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The Vedas date back to
approximately 2500 B.C. Since then, they have been passed on from
generation to generation through recitation. The grandfather, father
and son all sit together and learn the chants by sruti or
hearing. There was no script, no written text till very recently. In
fact the effect of the Vedas lay in their recitation, not in the mere
words.
“That is how the
Vedas have lived since they were born; in their sound, in their
chantings. It was much later that they were written down. Reading the
Vedas is an incomplete experience, hearing them being chanted is not
just a complete and a spiritual experience but belongs entirely to a
different world. We were keen to identify people who were born into
the tradition because that is the original,” says Guni Hestings
Krichcheiner.
Guni Hesting
Krichcheiner, a writer and scholar of Oriental studies, has just
finished recording Vedic chantings. She, along with Professor
Bahulkar, has recorded 224 cassettes of ninety minutes duration each.
They contain all the authentic and different recessions of the four
Vedas, the Rig, Yajur, Atharva and Sama Veda. Guni clarifies that the
recording was not accompanied by any rituals. It was a purely
academic exercise.
One set of the cassettes
have been gifted to the Vedic Sastrotjak Samaj in Pune, another to
the Royal Denmark Library. The third set is with Guni.
“The recording was
done at the right time,” says Guni. “For six of the eight
pundits we recorded are no more. We just managed to catch them
on time. We have taken care to locate such people who were from a
family of chanters and were authentic. There was only one person who
could recite the Atharva Veda and today he is no more. While there
are others who have learnt from others, the family of chanters of
Atharva Veda are perhaps non-existent.” To an outsider some
things appear clearer than to a person living within a certain
tradition. “It struck me that here was a phenomenal tradition
which would soon be extinct. I felt a very compelling urge to
document it, and immediately. I went back to Denmark and applied for
funds. The Danish Research Council funds different cultural causes
and they readily agreed to my request,” says Guni, all exuberant
and happy now that she has finished her project. “Every word of
our recording is clear and we have catalogued them so carefully that
it will make easy reference.”
Fifteen years of work on
recording the Vedas has made more of an Indian out of Guni that many
of those born into the tradition would be. Comfortable in a sari,
Guni eats Indian food and is a total vegetarian. “I believe
there is something more to it than just an academic desire to record
the chantings,” says he Danish lady who has taught, done social
work and written for children an addition to this marathon job. “But
this is perhaps the single most important job that I have
undertaken,” says Guni.
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