Sayana’s Upodghata to The Taittiriya Samhita and The Rgveda Samhita

About The Book
The Vedas are said to be the oldest literature of India, or perhaps of the world. Ages passed, and gradually it became difficult for ancient Sanskrit scholars to under-stand the Vedas. From time to time, traditional Vedic scholars tried to interprete the Vedas. Their names are found in the quotations but their works are not available. In 1400 A.D. Sayarjacarya, a great Vedic scholar wrote an exhaustive commentary on the Vedas. In his introductions to his commentary of the Vedic Samhitas, he has given some principles, some guideline, for the interpretation of the Vedas. These introductions have been studied and taught by Sanskrit Pandits in a traditional manner, but it is not so in case of the modern scholars. They have gone through Sayana’s commentary, but his introductions have not been touched by them owing to difficult language and difficult Sastrartha. The author of this book has made an attempt to critically analyse and translate Sayana’s introductions to the TS and RV. The introductions have been translated into English for the first time. We hope they will be helpful for the modern Indian as well as the foreign scholars to understand Sayana’s principles of Vedic interpretation.

About The Author
Dr. (Mrs) Saraswati Bali, belonging to a family of Sanskritists, was born in Hydrabad Sindh on 30th October, 1943. Her grandfather, Pandit Lacchiram Saraswat and her father Pandit Bhairav Dutt Saraswat used to converse with her in Sanskrit when she was a child. She had curiosity to know the Vedas even in her childhood. So she chose to study Sanskrit in higher classes. She passed B.A. (Hons) Sanskrit and M.A. Sanskrit from Delhi University. She got UGC, Junior Research Fellowship for Ph.D. She did her Ph.D. on ‘Brhaspati in the Vedas and the Puranas’ from Delhi University in 1978 and the same was published by Nag Publishers in the same year. She also did Post-Doctoral research work on iSayaria’s Upodghata to the is and the RV. She has contributed more than twenty research articles on Vedic studies in seminars and conferences. At present, She is engaged in doing research on ‘Sayarta’s Authorship of his Vedic commentaries for D.Litt. from Lucknow University. She is a member of Sanskrit Academy, Govt of Delhi. She has been teaching Sanskrit in the college since 1967. At present, she is holding the post of a Reader in the Deptt. of Sanskrit, Kalindi College, University of Delhi.