Abstract
Continuing with the theme of sacred nature, this chapter traces sources of some of the ideas about nature and the human being from the Vedic tradition. The representation of “nature and human” in the Vedic period can be viewed from two perspectives. The representation, thought, and behaviour of the people during the Vedic period from an eco-sociological viewpoint differ from the eco-philosophical interpretation. The purpose of this chapter was to look beyond the two rather opposite viewpoints taken by previous research in this area to see whether it is possible to construct an ecological philosophy of Vedic period fairly, without bias. The term ṛta , an alternative conceptualisation of nature as “natural law”, and the interpretations of these concepts are also detailed in this chapter. I have also briefly suggested the ecological implications of such understandings.
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Notes
- 1.
Vaiśvānara is the form of the universal experiencer, consumer. Hiraṇyagarbha refers to the cosmic womb.
- 2.
Also sometimes called Brahmāṇda or the cosmic egg.
- 3.
Some dysfunctional aspects of this moral order could be the social domination of Brahmins or Kṣatriyas who are given precedence over the others in the community and access to sacred objects, and study of scriptures. Though interesting, this discussion is out of the purview of this book.
- 4.
In Sanskrit texts, these would be dharma, dāna, and loka-kalyāna, often discussed together in the Bhagavadgīta. See (2007) for an overview analysis of various ethical streams in Indian thought.
- 5.
Prākṛt, the common language, is so named due its natural formation, as opposed to a well-formed created language, Samskṛt.
- 6.
Patil’s (1974) translation reads ‘men’ for janā; I prefer to use the term ‘people’ here.
- 7.
This study related to this topic has already been published independently as a paper and is to be a separate chapter that is to be published in an edited volume. I briefly summarise my work here.
- 8.
According to one version of the story (Mani 1989; Baindur 2010), the Goddess Earth had withdrawn all her vegetation into herself and people were suffering for want of food crops. King Pṛtha who was angered by this behaviour of the earth went after her to punish her. The goddess took the form of a cow and ran to all the worlds (lokas), but found no place to hide. The goddess was forced to surrender to King Pṛtha and the threat of his powerful bow and sharp arrows. She was then milked for all her resources.
- 9.
The idea of pursuing the concept of relatedness evolved after a discussion with Dr. Sundar Sarukkai who saw connections within the broad themes I had put forward in an early draft of this chapter.
- 10.
See the details of Vaiśeṣika categories in Sharma (2003).
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Baindur, M. (2015). Nature in Vedic Thought: Gods, the Earth, and Ṛta . In: Nature in Indian Philosophy and Cultural Traditions. Sophia Studies in Cross-cultural Philosophy of Traditions and Cultures, vol 12. Springer, New Delhi. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-2358-0_8
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