Jokes aside. It is the new serious me. Having been fortunate enough to have lost out on a 3 month summer internship, I turn my mind to more earthly matters. I sometimes question, why are Indians interesting?
I am an Indian. Good for me possibly but who are Indians? The inhabitants of India? Well yes, but remember there was no India to start off with - it was a silly name given by the pom - poms from Innngland. So was it Hindustan? Not really, that was a name given for our land by Islamic kingdoms; the land stretching from approximately Afghanistan to Burma (and even more) were inhabited by people known as the Hindus. Ok, then who are Hindus? The people who follow Hinduism? Yes, that would answer it, except there is no such religion isnt it? Last I remembered we were followers of a bunch of rules which got coined as the Sanatan Dharm (And yes, I hate the stupid A at the end of every Anglecised version of a Sanskrit word). So how did the term Hindu came about? Surely from the river Indus? Again, Indus would be a name coined by the pom - pom's isnt it? So it comes from some strange source.
Having read through Mahabharat and Ramayan twice I came to one conclusion. Valmiki and Ved Vyasa had no clue of the terminology called Hindus. So texts dated after the Vedas have no reference to the term. Although the spiritual services performed by Brahmins are still followed to date in modern India. So who in the world coined this term that Hindus associate themselves with? Well frankly the answer is quite obvious - the same guys who called our country Hindustan. It was the Islamic kingdoms, well possibly the persian kingdoms so let me not go into that controversy.
So, we are really interesting people. We have allowed someone else's term to be coined for us completely and we have lived with it possibly for 15 - 20 generations calling ourselves Hindus.
I sign off the note with one thought about the Sanatan Dharm. 'Vasudaiva Kutumbakam' is something all Hindus are familiar with. It can be interpreted to mean anything. But I certainly think it means the following. Vasudha - Earth, Kutumbakkam - Family. Its interesting that Indians as early as 4000 - 5000 BC (And oh yes, I strongly believe that Max Muellers theory about Vedas having been written in 1500 BC is highly wrong) came up with a concept of one earth family and the environment. While the western "advanced" world till date struggles to think the rest of nature as important.
I am an Indian. Good for me possibly but who are Indians? The inhabitants of India? Well yes, but remember there was no India to start off with - it was a silly name given by the pom - poms from Innngland. So was it Hindustan? Not really, that was a name given for our land by Islamic kingdoms; the land stretching from approximately Afghanistan to Burma (and even more) were inhabited by people known as the Hindus. Ok, then who are Hindus? The people who follow Hinduism? Yes, that would answer it, except there is no such religion isnt it? Last I remembered we were followers of a bunch of rules which got coined as the Sanatan Dharm (And yes, I hate the stupid A at the end of every Anglecised version of a Sanskrit word). So how did the term Hindu came about? Surely from the river Indus? Again, Indus would be a name coined by the pom - pom's isnt it? So it comes from some strange source.
Having read through Mahabharat and Ramayan twice I came to one conclusion. Valmiki and Ved Vyasa had no clue of the terminology called Hindus. So texts dated after the Vedas have no reference to the term. Although the spiritual services performed by Brahmins are still followed to date in modern India. So who in the world coined this term that Hindus associate themselves with? Well frankly the answer is quite obvious - the same guys who called our country Hindustan. It was the Islamic kingdoms, well possibly the persian kingdoms so let me not go into that controversy.
So, we are really interesting people. We have allowed someone else's term to be coined for us completely and we have lived with it possibly for 15 - 20 generations calling ourselves Hindus.
I sign off the note with one thought about the Sanatan Dharm. 'Vasudaiva Kutumbakam' is something all Hindus are familiar with. It can be interpreted to mean anything. But I certainly think it means the following. Vasudha - Earth, Kutumbakkam - Family. Its interesting that Indians as early as 4000 - 5000 BC (And oh yes, I strongly believe that Max Muellers theory about Vedas having been written in 1500 BC is highly wrong) came up with a concept of one earth family and the environment. While the western "advanced" world till date struggles to think the rest of nature as important.
posted by Raghunathan Srinivasan at 1:50 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home