The Veda was the most precious gift for which the West had ever been indebted to the East.
Francois Voltaire A Critical Study of the Contribution of the Arya Samaj to Indian Education, page 68
That a woman was entitled to Upanayan is clear from the Atharva Veda where a girl is spoken of as being eligible for marriage having finished her Brahmacharya. From the Shrauta Sutras, it is clear that women could repeat the mantras of the Vedas and that women were taught to read the Vedas. Panini’s Ashtaadhyai bears testimony to the fact that women attended Gurukul and studied the various shakhas of the Vedas and became expert in Mimansa. Patanjali’s Maha Bhashya shows that women were teachers and taught the Vedas to girl students. The stories of women entering into public discussions with men on the most abstruse subjects of religion, philosophy and metaphysics are by no means few.
Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar Writings and Speeches, Vol 3
वेद सब सत्य विद्याओं का पुस्तक है | सब सत्य विद्या और जो पदार्थ विद्या से जाने जाते हैं उन सबका आदि मूल परमेश्वर है |
महर्षि दयानंद सरस्वती आर्य समाज का पहला व तीसरा नियम
... I must admit that the Vedic theory of varna as interpreted by Swami Dayanand and some others is a sensible and an inoffensive thing. It did not admit birth as a determining factor in fixing the place of an individual in society. It only recognized worth. ...
Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar Annihilation of Caste
Whatever may be the date of the Vedic hymns, whether 1500 B.C.E. or 15,000 B.C.E., they have their own unique place and stand by themselves in the literature of the world. They tell us something of the early growth of the human mind of which we find no trace anywhere else.
Max Muller The Six Systems of Indian Philosophy
The Vedas haunt me. In them I have found eternal compensation, unfathomable power, unbroken peace.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Commemorative Sanskrit Souvenir, 2003
वेद सब सत्य विद्याओं का पुस्तक है | सब सत्य विद्या और जो पदार्थ विद्या से जाने जाते हैं उन सबका आदि मूल परमेश्वर है |
महर्षि दयानंद सरस्वती आर्य समाज का पहला व तीसरा नियम
ਵਿਸਮਾਦੁ ਨਾਦ ਵਿਸਮਾਦੁ ਵੇਦ ॥
Wonderful is the sound current of the Naad, wonderful is the knowledge of the Vedas.
Sri Guru Granth Sahib Shalok, Mehl 1
यं ब्राह्मणं वेदगुं अभिजञ्जा, अकिं चनं कामभेव अस्त्तं । श्रद्धा हि सो ओद्यमिमं अतारि, तिण्णो च पारं अखिलो अकंखो।। जिसने उस वेदज्ञ ब्राह्मण को जान लिया, जिसके पास कुछ धन नहीं, और जो सांसारिक कामनाओं में असक्त नहीं, वह आकांक्षारहित सचमुच इस संसार सागर से तर जाता है।
महात्मा बुद्ध सुत्तनिपात श्लोक 1059
The Veda is a Book of Knowledge and Wisdom comprising
the Book of Nature, the Book of Religion, the Book of Prayers,
the Book of Morals and so on. The word Veda means Wit,
Wisdom, Knowledge ; and truly the Veda is condensed Wit,
Wisdom and Knowledge.
Faredun K. Dadachanji - Parisian Thinker Philosophy of Zoroastrianism and comparative study of religions
