Introductory - Global Sikh Studies

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memories of their homeland, from which they had migrated to India,
and which the Aryans might have retained and cherished. Whatever
its genesis, the mere fact of belonging to the past came to be regarded
as conferring special value. The older a thing was, the more sacrosanct
it was likely to be; and the older a tradition or a custom, the more
inviolable it became. The Vedas were sacred, because, apart from
being regarded as the revealed texts, these were supposed to have
originated in the unfathomable past. The Aryan history came to be
computed in astronomical figures, in Yugas.
The gravamen of the charge against the heterodox schools was
that these flouted the authority of the Vedic tradition. The struggle
for supremacy between the orthodox and the heterodox schools,
especially that against Buddhism, was carried also on the plane of
discussions and debates. That these discussions were carried on a
fairly large scale is attested to by the historical evidence of the Chinese
travelers and the Buddhism records. These discussions and debates,
therefore, helped in the polarisation of ideas around this sentiment;
and the ultimate victory of the orthodox, school, the traditionalists,
considerably strengthened it. In the later periods, it became almost a
craze to trace fictitiously the origin of ideas, writings, sects, traditions,
customs and even dynasties and castes, to a hoary past. What is
suprissing is that even the Buddhists, who started by challenging the
authority of the Vedas and that of the old tradition, later themselves
fell victims to this tendency. They also invented fictitious derivations
from the past to invest sanctity to their beliefs, customs and religious
personalities.
Toynbee has advanced sufficiently weighty evidence to support
the view that to hang on to the past of the surest signs of the decadence
of a civilization and a culture. Of course, pride in one’s cultural past
is legitimate in so far it helps the cohesion of a people who own it.
The Brahmins took care to cultivate this sentimental attachment to
the past, because it was in their caste interests to do so. The Vedas
contain hymns which assign a pre-eminent religious and social position
to the Brahmins. The old tradition, custom, religious ritual and
practices contributed to the same end. The later scriptures, which
institutionalized the privileged position of the Brahmin caste, all