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Society
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MANORAMA SAVUR
Buds
Of Poison Is A Lie
The author of And the Bamboo Flowers in the
Indian Forests joins issue with the Minister for Development and his
threat to clearfell the bamboo forests in the Northeast. It would be an
ecological disaster, she warns.
ANITA PRATAP
View
From The Glasshouse
What use pontificating about feelgood factors?
Can we ignore the reality?
Par
For The Cause?
Having five women CMs may not automatically mean
success for the feminist movement
Give
Me Red!
Vintners may hype its health benefits. But when
it comes to making a statement, only the red will do.
Barrier-Free
A special games opens many new doors to its
multi-skilled contestants
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Speak
up! Express yourself in our free- wheeling discussions or start those of
your own.
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...and more
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Prashant Panjiar
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TRADITION
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Solar
Flares
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Vedic chanting makes
it to UNESCO's intangible heritage of humanity list, only to ruffle a few
feathers
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HARSH KABRA
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On November 7, when
Vedic chanting glistened on UNESCO's list of 28 masterpieces of oral and
intangible heritage selected from 80 international entries, it also cast a
self-adulatory glow on the Indian government, more specifically the
Department of Culture (DoC).
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But this recognition
has also whipped up a controversy.
The facts first. In a bid to revitalise one of
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the world's oldest
living oral traditions, faced with apathy, adulteration and outright
extinction, the DoC had embarked upon a UNESCO-endorsed five-year action
plan to set up 15 Vedic pathshalas at a cost of Rs 5.3 crore to offer
five-year courses under the traditional gurukul system of oral teaching.
As part of the plan, it proposed to tap au fait gurus, form a phalanx of
authoritative pundits, restore the rigour of 'pristine' Vedic
articulation, resurrect near-forgotten modes of chanting, document the
chants, drive refresher courses for existing practitioners and incubate
common curricula.
Subsequently, the DoC approached UNESCO to get Vedic chanting recognised
as an 'intangible heritage of humanity' to win foreign financial support
for the cause.
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"The
Vedas don't need outside honours to confirm their importance."
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The Indira Gandhi
National Centre for Arts, Delhi, was roped in to prepare a presentation
showcasing the evanescent tradition. After much dawdling over whether
any recognition to the Vedas would amount to patronising a particular
religion,
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a UNESCO team visited
India earlier this year and returned convinced about the sheer cultural
wealth of the oral practices linked to the 'scriptures'.
But Navya Shastra (NS), a US-based global organisation of Hindu scholars,
activists, priests and lay people, has taken umbrage at the clubbing of
the "seminal texts of a world religion" with folk arts (see
box). "The Vedas and its chanting tradition form the fountainhead,
the very epicentre, of the religious beliefs of over 800 million
people," Vikram Masson, co-chairman, NS, told Outlook from
New Jersey. "Be it a farmer in Tamil Nadu or a fisherman in Bengal,
some part of his spiritual worldview has been inspired by the utterances
of the rishis. By closeting the Vedas with other cultural expressions,
UNESCO has marginalised and diminished the most important scriptures in
the Hindu tradition." Reasons Koichiro Matsuura, DG, UNESCO:
"This proclamation doesn't simply recognise the value of some
elements of the intangible heritage; it entails the commitment of the
state to implement plans to promote and safeguard the masterpiece."
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But Masson isn't satisfied: "The government should have taken
other measures to safeguard the Vedic tradition. It could have sought the
assistance of home-grown philanthropic organisations. The Vedas,
central
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Experts
say that four noted Vedic schools are in the danger of closing down.
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to Indian culture for
over 4,000 years, don't need outside honours to confirm their
importance."
Yet, confirming the importance of this tradition may not be as critical
as salvaging the tradition itself. Even UNESCO concurs: "Although
the Vedas continue to play an important role in India, this ancient oral
tradition now faces difficulties owing to current economic conditions and
modernisation. Experts claim that four noted schools of Vedic
recitation?in Orissa, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala?may be in danger
of closing down."
The DoC study unravelled depressing statistics to corroborate this. It
said that while only two of the Rig Veda's 20 branches and 21
sub-branches, six of the Yajur Veda's 101 branches, three of the Sama
Veda's 1,000 branches, and two of Atharva Veda's nine branches existed
today, four schools of Vedic chanting?Paippalada, Ranayaniya, Jaiminiya,
and Maitrayani?were about to vanish. The study pointed out that while
there were nearly 500 traditional Vedic pathshalas, there were only
300-odd teachers drilling fewer than 1,500 students. With Vedic
traditions losing talent to other professions, the ilk of those deft at
accurate chanting has shrivelled.
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(1 of 2)
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