The two-day National Conference on Atharva Veda had its valedictory session on April 14 with Prof Gopal Das as the chief guest. The conference was organised by the Academy of Yoga and Oriental Studies (AYOS).
Prof Das reminded the discerning audience that the Vedic period is not a thing of the past but is very much functional at the living present. “We all adhere to it in all forms of worship as we seek the active cooperation and association of our life partners or our wives.” This is a reminder of the Vedic hangover, he said. Prof Das exhorted one and all that more research should be undertaken for on Vedic works.
AYOS Director Dr Indulata Das, in her presidential address, opined, “We should not fall an easy prey to the alien writers writing on Indian literature. It is because they have their own agenda and scheme of things behind such adventures. On the contrary, we should stick to the writings of Indian authors on our literature and ancient culture.” Replying to a query, she quipped, “A nation does not learn its own history from aliens.”
There were thirteen academic sessions during the conference, every session being of one-hour duration. Many papers were presented in the sessions. Noted scholars among the galaxy of intellectuals included Prof Pramod Chandra Mishra, Prof lK Sahoo, Arun Upadhyaya, Prof Sulok Mohanty, Prof Siddheswar Jena, Dr Harekrushna Mishra, Prof Suryamani Rath, Prof Ranvir Parisara from Jammu, Prof VB Sastri and Prof Rajkishore Mishra.
Many seminal issues owing their origin to the Atharva Veda like Brahmacharya (celibacy) in Atharva Veda, importance of black mustard and yellow mustard in Atharva Veda, Atharva Veda and long life, Atharva Veda’s contribution to nationalism and nation building, Atharva Vedi’a contribution to Indian classical music were discussed by the scholars threadbare by resorting to the methods of lemon-squeezing, hairsplitting and methodology of higher literary criticism.
As the curtain was going to fall, Dr Indulata Das kept the spirit of the punditocracy in animated suspension by announcing the coming year’s topic as “Brahmana literature”. It was indeed a rewarding experience for the scholars to have exchanges of their ideas in shedding up of their obsolescence of knowledge and getting themselves readied for such national endeavours to make Sanskrit and the Veda more akin to the Indians.