Supreme Court Justice Rohinton Nariman has landed in a major controversy by making a highly objectionable comment about the Rig Veda during a lecture on the topic “Great Women of History” for the 26th Justice Sunanda Bhandare Memorial Lecture today. The event was broadcast live on Facebook by legal news website Bar & Bench.

Justice Rohinton Nariman, son of senior lawyer and ex-Rajya Sabha MP Fali Nariman, said “Rig Veda says do not make lasting friendship with women because she would be like hyena”, as live tweeted by Bar & Bench (archive link).

Swami ji outrightly rejected Rohinton Nariman’s understanding of the Rig Veda, calling it false and disparaging. He said that one must have knowledge of Rishi Pāṇini’s grammar, Nirukta and Pratishakhya to correctly understand the Vedas. Inviting Nariman to an open public debate on the topic, Swami ji said the Judge should take back his words.

A recent comment by Supreme Court Justice Rohinton Nariman imputing anti-women content to the Rig Veda has upset all sections of Hindu society, especially Dharmic scholars. While such misinterpretations by Western indologists and Marxist academics are not uncommon, to hear such false-hoods from a person holding a high Constitutional post in Bharat, the homeland of Hindus, is especially upsetting.

In an open letter, Swami Vigyananand, renowned Sanskrit scholar and founder of the World Hindu Foundation, has penned an open letter, which we share below:

I am wounded and outraged at Justice Rohinton Nariman’s disparaging and incorrect comments on Rigveda during his address at the 26th Justice Sunanda Bhandare Memorial Lecture organised on the 16th April 2021 and livestreamed. As a Panini grammar, Vedang, Eastern Philosophy, Brahamana and Vedic Samhita scholar, I wish to bring to Justice Nariman’s notice that Vedas are not the scriptures to be translated literally.

First of all, to understand Vedas, one must know Vedic Sanskrit, which is way different from modern Sanskrit. Further, Vedas are only Mantra Samhita and how they need to be interpreted is defined through Panini grammar, etymology and other reference books. One must have thorough knowledge of the following minimum five disciplines/texts, out of many more to be able to interpret Vedas:

a.) Panini Sanskrit Grammar

b.) Nighantu, which is a compiled and explained list of words which have lost their original meanings with passage of time. It has been prepared to prevent distortions in meanings of these words further in future. It is remarkable to note that originally Sanskrit had 2800 root words, out of which 2750 have been lost. Only around 50 root words are in practice in modern Sanskrit. Therefore, it is essential to have a thorough understanding of Nighantu to understand any Vedic Sutra.

c.) Nirukta, which deals with the etymology of words, delineates in detail why a particular word is used in a context. Thus, the meaning of a word cannot be understood without understanding Nirukta.

d.) Praatisakhya, is a manual of grammar for each Veda school and its Shakha. There are separate Praatisakhya granths for each Veda which explain usage of vowels, poetic meter, Samhita, Sanyukta Varna etc. in each Veda.

e.) Brahmanas, which are separate reference manuals for each Veda. It is noteworthy that each Veda has multiple Brahmanas. They explain in detail the meaning and context of each word in the Vedic times.

Respected Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman!

I believe that you are not qualified to interpret Vedas and ancient Hindu scriptures. Therefore, you must resist from making any commentary on Hindu scriptures and Vedas based on your reading of secondary sources.

Moreover, you hold a responsible position in judiciary. You must behave responsibly in speaking about issues concerning the great Dharma and Bharat’s civilisational heritage.

Finally, I request you to take back your incorrect interpretation of Rigveda through your lecture. If you have any doubts about interpretation of Vedas, I invite you for an open debate at any platform.

I hope you shall amend at the earliest the hurt and outrage caused to 1.2 billion followers of the faith by your mischievous comments on Rigveda.

Swami Vigyananand
Founder, World Hindu Foundation
Email – This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

(Note: Above open letter in PDF format can be seen here)

Bharat has suffered enough due to colonial mischief with our Dharmic scriptures and history. For a person occupying a high Constitutional post to continue with the same colonial mindset in a ‘free’ Bharat does not bode well. One hopes Justice Nariman understands the gravity of the issue and retracts his misleading words about the Rig Veda at the earliest.

In fact, the whole lecture delivered by Justice Nariman was disconnected from Bharatiya ethos. While talking about inspirational women from history, he did not give a single Bharatiya example. Iconic figures like Rishi Gargi, Maitreyi, Draupadi or inspirational queens who led their kingdoms against foreign invaders like Queen Didda, Rani Tarabai, Rani Durgavati, Rani Chennamma, Rani Abbakka etc. failed to find mention in his Euro-centric lecture.

Instead, he talked about Cleopatra (spoke at length about Roman succession battles), a legendary ‘Pope’ Joan, Razia Sultana (member of the foreign Turkic slave dynasty which was given charge of Delhi by the barbaric invader Muhammad Ghori), British monarch Elizabeth-1, Russia’s Catherine the Great, and a brief mention at the end of various modern day women leaders like Indira Gandhi, Margaret Thatcher etc.

A SC bench led by Justice Nariman had also recently dismissed a PIL seeking to control black magic, superstition & mass religious conversion through intimidation and deceit, calling it a ‘publicity interest litigation’. Such conversions by quack Christian faith healers, who also demean Hindu Dharma and other indigenous religions, are raging across the country (from Punjab to AP) and often target the socio-economically vulnerable SC/ST communities.

Incidentally, during a court hearing in 2018, Justice Nariman had bemoaned that his religion Zoroastrianism (Parsi) has been ‘Hinduised’ stating –

“There is no caste in the mother country of my religion. But here, we have it. It doesn’t matter there, where you are born, but here you have to take birth in a priestly family to become a priest. I couldn’t have become a priest, if I was not born in a priestly family.”

The Parsis, whose name is derived from “Persians”, are descended from Persian Zoroastrians who emigrated to Bharat to avoid religious persecution by Muslim conquerors. They first migrated to the region of Gujarat between the 8th and 10th century and were given refuge by the local Hindu king. Ever since, the community has flourished in Bharat and till now is regarded as a model minority by the majority population.

Incidentally, in the mother country which Justice Nariman referred to, i.e. Iran, Zoroastrians have been persecuted ever since the Muslim conquest of Persia around 650 CE. They faced forced conversions, their fire temples were destroyed and converted to mosques, libraries were burnt, and the systematic abuse and discrimination meted out to them led to a drastic reduction in their numbers forcing them to migrate to Bharat. Their situation improved under the Pahlavi family which ruled Iran from 1925-79, but the reprieve was short-lived as after the 1979 Revolution, Iran was declared a Shia Islamic republic. The new constitution again relegated Zoroastrians to status of medieval dhimmīs (second-class citizens in a Muslim state). Even the religious curriculum of Zoroastrians of Iran must incorporate state-designed material that denounces non-Muslim faiths.

References:

OpIndia - News Reports