Smarta

Published on 27th May, 2018, in Mid-Day. The hymns Rig Veda, as we know it today, were composed over 3,000 years ago around Punjab and Haryana, and refer to a time when there was movement eastwards towards the Gangetic Plain, a movement facilitated by fire. By the time the Upanishads were composed, 2,500 years ago, there was a familiarity with the Gangetic Plain. This is the region, and the time, associated with the life of the Buddha and the Jina Mahavira. Around 2,000 years ago, the Mahabharata had been put down in writing in Vedic Sanskrit, after centuries of oral transmission. Here we have some ..