Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c9.18

c9.18

**Yāska's Comment.** These two ages are very well described by the earliest Vedic commentator, Yāska, in his *Nirukta* (*c.* 700 B.C.). There were, firstly, according to Yāska, "the Ṛishis who were the direct seers of Truth. They were followed by the lesser men (*avara*) who were incapable of that direct perception of Truth, which comes from *tapas* or *yoga*, concentrated contemplation. These may be called *Śrutarshis*. The seers, therefore, had to impart their Truths (Mantras) to these inferior people, the Śrutarshis, by means of oral instruction (*Upadeśa*). The Śrutarshis are so called because they became Ṛishis or Seers only through *Śruti* or hearing the truths imparted to them as pupils by their teachers, the Ṛishis (Upadeśena = Śishyopādhyāyikayā vṛittyā) who imparted to them both the words of the Mantras and also their meaning (*granthataḥ arthataścha*). They could not attain to the truths directly by their own powers of *tapas* and insight. These, again, in view of later generations further deteriorating in their powers, as means of facilitating the study of the Veda, compiled the Veda (i.e. the Saṁhitā text), the Nighaṇṭu and the Vedāṅgas [i, 20 with Durga's commentary]." In commenting on Rigveda, x, 98, Yāska defines *Ṛishi* as the person "who is possessed of vision, to whom, practising austerities (*tapasyamānaṁ*), the self-born Brahma manifested himself" (i.e. "the Vedas revealed their meaning without their study by him", as explained by Durga).