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Another early development within the Vedic period was building schools of Law that also includes religious and civil and criminal law. The Manu Smriti assumes a considerable period of development during which professional schools arose. However slowly within these schools developed a separation. In another field of learning we can clearly see the development of expertise. The Vedic sacrifice demanded a rudimentary knowledge of the calendar and elementary conceptions of measurement. From these beginnings developed a wider geometrical, astronomical, and astrological science which is found under the comprehensive title of Jyotisha and studied in distinct schools. Medicine appears in Atharva Veda and was fostered by the schools of magic practices which produced a literary work as the Kausika sutra. The Vedic schools had a tendency to mysticism also which is seen in the Aranyakas and the Upanishads. The Upanishads in origin is connected with Vedic schools but their ideas unavoidably transcend the school limit. Theology and theosophy with the gradual transformation of the Vedic system passed beyond the sphere of the old schools. Genetics occupied the attention of sages of these schools. The study of metre was encouraged by mystic importance attached in Vedic times to the metre of the sacred texts. Chandas, metrics, is considered as one of the six Vedangas, but its importance and character were affected by need of affording guidance to writers of Kavya and other forms of literature. Poetics represents an independent secular science. However there is no doubt of the dominant influence of religion on the growth of Sanskrit scientific literature. |
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