As Before, So Again?

Its authors imbue the Ṛg Veda -- radically -- with the conviction that no single perspective is conclusive, or superior to all others. Dogmatic adherence to this liberal attitude is the antithesis of Western ideals, which remain profoundly influenced by Aristotle's effort to found philosophy on “first principles,” continued today in our efforts to develop a strictly logical foundation for mathematics. DeNicolás writes of the “radical skepticism” of the philosopher/poets of the Vedas and contrasts their attitudes with those of modern scholars whose analytical methods “make it almost impossible to attain a complete freedom in viewpoint-changing.” For him, “change of viewpoint is the gaining of Vedic viewpoint.” Is this thesis the potential precursor to the scientific method?

The song-poems of the Ṛg Veda (India's oldest sacred tomes) abound in mysterious arithmetic and geometric detail. Its hymns link Sun and Moon, and all creation, to incestuous couplings within a pantheon of deities. Sons create their own mothers, and all is cataloged and counted. The Universe emerges as a victory of “gods” over “demonic forces”, which can be defeated but never eradicated; and both frays & forces count and are counted. The spoils of war are counted along with: Singers and their syllables and tones, the ribs of the cosmic horse, the sticks of the sacrificial fire, rivers, tribes, holy chalices, footsteps, twin sons, mountains, cattle, dogs, sheep, storm gods, the seats and wheel-spokes of celestial chariots, and castles, priests, and sacred stones. The poets seem concerned with the exact number of everything they encounter, and associate them with location in space-time. Why they cared is seldom clear, and begs investigation. The gods of the Ṛg Veda are dependent on an elaborate cult of sacrifice, vigilantly maintained by Brahmān priests, in which the chanting of hymns plays the central role. No, it is not numerology or superstition.

A logical structure within the Ṛg Veda, demonstrated by a summary of the arithmetical elements in its creation hymns, and emphasis on the role of sound, constitute a major challenge to musicians: Were the Indian poets, like Plato, speaking a mathematical metaphor derived from a musical model? In addition, are the poets' numbers, like all of Plato's, subject to analysis according to the principles of Greek tuning theory? Is it possible, as the distinguished authors of Hamlet's Mill claim, that Plato really is our "living Rosetta Stone" to the more obscure science of earlier cultures? We may be able to chart a new course in the Western effort to rediscover its Eastern roots, a new adventure for the imagination.

The "lattice logic", which we perceive in the Ṛg Veda, may seek ground on a proto-science of number and tone. The numbers that Ṛgvedic Man cared about and deified define alternate tunings for the musical scale. The hymns describe the numbers poetically, distinguish "sets" by classes of gods and demons, and portray tonal and arithmetical relations -- with graphic sexual and spatial metaphor. Vedic concerns were with specific point, planes, and shapes of invariance, which becomes the focus of attention in Greek and hence Western tuning theory.

Should a comprehensive study unfold, it is certain to raise serious questions about the early development of mathematical thinking; about debts, which the calendar and scale may owe to each other, and about the possible origins of both the mathematics of music and its related mythology. They are among the many questions we cannot answer satisfactorily as long as a vast amount of archaeological material lies in disarray, unexamined or still undecipherable.

Historians of science have barely begun to cope with certain kinds of material available to them, and we must await their judgment on many issues. Many maintain that humankind is a remnant of a long-gone civilization, prehistoric and devoid of record. Who is to say with any measure of certitude that their development and technology did not equal or even surpass ours? I am not even considering factors such as “Panspermia”, or so-called “ancient astronaut” theories. Simply a predecessor to modern man, wiped out in a natural disaster or possibly by one of his own creation. A thorough analysis of Ṛgvedic imagery may provide a new tool for the study of the origins of science, of our calendar, of musical theory, and of the roots of our civilization; and potentially civilizations that preceded our own.

Ancient logic of India is profoundly geometric, and the properties remain in effect even today. Maṇḍalas and yantras present the observer with static forms, achievement of which can only be by virtue of dynamic processes. Our problem here and now is to learn to see those forms as Socrates yearned to see his own ideal forms, "in motion."  With some investigation, it thus offers up the aboriginal substance of the entire universe, for the taking! When one considers that the most important idea embedded in Ṛgvedic thinking is the notion of reciprocity, it begs the question: Has this all happened before?

 J. Zuppardo, Ph.D.