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SriRangaSri List Archive: Message 00082 Nov 2003

 
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Dear friends,

The reason for my happiness at UNESCO's declaration
stems from precisely the reasons mentioned in Sri csl
narsimhan's kind message below.

Nobody in India, no Indian certainly, needs a UN
mandate for the Vedas. The Vedas pre-exist the UNESCO
and the Vedas shall undoubtedly survive it too. Even
without a UN declaration surely Indians all over the
world know in their hearts that the Veda is an
"intangible heritage of humanity".

What however makes the subject UNESCO declaration
special (to me at least) is that for the first time
(to the best of my knowledge) a world premier body
like the UN (that too a secular organization) has
recognized and affirmed the timeless religious &
spiritual legacy of India to all humanity. Is this not
a matter of pride for the land of India and its
peoples? After all, we see reason to take pride when
someone tells us that that much of the good work done
at NASA or Microsoft is done by Indian scientific
minds! Why shouldn't we similarly take pride when a
world-body such as the UN formally acknowledges the
Vedas of India to be a world heritage? 

I also do not understand why we should be disappointed
that the UNESCO while hailing the Vedas has similarly
conferred honours on "28 other heritages of the
world". God's great world is garden of many treasures
and wonders... There are perhaps other treasures in
His world too besides the Vedas. Why should we doubt
it or be aggrieved? Let us rejoice in our part of the
Lord's garden, the Vedas. In any case, the UN as a
world-body must exhibit a global perspective and hence
perhaps has chosen 28 other items of "humanity
heritages".

No one can also reasonably believe that because of the
UNESCO declaration, the United Nations will now begin
to fund and support all our Vedic pundits and
"pUrOhits" back in India! The task of protecting and
promoting the Vedas is primarily the responsibility
and duty of Indians (most notably of the Brahmin
families). The World Wildlife Fund some years ago
declared the Indian tiger to be an "endangered
species" and resolved to help save the species. But
that did not absolve native Indian conservationists
and communities from their duties to save the tiger...
they alone in fact could accomplish the task.
Similarly, no matter how gratifying it is to know
about the UNESCO declaration on the Vedas, we must
realize that the primary responsibility to preserve
and propogate the Vedas lies in our hands alone and
none else! 

In a limited sense, we may take the subject UNESCO
declaration to be a warning that the priceless
heritage of the Vedas too is today "endangered" and
humanity better take note and begin acting for its
conservation. To that end, I think the UNESCO
declaration definitely needs to be appreciated and
rejoiced about.
 
Trust this explains my earlier mail on the subject.

Regards,
dAsan,
Sudarshan




 --- narsimhan csl <cslnarsimhan@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > 
> 
> I think sri Shashi has a point. But for now, I will
> consider this useful assuming that we can use the
> resources derived out of such a proclamation for
> benefit of improving vedic chanting. Although, it
> may not be the intention of the proclamation, but I
> would like to see this in isolation as a means to
> protect our vedic traditions. In that respect I am
> fully convinced by Sri Sudarshan  swamy for we have
> probably a reason to think in the direction of
> rejoicing. 
> 
> Sajjana Padapadma parama renuhu
> 
> Lakshmi Narasimha dasan
> 
> 
> 
>  
> 
> 
> shashi <shashi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: 
> i don't know how much happy i should be, when i read
> the original UNESCO
> website posting. this recognition to vedic chanting
> is no isolated matter,
> it is part of a 28 item list, among which are:
> 
> The masterpieces proclaimed are: Azerbaijani Mugham
> (Azerbaijan), The
> Carnival of Binche (Belgium), The Andean Cosmovision
> of the Kallawaya
> (Bolivia), The Oral and Graphic Expressions of the
> Wajapi (Brazil), The
> Oral traditions of the Aka Pygmies of Central Africa
> (Central African
> Republic), The Royal Ballet of Cambodia (Cambodia),
> The Art of Guqin Music
> (China), The Carnival of Barranquilla (Colombia), La
> Tumba Francesa, Music
> of the Oriente Brotherhood (Cuba), The Al-Sirah
> al-Hilaliyya Epic (Egypt),
> The Kihnu Cultural Space (Estonia), The Tradition of
> Vedic Chanting
> (India), Wayang Puppet Theatre (Indonesia), The
> Maroon Heritage of Moore
> Town (Jamaica), Ningyo Johruri Bunraku Puppet
> Theatre (Japan), The Art of
> Akyns, Kyrgyz Epic Tellers (Kyrgyzstan),
> Woodcrafting Knowledge of the
> Zafimaniry (Madagascar), The Indigenous Festivity
> dedicated to the Dead
> (Mexico), The Traditional Music of Morin Khuur
> (Mongolia), The Pansori
> Epic Chant (Republic of Korea), Lakalaka, Dances and
> Sung Speeches of
> Tonga (Tonga), The Arts of the Meddah, Public
> Storytellers (Turkey),
> Vanuatu Sand Drawings (Vanuatu), Nha Nhac,
> Vietnamese Court Music (Viet
> Nam), Arab States: Iraqi Maqam (Iraq), Songs of
> Sanaa (Yemen).
> 
> 
> for those interested, the URL is
>
http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php@URL_ID=17120&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
> or simply go to www.unesco.org and then follow the
> "intangible heritage" link
> 
> vedic chanting is at par with Music of the Oriente
> Brotherhood of Cuba!
> 
> vedic traditions are among the oldest surviving
> sophisticated, highly
> developed traditions, that has music, linguistics,
> maths, wisdom,
> spirituality all combined intricately!
> 
> :-(
> 
> sudarshan madabushi worked magic with the keyboard
> on Sat, Nov 15, 2003 at 07:13:28AM +0000:
> > 
> > Dear friends and fellow-"vedadhyAyin-s" of Kuwait,
> > 
> > Below is a post that appeared in
> > Srirangasri@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx yesterday. Reading it
> will
> > make us all really proud! The UNESCO has declared
> the
> > Chanting of Vedas to be a priceless "intangible
> > heritage" of the world! 
> > 
> > We as Vedic students, living and working here in a
> > land outside India, are trying in our own humble
> way
> > to learn Vedic chanting. We are indeed blessed!
> All
> > the time and effort that we as a group have spent
> > these past 2/3 years surely have been worthwhile!
> When
> > we started, all of us indeed resolved rightly! We
> must
> > understand that we have truly gained an
> "intangible"
> > wealth of inestimable value... "veda-dhanam"! ...
> as
> > even the UNESCO now seems to have recognized and
> > attests! 
> > 
> > Let us all celebrate! We have every reason to!
> > 
> > Regards,
> > dAsan,
> > Sudarshan
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > > Message: 3
> > >    Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2003 20:09:48 -0500 (EST)
> > >    From: "Shaasa A. Ruzicka"
> > > <amritasyaputra@xxxxxxxxxx>
> > > Subject: UNESCO Declares Vedic Chanting an
> > > ?Intangible Heritage of Humanity"
> > > 
> > > 
> > > UNESCO Declares Vedic Chanting an ?Intangible
> > > Heritage of Humanity"
> > > *********************************************
> > >
> >
>
http://pib.nic.in/archieve/lreleng/lyr2003/rnov2003/11112003/r1111200311.html
> > > 
> > > PARIS, FRANCE, November 12, 2003: The oral
> tradition
> > > of Vedic chanting has been declared an
> intangible
> > > heritage of humanity by UNESCO. In a meeting of
> jury
> > > members on November 7, 2003, at Paris, Mr.
> Koichiro
> > > Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO, declared
> the
> > > chanting of Vedas in India an outstanding
> example of
> > > heritage and form of cultural expressions. The
> > > proclamation says that in the age of
> globalization
> > > and modernization when cultural diversity is
> under
> > > pressure, the preservation of oral tradition of
> > > Vedic chanting, a unique cultural heritage, has
> > > great significance. 
> > > The jury members included Dr. Richard Kurin,
> > > Director of the Center for Folklore and Cultural
> > > Heritage of the Smithsonian Institution (United
> > > Nations), Mr. Juan Goytisolo, Writer (Spain),
> Mr.
> > > Yoshikazu Hasegawa (Japan), Ms. Olive W.M.
> Lewin.
> > > Pianist, ethnomusicologist, Director of the
> Jamaica
> > > Orchestra for Youth (Jamaica). 
> > > The UNESCO declaration will bring international
> > > recognition to the excellence of the Vedic
> chanting
> > > tradition of India, which has survived for
> centuries
> > > encoding the wisdom contained in the Vedas
> through
> > > an extraordinary effort of memorization and
> through
> > > elaborately worked out mnemonic methods. The
> purity
> > > and fail-safe technique devised for Vedic
> chanting
> > > in the olden days led to access to one of the
> > > ancient literatures of humanity in its entirety
> > > today. 
> > > The Department of Culture, Ministry of Tourism
> and
> > > Culture, took the initiative to put up the
> > > candidature of the Vedic chanting to UNESCO. A
> > > presentation was prepared by Indira Gandhi
> National
> > > Centre for Arts. The Department has also
> prepared a
> > > five-year action plan to safeguard, protect,
> promote
> > > and disseminate the oral tradition of Vedas in
> terms
> > > of their uniqueness and distinctiveness,
> encourage
> > > scholars and practitioners to preserve,
> revitalize
> > > and promote their own branch of Vedic recitation
> as
> > > the custodians of their own traditions and
> direct
> 
=== message truncated === 


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