Intellectual Property Rights and the Ancient Indian Perspective

Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) appears to be vital for the sustenance of our present society. Not only do they seem to protect the original works of the creators but also help in fighting infringement, a major problem in today’s world. But do we really need to fear the use of our works by others? Is it right to consider knowledge as a commodity and seek recognition for it? Ancient Indian scriptures appear to suggest that people of the Indian sub-continent did not uphold the concept of ownership of knowledge and believed that knowledge was to be passed down without reservations: following the parampara (tradition) of the Guru (the erudite teacher) and Sishya (disciple). This article is an effort to understand the views and values of the present and past that appear consistently divergent. In this paper, we also recognise the growing initiatives that call for knowledge to be freely shared through means of open licensing. In fact, these initiatives across the world are indicative of a rising movement with high potential for change in people’s perspectives for a better world where knowledge is free. This paper in this context is our humble attempt to reconnect with the values of the past.


Introduction
Vidya (education, synonymous with knowledge) was given as Daan or charity in ancient India and giving of knowledge -Vidyadaan was regarded as the highest form of charity and held high in Vedic culture. Neither the teacher nor the student ever owned the knowledge, yet it was passed on from generations to generations. Such conceptualisation contrasts with our current understanding and definitions of ownership of knowledge, transmission and preservation, patents and the like -this is very different from what it would have been thousands of years ago. The Vedic knowledge was transmitted from the Guru or the teacher to the Sishya or the disciple (student) through oral means. The systematic recitation and repetition of the Vedic hymns helped students memorise them over time. Through this process, the Vedas were preserved and protected (Calboli and Ragavan, 2015). In addition to the Vedas, other ancient texts such as the Shastras, 1 Puranas, 2 and Itihasas 3 such as the Mahabharata 4 and the Ramayana 5 were passed down from one generation to the next. 1 Shastras or Dharma Shastras are ancient Hindu texts in Sanskrit that prescribe laws, customs, code of conduct and practices to be followed by Hindus (Dalal, 2014). 2 Puranas consist of various episodes with moral lessons, through the narration of stories and examples. The Puranas mainly focus on the stories of the Hindu Gods, through which they help humanity in learning to live a righteous life. Some of the well known Puranas include the Brahma Purana, Shiva Purana and Vishnu Purana, which eulogise the Holy Trinity (Prasad, 2005). 3 Itihasa literally means ancient history in Sanskrit. The three major Itihasas of Hinduism are the Bhagavad Gita, the Ramayana and the Mahabharatha (Klostermaier, 2010). 4 Mahabharatha is the largest Itihasa or ancient narrative ever composed in Sanskrit. It tells the story of a historic battle caused by a dynastic clash between members of the same imperial family : namely the Kaurava brothers and the Pandava brothers. Morever, the Mahabharatha holds its importance in Hinduism due to the numerous cosmological, moral and social insight it provides (Buck, 2000). 5 Ramayana is the second largest Itihasa after the Mahabharatha. It recites the life-story of Lord Rama, wherein the highlight is how he defeated the demon-king Ravana to save his wife, Sita. Like the Mahabharatha, the Ramayana continues to influence Hindus due to the The Vedic literature had little value attributed to pronouncements such as 'I found it, thus it is mine'. In ancient India, knowledge sharing was believed to provide the greatest benefits, surpassing all other forms of giving, to both the giver and the taker. Other types of charity in vogue and of importance at that time include Vastradaan (the giving of clothes) and Annadaan (the giving of food) (Brettell and Reed-Danahay, 2011). There are several verses in the sacred texts, which indicate that knowledge ought to be shared with all. These sacred texts present some evidence on the usage and spread of "property". For instance, the Bhagavad Gita, which is "an epic mystical poem about life, death, love and duty" (Hawley, 2011: xvii), advocates that we do not possess anything. Whatever property we own today, was owned by someone else yesterday and shall be owned by someone else tomorrow. According to the teachings set out in major Hindu sacred texts such as the Bhagavad Gita, God provided us whatever we possess today and the ultimate truth is that we came to the world empty-handed and shall leave in the same manner (Bali, 2009: 34). Easwaran (2010) quotes a verse from the Bhagavad Gita where Lord Krishna 6 states that one should not claim proprietary rights over anything or attach the pronoun "mine" to anything, since the true owner of all things is no one but God, from whom everything originated. In simple yet profound ways, Lord Krishna explains many truths: as humans we bring nothing; we produce nothing; everything is from here (meaning from the Supreme) given to us. Thus, nothing can be destroyed. Whatever you have given, you have given only here. The lines of His conversation with Arjun go further, in which He reminds him that whatever we take from God, we are bound to numerous cultural and ethical learning and practices, which it continues to provide (Bose, 2004). 6 Lord Krishna, who is Lord Vishnu's incarnation, played a vital role in the Mahabharatha. By helping the righteous Pandava brothers win the battle of Kurukshetra against the unrighteous Kauravas. His teachings to Arjun, one of the Pandavas during the battle form the famous holy Hindu text Bhagavad Gita (Somaaya, 2008). return it to God. More profoundly, the meaning in the ancient text of Bhagavad Gita is as follows: What is yours today, belonged to someone else yesterday, and will belong to someone else the day after tomorrow. You are mistakenly enjoying the thought that this is yours. It is this false happiness that is the cause of your sorrows. (Bsnaorg, 2015) Although Lord Krishna's teaching is a revelation, it is difficult to imagine our current world functioning without the existence of any form of attachment or ownership. Today, the human species requires a sense of belonging but also takes pride in possessing things, to the extent to which they form the species identity. So much so that the possessive nature of humans is not limited to material things alone but extends equally to preserving our knowledge. Thus, in the quest for protecting our creations, intellectual property rights (IPR) are being ushered.
The purpose of this paper is to examine present-day IPRs from an ancient Indian perspective and to trigger rethinking on the question of ownership. In simple terms, if one creates or finds something, does the finding or creation belong only to him or her? Here, we explore the concept of knowledge sharing that was prevalent in ancient India followed by a section on IPRs and an examination of IPRs from a Vedic perspective.

Knowledge-Sharing in Ancient India
In ancient India, the predominant culture was the Vedic culture. The Vedic tradition or Hinduism is more than a religion, a way of life, and a complete philosophy (Stephenknappcom, 2015). Over a billion followers of this faith are spread across the globe, which accounts for about 13.7 per cent of the world's population. Another synonymous term used for Hinduism is Sanatana Dharma and followers of which are often referred to as Dharmis or Hindus. The Vedic Dharma is based on Vedic texts such as the Vedas, which are considered the most ancient forms of literature. Often defined as a "way of life" rather than a "religion", the Vedic culture continues to act as a spiritual guide for seekers of ultimate truth and God. Unlike other religions such as Christianity and Islam, Hinduism has no founder and is said to be several thousands of years old. Defining this faith in a concise manner is no easy task as it is made up of several interpretations and philosophies. Moreover, Hinduism is a very open faith, which teaches its followers that there are multiple ways in attaining God and no matter which way one chooses, one can attain God-realisation (Knapp, 2006).
The Vedic culture brought in tremendous knowledge into the sub-continent and formed a completely new civilisation, known as the Indus Valley civilisation. (McIntosh, 2008: 31). At that time, the Vedic belief system had the Vedas as its source, which are the body of literature from which Vedic knowledge was derived. The four Vedas are the oldest record of the most ancient civilisation on this planet. The first and oldest of the four Vedas is the Rig Veda, which is the collection of hymns to be recited during Yagyas or ritual sacrifices, which were conducted in ancient India. The Yajur Veda is estimated to have been compiled a couple of centuries after the Rig Veda and contains verses for priests to recite during these sacrifices. The Sama Veda is the collection of selective Rig Veda verses arranged for liturgical reasons. This Veda is also believed to be the source of Indian music. The fourth and final Veda to be compiled was the Atharva Veda, which contains Mantras or incantations and magic spells (Kishore, 2004). Not only were texts followed by the people of those times but symbolism also highly influenced and shaped their principles and lifestyle. Lord Shiva, 7 one of the holy Hindu Trinity 8 was and still is a great symbolic personality that millions look up to. His appearance, philosophies and actions personify the righteous way of living. For example, the holy ash smeared on the forehead and arms of Shiva symbolise the final stage of human life, which is death (Srinivasan, 2003: 65). It denotes the result of cremating the human body after death, which leaves nothing but ashes. When our body does not belong to us, what else can belong to us in this world? Nothing except the soul is ours and this is what Lord Shiva's ash stripes define.
Today, the interpretations of holy texts and symbols have changed. In a constantly evolving world with an ever-changing mind-set of human society seems to seek more answers from technology and science that also seem to make human beings to think about 'self' more than sharing. Added, there is also a notion that ancient beliefs do not fit into the twenty-first century setting and modernity. Therefore, the ideas of 'sharing' the opposite of which imply monopoly, copyright, possessorship, consortium that mean selflessness have a very different connotation. Today, the protection of one's physical as well as intellectual assets has attained much importance. The IPR system came into being in order to provide worldwide protection for intellectual creations and due rights to its creators.

Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)
Before discussing IPRs, defining Intellectual Property (IP) is paramount. IP comprises of trademarks, trade secrets, geographical indications, patents, industrial designs and copyright. IP refers to all types of creations bearing commercial values that can be created by any person with the use of his or her intellect. IPRs serve as a means to protect these intangible creations (Shippey, 2009) and are a solid platform for building and extending 8 The Hindu Trinity known as the Trimurthi comprise of three principle Gods -Lord Brahma, Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva. Lord Brahma is the Creator, while Lord Vishnu is in charge of preserving and Lord Shiva is in charge of destroying and regenerating (Pandit, 2005). markets for creations, especially new technologies (Dwivedi, 2009).
The protection of one's creation is of great importance in today's world, particularly when it comes to business. If a business fails to protect its rights over its creations, other businesses are likely to replicate them. This can easily mislead consumers and divert them away from the original business. As a result, sales and market share would severely drop, making the original business vulnerable (Shippey, 2009). Therefore, IPRs caters to the evolving needs of the creators in a competitive world, by providing effective protection to intellectual creations.

The World Has Changed, So Has IP
Today, IP is a part of the commercial world, however, in ancient times, the product of human intellect was not meant for business. Knowledge and the outcomes of knowledge were meant to be shared. Van De Weyer (2013) highlights the Rig Veda's teaching on the concept of knowledge-sharing, wherein humans are encouraged to actively share knowledge, in whichever method known to them. For example, the Rig Veda emphasises that through the sharing of their knowledge, humans should help one another in life and must save each other from committing mistakes. This ought to be done just as they would protect each other from hunger through the sharing of food. Moreover, the Rig Veda points out that this is an important duty to fulfil in order to attain the Divine. This principle is in contrast to today's principle of knowledgesharing.
Taking the example of the present-day music industry, songs and compositions are highly protected by copyright and infringement of the authors' rights without permission in any manner is punishable. Ancient Indian texts such as the Vedas contain innumerable hymns and prayers that have been accounted for and transmitted from generation to generation for the benefit of humanity. For instance, the Atharva Veda, which comprises mainly magical hymns and spells, had the objective to help humans achieve numerous benefits such as prosperity, health, healing, happiness and so on (Jamison and Brereton, 2014). Having said that, one cannot deny that today's world is incomparable to ancient times. Life was entirely different and so were people's perspectives. Due to the rapid development of technology, increasing competition in all fields and population growth, IP protection has become primordial. As IP plays a major role in the growth of economies, the quest for its protection has been continuously increasing.
Indian saints such as Thyagaraja 9 belonging to a more recent past (that is, 18th century) and a few others of his era, were perhaps the first musicians to have shown signs of "proprietorship". For instance, Thyagaraja, who composed thousands of songs in praise of Gods, especially on Lord Rama, 10 one of Lord Vishnu's many incarnations, systematically affixed his Mudra or signature in all of his compositions out of devotion (Bhuvanendran, 1991 ;Bhagavathi and Tyagaraja, 1995) and perhaps also for recognition. However, Thyagaraja did not impose rules or restrictions on the usage of his compositions: his songs were passed over to his generations, allowing people to reach Lord Rama through the rendering of his songs.
In ancient times, the thought of copying one's work or claiming one's work as theirs seems to have been almost inexistent. People were more God-fearing and followed certain moral norms, namely, they were very Dharmic 11 (Abraham,9 Saint Thyagaraja lived in Thiruvaiyar, a temple-town near Tanjavur in Tamil Nadu, South India. He was an ardent devotee of Lord Rama, the Hero of the Ramayana, to whom he dedicated hundreds of musical compositions. His compositions are of the Carnatic genre of music and until now, they are preserved, sung by present Carnatic singers and praised (Sharma, 2007). 10 Lord Rama is said to be the incarnation of Lord Vishnu, one of the Hindu Trinity. Rama, the protagonist of the Ramayana, is looked upon as the Maryada Purushottam or the man of principles and righteousness. Lord Vishnu is said to have taken this incarnation to overcome evil and especially destroy Ravana, the evil ruler of Lanka (Saran, 2014). 11 Dharmic is the adjective of Dharma, a Sanskrit term. Dharma signifies the essential principle of the universe and the law of nature. Hinduism is known as Sanatan 1999). For instance, Ayyar (1982) states that in the Dwapara Yuga, 12 people were not only godfearing but were also very well-mannered and brave. However, in the present Yuga, 13 known as the Kali Yuga, 14 he indicates, "virtue has [been] diminished by 75 per cent" (p.3). This perhaps indicates a decline in moral values and an increase in people's needs. Many actions that were considered as 'immoral' in ancient times are considered "a normal practice" in the present world. The feeling of guilt is reducing in people and so is their belief in God. What is so wrong about claiming another person's work as one's own? It does not cause any harm to the owner. It provides a person with certain benefits and nothing more. Why is this called infringement and why is this punishable? These are the kind of thoughts and questions that arise in the minds of people today. This indicates the lack of homogeneity in people's understanding of what "stealing" is and its effect on their attitudes on piracy and plagiarism. For instance, some scholars have been criticised for taking a sympathetic outlook on piracy and plagiarism in order to analyse and comprehend the phenomena and why it occurs (Eckstein and Schwarz, 2014). In addition, individuals indulging in piracy such as computer software users argue that they are not necessarily trying to break the rules of the law because they are not the only ones. On the contrary, they are only trying to survive Dharma or the eternal truth. It is preserved and followed by Hindus as a spiritual and moral duty (Srinivasan, 2013). 12 Dwapara Yuga is one of the four eras described in Hindu texts, which includes the Satya Yuga, the Treta Yuga and the Kali Yuga. Dwapara is the third Yuga and started at the end of the Tretha Yuga, in 4250 BC, following Lord Rama's ascension. The Dwapara Yuga ended with the ascension of Lord Krishna, around 3102 BC., after which the current era Kali Yuga began (Mittal, 2006). 13 Yuga is a Sanskrit term that can be defined as an era or an epoch. In Hinduism, time is calculated in Yugas. These eras are divided into four : Satya Yuga, Treta Yuga, Dwapara Yuga and Kali Yuga. (Achuthananda, 2013). 14 Kali Yuga is an epoch described in Hinduism. It is supposedly the current era and the last in the cycle of the four eras : Satya Yuga, Treta Yuga and Dwapara Yuga (Mittal, 2006). through these means. These individuals are usually from a humble background and even if they know that they are infringers, they continue doing so to eke out their living. The justification they provide is that downloading and cracking computer software is hardly anything in comparison to what the big software companies earn. In addition, they accuse these companies of charging excessively, hinting it to be an added reason (Honick, 2005).

IPRs Have Become a Necessity
The IPR system was put forth to fight against the "illegal" acts, which "harm" the growth of famous brands, personalities and companies. Nevertheless, IPRs are also becoming more and more useful to developing nations and especially small businesses. With industrialised nations having all amenities for their people, developing countries are under pressure to provide the same for its compatriots. (Alikhan, 2000). Considering the social, economic and cultural benefits IP protection provides to the country, governments of growing nations are inclined to make good use of the system (Idris, 2003). In a country like India, the film industry plays a tremendous role in its development, hence protection of the works produced are essential. In the same manner, India also has a very rich cultural heritage, which is bound to be protected.
From an indigenous perspective, traditional knowledge or indigenous knowledge of native people is of primordial importance. This form of in-built knowledge within a community is defined as "the knowledge, know-how, and practices developed and maintained by people with long histories of close interaction with their natural environment" (Soni, 2007: 1). The protection of aboriginal knowledge does not only protect them from "scavengers" looking to claim their techniques as new findings, but it also helps conserve the ecosystems, species and landscapes in relation to the usage of that knowledge (Soni, 2007: 3). In addition, IPRs provide them with beneficial outcomes and act as economic tools.
Patents are most often granted to outsiders because of the unstandardised methods of documentation of traditional knowledge of a community or culture. This creates conflict between the traditional owners of the knowledge and the patent applicants, mainly because of the recognition and profits made by the applicants if the patents are granted (Biswal and Biswal, 2003). An example of the abuse of such indigenous knowledge belonging to peoples of native India includes the bio piracy case of patenting neem and turmeric, which created turmoil, because the traditional knowledge and usage of these two natural materials were claimed by other countries as their own (IPPro Services Pvt. Ltd., 2008). Such events further encourage countries to protect their IP assets, so that others cannot claim rights and deprive the true "owners" from benefitting from them.
From the above, we can understand that the protection of IP is quintessential in today's world. The provision of IPRs is perfectly justified as it not only provides, recognises and benefits the owner but also plays a role in the development of the respective country. Most importantly, it prevents the misuse or unfair usage of one's product and safeguards important "treasures" of ancient times such as traditional knowledge.
Although IPRs are an absolute necessity for today's society, certain aspects of IP protection could be modified for the benefit of all. In particular, the accessibility to scholarly work could be more accessible for wider knowledge sharing. The morals of ancient times could be taken into account for the generous sharing of one's knowledge with people around the world. A recent development that has taken into consideration the need for free knowledge sharing around the world includes the initiative put forth by a non-profit organisation named Creative Commons (CC).
It is essential to understand CC and the idea behind its creation, which could provide us an insight into how they relate to the values of ancient India. Through this means, IPRs can be analysed from an ancient Indian perspective.

Linking Creative Commons with the Values of the Past
Creative Commons (CC) licenses are free and user-friendly alternate to copyright licenses, which allows authors to grant the public certain forms of freedom to use and share their creative works. However, the author can tailor the kind of freedom provided to meet his or her needs. For instance, the author may want to allow the sharing of his or her works but might not want the users to remix those (Collins et al., 2011). The major aim of CC is to allow any person around the globe to access works of knowledge. "Instead of trying to reduce the appetites of greedy right holders and overzealous lawmakers, Creative Commons seeks to cure a symbolic failure of the present copyright regime" (Sornum, 2010: 2). The quote clearly highlights the status of the current copyright system, which enables owners to utilise their rights in a selfish manner. With a broad perspective, the CC system has been established for the free and selfless movement of creative works between and amongst people across the globe.
Seemingly, the CC system links the values of the ancient world with the needs of the present world. Retaining ethics such as sharing and selflessness, this system bridges these essential human values with people's needs to protect their intellectual property, in the current competitive society. Not surprising, that out of the growing number of supporters for the Budapest Open Access Initiative of 2002 (BOAI, 2012), India has an impressive lead of 430 supporters that included several academic and patent producing organisations. Ten years ago, the Budapest Open Access Initiative launched a worldwide campaign for open access (OA) to all new peer-reviewed research. It brought together several "open access" projects around the world in all disciplines and countries. The BOAI, statement reaffirmed the aspiration to achieve this "unprecedented public good" and to "accelerate research, enrich education, share the learning of the rich with the poor and the poor with the rich, make this literature as useful as it can be, and lay the foundation for uniting humanity in a common intellectual conversation and quest for knowledge (BOAI, 2012). As a movement, it remains the case that "scientists and scholars ... publish the fruits of their research in scholarly journals without payment" and "without expectation of payment". In addition, scholars typically participate in peer review as referees and editors without expectation of payment. Yet more often than not, access barriers to peerreviewed research literature remain firmly in place, for the benefit of intermediaries rather than authors, referees, or editors, and at the expense of research, researchers, and research institutions (BOAI, 2012).
It clearly appears the imperative today as it was in the past is to make knowledge available to everyone who can make use of it, apply it, or build on it is more pressing than ever. Peter Suber (2012) said: Open access to [peer-reviewed research literature], means its free availability on the public internet, permitting any users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself. The only constraint on reproduction and distribution, and the only role for copyright in this domain, should be to give authors control over the integrity of their work and the right to be properly acknowledged and cited.
Peter Suber further writes that 'the problems that previously held up the adoption and implementation of OA are solved, and the solutions are spreading. But until OA spreads further, the problems for which OA is a solution will remain largely unsolved' (Suber, 2012).

IPRs versus the Future
The future is promising as it shows evidence of incorporating ancient values and tries to break down the avaricious and stringent use of the IP system by people. Embracing basic human ethics, the future is in the process of creating more systems like CC. Although CC has been really successful in its venture, it is only a part of the open source methods that is taking over the world. The Open Source Initiative (OSI) is a non-profit corporation, which advocates for the use of open source (Fogel, 2005). The OSI provides various non-discriminatory advantages such as free redistribution and derived works (Savvas, 2005). This initiative stems from a larger initiative known as the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI, 2012), which led to the historical open access movement in 2001, bringing together people supporting the idea of open access (Brown, 2008). The opening sentence of the BOAI, as quoted by Brown (2008: 186) (Vladoiu, 2011: 271-294). Adding to such initiatives, Google has introduced a tool called Course Builder, which is an open source online education software, designed to allow members of the public to create online education resources (MENA Report, 2012). More of such initiatives are to be cultivated and encouraged for the prosperity of humanity and human ideals.

Conclusion
This article examined present-day IPRs from an ancient Indian perspective, with the intention to trigger the human conscience into rethinking whether what we create is for our sole use and benefit. It attempted to explore the concept of knowledge sharing in the Vedic period and the relevance IPRs in the present world. Looking at IPRs from an ancient Indian perspective, it was found that human requirements, views and morals have been in constant transition since time immemorial. As a result, the idea of "ownership" and knowledge-sharing do not carry the same connotation as they did in ancient times.
In conclusion, for the sustenance of our present world, IPRs are very essential. Not only do they recognise and protect the original works of the authors and creators but they also curb infringement, which is considered an immoral practice in the current society. Nevertheless, the emergence of the open modes of knowledge transfer such as open educational materials and open licensing methods (via CC) indicates a change in people's perspectives. Creators and educational bodies are willingly licensing their works for the benefit of everyone. Could this indicate to us that we are readopting the values of ancient times? Would we progress to a stage where knowledge is no longer a commodity and is passed on for free like in the Vedic period? Only time can answer these questions and tell us whether the concept of providing free knowledge would be accepted and adopted on a global scale.
To further this brief research, the historical research method could be used, tracing deeper into the origins of IP and what it means in the context of Vedic India. Content and discourse analysis methods could also be made use of to link themes, concepts, sayings and personalities of the ancient Vedic period to the present day views and usage of IP. A detailed study could provide new literature for the field of IP.