Saraswati’s Classification of Cultures
In the study of Indian civilization B.N. Saraswati (b. 1932) has made a significant contribution and is well known for his originality and penetrating insight into the concepts and themes related to Indian civilization. While others have simply preached about Indianness in Indian anthropology, Saraswati has practised both , for he combines in his essays and books both the textual and contextual dimensions of Indian civilization to reveal the Indianness in Indian anthropology. His writings have not only enriched Indian anthropology by providing original Sanskrit terms, instead of alien terms and concepts, but have also encouraged younger scholars to take up studies on this line.
Saraswati is of opinion (1970,72,75) that in Indian society the tradition is cultivated, preserved and transmitted in three different ways namely (a) Oral (b) Writing or Text (c) Self-realising esoteric process. He argues that each culture adopts one of these ways as the essential mode of survival and changes: effectively when the mode is changed. Therefore, what is most important in a culture is not its external manifestation but the inner mechanism which operates within the culture. The structure of a culture remains a meaningless entity so long as its function is unexplained, according to Saraswati.
Considering their essential ways of functioning or the systematization of cultural knowledge, Saraswati argues that all the varieties of cultures may be classified into three as listed above. According to him when the social and cultural life of a group of people is guided essentially by oral tradition or the collective memory of its members, it may be called Oral Culture; when it is governed primarily by recorded tenets or codified interpretative texts it may be called Textual Culture; and when a culture is involved in the self-realising esoteric processes (understood by only a small number of people with a specialized knowledge or interest.) and dictated by the canons of transcendental knowledge, it may be called a Transcendental Culture. In the Hindu scriptural traditions these have been referred to as Laukik, Shastriya and Naiuritic respectively. Again, these three types of cultures are distinct so far as the modes of transmission of cultural knowledge is concerned, but at the operational level they are very much intercommunicable and affect on another. Saraswati further points out (1970) that this distinction cannot be marked out hierarchically, as each of them is governed by a self-regulating and self-disciplining value system, which Indian civilization has ideally accepted and practically demonstrated in binding them together in a civilizational whole.
Indian Civilization: A Nilakantha Syndrome
Comparing the present affairs of Indian civilization with the Nilakantha syndrome, B.N. Saraswati draws example from the Hindu myths to make his point home. There is a well known myth in the Hindu pauranic tradition about the churning of the ocean of milk by the Suras (gods) and the Asuras (demons). Out of this churning came, among other things, the dreadful poison, halahal and the immortal beverage, amrit (nector). While everyone was anxious to drink amrit, no one was prepared to take halahal. However, at the request of Brahma, the great god Shiva drank it, but held it at a certain point in his throat or else it would have killed him forthwith. This turned his neck blue and since then he is called Nilakantha the one with blue neck.
In the like manner, according to Saraswati (1978) a civilization may accommodate an element, which others are unable to digest. According to him, India represents a civilization of this kind. For, she has borne the onslaughts of various waves of cultures, one after another, from the beginning of her history, and whenever, some agreeable elements came she duly absorbed them in her system, as the Nilakantha began to operate.
Concepts of Maryada & Parampara in Indian Civilization
While studying the social change in Indian civilization, Saraswati questions the propriety and usage of the western concept of progress? He says that the words like progress or progressive etc., simply reveal the exterior sources and bring out changes endlessly. Thus, in order to study the ‘law of limits” to social change, he has used two Brahmanic concepts of Maryada and Parampara to explain the social change in Indian civilization specially from the textual point of view.
The Brahmanic concept of Maryada adequately explains the law of limits. The term Maryada occurs in the Satapatha Brahmana (1.4.1.77) referring to the boundary or the territorial limits between the kingdoms of Kosala and Videha. It has also been mentioned in the Rigveda as well as in the Atharveda.
However, in the later Sanskrit literatures, the word Maryada acquired various meanings viz. a limit, a boundary, terminus, a shore, a bank, a mark, a moral law, covenant, a goal etc. Similarly, the work Parampara also finds mention in various purans and other scriptures, which, in current usage, is used as synonymous with tradition. Taking these two concepts Maryada and Parampara together, the author has attempted to throw light on the nature and contents of social change taking place in Indian civilization. He argues that in the Brahmanic auto-definition of Parampara the changeability of things, which are handed down from generation to generation, is considered a normal and an inevitable phenomena. In a certain sense, each generation organises its Parampara in a manner which may differ sharply or slightly from the preceding generation. Thus, Parampara is a certain mixture of the past and of the presenta chosen way of life arranged in chronological sequence. Changes in Parampara, according to Saraswati, are not to be taken as destructive. But the point where one stops and where no change is desirable is the Maryada, according to him. What has repeatedly been transmitted in the Brahmanic tradition is not transcend the Maryada of one’s Kula, Jati, Desha etc., at any cost.
In order to support , his viewpoints, he cites example from the Ramayan, where we are told that with a view to maintain the Maryada of the Raghukul (solar dynasty) and his Kshatriya Jati, Lord Rama obyed the order of his father, king Dasrath, to go to forest for fourteen years. Therefore, Rama was called Maryada purusotham. In this way, with the help of the Sanskrit terms and concepts prevailing in our sacred texts, Saraswati explains the changes in our Indian civilization
Saraswati’s Concept of Sacred
B.N. Saraswati argues that “the concept of sacred is essentially based on man’s desire to communicate with the spiritual world, usually, in order to attain moksha” . However, since the desire for moksha is conditioned by the desire for emanicipation from other desires, the sacred principles are verily reflected in artha and kama as well.
Saraswati draws examples from the three different cultural traditions, prevailing in our Indian civilization, to examine the concept of sacred as conceived by the followers of respective tradition. For example, in Oral Cultural Tradition (O.C.T.), the sacred is all-pervading and powerful, and is characterised by malevolence. It causes and removes all kinds of obstacles to the fulfilment of human desires, and hence it has to be appeased.
However, in the Textual Cultural Tradition (T.C.T.), the sacred is usually characterised by benevolence and its power is within the creative range of man. But to the Transcendental Cultural Tradition (Trans. C.T.), whether sacred is malevolent or benevolent, is a question of little importance, for at a stage where the knower and nown become one and the same; thus, the sacred cannot be distinguished from one who knows it. Therefore, the Transcendental Cultural Tradition levels down the differences between the T.C.T. and O.C.T. on the question of right conception of sacred by treating both the concepts negatively.
At the ideal level, the sacred is used by the O.C.T. for the fulfilment of artha and kama needs; in the T.C.T. it is used for the fulfilment of all the three cardinal human desires artha, kama and moksha, but the Trs.C.T. makes use of it only in the pursuit of moksha. Thus, Saraswati believes that the concept of sacred is conceived differently in different cultural traditions of Indian civilization, as envisaged above
Saraswati’s Concept of Sacred-Secular Continuum
Saraswati is of opinion that the sacred and secular are the two sides of same coin. The differences lies in the perception of the man depending on what angle he looks it. He says that in Indian cultural tradition one fails to put sacred and secular into two watertight compartments. For many find certain diacritical marks artificially dividing people into high and low, but as one comes to Kashi or at any other Hindu tirtha this distinction disappears at once. For instance, a Brahmin, the tallest in society comes to Manikarnika ,the cremation ghat and asks for the sacred fire from custodian, Doma (untouchable), for without which his deceased kinsman would not attain moksha the supreme desire of an individual. Thus, here distinction of secular or the concept of untouchability, as prevailing elsewhere, completely disappears. From such example how can dichotomize sacred and secular? Thus, Saraswati is of opinion that the phenomenas of sacred and secular are so interwoven in the settlement pattern of the Hindu tirthas, in the Hindu sculptures and architects, in the sacred scriptures and literatures that no demarcation can be drawn between the two.