Report: Intl. Vedic Workshop/Kyoto

[Michael Witzel]

REPORT:
SECOND INTERNATIONAL VEDIC WORKSHOP, Kyoto University,  Oct. 30-Nov. 2 1999


Ten years after the first workshop at Harvard, Prof. Yasuke Ikari and his
colleagues have organized a very comprehensive and  successful update. This
meeting was attended by some 75 participants. A brief summary of  the
proceedings is given below. I order the talks by topic (language, study of
words, editions of texts,  interpretation of texts, development of the
Vedic corpus, Vedic ritual, development of thought) and present them in a
roughly historical order.

Minoru Hara (Tokyo)
gave an introduction to the development of Indology in Japan over the past
hundred years or so, and underlined, in this context, the achievements of
the first Japanese Vedic scholar, the late Naoshiro Tsuji (Tokyo) whose
100th birthday is celebrated this week.

 LANGUAGE

Frederick Kortlandt (Leiden)
traced back a feature of ablaut in the Vedic verb system, the long vowel in
the 2nd/3rd sing. of the aorist injunctive, as the earlier state of things
in Indo-European times and the starting point of the Vedic system.

Leonid Kulikov (Leiden)
discussed the unusual (and late) -yet optative, instead of root aorist
optative (precative) -yaat, as a separate type of aorist optative formation
connected with such forms as aor. gamema.

Michael Witzel (Harvard)
drew attention to the many levels of substrate languages that preceded the
Rgvedic language, from an unknown a Central Asian one to various Indian
ones (Para-Munda, then Dravidian, etc.); the usually met with Arya :
Dravida scheme is much too simple and misleading.
(see last number of EJVS at: http://www1.shore.net/~india/ejvs)

 STUDY OF WORDS

Tatyana Elizarenkova (Moscow)
stressed that the pur 'fortress' is seen, in the Rgveda, mostly in negative
fashion as that of the enemies and only rarely metaphorically referring to
the protection it provides to the Arya; its earliest archaeological
correlates are the Ural fortresses (c. 2000 BCE) such as Arkaim and
Sintashta.

Alexander Lubotsky (Leiden)
showed, by careful juxtaposition of linguistic, textual and zoological
materials, that Atharvavedic prdaaku-saanu means a snake that has a
panther's (prdaaku) skin, probably Russel's viper.

Patrick Olivelle (Austin)
followed the development of the word and concept of dharma(n) from the
Rgveda to Asoka, that is from its early connection with divine kingship to
the religious propaganda of Asoka and the community based values of the
Dharmasutra texts.

 EDITIONS OF TEXTS

Arlo Griffiths (Leiden)
reported on recent fieldwork in Orissa and the discovery of a number of new
Paippalada Samhita manuscripts that will, for the first time, allow a
critical edition; other texts of the Paipp. tradition (Paddhatis of the
Paithinasi GS and the Angirasakalpa also have been filmed for editorial
work).

Asko Parpola (Helsinki)
reported on securing some unique texts of the endangered Jaiminiya Samaveda
tradition and editorial work undertaken by him, M. Fujii and W. Howard, of
the Uttaragaana and the Jaiminiya Kalpasutra, based on a text that presents
the Samans as actually sung, not as learned by heart in Samhita form.  The
editions will be published in Harvard Oriental Series (for details, see
www.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/mwpage.htm)

Yasuke Ikari
reported on field work in Kerala as well, this one relating to the almost
extinct Vadhula tradition of the Black Yajurveda. Many new MSS of the
S'rautasutra and Anubrahmana (anvakhyana) have been found by him, making a
first critical edition possible; in addition, the Vadh. Grhyasutra,
Pitrmedhasutra and other texts have been secured.

Harry Falk (Berlin)
re-examined the supposedly critical edition of the Vasistha Dharmasutra
made early in this century and showed that the text has undergone a long,
and varied evolution, especially during the past 1000 years; a critical
edition of the original text is underway.

Jost Gippert (Frankfurt)
moved to the collection of electronic editions of Vedic (and other IE
texts) and reported on and demonstrated various updated retrieval and
search  systems, including metrical analysis, as represented on his TITUS
web site at Frankfurt. Interested scholars can enjoy the benefits of this
site after having themselves  contributed a Vedic text to the collection.
See the
 web site :   http://titus.uni-frankfurt.de
( gippert at em.uni-frankfurt.de)


 INTERPRETATION OF TEXTS

Jared Klein  (Athens, Georgia)
investigated the various sub-categories of the repetition of fronted words
(anaphora) in the elaborate verbal art of the Rgveda inherited from
Indo-Iranian Indo-European times.

Werner Knobl (Kyoto)
presented a very sensitive interpretation of certain metrical
irregularities in the Rgveda,  intended by the highly trained Vedic poets
to convey certain emotions.

Toshifumi Goto (Sendai)
moved from form to the content of a whole poem, the complex poetry of
Vasistha in RV 7.88 and the relationship between the Vasisthas and
Agnihotra-like morning rites as well as their stress on Aditya religion.

Albrecht Wezler (Hamburg)
investigated the reporting of opinions about alternatives of performing
rituals in Vedic prose and stressed the importance of this device for which
allows to trace the development of rituals and texts (see below).

Christopher Minkowski  (Cornell)
introduced the 17th cent. reinterpretation, by the famous  Nilakantha
Caturdhara, of certain Rgvedic stanzas in Ramaite fashion, on the heels of
Rama worship that swept N. India in the 17th c., something that may have
started a trend in various 'modern' reinterpretations of RV stanzas that
have their heyday today.

 DEVELOPMENT OF TEXTS AND THE VEDIC CORPUS

The work by A. Parpola and M. Fujii on the development of the Samavedic
corpus of the Jaiminiya school and the form of its melodies has been
mentioned already.

Mislav Jezic (Zagreb)
investigated the complex frame stories of the Kausitaki Upanisad, completed
at various times, and the oldest case where  5, and then 10 indriya are
mentioned that become important in Sankhya.

Francois Voegeli (Lausanne/Kyoto)
showed the internal cohesion, by referring backwards to earlier
descriptions,  in the Vadhula S'rautasutra and indicated where the
violation of this principle indicates a later reversal of its chapters.

Johannes Bronkhorst (Lausanne)
surveyed several possible connections between the philosophy of Bhartrhari
and his Veda school, the Maitrayaniya of the Black Yajurveda, and found
some indication of this in pre-Manu Dharmasastra quotations and the
Kautilya Arthasastra.

Madhav Deshpande (Ann Arbor)
vividly described the competition and quarrels, around 1820 CE,  between
different Vedic schools and their various subgroups in Maratha time Poona,
their various strategies and the measures the Maratha government to
restrain such quarrels.


 VEDIC RITUAL

Jan Houben (Leiden)
followed up the hints in the Rgveda, especially in the riddle hymn
1.164.37, about the avaantaradiiksaa, the 'rudimentary initiation', and the
Pravargya ritual  to that of the S'rauta texts.

Yasuhiro Tsuchiyama (Sapporo)
continued his earlier studies of royal ritual in the Atharvaveda and showed
how the abhiseka of S'rauta times is prefigured in some hymns of the
Paippalada Samhita.

Mieko Kajihara (Harvard/Kyoto)
followed up her earlier studies on the concept of the Brahmacarin by an
investigation of Paipp. Samh. 20 and Taittiriya Upanisad and indicated the
development of a new Samavartana ritual based on Paipp. Samh. / Upanisad
sources.

Masato Fujii (Kyoto)
studied in detail the development of a particular Saman, the gaayatra,  and
its wording  in Jaminiya texts and showed that Vedic melodies were not
static at that time in the history of Saman texts.

Noshitori Aramaki (Kyoto)
followed the development of the sarvamedhasa rite involving the giving up
of some wealth, from the Paippalada Atharvaveda to the complete giving up
of wealth  of the  Katha Upanisad.

Shingo Einoo (Tokyo)
moved into the field of late/post-Vedic ritual by an innovative detailed
study of the diiksaa undertaken not only by the Yajamana but increasingly
so also by the officiating priests.

Hari Govind Ranade (Poona)
showed examples of his illustrated dictionary of Vedic ritual (in
preparation) covering everything from implements to plans of the offering
ground.

Jan Houben (Leiden)
continued with the visual elements of Vedic ritual by showing a video film
of a Pravargya ceremony held at Delhi a few years ago.


 DEVELOPMENT OF THOUGHT

Henk Bodewitz (Leiden)
studied the history of classifications of yonder world in the Veda which is
based on two different sets of classifications that allow a number of
permutations; the location of the world of the ancestors in the nether
world is reaffirmed.

Albrecht Wezler (Hamburg)
discussed, as indicated above, the ways of reporting opinions about
alternatives of performing Vedic rituals which amounts in some Vedic prose
texts to a quasi-internal monologue;  he stressed the importance of this
device for the history of dialectics in India.

Junko Sakamoto-Goto (Osaka)
traced many of the aspects of Janaka's Five Fire Doctrine in S'B back to
earlier texts, including that of viraaj in the Rgveda, and offered a
re-interpretation of this doctrine.

Ryutaro Tsuchida (Tokyo)
stressed the importance of a neglected source for the study of the
development of Ahimsa, the non-violent behavior of the snataka and
householder, and argued against mono-causal explanation of such concepts,
so typical of this and the last century.

Johannes Bronkhorst (Lausanne)
discussed, as indicated, the connection of the thought of Bhartrhari with
his Vedic School, the Maitrayaniya.


In conclusion, it may be mentioned that we did not spend any time at this
conference with the discussion of 'hot topics' such as the so-called 'Aryan
invasion' or the 'Sarasvati civilization' (which were mentioned just once
in a secondary clause); perhaps much for the better, since we are in need
of a much more sophisticated model than that of the usually met with
Arya-Dravidian opposition, -- a model that takes all aspects of
linguistics, philology, archaeology, anthropometrics, genetics, etc. into
account.

IN SUM:

The organizers of this workshop, Profs. Y. Ikari and M. Fujii of Kyoto
University and their assistants, must be congratulated for a very well
arranged and pleasant conference and stay. I speak for all participants, I
think, in expressing our thanks and admiration for this workshop held in
such a productive and congenial way!

The proceedings will be published, in due course (but hopefully more
quickly, mea culpa, than those of the first workshop) in Opera Minora
(HOS).

For an update, and for *future* collaborative activities of the Vedic
scholars assembled at Kyoto, keep checking the Electronic Journal of Vedic
Studies (EJVS):  http://www1.shore.net/~india/ejvs
and my website: http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/mwpage.htm



MW>

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Michael Witzel                          Elect. Journ. of Vedic Studies
Harvard University                  www1.shore.net/~india/ejvs
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my direct line (also for messages) :  617- 496 2990
home page:     www.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/mwpage.htm