Now-a-days it is a matter of discussion everywhere that 'What is Indianism' ? What is our identity ? Here in India, we get people of mixed religions, culture and language; we find people with various food habits, life style etc., still we say that we are Indians. Then what is the bond by means of which we are tied up to call ourselves as Indians ?
No doubt that the bond lies in three major factors - Matribhasa, Matribhumi and Matrisanskriti.
Matribhasa means language of the mother land. It does not mean for somebody's regional language like Telegu, Tamil, Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi, Marathi etc. but it is verily the Sanskrit in India. In other word, the mother of all languages of the land is called matribhasa and that is Sanskrit. It is the oldest premier language of India and origin of all regional languages. To know India, one has to know Sanskrit, at least its textual interpretations. In the survey report of the Language Commission prepared by the scholars of various languages, it has been told that Hindi, which is the major speaking language in India and obviously takes the role of Rashtrabhasha or national language of India owes 100% to Sanskrit, because its script is Devnagari which is the script of Sanskrit. Hindi doesn't have its own script or letters. It borrows the letters from Sanskrit. Apart from that in pure Hindi, about 80 % words are tatsama or the words which come directly from Sanskrit. A few examples of tatsama sabda are vidyalaya, pani, khadya, pustak, jnan, vigyan, yan, vayu, agni, pawan, surya, vastra etc. They are used both in Sanskrit as well as in Hindi without any change, that's why they are called tatsama sabda.
Next is coming Bengali in which the script is different but there are 90% tatsama sabda or the words directly taken from Sanskrit. Bengali is spoken widely in eastern India like in West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh etc. It is the national language of our neighbouring country Bangladesh where the national song is also in Bengali, composed by Rabindranath Tagore, " Amar sonar Bangla, ami tomai Bhalobasi". Therefore, Sanskrit plays a great role in the eastern part of Indian sub-continent.
In Marathi and Gujarati languages, there are about 70 % Sanskrit words, in south Indian languages like in Tamil, Telegu, Malayalam, Kannada etc. there are more than 75% Sanskrit words used in these respective languages.
In Oriya language about 95% words inherit from Sanskrit. As the major scripture of India, Srimad Bhagavat Gita which is widely accepted as a great philosophical text all over the world was written in Sanskrit. So are the Puranas, Vedas, Upanisads, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Samhitas and Smritis etc. They were written in Sanskrit. In poetry, works of great poets like Kalidasa and dramas like that of Bhasa were written in Sanskrit.
To know India, we must know Sanskrit. The translated versions of Sanskrit works in various regional languages comprise a major source of inspiration to the translating scholars all over the Indian sub-continent. Our children read stories from Ramayana, Mahabharata, Puranas and also from Kalidasa, Bhababhuti or Bhasa in their respective regional languages even without knowing that they are originally from Sanskrit texts of the land.
Still from time to time many of our political leaders and so-called scholars say that Sanskrit is a dead language. It is a pity to the nation that we are to come under the rule by this type of politicians. As a matter of surprise, when these so - called politicians or ministers of the Government attend community or educational functions, they quote from Rabindranath Tagore, Swami Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi, Balgangadhar Tilak or Rishi Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay to establish their honesty in the speech. But they forget that Tagore was highly inspired by Upanisada, Vivekananda was inspired by Vedanta and he preached about Practical Vedanta to the people of the world, Gandhiji was highly inspired by Gita and Tilak was so inspired by Gita that he himself wrote the new interpretation of Gita in the form of Gita Vasya Parikrama. Bankim Chandra was inspired by the philosophy of Gita while writing his famous book 'Anandamath ' in which he offered his famous inspiring song 'Vande Mataram' to the countrymen. Irrespective of any caste, creed or religion, patriots sang this song and plunged into the freedom struggle.
We, the people of the present generation don't bother to go to the historical background of these episodes.
There should be a system developed in the country that all the politicians before entering into houses of parliament or into the state assemblies should go through our culture and heritage and specially they should know about Sanskrit and the contents of Sanskrit literatures and scriptures. Only then we can be sure that our country is in safe hands. Also the teachers and administrators of the country should be given orientation courses to know all about the basic foundations for which we are known as Indians.
Our national leaders and scholars have used some textual quotes from Sanskrit as a part of some organisational symbols like in the symbol of our national emblem, Ashoka Chakra, it is written 'Satyamev Jayate'. It is taken from Mundakopanishad. In the symbol of 'Life Insurance Corporation of India' it is written Yogakshemam Vahamyaham, it is from Srimad Bhagavad Gita. A very few people know their meaning. Below the logo of 'Indian Air Force' it is written Nava Sparsam Diptam, similarly in the logo of 'Indian Navy' it is written Shang nou Varuna etc. Everywhere it has become the symbol of our cultural heritage without knowing the meaning or the philosophy behind them. By this ignorance of our matribhasa Sanskrit, we are doing injustice to the nation. We are unable to convey them the spirit of the quoted versions, which is highly regretted.
Our law makers and syllabus makers should think seriously about our matribhasha Sanskrit and immediately they should introduce Sanskrit in the school syllabus as a compulsory language. This way the nation may be saved from further damage.
Second factor by means of which the nation is called India or Hindustan or Bhaarat is our love and respect to our matribhumi. We should not forget that the land where we are born in and brought up is our motherland or matribhumi. We should protect the land, its people and the cultural heritage by all means. We should not forget that 'janani janmabhumischa sargadapi gariasi' means mother and motherland are superior to heaven. People of our country should accept India as our motherland.
Our country is 'Bhaarat' because it was ruled by three great ancient rulers, all of them were named as Bharat. The first Bharat was the forefather of Kauravas, the great ruler of our country who was famous for his courage, strength and benevolent activities. In Srimad Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna reminded Arjuna that he was the descendent of the great ruler Bharat and the Lord advised Arjuna to fight for righteousness against the evils in the spirit of his forefathers. The second Bharat was the brother of Ramachandra who was a Suryavanshi ruler known for his loyalty, devotion and sacrifice. The third Bharat was the son of Shakuntala and Dushyanta who was famous for his role as saviour, unifier and integretor of the land.
Therefore, our country was always ruled by the spirit of courage, strength, loyalty, devotion, sacrifice, safety, unity and national integrity because these were the qualities of our rulers. They should be our models and ideals. We have forgotten them but we should not forget that the name of our country ' Bharat ' comes from them.
The entire Indian sub-continent was once known as Hindusthan. Let us know how this name came from ? In broad sense, Hinan dusayati iti Hindu, means when the meanness or mean mindedness or heinous qualities of a person are polished or cultured by good qualities, he or she is known as Hindu. Historically, the word Hindu came after the invasion of our country by the Greek emperor Alexander. It was around 300 B.C. The soldiers of Alexander won the parts of north India and settled near the river Sind. They could not pronounce the word Sind, they called it as Hind and the people around the river Sind were known to them as Hindu. Basically they were the Aryans, the people of Aryavarta, the region was known by this name to everybody. Later on, there was a process of Aryanisation in the entire Indian sub-continent, in which monks, sages, seers and scholars travelled from north to south and from east to west and preached the great treasures of the land. A very big piece of land from the Himalayas to the Indian ocean, from the Pamirs to the Cambodia came under the same cultural heritage known as Aryan culture. Aryans were later on also called as Hindu. Arya, literally means great. Aryaputra meant son of great person. Some people believe that Aryans came from outside of India but it is not correct. They were the sons of the soil, not intruders. In our ancient literatures, there is abundant use of the word Arya.
Later on, the word Hindu replaces the word Arya. The land where the Aryans were spread over or cultured by the Vedas and other Sanatani literatures is known as Hindusthan. It is a matter of pity that today we are scared to introduce ourselves as Hindu. Due to political game and narrowness for sharing vote bank, Hindu has become a communal term. A section of any community may be wrong but Hinan dusayati iti Hindu can never be wrong. We should be proud that we are Hindu. If we want to measure the openness and broadness in Indianism, let us come to the discussion ' Essence of Indianism' coming next at the end of this chapter. It is unparallel to any one.
Our country is also known as India, the name came after the 'Indus' Valley Civilization.
The civilization developed in and around Mohanzo-da-Ro and Harrappa was known as Indus Valley Civilisation. 'India' is the derivative of 'Indus'. The Indus Valley Civilisation is considered as one of the oldest civilisations of the world. Historians and archeological scholars have established that during Indus Valley Civilisation there was cultural and commercial impacts among our country India , Egypt and Greece. Chinese civilisation came later on.
Matrisanskriti means culture of the motherland. In ancient time, the culture or sanskriti developed with centre as the great Himalayas and it was known as the Vedic Civilisation. Veda means knowledge or 'to know'. Veda comes from the 'Vid' verb i.e. to know. There are four Veda's-- Rig Veda, Sam Veda, Yajur Veda and Atharva Veda. There are two broad divisions of Veda--Karma Kanda and Jnana Kanda.
Karma Kanda deals with the rites and rituals; whereas the Jnana Kanda gives us the bank of knowledge. Jnana Kanda again is divided into four major groups. They are Vedanta, Vedanga, Upanishad and Brahmasutra. The famous philosophical treasure 'Srimad Bhagavad Gita' which is a part of the Mahabharata is itself an Upanisad. That's why at the end of every chapter it is written, " Srimadbhagvadgitasu Upanishadsu..........." etc.
So, Veda is a part of our samskriti. Next is coming samhitas and smritis. They also constitute the part of our culture.
From time to time, our national and regional mentors like Rabindranath Tagore, Swami Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Chhatrapati Shivaji and Munshi Premchand etc. have added new dimensions to our cultural revolution.
.ESSENCE OF INDIANISM
Indianism is a feeling of being an Indian. Irrespective of caste, creed or religion, when we feel ourselves to be the members of a single family, we feel oneness and that is Indianism. It is also part of national integration.
In India, there is unity in diversity. There are people whose language is different, clothe differently, eating with various food habits and above all, living style is also different but all of them feel and think alike and are proud of being Indian.
During tarpan, ( a ritual by means of which we offer our respect or obituary to our forefathers ) we pray to the almighty with the mantra , " Abrahma stamba paryantang Jagat tripyantu." This means, let all the souls from the biggest to the smallest creations of the universe be free from any bondage, let them get salvation of body, mind and soul. Here, not only we pray for our forefathers but we also pray for all souls. This reveals the extent of broadness of our morality.
Our saints, sages and mahatmas have taught us to think for all, to share their well and woes and pray to God to root out their sorrows and to work for all to bring prosperity in their lives.
This reveals that a truly devotee of God can not desire for earthly or heavenly happiness, even he refuses the desire of complete salvation or mokhsa but he prays for all and desires that the sufferings of the multitudes be rooted out. Lord Gautam Buddha refused his kingship and preferred to work for the cause of the sufferings of all. Swami Vivekananda said, " Jeevey prem karey jei jan, sei jan sevichhey Iswar, " which means that who loves the beings, serves the God.
We, the Indians should convey the message to the world that we can convert this fighting world into a peaceful living abode. Rabindra Nath Tagore dreamt and foresaw that India will lead the world. We must wait to see the day when India will lead the world and we are sure that the day will come soon. The thought of Mahatma Gandhi, which is based on Gita, has already spread all over the world. He has become a symbol of liberation in the world. He advocated not only to get rid of foreign rule but also to get rid of economic disparity between rich and the poor and administered mantra of social reforms. He taught us to win with truth over falsehood. He has become the symbol of Indianism. He sits above all international barriers and showing the path of liberation at large.
No doubt that the bond lies in three major factors - Matribhasa, Matribhumi and Matrisanskriti.
Matribhasa means language of the mother land. It does not mean for somebody's regional language like Telegu, Tamil, Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi, Marathi etc. but it is verily the Sanskrit in India. In other word, the mother of all languages of the land is called matribhasa and that is Sanskrit. It is the oldest premier language of India and origin of all regional languages. To know India, one has to know Sanskrit, at least its textual interpretations. In the survey report of the Language Commission prepared by the scholars of various languages, it has been told that Hindi, which is the major speaking language in India and obviously takes the role of Rashtrabhasha or national language of India owes 100% to Sanskrit, because its script is Devnagari which is the script of Sanskrit. Hindi doesn't have its own script or letters. It borrows the letters from Sanskrit. Apart from that in pure Hindi, about 80 % words are tatsama or the words which come directly from Sanskrit. A few examples of tatsama sabda are vidyalaya, pani, khadya, pustak, jnan, vigyan, yan, vayu, agni, pawan, surya, vastra etc. They are used both in Sanskrit as well as in Hindi without any change, that's why they are called tatsama sabda.
Next is coming Bengali in which the script is different but there are 90% tatsama sabda or the words directly taken from Sanskrit. Bengali is spoken widely in eastern India like in West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh etc. It is the national language of our neighbouring country Bangladesh where the national song is also in Bengali, composed by Rabindranath Tagore, " Amar sonar Bangla, ami tomai Bhalobasi". Therefore, Sanskrit plays a great role in the eastern part of Indian sub-continent.
In Marathi and Gujarati languages, there are about 70 % Sanskrit words, in south Indian languages like in Tamil, Telegu, Malayalam, Kannada etc. there are more than 75% Sanskrit words used in these respective languages.
In Oriya language about 95% words inherit from Sanskrit. As the major scripture of India, Srimad Bhagavat Gita which is widely accepted as a great philosophical text all over the world was written in Sanskrit. So are the Puranas, Vedas, Upanisads, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Samhitas and Smritis etc. They were written in Sanskrit. In poetry, works of great poets like Kalidasa and dramas like that of Bhasa were written in Sanskrit.
To know India, we must know Sanskrit. The translated versions of Sanskrit works in various regional languages comprise a major source of inspiration to the translating scholars all over the Indian sub-continent. Our children read stories from Ramayana, Mahabharata, Puranas and also from Kalidasa, Bhababhuti or Bhasa in their respective regional languages even without knowing that they are originally from Sanskrit texts of the land.
Still from time to time many of our political leaders and so-called scholars say that Sanskrit is a dead language. It is a pity to the nation that we are to come under the rule by this type of politicians. As a matter of surprise, when these so - called politicians or ministers of the Government attend community or educational functions, they quote from Rabindranath Tagore, Swami Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi, Balgangadhar Tilak or Rishi Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay to establish their honesty in the speech. But they forget that Tagore was highly inspired by Upanisada, Vivekananda was inspired by Vedanta and he preached about Practical Vedanta to the people of the world, Gandhiji was highly inspired by Gita and Tilak was so inspired by Gita that he himself wrote the new interpretation of Gita in the form of Gita Vasya Parikrama. Bankim Chandra was inspired by the philosophy of Gita while writing his famous book 'Anandamath ' in which he offered his famous inspiring song 'Vande Mataram' to the countrymen. Irrespective of any caste, creed or religion, patriots sang this song and plunged into the freedom struggle.
We, the people of the present generation don't bother to go to the historical background of these episodes.
There should be a system developed in the country that all the politicians before entering into houses of parliament or into the state assemblies should go through our culture and heritage and specially they should know about Sanskrit and the contents of Sanskrit literatures and scriptures. Only then we can be sure that our country is in safe hands. Also the teachers and administrators of the country should be given orientation courses to know all about the basic foundations for which we are known as Indians.
Our national leaders and scholars have used some textual quotes from Sanskrit as a part of some organisational symbols like in the symbol of our national emblem, Ashoka Chakra, it is written 'Satyamev Jayate'. It is taken from Mundakopanishad. In the symbol of 'Life Insurance Corporation of India' it is written Yogakshemam Vahamyaham, it is from Srimad Bhagavad Gita. A very few people know their meaning. Below the logo of 'Indian Air Force' it is written Nava Sparsam Diptam, similarly in the logo of 'Indian Navy' it is written Shang nou Varuna etc. Everywhere it has become the symbol of our cultural heritage without knowing the meaning or the philosophy behind them. By this ignorance of our matribhasa Sanskrit, we are doing injustice to the nation. We are unable to convey them the spirit of the quoted versions, which is highly regretted.
Our law makers and syllabus makers should think seriously about our matribhasha Sanskrit and immediately they should introduce Sanskrit in the school syllabus as a compulsory language. This way the nation may be saved from further damage.
Second factor by means of which the nation is called India or Hindustan or Bhaarat is our love and respect to our matribhumi. We should not forget that the land where we are born in and brought up is our motherland or matribhumi. We should protect the land, its people and the cultural heritage by all means. We should not forget that 'janani janmabhumischa sargadapi gariasi' means mother and motherland are superior to heaven. People of our country should accept India as our motherland.
Our country is 'Bhaarat' because it was ruled by three great ancient rulers, all of them were named as Bharat. The first Bharat was the forefather of Kauravas, the great ruler of our country who was famous for his courage, strength and benevolent activities. In Srimad Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna reminded Arjuna that he was the descendent of the great ruler Bharat and the Lord advised Arjuna to fight for righteousness against the evils in the spirit of his forefathers. The second Bharat was the brother of Ramachandra who was a Suryavanshi ruler known for his loyalty, devotion and sacrifice. The third Bharat was the son of Shakuntala and Dushyanta who was famous for his role as saviour, unifier and integretor of the land.
Therefore, our country was always ruled by the spirit of courage, strength, loyalty, devotion, sacrifice, safety, unity and national integrity because these were the qualities of our rulers. They should be our models and ideals. We have forgotten them but we should not forget that the name of our country ' Bharat ' comes from them.
The entire Indian sub-continent was once known as Hindusthan. Let us know how this name came from ? In broad sense, Hinan dusayati iti Hindu, means when the meanness or mean mindedness or heinous qualities of a person are polished or cultured by good qualities, he or she is known as Hindu. Historically, the word Hindu came after the invasion of our country by the Greek emperor Alexander. It was around 300 B.C. The soldiers of Alexander won the parts of north India and settled near the river Sind. They could not pronounce the word Sind, they called it as Hind and the people around the river Sind were known to them as Hindu. Basically they were the Aryans, the people of Aryavarta, the region was known by this name to everybody. Later on, there was a process of Aryanisation in the entire Indian sub-continent, in which monks, sages, seers and scholars travelled from north to south and from east to west and preached the great treasures of the land. A very big piece of land from the Himalayas to the Indian ocean, from the Pamirs to the Cambodia came under the same cultural heritage known as Aryan culture. Aryans were later on also called as Hindu. Arya, literally means great. Aryaputra meant son of great person. Some people believe that Aryans came from outside of India but it is not correct. They were the sons of the soil, not intruders. In our ancient literatures, there is abundant use of the word Arya.
Later on, the word Hindu replaces the word Arya. The land where the Aryans were spread over or cultured by the Vedas and other Sanatani literatures is known as Hindusthan. It is a matter of pity that today we are scared to introduce ourselves as Hindu. Due to political game and narrowness for sharing vote bank, Hindu has become a communal term. A section of any community may be wrong but Hinan dusayati iti Hindu can never be wrong. We should be proud that we are Hindu. If we want to measure the openness and broadness in Indianism, let us come to the discussion ' Essence of Indianism' coming next at the end of this chapter. It is unparallel to any one.
Our country is also known as India, the name came after the 'Indus' Valley Civilization.
The civilization developed in and around Mohanzo-da-Ro and Harrappa was known as Indus Valley Civilisation. 'India' is the derivative of 'Indus'. The Indus Valley Civilisation is considered as one of the oldest civilisations of the world. Historians and archeological scholars have established that during Indus Valley Civilisation there was cultural and commercial impacts among our country India , Egypt and Greece. Chinese civilisation came later on.
Matrisanskriti means culture of the motherland. In ancient time, the culture or sanskriti developed with centre as the great Himalayas and it was known as the Vedic Civilisation. Veda means knowledge or 'to know'. Veda comes from the 'Vid' verb i.e. to know. There are four Veda's-- Rig Veda, Sam Veda, Yajur Veda and Atharva Veda. There are two broad divisions of Veda--Karma Kanda and Jnana Kanda.
Karma Kanda deals with the rites and rituals; whereas the Jnana Kanda gives us the bank of knowledge. Jnana Kanda again is divided into four major groups. They are Vedanta, Vedanga, Upanishad and Brahmasutra. The famous philosophical treasure 'Srimad Bhagavad Gita' which is a part of the Mahabharata is itself an Upanisad. That's why at the end of every chapter it is written, " Srimadbhagvadgitasu Upanishadsu..........." etc.
So, Veda is a part of our samskriti. Next is coming samhitas and smritis. They also constitute the part of our culture.
From time to time, our national and regional mentors like Rabindranath Tagore, Swami Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Chhatrapati Shivaji and Munshi Premchand etc. have added new dimensions to our cultural revolution.
.ESSENCE OF INDIANISM
Indianism is a feeling of being an Indian. Irrespective of caste, creed or religion, when we feel ourselves to be the members of a single family, we feel oneness and that is Indianism. It is also part of national integration.
In India, there is unity in diversity. There are people whose language is different, clothe differently, eating with various food habits and above all, living style is also different but all of them feel and think alike and are proud of being Indian.
During tarpan, ( a ritual by means of which we offer our respect or obituary to our forefathers ) we pray to the almighty with the mantra , " Abrahma stamba paryantang Jagat tripyantu." This means, let all the souls from the biggest to the smallest creations of the universe be free from any bondage, let them get salvation of body, mind and soul. Here, not only we pray for our forefathers but we also pray for all souls. This reveals the extent of broadness of our morality.
Our saints, sages and mahatmas have taught us to think for all, to share their well and woes and pray to God to root out their sorrows and to work for all to bring prosperity in their lives.
This reveals that a truly devotee of God can not desire for earthly or heavenly happiness, even he refuses the desire of complete salvation or mokhsa but he prays for all and desires that the sufferings of the multitudes be rooted out. Lord Gautam Buddha refused his kingship and preferred to work for the cause of the sufferings of all. Swami Vivekananda said, " Jeevey prem karey jei jan, sei jan sevichhey Iswar, " which means that who loves the beings, serves the God.
We, the Indians should convey the message to the world that we can convert this fighting world into a peaceful living abode. Rabindra Nath Tagore dreamt and foresaw that India will lead the world. We must wait to see the day when India will lead the world and we are sure that the day will come soon. The thought of Mahatma Gandhi, which is based on Gita, has already spread all over the world. He has become a symbol of liberation in the world. He advocated not only to get rid of foreign rule but also to get rid of economic disparity between rich and the poor and administered mantra of social reforms. He taught us to win with truth over falsehood. He has become the symbol of Indianism. He sits above all international barriers and showing the path of liberation at large.
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