tried by the ordeal of fire.

"They bring a man hither whom they have taken by the hand, and they say: 'He has taken something, he has committed theft.' (When he denies, they say) 'Heat the hatchet for him.' If he committed the theft, then he grasps the heated hatchet, he is burnt, and he is killed. But if he did not commit the theft, then he grasps the heated hatchet, he is not burnt, and he is delivered." Murder, theft, drunkenness, and adultery were considered the most heinous offences.

We will now turn to astronomy. The first elementary knowledge of the astronomical science is discernible in the Rig-Veda itself. The year was divided into twelve lunar months, and a thirteenth, or intercalary, month was added to adjust the lunar with the solar year. The six seasons of the year were named Madhu, Madhava, Sukra, Suchi, Nabha, and Nabhasya, and each was sacred to an individual god. The different phases of the moon were observed and were personified as deities. The position of the moon with regard to the Nakshatras, or the lunar mansions, is also recognized, and some of the constellations of the lunar mansions are named. It would appear from this that the Nakshatras were observed and named in the Vedic Age, but it was in the later period that the lunar zodiac was finally settled.

As might be expected, considerable progress was made in the Brahmanic Period. Astronomy had now come to be regarded as a distinct science, and astronomers by profession were called Nakshatra Darsa and Ganaka. The twenty-eight lunar mansions are also enumerated in the Black Yajur-Veda, and a second and later enumeration occurs in the Atharva Samhita and in the Taittiriya Brahmana, while sacrificial rites were regulated by the position of the moon with reference to these lunar asterisms.

Besides astronomy, other branches of learning were also cultivated in the Brahmanic and Epic Period. Thus in the Chhandogya Upanishad we find Narada saying to Sanatkumara, "I know the Rig-Veda, sir, the Yajur-Veda, the Sama-Veda, as the fourth the Atharvana, as the fifth the Itihasa Purana, the Veda of the Vedas (grammar); the Pitrya (rules for sacrifices for the ancestors); the Rasi (the science of numbers); the Daiva (the science of portents); the Nidhi (the science of time); the Vakovakya (logic); the Ekayana (ethics); the Deva Vidya (etymology); the Brahma Vidya (pronunciation, prosody, and similar subjects); the Bhuta Vidya (the science of demons); the Kshatra Vidya (the science of weapons); the Nakshatra Vidya (astronomy); the Sarpa Devanjana Vidya (the science of serpents and of genii). All this I know, sir."

In the Brihadaranyaka we are told that "Rig-Veda, Yajur-Veda, Sama-Veda, Atharvangirasas, Itihasa (legends), Purana (cosmogonies), Vidya (knowledge), the Upanishads, Slokas (verses), Sutras (prose rules), Anuvyakhyanas (glosses), and Vyakhyanas (commentaries) have all been breathed forth from the Supreme Being"; while in the eleventh book of the Satapatha Brahmana, we have mention of the three Vedas, the Atharvangirasas, the Anusasanas, the Vidyas, the Vakovakya, the Itihasa Purana, the Narasansis and the Gathas.

It is true that these names do not necessarily imply distinct works which existed in the Epic Period, and which have since been lost to us, and many of these names merely imply the different subjects which are still found in the Brahmanas. It was at a later age, in the Philosophic Period, that these different subjects which we find interwoven in the Brahmanas and Upanishads were developed into separate subjects of study, and were taught in the separate Sutra works and compositions which have come down to us. At the same time, many of these subjects could scarcely have been taught properly and handed down from teacher to pupil without the help of special works on those subjects. We therefore believe that such separate works existed in the Epic Period, and have been lost, only to be replaced by more elaborate and scientific works of a later age on the same subjects.