Vedic Studies Abroad

Vedic language is the classical language of India and represents a continuous cultural tradition from the ancient times. The Vedic language belongs to Indo-European language family with an extremely rich and complex grammatical structure and closely related to European languages, i.e. Greek, Latin etc.

During the course of time, study of the Vedic and associated literary heritage has been attained focus of the scholars and exemplary work has been done in Vedic studies by both the Indian and Western scholars in some of the Indian and foreign universities and research institutions. Study of the Vedas comes under several academic disciplines, including Department of Classical Studies, Comparative Philology, Oriental Studies, Asian Studies and South Asian Studies in the countries like Argentina, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Britain, France, Japan, Poland, Russia, United States, Thailand etc.

A useful summary of Vedic texts and translations can be seen through the works, i.e. Himnos del Rig Veda. Buenos Aires: Sudamericana, Himnos del Atharva Veda, Buenos Aires: Sudamericana, Filosofía de la India. Del Veda al Vedanta. El sistema Samkhya. El mito de la oposición entre “pensamiento” indio y “filosofía” occidental, Barcelona: Kairós, El estudio del Rig Veda en Europa. Lima, Instituto de Lenguas y Culturas Orientales, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, “Muerte e inmortalidad en el Rig Veda y en el Atharva Veda”, in Rev. Stromata, Año XXXIII, “Beginninglessness of the Veda and of the Dharma”, “Eternidad del “El Vedismo. Los Vedas. Lo uno como origen de todo. El Orden Cósmico”, in Boletín de la Asociación Española de Orientalistas, Madrid and Etudes védiques et pāṇinéennes, L’indo-aryen du Veda aux temps modernes etc.

History will ever remember the contribution of some of the western scholars in the areas of Vedic and Classical Sanskrit Studies, such as Paul-Émile Dumont, (Baltimore), Paul Tedesco (Yale), Mark J. Dresden, Paul Thieme (Yale), Hartmut Scharfe (UCLA), Barend van Nooten (Berkeley),and later on J. Frits Staal (Berkeley), Hanns-Peter Schmidt, (UCLA), and Michael Witzel (Harvard), Fernando Tola and Carmen, Otto Böthlingk, Jakob Wackernagel, Friedrich Stenzler, Friedrich Maxmuller, H.H. Wilson, W.H. Whitney, Ralph T.H. Griffith, Gerhard Oberhammer, Ernst Steinkellner, Walter Ruben and Frank-Richard Hamm.

Existence of the study of the Vedic literature can be seen through the associated disciplines and at present there are panel of Universities and research institutions worldwide giving special focus on study of the Vedic and classical Sanskrit. Therefore Vedic studies in the contemporary scenario hold its ground and maintains a significant presence.

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