Vedas

TheVedas(/ˈveɪdəz/or/ˈviːdəz/;Sanskrit:वेदः,romanized:Vēdaḥ,lit.'knowledge'), sometimes collectively calledthe Veda, are a large body ofreligious textsoriginating inancient India. Composed inVedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the oldest layer ofSanskrit literatureand the oldestscripturesofHinduism.
There are four Vedas: theRigveda, theYajurveda, theSamavedaand theAtharvaveda.Each Veda has four subdivisions – theSamhitas(mantrasandbenedictions), theBrahmanas(commentaries on and explanation of rituals, ceremonies and sacrifices –Yajñas), theAranyakas(text on rituals, ceremonies, sacrifices and symbolic-sacrifices), and theUpanishads(texts discussingmeditation, philosophy and spiritual knowledge).Some scholars add a fifth category – theUpāsanās(worship).The texts of the Upanishads discuss ideas akin to the heterodoxsramanatraditions.The Samhitas and Brahmanas describe daily rituals and are generally meant for theBrahmacharyaandGr̥hasthastages of theChaturashramasystem, while the Aranyakas andUpanishadsare meant for theVānaprasthaandSannyasastages, respectively.
Vedas areśruti("what is heard"),distinguishing them from other religious texts, which are calledsmr̥ti("what is remembered"). Hindus consider the Vedas to beapauruṣeya, which means "not of a man, superhuman"and "impersonal, authorless",revelations of sacred sounds and texts heard by ancientsagesafter intense meditation.
The Vedas have been orally transmitted since the 2nd millennium BCE with the help of elaboratemnemonic techniques.The mantras, the oldest part of the Vedas, are recited in the modern age for theirphonologyrather than thesemantics, and are considered to be "primordial rhythms of creation", preceding the forms to which they refer.By reciting them thecosmosis regenerated, "by enlivening and nourishing the forms of creation at their base."
The variousIndian philosophiesandHindu sectshave taken differing positions on the Vedas. Schools of Indian philosophy that acknowledge the importance or primal authority of the Vedas compriseHindu philosophyspecifically and are together classified as the six "orthodox" (āstika) schools.However,śramaṇatraditions, such asCharvaka,Ajivika,Buddhism, andJainism, which did not regard the Vedas as authoritative, are referred to as "heterodox" or "non-orthodox" (nāstika) schools.
TheSanskritwordvéda"knowledge, wisdom" is derived from the rootvid-"to know". This is reconstructed as being derived from theProto-Indo-Europeanroot*weyd-, meaning "see" or "know".
The noun is from Proto-Indo-European*weydos, cognate toGreek(ϝ)εἶδος"aspect", "form" . This is not to be confused with the homonymous 1st and 3rd person singular perfect tensevéda, cognate to Greek(ϝ)οἶδα((w)oida) "I know". Root cognates are Greekἰδέα, Englishwit,Latinvideō"I see",Russianве́дать (védat') "to know", etc.
The Sanskrit termvedaas a common noun means "knowledge".The term in some contexts, such as hymn 10.93.11 of theRigveda, means "obtaining or finding wealth, property",while in some others it means "a bunch of grass together" as in a broom or forritual fire.
The term "Vedic texts" is used in two distinct meanings:
The corpus ofVedic Sanskrittexts includes:
While production of Brahmanas and Aranyakas ceased with the end of the Vedic period, additional Upanishads were composed after the end of the Vedic period.TheBrahmanas,Aranyakas, andUpanishads, among other things, interpret and discuss theSamhitasin philosophical and metaphorical ways to explore abstract concepts such as the Absolute (Brahman), and the soul or the self (Atman), introducingVedantaphilosophy, one of the major trends of laterHinduism. In other parts, they show evolution of ideas, such as from actual sacrifice to symbolic sacrifice, and of spirituality in the Upanishads. This has inspired later Hindu scholars such asAdi Shankarato classify each Veda intokarma-kanda(कर्म खण्ड, action/sacrificial ritual-related sections, theSamhitasandBrahmanas); andjnana-kanda(ज्ञान खण्ड, knowledge/spirituality-related sections, mainly the Upanishads').
Vedas areśruti("what is heard"),distinguishing them from other religious texts, which are calledsmṛti("what is remembered"). This indigenous system of categorization was adopted byMax Müllerand, while it is subject to some debate, it is still widely used. AsAxel Michaelsexplains:
Among the widely known śrutis include the Vedas and their embedded texts – theSamhitas, theUpanishads, theBrahmanasand theAranyakas. The well-known smṛtis includeBhagavad Gita,Bhagavata Puranaand the epicsRamayanaandMahabharata, amongst others.
Hindus consider the Vedas to beapauruṣeyā, which means "not of a man, superhuman"and "impersonal, authorless".The Vedas, for orthodox Indian theologians, are considered revelations seen by ancientsagesafter intense meditation, and texts that have been more carefully preserved since ancient times.In the Hindu EpicMahabharata, the creation of Vedas is credited toBrahma.The Vedic hymns themselves assert that they were skillfully created byRishis(sages), after inspired creativity, just as a carpenter builds a chariot.
The oldest part of the Rig VedaSamhitawas orally composed in north-western India (Punjab) betweenc.1500 and 1200 BCE,while book 10 of the Rig Veda, and the other Samhitas were composed between 1200 and 900 BCE more eastward, between theYamunaand theGangesrivers, the heartland ofAryavartaand theKuru Kingdom(c.1200– c.900 BCE).The "circum-Vedic" texts, as well as theredactionof the Samhitas, date toc.1000–500 BCE.
According to tradition,Vyasais the compiler of the Vedas, who arranged the four kinds ofmantrasinto fourSamhitas(Collections).
The Vedas are among theoldest sacred texts.The bulk of the Rigveda Samhita was composed in the northwestern region (Punjab) of theIndian subcontinent, most likely betweenc.1500 and 1200 BCE,although a wider approximation ofc.1700–1100 BCE has also been given.The other three Samhitas are considered to date from the time of theKuru Kingdom, approximatelyc.1200–900 BCE.The "circum-Vedic" texts, as well as theredactionof the Samhitas, date toc.1000–500 BCE, resulting in aVedic period, spanning the mid 2nd to mid 1st millennium BCE, or theLate Bronze Ageand theIron Age.The Vedic period reaches its peak only after the composition of the mantra texts, with the establishment of the variousshakhasall over Northern India which annotated the mantrasamhitaswithBrahmanadiscussions of their meaning, and reaches its end in the age ofBuddhaandPaniniand the rise of theMahajanapadas(archaeologically,Northern Black Polished Ware).Michael Witzelgives a time span ofc.1500toc.500–400 BCE. Witzel makes special reference to the Near EasternMitanni materialof the 14th century BCE, the only epigraphic record of Indo-Aryan contemporary to the Rigvedic period. He gives 150 BCE (Patañjali) as aterminus ante quemfor all Vedic Sanskrit literature, and 1200 BCE (the earlyIron Age) asterminus post quemfor the Atharvaveda.
The Vedas were orally transmitted since their composition in theVedic periodfor several millennia.The authoritative transmissionof the Vedas is by anoral traditionin asampradayafrom father to son or from teacher (guru) to student (shishya),believed to be initiated by the Vedicrishiswho heard theprimordial 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 toShankara, 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".
The emphasis in this transmissionis on the "proper articulation and pronunciation of the Vedic sounds", as prescribed in theShiksha,theVedanga(Vedic study) of sound as uttered in a Vedic recitation,mastering the texts "literally forward and backward in fully acoustic fashion".Houben and Rath note that the Vedic textual tradition cannot simply be characterized as oral, "since it also depends significantly on a memory culture".The Vedas were preserved with precision with the help of elaboratemnemonic techniques,such as memorizing the texts in eleven different modes of recitation (pathas),using the alphabet as amnemotechnical device,"matching physical movements (such as nodding the head) with particular sounds and chanting in a group"and visualizing sounds by usingmudras(hand signs).This provided an additional visual confirmation, and also an alternate means to check the reading integrity by the audience, in addition to the audible means.Houben and Rath note that a strong "memory culture" existed in ancient India when texts were transmitted orally, before the advent of writing in the early first millennium CE.According toStaal, criticising theGoody-Watt hypothesis "according to which literacy is more reliable than orality",this tradition of oral transmission "is closely related to Indian forms of science" and "by far the more remarkable" than the relatively recent tradition of written transmission.
While according to Mookerji,understanding the meaning(vedarthajnanaorartha-bodha) of the words of the Vedas was part of theVedic learning,Holdrege and other Indologistshave noted that in the transmission of theSamhitas, the emphasis is on the phonology of the sounds (śabda) and not on the meaning (artha) of the mantras.Already at the end of the Vedic period their original meaning had become obscure for "ordinary people",andniruktas, etymological compendia, were developed to preserve and clarify the original meaning of many Sanskrit words.According to Staal, as referenced by Holdrege, though the mantras may have a discursive meaning, when the mantras are recited in the Vedic rituals "they are disengaged from their original context and are employed in ways that have little or nothing to do with their meaning".The words of the mantras are "themselves sacred",and "do not constitutelinguistic utterances".Instead, as Klostermaier notes, in their application in Vedic rituals they becomemagicalsounds, "means to an end".Holdrege notes that there are scarce commentaries on the meaning of the mantras, in contrast to the number of commentaries on the Brahmanas and Upanishads, but states that the lack of emphasis on the "discursive meaning does not necessarily imply that they are meaningless".In the Brahmanical perspective, the sounds have their own meaning, mantras are considered as "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. As long as the purity of the sounds is preserved, the recitation of themantraswill be efficacious, irrespective of whether their discursive meaning is understood by human beings."Frazier further notes that "later Vedic texts sought deeper understanding of the reasons the rituals worked", which indicates that the Brahmin communities considered study to be a "process of understanding".
A literary tradition is traceable in post-Vedic times, after the rise ofBuddhismin theMaurya period,perhaps earliest in theKanvarecension of the Yajurveda about the 1st century BCE; however oral tradition of transmission remained active.Jack Goodyhas argued for an earlier literary tradition, concluding that the Vedas bear hallmarks of a literate culture along with oral transmission,but Goody's views have been strongly criticised by Falk, Lopez Jr,. and Staal, though they have also found some support.
The Vedas were written down only after 500 BCE,but only the orally transmitted texts are regarded as authoritative, given the emphasis on the exact pronunciation of the sounds.Witzel suggests that attempts to write down the Vedic texts towards the end of 1st millennium BCE were unsuccessful, resulting insmritirules explicitly forbidding the writing down of the Vedas.Due to the ephemeral nature of the manuscript material (birch bark or palm leaves), surviving manuscripts rarely surpass an age of a few hundred years.TheSampurnanand Sanskrit Universityhas a Rigveda manuscript from the 14th century;however, there are a number of older Veda manuscripts inNepalthat are dated from the 11th century onwards.
The Vedas, Vedic rituals and its ancillary sciences called theVedangas, were part of the curriculum at ancient universities such as atTaxila,NalandaandVikramashila.According to Deshpande, "the tradition of theSanskrit grammariansalso contributed significantly to the preservation and interpretation of Vedic texts."Yāska(4th c. BCE) wrote theNirukta, which reflects the concerns about the loss of meaning of the mantras,whilePāṇinis(4th c. BCE)Aṣṭādhyāyīis the most important surviving text of the Vyākaraṇa traditions.MimamsascholarSayanas(14th c. CE) majorVedartha Prakashais a rarecommentary on the Vedas, which is also referred to by contemporary scholars.
Yaska and Sayana, reflecting an ancient understanding, state that the Veda can be interpreted in three ways, giving "the truth aboutgods,dharmaandparabrahman."Thepūrva-kāņda(orkarma-kanda), the part of the Veda dealing with ritual, gives knowledge ofdharma, "which brings us satisfaction." Theuttara-kanda(orjnana-kanda),the part of the Veda dealing with the knowledge of the absolute, gives knowledge ofParabrahma, "which fulfills all of our desires."According to Holdrege, for the exponents ofkarma-kandhathe Veda is to be "inscribed in the minds and hearts of men" by memorization and recitation, while for the exponents of thejnana-kandaand meditation the Vedas express a transcendental reality which can be approached with mystical means.
Holdrege notes that in Vedic learning "priority has been given to recitation over interpretation" of the Samhitas.Galewicz states that Sayana, aMimamsascholar,"thinks of the Veda as something to be trained and mastered to be put into practical ritual use", noticing that "it is not the meaning of the mantras that is most essential [...] but rather the perfect mastering of their sound form."According to Galewicz, Sayana saw the purpose (artha) of the Veda as the "arthaof carrying out sacrifice", giving precedence to theYajurveda.For Sayana, whether the mantras had meaning depended on the context of their practical usage.This conception of the Veda, as a repertoire to be mastered and performed, takes precedence over the internal meaning or "autonomous message of the hymns."MostŚrauta ritualsare not performed in the modern era, and those that are, are rare.
Mukherjeenotes that the Rigveda, and Sayana's commentary, contain passages criticizing as fruitless mere recitation of theŖik(words) without understanding their inner meaning or essence, the knowledge ofdharmaandParabrahman.Mukherjee concludes that in the Rigvedic education of the mantras "the contemplation and comprehension oftheir meaningwas considered as more important and vital to education than their mere mechanical repetition and correct pronunciation."Mookei refers to Sayana as stating that "the mastery of texts,akshara-praptī, is followed byartha-bodha, perception of their meaning."Mukherjee explains that the Vedic knowledge was first perceived by therishisandmunis. Only the perfect language of the Vedas, as in contrast to ordinary speech, can reveal these truths, which were preserved by committing them to memory.According to Mukherjee, while these truths are imparted to the student by the memorized texts,"the realization ofTruth" and the knowledge ofparamatmanas revealed to therishisis the real aim of Vedic learning, and not the mere recitation of texts.The supreme knowledge of the Absolute,para Brahman-jnana, the knowledge ofrtaandsatya, can be obtained by taking vows of silence and obediencesense-restraint,dhyana, the practice oftapas(austerities),and discussing theVedanta.
The four Vedas were transmitted in variousśākhās(branches, schools).Each school likely represented an ancient community of a particular area, or kingdom.Each school followed its own canon. Multiple recensions (revisions) are known for each of the Vedas.Thus, states Witzel as well as Renou, in the 2nd millennium BCE, there was likely no canon of one broadly accepted Vedic texts, no Vedic “Scripture”, but only a canon of various texts accepted by each school. Some of these texts have survived, most lost or yet to be found. Rigveda that survives in modern times, for example, is in only one extremely well preserved school of Śåkalya, from a region calledVideha, in modern northBihar, south ofNepal.The Vedic canon in its entirety consists of texts from all the various Vedic schools taken together.
There were Vedic schools that believed inpolytheismin which numerous gods had different natural functions,henotheisticbeliefs where only one god was worshipped but others were thought to exist,monotheisticbeliefs in a singlegod,agnosticism, andmonisticbeliefs where "there is an absolute reality that goes beyond the gods and that includes or transcends everything that exists."Indra,Agni, andYamawere popular subjects of worship by polytheist organizations.
Each of the four Vedas were shared by the numerous schools, but revised, interpolated and adapted locally, in and after the Vedic period, giving rise to various recensions of the text. Some texts were revised into the modern era, raising significant debate on parts of the text which are believed to have been corrupted at a later date.The Vedas each have an Index orAnukramani, the principal work of this kind being the general Index orSarvānukramaṇī.
Prodigious energy was expended by ancient Indian culture in ensuring that these texts were transmitted from generation to generation with inordinate fidelity.For example, memorization of the sacredVedasincluded up to elevenforms of recitationof the same text. The texts were subsequently "proof-read" by comparing the different recited versions. Forms of recitation included thejaṭā-pāṭha(literally "mesh recitation") in which every two adjacent words in the text were first recited in their original order, then repeated in the reverse order, and finally repeated in the original order.That these methods have been effective, is attested to by the preservation of the most ancient Indian religious text, theRigveda, asredactedinto a single text during theBrahmanaperiod, without any variant readings within that school.
The Vedas were orally transmitted by memorization, and were written down only after 500 BCE,All printed editions of the Vedas that survive in the modern times are likely the version existing in about the 16th century CE.
The canonical division of the Vedas is fourfold (turīya) viz.,
Of these, the first three were the principal original division, also called "trayī vidyā"; that is, "the triple science" of reciting hymns (Rigveda), performing sacrifices (Yajurveda), and chanting songs (Samaveda).The Rig Veda most likely was composed betweenc.1500 BCE and 1200 BCE.Witzel notes that it is the Vedic period itself, where incipient lists divide the Vedic texts into three (trayī) or four branches: Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharva.
Each Veda has been subclassified into four major text types – theSamhitas(mantras and benedictions), theAranyakas(text on rituals, ceremonies such as newborn baby's rites of passage, coming of age, marriages, retirement and cremation, sacrifices and symbolic sacrifices), theBrahmanas(commentaries on rituals, ceremonies and sacrifices), and theUpanishads(text discussing meditation, philosophy and spiritual knowledge).TheUpasanas(short ritual worship-related sections) are considered by some scholarsas the fifth part.Witzelnotes 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 and the European area, and some greater details are found in the Vedic era texts such as the Grhya Sūtras.
Only one version of the Rigveda is known to have survived into the modern era.Several different versions of the Sama Veda and the Atharva Veda are known, and many different versions of the Yajur Veda have been found in different parts of South Asia.
The texts of the Upanishads discuss ideas akin to the heterodoxsramana-traditions.
TheRigveda Samhitais the oldest extantIndictext.It is a collection of 1,028Vedic Sanskrithymnsand 10,600 verses in all, organized into ten books (Sanskrit:mandalas).The hymns are dedicated toRigvedic deities.
The books were composed by poets from different priestly groups over a period of several centuries betweenc.1500 and 1200 BCE,(the earlyVedic period) in thePunjab(Sapta Sindhu) region of the northwestIndian subcontinent. According to Michael Witzel, the initial codification of theRigvedatook place at the end of the Rigvedic period atc.1200 BCE, in the earlyKurukingdom.
The Rigveda is structured based on clear principles. The Veda begins with a small book addressed to Agni, Indra,Somaand 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.
The rituals became increasingly complex over time, and the king's association with them strengthened both the position of the Brahmans and the kings.TheRajasuyarituals, performed with the coronation of a king, "set in motion [...] cyclical regenerations of the universe."In terms of substance, the nature of hymns shift from praise of deities in early books toNasadiya Suktawith questions such as, "what is the origin of the universe?, do even gods know the answer?",the virtue ofDāna(charity) in society,and other metaphysical issues in its hymns.
There are similarities between the mythology, rituals and linguistics in Rigveda and those found in ancient central Asia, Iranian and Hindukush (Afghanistan) regions.
TheSamaveda Samhitaconsists 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 ofVedic Sanskrit, betweenc.1200and 1000 BCE or "slightly later", roughly contemporary with theAtharvavedaand theYajurveda.
The Samaveda samhita has two major parts. The first part includes four melody collections (gāna, गान) and the second part three verse “books” (ārcika, आर्चिक).A melody in the song books corresponds to a verse in thearcikabooks. 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 a descending order. The songs in the later sections of the Samaveda have the least deviation from the hymns derived from the Rigveda.
In the Samaveda, some of the Rigvedic verses are repeated.Including repetitions, there are a total of 1875 verses numbered in the Samaveda recension translated by Griffith.Two major recensions have survived, the Kauthuma/Ranayaniya and the Jaiminiya. Its purpose was liturgical, and they were the repertoire of theudgātṛor "singer" priests.
TheYajurveda Samhitaconsists 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 theyajnafire.The core text of the Yajurveda falls within the classical Mantra period ofVedic Sanskritat the end of the 2nd millennium BCE – younger than theRigveda, and roughly contemporary with theAtharvaveda, the RigvedicKhilani, and theSāmaveda.Witzel dates the Yajurvedahymnsto the early IndianIron Age, after c. 1200 and before 800 BCE.corresponding to the earlyKuru Kingdom.
The earliest and most ancient layer of Yajurvedasamhitaincludes about 1,875 verses, that are distinct yet borrow and build upon the foundation of verses inRigveda.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.
There are two major groups of texts in this Veda: the "Black" (Krishna) and the "White" (Shukla). The term "black" implies "the un-arranged, motley collection" of verses in Yajurveda, in contrast to the "white" (well arranged) Yajurveda.The White Yajurveda separates the Samhita from its Brahmana (theShatapatha Brahmana), the Black Yajurveda intersperses the Samhita with Brahmana commentary. Of the Black Yajurveda, texts from four major schools have survived (Maitrayani, Katha, Kapisthala-Katha, Taittiriya), while of the White Yajurveda, two (Kanva and Madhyandina).The youngest layer of Yajurveda text is not related to rituals nor sacrifice, it includes the largest collection of primary Upanishads, influential to various schools ofHindu philosophy.
TheArtharvaveda Samhitais the text 'belonging to theAtharvanandAngirasapoets. 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 – thePaippalādaand theŚaunakīya– have survived into the modern times.The Atharvaveda was not considered as a Veda in the Vedic era, and was accepted as a Veda in 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.TheSamhitalayer of the text likely represents a developing 2nd millennium BCE tradition ofmagico-religiousrites to address superstitious anxiety, spells to remove maladies believed to be caused by demons, and herbs- and nature-derived potions as medicine.The text, states Kenneth Zysk, is one of oldest surviving record of the evolutionary practices in religious medicine and reveals the "earliest forms of folk healing of Indo-European antiquity".Many books of the Atharvaveda Samhita are dedicated to rituals without magic, such as to philosophical speculations and totheosophy.
The Atharva veda has been a primary source for information about Vedic culture, the customs and beliefs, the aspirations and frustrations of everyday Vedic life, as well as those associated with kings and governance. The text also includes hymns dealing with the two major rituals of passage –marriageandcremation. The Atharva Veda also dedicates significant portion of the text asking the meaning of a ritual.
The Brahmanas are commentaries, explanation of proper methods and meaning of Vedic Samhita rituals in the four Vedas.They also incorporate myths, legends and in some cases philosophy.Each regional Vedicshakha(school) has its own operating manual-like Brahmana text, most of which have been lost.A total of 19 Brahmana texts have survived into modern times: two associated with theRigveda, six with theYajurveda, ten with theSamavedaand one with theAtharvaveda. The oldest dated to about 900 BCE, while the youngest Brahmanas (such as theShatapatha Brahmana), were complete by about 700 BCE.According toJan Gonda, the final codification of the Brahmanas took place in pre-Buddhist times (ca. 600 BCE).
The substance of the Brahmana text varies with each Veda. For example, the first chapter of the Chandogya Brahmana, one of the oldest Brahmanas, includes eight ritualsuktas(hymns) for the ceremony of marriage and rituals at the birth of a child.The first hymn is a recitation that accompanies offering aYajnaoblation toAgni(fire) on the occasion of a marriage, and the hymn prays for prosperity of the couple getting married.The second hymn wishes for their long life, kind relatives, and a numerous progeny.The third hymn is a mutual marriage pledge, between the bride and groom, by which the two bind themselves to each other. The sixth through last hymns of the first chapter in Chandogya Brahmana are ritual celebrations on the birth of a child and wishes for health, wealth, and prosperity with a profusion of cows andartha.However, these verses are incomplete expositions, and their complete context emerges only with the Samhita layer of text.
The Aranyakas layer of the Vedas include rituals, discussion of symbolic meta-rituals, as well as philosophical speculations.
Aranyakas, however, neither are homogeneous in content nor in structure.They are a medley of instructions and ideas, and some include chapters of Upanishads within them. Two theories have been proposed on the origin of the wordAranyakas. One theory holds that these texts were meant to be studied in a forest, while the other holds that the name came from these being the manuals of allegorical interpretation of sacrifices, for those inVanaprastha(retired, forest-dwelling) stage of their life, according to the historic age-basedAshramasystem of human life.
The Upanishads reflect the last composed layer of texts in the Vedas. They are commonly referred to asVedānta, variously interpreted to mean either the "last chapters, parts of the Vedas" or "the object, the highest purpose of the Veda".The central concern of the Upanishads are the connections "between parts of the human organism and cosmic realities."The Upanishads intend to create a hierarchy of connected and dependent realities, evoking a sense of unity of "the separate elements of the world and of human experience [compressing] them into a single form."The concepts ofBrahman, the Ultimate Reality from which everything arises, andĀtman, the essence of the individual, are central ideas in theUpanishads,and knowing the correspondence between Ātman and Brahman as "the fundamental principle which shapes the world" permits the creation of an integrative vision of the whole.The Upanishads are the foundation of Hindu philosophical thought and its diverse traditions,and of the Vedic corpus, they alone are widely known, and the central ideas of the Upanishads have influenced the diverse traditions of Hinduism.
Aranyakasare sometimes identified askarma-kanda(ritualistic section), while the Upanishads are identified asjnana-kanda(spirituality section).In an alternate classification, the early part of Vedas are calledSamhitasand the commentary are called theBrahmanaswhich together are identified as the ceremonialkarma-kanda, whileAranyakasandUpanishadsare referred to as thejnana-kanda.
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 to 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, structure of sound and language, grammar, linguistic analysis and other subjects influenced post-Vedic studies, arts, culture and various schools ofHindu philosophy.The Kalpa Vedanga studies, for example, gave rise to the Dharma-sutras, which later expanded into Dharma-shastras.
Pariśiṣṭa"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: theSamhitas,Brahmanas,AranyakasandSutras. Naturally classified with the Veda to which each pertains, Parisista works exist for each of the four Vedas. However, only the literature associated with theAtharvavedais extensive.
The termupaveda("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.
TheCharanavyuhamentions four Upavedas:
Some post-Vedic texts, including theMahabharata, theNatyasastraand certainPuranas, refer to themselves as the "fifth Veda".The earliest reference to such a "fifth Veda" is found in theChandogya Upanishadin hymn 7.1.2.
"Divya Prabandha", for example Tiruvaymoli, is a term for canonicalTamiltexts considered as Vernacular Veda by some South Indian Hindus.
Other texts such as theBhagavad Gitaor theVedanta Sutrasare consideredshrutior "Vedic" by someHindu denominationsbut not universally within Hinduism. TheBhakti movement, andGaudiya Vaishnavismin particular extended the termvedato include theSanskrit Epicsand Vaishnavite devotional texts such as thePancharatra.
ThePuranasis 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 majorHindudeities such as Vishnu, Shiva and Devi.There are 18Maha Puranas(Great Puranas) and 18Upa Puranas(Minor Puranas), with over 400,000 verses.
The Puranas have been influential in theHinduculture.They are consideredVaidika(congruent with Vedic literature).TheBhagavata Puranahas been among the most celebrated and popular text in the Puranic genre, and is ofnon-dualistictenor.The Puranic literature wove with theBhakti movementin India, and bothDvaitaandAdvaitascholars have commented on the underlying Vedanta themes in theMaha Puranas.
Vedas finds its earliest literary mention in the Sangam literature dated to the 5th century BCE. The Vedas were read by almost every caste in ancientTamil Nadu. An Indianhistorian,archaeologistandepigraphistnamedRamachandran Nagaswamymentions that Tamil Nadu was a land of Vedas and a place where everyone knew the Vedas.The Vedas are also considered as a text filled with deep meaning which can be understood only by scholars.ThePurananurumentions that the ancestors of Velir kings where born from theSacred fireof a Northern sageand thePaṭṭiṉappālaimentions that the four Vedas were chanted by the priests of Ancient Tamilakam,this shows chanting of Vedas and growing sacred fires are part of the Tamil culture.
Vedas are calledMaṛaiorVaymoliin parts of South India. Marai literally means "hidden, a secret, mystery".Perumpāṇāṟṟuppaṭaimentions ayupapost (a form of Vedic altar) in theBrahminvillage.Vedas are recited by these Brahmins, and even their parrots are mentioned in the poem as those who sing the Vedic hymns. People in these Vedic villages did not eat meat, nor raise fowls. They ate rice, salad leaves boiled in ghee, pickles and vegetables.Apart from the Sanskrit Vedas there are other texts likeNaalayira Divya PrabandhamandTevaramcalled as Tamil Veda and Dravida Veda.
The variousHindu sectsandIndian philosophieshave taken differing positions on the authority of the Vedas. Schools of Indian philosophy which acknowledge the authority of the Vedas are classified as "orthodox" (āstika).Otherśramaṇatraditions, such asCharvaka,Ajivika,BuddhismandJainism, which do not regard the Vedas as authorities, are referred to as "heterodox" or "non-orthodox" (nāstika) schools.
Certain traditions which are often seen as being part of Hinduism also rejected the Vedas. For example, authors of the tantricVaishnava Sahajiyatradition, like Siddha Mukundadeva, rejected the Vedas' authority.Likewise, some tantric Shaiva Agamas reject the Vedas. TheAnandabhairava-tantrafor example, states that "the wise man should not elect as his authority the word of the Vedas, which is full of impurity, produces but scanty and transitory fruits and is limited."
Though many religious Hindus implicitly acknowledge the authority of the Vedas, this acknowledgment is often "no more than a declaration that someone considers himself [or herself] a Hindu",and "most Indians today pay lip service to the Veda and have no regard for the contents of the text."Some Hindus challenge the authority of the Vedas, thereby implicitly acknowledging its importance to the history of Hinduism, states Lipner.
While Hindu reform movement such asArya SamajandBrahmo Samajaccept the authority of Vedas,Hindu modernistslikeDebendranath TagoreandKeshub Chandra Sen;and social reformers likeB. R. Ambedkarreject its authority.
The study of Sanskrit in the West began in the 17th century. In the early 19th century,Arthur Schopenhauerdrew attention to Vedic texts, specifically the Upanishads. The importance of Vedic Sanskrit forIndo-European studieswas also recognized in the early 19th century. English translations of the Samhitas were published in the later 19th century, in theSacred Books of the Eastseries edited byMüllerbetween 1879 and 1910.Ralph T. H. Griffithalso presented English translations of the four Samhitas, published 1889 to 1899.
Rigveda manuscripts were selected for inscription inUNESCO'sMemory of the WorldRegisterin 2007.