Today environmental problems have become the focus of discussion everywhere be it a village or the parliament. Whether there were environmental problems in the ancient times or not? If there were problems, what were they and how were they solved? To answer these questions one has to have a look into the ancient literature, as literature is the reflection of the society and the culture. So far as our country is concerned, we have an enormous amount of literature beginning from the Rigveda till today, where, we find that people respected nature very highly and had established various relationships with the natural elements. The Atharvaveda has a special status in the vast span of Vedic literature. It is said to be the Veda of the masses. It contains expressions of all kinds from mundane to highly philosophical types. Ordinary man and his environment seem to have occupied the central place in the Atharvaveda.
We, however, are more interested here in looking into the ancient concept of ecology and man's thoughts concerning the same. The ecological history of India is not very different from any other country. In Indian writings right from the Vedas, Epics Puranas, etc., we find many references to ecological thought. Many ancient writers in Sanskrit described the importance of Vayu (gasses and air) Jala (water), Desa (topography), and time in the regulation of life. Similarly, the concept of Puncatativa (five elements) namely; earth, water, air, fire, and sky reflects the idea of the circulation of materials. Indians have always respected plants and animals. In this country. curring green trees has been considered a sin and planting trees is a charity.
The eminent scientist Robert W. Sussman in his book Primate Ecology (p.1), classified ecological inquiry into three major heads namely; (i) general descriptive natural history, (ii) problem-oriented field and research, (ii) purely theoretical studies. This present study deals with the first one, i.e., general descriptive natural history. This exactly is the nature of our study, i.e., we are concerned here only with the ecological awareness of the Indians at the time of the Vedas which will be proved based on the materials extracted from the Atharvaveda.
In modern times, however, due to the concept of ecology, dire necessity of the hour ecology is studied from various angles. Now it is fully developed science that deals mainly with the modern problems caused by the ecological imbalance and strives hard to seek solutions for those.
We should be clear that, it is not a scientific study, in the sense that this study has no claim whatsoever as to make so far as ecology as far as a science is concerned. To explain: This study does not necessarily deal with the problems of imbalance etc. in the natural elements caused by various factors that are rooted in the ecological imbalance or it does not give either of any theoretical solutions to such problems, but it is a study of human awareness and that of human behavior towards nature at the time of the Atharvaveda. It has been suggested that the study of the entire Atharvaveda from the angle of ecology may give insight into many aspects of human treatment of the environment.
