Gayatri Mantra

[Ashish Chandra]

On Fri, 17 May 2002 11:33:39 -0400, Vishal Agarwal
<vishalagarwal at HOTMAIL.COM> wrote:

>I would humbly offer a correction. According a version, when Maharshi
>Yajnavalkya vomitted the Sukla-Yajurveda, the disciples of Charaka
>Vaishampayana assumed the forms of Tittiri and swallowed it. Not that
>Charakas learnt it from partridges.
>

I thought he learnt the Sukla-Yajurveda latern on from the Sun. It was the
Yajus that were vomitted out and they became the KYV. SKY was learnt later
on.

>Note that the word 'Tittiri' is actually the name of a Rishi in Paniniya
>Ganapatha, and from the context it is clear that the story on partridges is
>a later fabrication.
>

Has any Acharya said so? As far as we trust the tradition, the Sruti,
Smriti and the Acharyas say the same thing. I would like to hear if you
have posed this question to an Acharya and he has agreed/disagreed with
you.

>
>By today's standards, Bhagvatpada Shankaracharya et al would be considered
>wrong in debarring Women and Sudras from reciting the Vedas. That is my
firm
>assessment.
>

Ravi is right. This is a never ending topic but it does not mean we cannot
discuss it. Although we are by no means of the calibre of the Naiyyayikas
who argued with the Buddhists for centuries, we can at least come to some
formal conclusion on this topic. If anyone could clarify this with any
Acharya, that would be of immense help at putting this issue to rest.

>I am not at all questioning or discussing the correctness of this
convention
>in the 8th century CE, because that is a different issue altogether.
>
>I hope that people in the list do not want to pour lead into the ears of
>Sudras if they accidentally hear Vedic recitations, just because the
Gautama
>Smriti enjoins us to do so. If this list believes in the validity of such
>obnoxious injunctions, I would rather unsubscribe.
>

[...]

ashish