The Vedas (वेद) is a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the oldest layer of Sanskrit literature and the oldest scriptures of Hinduism. There are four Vedas: the Rigveda, the Yajurveda, the Samaveda, and the Atharvaveda. Each Veda has four subdivisions – the Samhitas (mantras and benedictions), the Aranyakas (text on rituals, ceremonies, sacrifices, and symbolic sacrifices), the Brahmanas (commentaries on rituals, ceremonies, and sacrifices), and the Upanishads (texts discussing meditation, philosophy and spiritual knowledge). Some scholars add a fifth category – the Upasanas (worship). The texts of the Upanishads discuss ideas akin to the heterodox sramana traditions.
How Vedas are distinguished from other religious texts?
Vedas are śhruti (“what is heard”), distinguishing them from other religious texts, which are called smṛti (“what is remembered”). Hindus consider the Vedas to be apauruṣeya, which means “not of a man, superhuman” and “impersonal, authorless,” revelations of sacred sounds and texts heard by ancient sages after intense meditation.
The Vedas have been orally transmitted since the 2nd millennium BCE with the help of elaborate mnemonic techniques. The mantras, the oldest part of the Vedas, are recited in the modern age for their phonology rather than the semantics and are considered to be “primordial rhythms of creation”, preceding the forms to which they refer. By reciting them the cosmos is regenerated, “by enlivening and nourishing the forms of creation at their base.”
Vedas Etymology
The Sanskrit word véda “knowledge, wisdom” is derived from the root vid- “to know”. This is reconstructed as being derived from the Proto-Indo-European root u̯eid-, meaning “see” or “know.”
The Sanskrit term Veda as a common noun means “knowledge”. The term in some contexts, such as hymn 10.93.11 of the Rigveda, means “obtaining or finding wealth, property”, while in some others it means “a bunch of grass together” as in a broom or for ritual fire.
Vedas are called Maṛai or Vaymoli in parts of South India. Marai literally means “hidden, a secret, mystery”. But the Tamil Naan Marai mentioned in Tholkappiam is not Sanskrit Vedas. In some parts of South India (e.g. the Iyengar communities), the word Veda is used in the Tamil writings of the Alvar saints. Such writings include the Divya Prabandham (Aka Tiruvaymoli).
Vedic texts
Vedic Sanskrit corpus
The term “Vedic texts” is used with two distinct meanings:
- Texts were composed in Vedic Sanskrit during the Vedic period (Iron Age India).
- Any text considered as “connected to the Vedas” or a “corollary of the Vedas”.
While production of Brahmanas and Aranyakas ceased at the end of the Vedic period, additional Upanishads were composed after the end of the Vedic period. The Brahmanas, Aranyakas, and Upanishads, among other things, interpret and discuss the Samhitas in philosophical and metaphorical ways to explore abstract concepts such as the Absolute (Brahman), and the soul or the self (Atman), introducing Vedanta philosophy, one of the major trends of later Hinduism.
In other parts, they show the evolution of ideas, such as from actual sacrifice to symbolic sacrifice, and spirituality in the Upanishads. This has inspired later Hindu scholars such as Adi Shankara to classify each Veda into Karma-Khanda (कर्म खण्ड, action/sacrificial ritual-related sections, the Samhitas and Brahmanas); and Jnana-Khanda (ज्ञान खण्ड, knowledge/spirituality-related sections, mainly the Upanishads’).
Śhruti and Smriti
Vedas are śhruti (“what is heard”), distinguishing them from other religious texts, which are called smṛiti (“what is remembered”). This indigenous system of categorization was adopted by Max Müller and, while it is subject to some debate, it is still widely used. As Axel Michaels explains:
These classifications are often not tenable for linguistic and formal reasons: There is not only one collection at any one time, but rather several handed down in separate Vedic schools; Upanişhads […] are sometimes not to be distinguished from Āraṇyakas […]; Brāhmaṇas contain older strata of language attributed to the Saṃhitās.”
Among the widely known śhrutis include the Vedas and their embedded texts—the Samhitas, the Upanishads, the Brahmanas, and the Aranyakas. The well-known smṛitis include Bhagavad Gita, Bhagavata Purana, and the epics Ramayana and Mahabharata, amongst others.
Vedas Chronology, transmission, and interpretation
Vedas chronology
The Vedas are among the oldest sacred texts. The bulk of the Rigveda Samhita was composed in the northwestern region (Punjab) of the Indian subcontinent, most likely between c. 1500 and 1200 BC, although a wider approximation of c. 1700–1100 BC has also been given. The other three Samhitas are considered to date from the time of the Kuru Kingdom, approximately c. 1200–900 BCE. The “circum-Vedic” texts, as well as the redaction of the Samhitas, date to c. 1000–500 BCE, resulting in a Vedic period, spanning the mid 2nd to mid 1st millennium BCE, or the Late Bronze Age and the Iron Age.
The Vedic period reaches its peak only after the composition of the mantra texts, with the establishment of the various shakhas all over Northern India which annotated the mantra Samhitas with Brahmana discussions of their meaning, and reaches its end in the age of Buddha and Panini and the rise of the Mahajanapadas (archaeologically, Northern Black Polished Ware).
Vedas transmission
The Vedas were orally transmitted since their composition in the Vedic period for several millennia. The authoritative transmission of the Vedas is by an oral tradition in a sampradaya from father to son or from the teacher (guru) to the student (shishya), believed to be initiated by the Vedic rishis who heard the primordial sounds.
Only this tradition, embodied by a living teacher, can teach the correct pronunciation of the sounds and explain hidden meanings, in a way the “dead and entombed manuscript” cannot do. As Leela Prasad states, “According to Shankara, the “correct tradition” (sampradaya) has as much authority as the written Shastra,” explaining that the tradition “bears the authority to clarify and provide direction in the application of knowledge.”
Vedic learning
The Vedas, Vedic rituals, and its ancillary sciences called the Vedangas were part of the curriculum at ancient universities such as Taxila, Nalanda, and Vikramashila. According to Deshpande, “the tradition of the Sanskrit grammarians also contributed significantly to the preservation and interpretation of Vedic texts.”
Yāska (4th c. BCE) wrote the Nirukta, which reflects the concerns about the loss of meaning of the mantras, while Pāṇinis (4th c. BCE) Aṣṭādhyāyī is the most important surviving text of the Vyākaraṇa traditions. Mimamsa scholar Sayanas (14th c. CE) major Vedartha Prakasha is a rare commentary on the Vedas, which is also referred to by contemporary scholars.
Types of the Vedas
The canonical division of the Vedas is fourfold (turīya) viz.,
- Rigveda
- Yajurveda
- Samaveda
- Atharvaveda
Each Veda has been subclassified into four major text types – the:
- Samhitas (mantras and benedictions),
- Aranyakas (text on rituals, ceremonies such as newborn baby’s rites of passage, coming of age, marriages, retirement and cremation, sacrifices, and symbolic sacrifices),
- Brahmanas (commentaries on rituals, ceremonies, and sacrifices), and
- Upanishads (text discussing meditation, philosophy, and spiritual knowledge).
The Upasanas (short ritual worship-related sections) are considered by some scholars as the fifth part. Witzel notes that the rituals, rites, and ceremonies described in these ancient texts reconstruct to a large degree the Indo-European marriage rituals observed in a region spanning the Indian subcontinent, Persia, European area, and some greater details are found in the Vedic era texts such as the Grhya Sūtras.
Rigveda
The Rigveda Samhita is the oldest extant Indic text. It is a collection of 1,028 Vedic Sanskrit hymns and 10,600 verses in all, organized into ten books (Sanskrit: mandalas). The hymns are dedicated to Rigvedic deities.
The Rigveda is structured based on clear principles. The Veda begins with a small book addressed to Agni, Indra, Soma, and other gods, all arranged according to decreasing total number of hymns in each deity collection; for each deity series, the hymns progress from longer to shorter ones, but the number of hymns per book increases. Finally, the meter too is systematically arranged from jagati and tristubh to Anustubh and Gayatri as the text progresses.
There are similarities between the mythology, rituals, and linguistics in Rigveda and those found in ancient central Asia, Iranian, and Hindukush (Afghanistan) regions.
Yajurveda
The Yajurveda Samhita consists of prose mantras. It is a compilation of ritual offering formulas that were said by a priest while an individual performed ritual actions such as those before the yajna fire. The core text of the Yajurveda falls within the classical Mantra period of Vedic Sanskrit at the end of the 2nd millennium BCE – younger than the Rigveda, and roughly contemporary with the Atharvaveda, the Rigvedic Khilani, and the Sāmaveda.
The earliest and most ancient layer of Yajurveda Samhita includes about 1,875 verses, that are distinct yet borrow and build upon the foundation of verses in Rigveda. Unlike the Samaveda which is almost entirely based on Rigveda mantras and structured as songs, the Yajurveda Samhitas are in prose, and they are different from earlier Vedic texts linguistically. The Yajur Veda has been the primary source of information about sacrifices during Vedic times and associated rituals.
Samaveda
The Samaveda Samhita consists of 1549 stanzas, taken almost entirely (except for 75 mantras) from the Rigveda. While its earliest parts are believed to date from as early as the Rigvedic period, the existing compilation dates from the post-Rigvedic Mantra period of Vedic Sanskrit, between c. 1200 and 1000 BCE or “slightly later,” roughly contemporary with the Atharvaveda and the Yajurveda.
The Samaveda Samhita has two major parts. The first part includes four melody collections (gāna, गान), and the second part three verse “books” (Archika, आर्चिक). A melody in the song books corresponds to a verse in the Archika books. Just as in the Rigveda, the early sections of Samaveda typically begin with hymns to Agni and Indra but shift to the abstract. Their meters shift also in descending order. The songs in the later sections of the Samaveda have the least deviation from the hymns derived from the Rigveda.
Atharvaveda
The Atharvaveda Samhita is the text ‘belonging to the Atharvan and Angirasa poets. It has about 760 hymns, and about 160 of the hymns are in common with the Rigveda. Most of the verses are metrical, but some sections are in prose. Two different versions of the text – the Paippalāda and the Śaunakīya – have survived into modern times. The Atharvaveda was not considered as a Veda in the Vedic era and was accepted as a Veda in the late 1st millennium BCE. It was compiled last, probably around 900 BCE, although some of its material may go back to the time of the Rigveda, or earlier.
The Atharvaveda is sometimes called the “Veda of magical formulas”, an epithet declared to be incorrect by other scholars. The Samhita layer of the text likely represents a developing 2nd millennium BCE tradition of magico-religious rites to address superstitious anxiety, spells to remove maladies believed to be caused by demons, and herbs- and nature-derived potions as medicine.
Post-Vedic literature
Vedanga
The Vedangas developed towards the end of the vedic period, around or after the middle of the 1st millennium BCE. These auxiliary fields of Vedic studies emerged because the language of the Vedas, composed centuries earlier, became too archaic for the people of that time. The Vedangas were sciences that focused on helping understand and interpret the Vedas that had been composed many centuries earlier.
The six subjects of Vedanga are phonetics (Śikṣā), poetic meter (Chandas), grammar (Vyākaraṇa), etymology and linguistics (Nirukta), rituals and rites of passage (Kalpa), time keeping and astronomy (Jyotiṣa).
Vedangas developed as ancillary studies for the Vedas, but its insights into meters, the structure of sound and language, grammar, linguistic analysis, and other subjects influenced post-Vedic studies, arts, culture, and various schools of Hindu philosophy. The Kalpa Vedanga studies, for example, gave rise to the Dharma-sutras, which later expanded into Dharma-shastras.
Parisista
Pariśiṣṭa (पेरिसिस्ता) “supplement, appendix” is the term applied to various ancillary works of Vedic literature, dealing mainly with details of ritual and elaborations of the texts logically and chronologically prior to them: the Samhitas, Brahmanas, Aranyakas, and Sutras. Naturally classified with the Veda to which each pertains, Parisista works exist for each of the four Vedas. However, only the literature associated with the Atharvaveda is extensive.
- The Āśvalāyana Gṛhya Pariśiṣṭa is a very late text associated with the Rigveda canon.
- The Gobhila Gṛhya Pariśiṣṭa is a short metrical text of two chapters, with 113 and 95 verses respectively.
- The Kātiya Pariśiṣṭas, ascribed to Kātyāyana, consists of 18 works enumerated self-referentially in the fifth of the series (the Caraṇavyūha) and the Kātyāyana Śrauta Sūtra Pariśiṣṭa.
- The KṛṣṇaYajurveda has 3 parisistas The Āpastamba Hautra Pariśiṣṭa, which is also found as the second praśna of the Satyasāḍha Śrauta Sūtra‘, the Vārāha Śrauta Sūtra Pariśiṣṭa
- For the Atharvaveda, there are 79 works, collected as 72 distinctly named parisistas.
Upaveda
The term upaveda (“applied knowledge”) is used in traditional literature to designate the subjects of certain technical works. Lists of what subjects are included in this class differ among sources. The Charanavyuha mentions four Upavedas:
- Archery (Dhanurveda), associated with the Yajurveda
- Architecture (Sthapatyaveda), is associated with the Rigveda.
- Music and sacred dance (Gāndharvaveda), associated with the Samaveda
- Medicine (Āyurveda), is associated with the Atharvaveda.
“Fifth” and other Vedas
Some post-Vedic texts, including the Mahabharata, the Natyasastra, and certain Puranas, refer to themselves as the “fifth Veda”. The earliest reference to such a “fifth Veda” is found in the Chandogya Upanishad in hymn 7.1.2.
Let drama and dance (Nātya, नाट्य) be the fifth vedic scripture. Combined with an epic story, tending to virtue, wealth, joy and spiritual freedom, it must contain the significance of every scripture, and forward every art. Thus, from all the Vedas, Brahma framed the Nātya Veda. From the Rig Veda he drew forth the words, from the Sama Veda the melody, from the Yajur Veda gesture, and from the Atharva Veda the sentiment.
— First chapter of Nātyaśāstra, Abhinaya Darpana
“Divya Prabandha”, for example, Tiruvaymoli, is a term for canonical Tamil texts considered as Vernacular Veda by some South Indian Hindus.
Other texts such as the Bhagavad Gita or the Vedanta Sutras are considered shruti or “Vedic” by some Hindu denominations but not universally within Hinduism. The Bhakti movement, and Gaudiya Vaishnavism in particular extended the term Veda to include the Sanskrit Epics and Vaishnavite devotional texts such as the Pancaratra.
Puranas
The Puranas is a vast genre of encyclopedic Indian literature about a wide range of topics particularly myths, legends, and other traditional lore. Several of these texts are named after major Hindu deities such as Vishnu, Shiva, and Devi. There are 18 Maha Puranas (Great Puranas) and 18 Upa Puranas (Minor Puranas), with over 400,000 verses.
The 18 Maha Purana’s names are as given below:
Brahma Purana
This was originally recited by Lord Brahma to the sage Marichi and has thirteen thousand shlokas.
Padma Purana
This has fifty-five thousand shlokas and should be donated in the month of Jyeshtha.
Vishnu Purana
This was first recited by the sage Parashara and has twenty-three thousand shlokas. It is auspicious to donate this text in the month of Ashada.
Vayu Purana
This has twenty-four thousand shlokas and was first recited by the wind-god Vayu. It should be donated in the month of Shravana.
Bhagavata Purana
This has eighteen thousand shlokas and should be donated in the month of Bhadra, on the night of the full moon.
Narada Purana
This was first recited by the sage Narada and has twenty-five thousand shlokas. It should be donated on the night of the new moon (Amavasya) in the month of Ashvina.
Markandeya Purana
This has nine thousand shlokas. A person desirous of obtaining Punya should donate this text in the month of Margashirsa.
Agni Purana
This was first recited by the fire-god Agni to the sage Vashishtha. It has sixteen thousand shlokas and should be donated in the month of Margashirsha.
Bhavishya Purana
Lord Brahma himself was the first reciter of this Purana and it has fourteen thousand and five hundred shlokas.
Brahmavaivarta Purana
This was first recited by Savarni Manu to the sage Narada. It has eighteen thousand shlokas and should be donated to Purnima in the month of Magha.
Linga Purana
Lord Brahma recited this first and it has eleven thousand shlokas. Punya (good deeds) is acquired if this text is donated in the month of Phalguna.
Varaha Purana
The great Vishnu first recited this to the earth. It has twenty-four thousand shlokas and is to be donated in the month of Chaitra.
Skanda Purana
This Purana gives information about Lord Skanda or Kartikeya. It has eighty-one thousand shlokas and one desirous of Punya donates the text in the month of Chaitra.
Vamana Purana
Lord Brahma was the first person to recite this. It has ten thousand shlokas and the text should be donated in early autumn (sharat).
Kurma Purana
Lord Vishnu recited this in the form of a turtle. It has eighteen thousand shlokas and should be donated at the time of the equinoxes (Sankramana / Sankranti time).
Matsya Purana
Lord Vishnu recited this in the form of a fish to Manu. It has fourteen thousand shlokas and should be donated at the time of the equinoxes (Sankramana / Sankranti time).
Garuda Purana
Lord Krishna / Vishnu was the first person to recite this and it has eighteen thousand shlokas. (When this text has to be donated is not stated.), and
Brahmanda Purana
Lord Brahma recited this and it has twelve thousand and two hundred shlokas.
The Puranas have been influential in the Hindu culture. They are considered Vaidika (congruent with Vedic literature). The Bhagavata Purana has been among the most celebrated and popular texts in the Puranic genre and is of non-dualistic tenor. The Puranic literature wove with the Bhakti movement in India, and both Dvaita and Advaita scholars have commented on the underlying Vedanta themes in the Maha Puranas.
Authority of the Vedas
The various Hindu denominations and Indian philosophies have taken differing positions on the authority of the Vedas. Schools of Indian philosophy that acknowledge the authority of the Vedas are classified as “orthodox” (āstika). Other śramaṇa traditions, such as Lokayata, Carvaka, Ajivika, Buddhism, and Jainism, which did not regard the Vedas as authorities, are referred to as “heterodox” or “non-orthodox” (nāstika) schools.
Hindu reform movements such as Arya Samaj and Brahmo Samaj accepted the authority of Vedas, while the authority of the Vedas has been rejected by Hindu modernists like Debendranath Tagore and Keshub Chandra Sen; and also by social reformers like B. R. Ambedkar.
Western Indology
The study of Sanskrit in the West began in the 17th century. In the early 19th century, Arthur Schopenhauer drew attention to Vedic texts, specifically the Upanishads. The importance of Vedic Sanskrit for Indo-European studies was also recognized in the early 19th century. English translations of the Samhitas were published in the later 19th century, in the Sacred Books of the East series edited by Müller between 1879 and 1910. Ralph T. H. Griffith also presented English translations of the four Samhitas, published from 1889 to 1899.
Rigveda manuscripts were selected for inscription in UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register in 2007.
Conclusion
Because of the above, I am confident that you have learned in-depth about Vedas, Vedic texts, Transmission, Vedas divisions, Rigveda, Yajurveda, Samaveda, Atharvaveda, Puranas, and Western ideology., etc. Now, that you have become self-sufficient to practice and achieve the goal, hence it’s the right time to use your acquired knowledge for gaining numerous benefits for well-being.
After reading this article, how would you rate it? Would you please let me know your precious thoughts?
Frequently asked questions
Before posting your query, kindly go through them:
| What is the meaning of Vedas?
The Sanskrit word véda “knowledge, wisdom” is derived from the root vid- “to know”. This is reconstructed as being derived from the Proto-Indo-European root u̯eid-, meaning “see” or “know.” The Sanskrit term Veda as a common noun means “knowledge”. The term in some contexts, such as hymn 10.93.11 of the Rigveda, means “obtaining or finding wealth, property”, while in some others it means “a bunch of grass together” as in a broom or for ritual fire. |
| How many types of Vedas do exists?
There are four Vedas: the Rigveda, the Yajurveda, the Samaveda, and the Atharvaveda. Each Veda has four subdivisions – the Samhitas (mantras and benedictions), the Aranyakas (text on rituals, ceremonies, sacrifices, and symbolic sacrifices), the Brahmanas (commentaries on rituals, ceremonies, and sacrifices), and the Upanishads (texts discussing meditation, philosophy and spiritual knowledge). |
| What is the chronology of Vedas?
The Vedas are among the oldest sacred texts. The bulk of the Rigveda Samhita was composed in the northwestern region (Punjab) of the Indian subcontinent, most likely between c. 1500 and 1200 BC, although a wider approximation of c. 1700–1100 BC has also been given. |
Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedas
Thanks a lot for your kid attitude. Have a nice day!!
Thanks a lot for your kind attitude. Have a nice day!!
Thanks a lot for your kind attitude. Have a nice day!!