Talk:Vedic chant

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject India, which aims to improve Wikipedia's coverage of India-related topics. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page.
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the quality scale.
More information about this article... ??? This article has not yet received a rating on the importance scale.

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Hinduism, an attempt to promote better coordination, content distribution, and cross-referencing between pages dealing with Hinduism. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page. Guidelines: Manual of Style - Naming conventions How you can help: Notice board - Discussion board
???	This article has not been rated yet on the quality scale.

Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. This article has been tagged since January 2007.

[edit] Hare Krishna "Maha Mantra"

from the article:

"The Hare Krishna mantra, also often refered to as the 'Maha' Mantra: (pronounced ha-ray, krish-nah, and rar-mah respectively)"

There are many Maha Mantras in many Hindu and non-Hindu sects. it is rediculous to term that one mantra "the Maha Mantra". Please discuss.

Sfacets 01:30, 6 May 2006 (UTC)

Dear Sfacets - With all due respect the current article does not say that the Hare Krishna mantra is the only mantra in the world ever called the Maha-Mantra. But it's true that it is often referred to as the Maha-Mantra, both by Gaudiya Vaishnavas and general Hindus. If you really want to go into this in depth maybe you could create a Maha-Mantra disambiguation page discussing the major mantras refered to by this title? GourangaUK 21:05, 6 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Merge with Patha?

Hello dab, it seems to make sense to merge the two to me. As long as the Vedic Chant article doesn't become purely historical in it's content as it's still a lively tradition. The 'Vedic' is referring to the contemporary Vedic tradition at the moment, not the historical Vedic. If you agree? GourangaUK 08:22, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

Yes, as long as you mean the surviving shrauta schools who practice the pathas. Of course chanting of this or that mantra in popular Hinduism, without preserving accent, or even of post-Vedic mantras, should not be considered "Vedic chant", even if sometimes popularly so referred to. I doubt that the Unesco would consider sociable chanting of "Hare Krishna" a "Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage". We can of course say that the term is extended in popular usage, but the main scope of this article should be the strict chanting of the Samhitapatha (and others) according to some specific shakha, including the hand gestures for accent etc. This is a 'contemporary tradition' (meaning a surviving tradition), but it is practiced only by a tiny minority of Hindus as far as I am aware. dab (ᛏ) 09:47, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

The word Vedic means different things to an historian than to the majority of Hindu practitioners. I feel it essential that this page should either include both sets of information, or if that's not preffered we should make another page on Vedic mantra from the historical perspective. Hare Krishna is a mantra of Vedic culture, as is Om and the Gayatri. GourangaUK 10:01, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Dubious claim

"Such a Vedic chant is often considered the oldest unbroken oral tradition in existence" needs a source to back it up... it has been present on this page for a while without any sources. 20:52, 8 January 2007 Sfacets(UTC)

17:20, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

Needless to say, the grunt, moan, etc would be the oldest oral traditions.Trnscndr Bryan E. Hall, MPW

oral tradition of coherent text of course; otherwise, language itself would be the oldest articulate oral tradition (and yes, 'grunt, moan' would be even older). The tradition goes back some 3,000 years, and there is not really a candidate to challenge it. Homer would be roughly comparable, but there is no living oral tradition of rhapsody. I don't think there is any other candidate, most other "living ancient traditions" are of the order of 2,000 years, and thus even considering margins of error younger by a couple of centuries. I propose the statement is vindicated even without a direct reference, since we have solid references dating the RV to 1500-1000 BC over at Rigveda; the Gayatri mantra is Rigvedic, and the Vedic chant traditions include the Gayatri mantra; thus it stands to reason that at least part of the tradition is aged more than 3,000 years, plus we have no candidate that can hope to tie with this. dab (𒁳) 18:21, 19 January 2007 (UTC)