Ram Varma’s ‘Hinduism from Rig Veda to Republic’ is a rather simplistic survey of Hinduism

Purushottam Agrawal

This ambitiously titled book intends to undertake a survey of Hinduism over a period of five millennia and a vast geographical spread, including south-east Asia, but the result is a very simple (at times even simplistic) narrative interspersed with quotations from Rig Veda, Atharva Veda, some Upanishads, Mahabharata and important early modern bhakti poets from north India.

For the Ramayana, Varma has chosen to reproduce excerpts of his own previously published version.

Almost three-fourth of the volume consists of translated passages from the above-mentioned texts. Commenting on the translations of Vedic hymns used by him, Varma notes, “Sexuality is openly discussed in the Rig Vedic hymns, without any taboo which might be shocking to us now… As an example, take the hymn attributed to Rishi Budh Saumya in which the sexual act is metaphorically described as ploughing the earth and reaping the harvest… which sounds bawdy to us. Bhagwati Devi Sharma translates it in a misleading and garbled fashion. Indeed, translations done under the guidance of Arya Samaj leader Dayanand Saraswati suffer from this malaise — they falsely try to cover the Vedic sexuality with a fig leaf.”

This translator, according to Varma, is a ‘disciple of Pandit Shri Ram Sharma’, which means, probably belonging to ‘Gayatri Parivar’, an organisation quite different from Arya Samaj. In any case, embarrassment about ‘sexuality’ is confined neither to the context of Vedas, nor to Arya Samaj.

Historicity in the Vedas is also a red herring for this kind of ‘reading’. Varma comments on another translator, Devi Chand, clearly an Arya Samaji. Rejecting the 14th century Vedic interpreter Sayana’s reading of jangid in the Atharva Veda as “a tree found near Banaras”, Devi Chand calls it ‘illogical, as it savours of history, but the Vedas are free from history’. Reacting to this, Varma is blunt enough, “Indeed, Devi Chand is an averter of meaning.”

Varma relies more on the translations by Griffith and Wendy Doniger and provides brief notes on the historical context of the Vedic period and later.

However, care for historical context simply disappears when the author comes to early modern north India. The rulers (Turks, Afghans and Mughals) and poets (Kabir, Tulsidas, Meera and Soordas) of this period are discussed entirely independent of each other, as if these poets were outside their historical times. Varma sees ‘a threat to Hinduism from Islam’, which is more a polemical than a historical description, but even if that was the case, how was this ‘threat’ met and what were the consequences? This period saw the emergence of a distinctly Indian Islam and a bhakti-infused Hinduism drawing more on everyday life and nearer past than on the Vedic antiquity. ‘Ram’, the name given to divinity by both the nirgunpanthi and sagunpanthi bhakt poets in this period, had no place in the Vedic pantheon. In this period, a revered Sufi, Malik Muhammad Jayasi, in clear violation of orthodox Islamic dogma, could declare the equal validity of innumerable paths to reach God, and the authors of various Sufi tazkiras (descriptions of holy lives) could mention Ramanand and other eminent Vaishnavas’ spiritual achievements with due respect.

Nirgunpanthi bhakti made exciting innovations in epistemological methods and ethical thought. It challenged the ‘authority’ of Hindu and Islamic scriptures and social hierarchy. Even the conservative sagunpanthi bhakti went beyond just translating the Sanskrit ideas. The book under review seems to be nonchalantly unaware of such exciting features of bhakti.

This book in fact reads more like a collection of swantah sukhaya (intended for one’s own personal pleasure) notes taken at random without bothering about essential ingredients of a cogent argument.

The author does not consider any thinker, scholar, or poet from the southern parts of India except Adi-Shankar worthy even of a cursory mention. The chapter ‘Debate on Advaita Vedanta Philosophy’ contains nothing of the profound debates around the notion of Advaita. The reader will look in vain here for Ramanuja, Madhava or Vallabha, who, critiquing Adi-Shankar, presented their own alternative, qualified notions of Advaita, leaving considerable impact on Hindu tradition.

It is also a measure of little care for perspective and balance that “Bhagwan” Osho (i.e. Rajneesh) gets more space than the entire Jain tradition.

At the end of his survey, Varma reproduces Godse’s justification for assassinating Gandhiji, taking his description of events at face value. The way it is done, reads like an endorsement of the dastardly act.

Even with such serious limitations, this book at least serves the purpose of providing in one volume a collection of accessible translations of some beautiful and profound Vedic hymns.