Though much is made of "correct chanting" of the vedas and the swaras, etc., imho, it has very little substance. Veda chanting by an Indore-based and north Indain-trained vedic scholar will be completely different (I have heard this, so...) from the manner in which our southern pundits chant; in fact, the northies make fun of the southies, saying they don't recite vedas but fire bullets and cannons! I have listened to one Assamese pundit reciting mantras in a third style, but I don't know whether it was his mannerism only or whether he represented faithfully, the chanting of mantras in those parts.
Yes, the swaras have a great lot of significance but I do not think there are more than a handful of pundits in the whole of India today, who will be well-versed in these principles as Sayanacharya was, going by his commentary on Rigveda.
And our scriptures are verily an ocean. A few items like suktams or mantras will form only a drop of that ocean. Maharishi University seems to have a good collection but they will only train students their own peculiar interpretations of those texts.
That is why I suggest a secular and rational set-up in which interested students from all sections of society can study the hindu scriptures.
Acharya Narendra Bhushan who taught the swami who has since been admitted to Sringeri, was very close to what I have in mind but still he would not go far enough to point out any great holes in the scriptures because I think he was an arya samajist.
So, the first and most important need is collection of our religious lore which itself is a himalayan task, imo. I do not think the wearing of poonal alone will create inclusiveness in the minds of NBs because today there are brahmins and brahmins wearing longish poonals but no different in their lifestyle from that of many NBs (non-veg food, drinks/bars and so on.) and there are many brahmins who have discarded the poonal.
Dear Sir,
I think tehre is a small misunderstanding. Shri Raghy felt scriptures are available online. There are other posters also, who keep saying everything is available in books and videos. The context of my post was to show that this claim is not wholly true. The printed format of scriptures are available alright, but there is not one video/book anywhere that teaches the chanting part.
Ofcourse we cannot deny regional variations and accentuation varying even between individuals. A lot also depends on the teacher and which veda he adheres to. Am quite aware a samavedin could intone and chant the same verse differently from a yajurvedin. However, the pedagogy part in teaching/learning vedic chanting does not vary much between regions.
Generally, afai understand, purohits are not very fussy about sharing their chanting skills. I have heard of experiences with priests from Karnataka, Andhra, UP, MP and Tamilnadu. It seems priests from various places in these states, are open-hearted type and keen to clear your doubts and share their knowledge with you.
Considering that priests almost everywhere are affable and approchable, it is baffling why only a tiny miniscule section of orthodox priests/mutts wanted (and want) to keep alive birth-based segregations/ exclusivism so far. Anyways, lets leave that aside.
Your proposal to collect religious lore is in my view a herculean task. I don't even think it is necessary, considering that there are sanskrit-teaching departments and various folk and tribal research groups already doing that job. Moreover, the printed format of almost all scriptures are freely available in virtual and physical book stores.
The point is not about collecting religious scriptures, or about what 'brahmins' do in daily lives, etc. It is about initiating anyone into an upanayanam and teaching vedic chanting. Also, i've never suggested wearing poonul alone will suffice.
Regards.
.
