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The highly skilled traditional “reciters of the Vedas
have done a stupendous service to India and indeed to humanity
by preserving in immaculate purity the religious poetry of their
ancestors, who lived more than three millennia ago, without the
aid of writing or other mechanical devices,”
a contemporary scholar has aptly said. Students like those at
Muktabodha’s vedashala have listened to, assimilated, and
ultimately preserved tens of thousands of Vedic verses through
highly sophisticated memorization and chanting.
In 2003, UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization) brought international recognition to
the genius of this tradition by declaring India’s Tradition
of Vedic Chanting to be one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and
Intangible Heritage of Humanity. The intention of the declaration
is to raise public awareness of the value of this heritage, and
to encourage steps to be taken urgently to safeguard it. UNESCO
noted that some branches of this tradition in Maharashtra are
in imminent danger of disappearing.
Muktabodha’s traditional Vedic school, the
Swami Muktananda Vedashala, which is located in Satara, in the
Indian State of Maharashtra, is actively engaged in the preservation
efforts that UNESCO seeks to encourage through this declaration.
The school is revitalizing the study of what is known as the Hiranyakeshi
branch of the Taittiriya Krishna Yajur Veda. In a recently published
study, it has been identified as one of the ten most endangered
sub-branches of the Veda. This branch is characterized by exceptionally
pure and precise pronunciation of the mantras. This tradition
has suffered a rapid decline in the past 50 years due to economic
and political conditions; in earlier times, the tradition had
maintained a strong presence in the coastal regions of Maharashtra.
Today, Muktabodha’s vedashala is the only remaining school
where this branch of Vedic recitation and ritual is taught.
The Indian National Commission for Cooperation
with UNESCO (INCCU) accepted Muktabodha’s invitation to
come all the way from New Delhi to visit the Swami Muktananda
Vedashala and attend a Shri Ganesha Yajna there. It was a wonderful
opportunity to showcase how UNESCO’s mandate for the preservation
and promotion of Vedic chanting is being carried out there with
expert knowledge and dedication. With additional encouragement
from UNESCO’s New Delhi Office and the Indian Ministry for
Culture, Muktabodha held a memorable gathering of Vedic practitioners,
scholars, teachers, students and their parents. The simple dignity
of the vedashala, along with the enthusiasm and radiance of the
students, the resonance of the Vedic mantras, and head teacher
Shri Vivek Godbole’s accessible and fascinating explanations
of the Vedic rituals created an atmosphere of delight, respect
and learning.
The guests arrived to the 26 students’ resonant
chanting of mantras invoking Shri Ganesha, the Lord of Auspicious
Beginnings. The students performed each ritual of the yajna and
made offerings to the fire with focus and skill, and the intensity
of the students’ perfectly synchronized chanting drew many
guests into a meditative state. Mr. Rajendra Abhyankar, who attended
the event with his wife, said their mantra recitation reminded
him of the mesmerizing experience of listening to Sufi chanting
when he was posted as India’s ambassador to Turkey.
For Vedic practitioners, the mantras they have
learned, memorized and assimilated are their treasure. Therefore
the finale of the Shri Ganesha Yajna was a remarkable offering
of this “wealth” in the form of eight complex types
of mantra recitation, which is a form of what is known as ashtavadhana
seva. Experts from each of the four Vedas had joined the event,
and their chanting offered an opportunity to hear the unique characteristics
of how each Veda is chanted. Shri Vivek Godbole described the
different styles of chanting which have been preserved through
the power of the human memory. He explained how the sages of ancient
India had devised elaborate, complicated systems of recitation
with the intention of preserving the purity and the combinations
of the sound, as well as the intonation, pitch and pronunciation
of each word of the Vedic hymns.
The chants included rare examples of two different
branches of the endangered Ranayaniya (“The Way of Beauty”)
Sama Veda, which is understood to be the source of Indian classical
music. One was in a sweet, lilting style. The other was in the
musically ornamental Govardhani style chanted by Shri Prabhakar
Bapat of Varanasi, the last living master of this evocative tradition.
This style of chanting was the traditional “treasure”
of the Hiranyakeshi branch of Vedic practitioners, and the students
of our vedashala are also learning to recite Sama Veda mantras
in this way. It was truly inspiring for those attending to watch
this Vedic master engage his entire being in the chanting with
tremendous focus, energy, and delight. (Photo below right.)
Hearing each recitation, the students of our vedashala
were lit up with resolve to become such master reciters of the
Vedic hymns themselves. They were especially in awe when a young
man, Shri Amshuman Abhyankar, recited an extremely difficult form
known as salakshana ghanapath. Each word of the chant is broken
into syllables and letters, and the deity, location in the body
and manner of shaping the mouth for each sound is incorporated
into the rapid cycles and intricate patterns of recitation. It
is an amazing feat of memory, skill and focus. The distinguished
Vedic scholars who came for the event, Dr. T. N. Dharmadhikari
from Pune and Dr. H. R. Sharma from Varanasi, commented that it
is rare to encounter such an assembly of expertise nowadays.
As the final offering, one of the youngest students
charmed everyone as he sang a devotional song by the Maharashtrian
poet saint Tukaram Maharaj.
The representative from INCCU in New Delhi was
delighted with the atmosphere of the school, touched by the warm
Vedic culture of respect he encountered there, and impressed by
a demonstration of Muktabodha’s online digital library,
which includes a collection of Vedic manuscripts. He praised Muktabodha’s
vedashala initiative to UNESCO in New Delhi, describing the event
as a once in a lifetime experience.
For more information on the Swami
Mukananda Vedashala in Satara
and ways to support this project,
please visit www.muktabodha.org
or contact info@muktabodha.org
If you would like to volunteer
in support of Muktabodha’s projects, we are particularly
seeking the assistance of people with expertise in grant research
and proposal writing, and the marketing & distribution of
books.
Please contact us at info@muktabodha.org
1 - from
Education in Ancient India by Harmut Scharfe)AAAA
Vedic scholar Dr. T. N. Dharmadhikari
is welcomed
by Vedamurti Shri Vivek Godbole |
