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Vedas
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 9/2/20
-- Language and Testimony in Classical Indian Philosophy, by Madhav Deshpande
Vedas
Four Vedas
Information
Religion: Hinduism
Language: Vedic Sanskrit
Period: c. 1500-1200 BCE (Rig Veda),[1][note 1]; c. 1200-900 BCE (Yajur Veda, Sama Veda, Atharva Veda)[1][2]
Verses: 20,379 mantras[3]
The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the Atharvaveda.
The Vedas (/ˈveɪdəz, ˈviː-/;[4] Sanskrit: वेदः vedaḥ, "knowledge") are 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.[5][6]
There are four Vedas: the Rigveda, the Yajurveda, the Samaveda and the Atharvaveda.[7][8] 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).[7][9][10] Some scholars add a fifth category – the Upasanas (worship).[11][12] The texts of the Upanishads discuss ideas akin to the heterodox sramana-traditions.[13]
Vedas are śruti ("what is heard"),[14] 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"[15] and "impersonal, authorless,"[16][17][18] revelations of sacred sounds and texts heard by ancient sages after intense meditation.[19][20]
The Vedas have been orally transmitted since the 2nd millennium BCE with the help of elaborate mnemonic techniques.[21][22][23] 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.[24] By reciting them the cosmos is regenerated, "by enlivening and nourishing the forms of creation at their base."[24]
The various Indian philosophies and Hindu denominations have taken differing positions on the Vedas; schools of Indian philosophy which acknowledge the primal authority of the Vedas are classified as "orthodox" (āstika).[note 2] 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.[13][25]
Etymology and usage
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."[26]
The noun is from Proto-Indo-European *u̯eidos, cognate to Greek (ϝ)εἶδος "aspect", "form" . This is not to be confused with the homonymous 1st and 3rd person singular perfect tense véda, cognate to Greek (ϝ)οἶδα (w)oida "I know". Root cognates are Greek ἰδέα, English wit, etc., Latin videō "I see", German wissen "to know" etc.[27]
The Sanskrit term veda as a common noun means "knowledge".[28] The term in some contexts, such as hymn 10.93.11 of the Rigveda, means "obtaining or finding wealth, property",[29] while in some others it means "a bunch of grass together" as in a broom or for ritual fire.[30]
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 isn't Sanskrit Vedas.[31][32] 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).[33]
Vedic texts
Rigveda manuscript in Devanagari
Vedic Sanskrit corpus
The term "Vedic texts" is used in two distinct meanings:
1. Texts composed in Vedic Sanskrit during the Vedic period (Iron Age India)
2. Any text considered as "connected to the Vedas" or a "corollary of the Vedas"[34]
The corpus of Vedic Sanskrit texts includes:
• The Samhitas (Sanskrit saṃhitā, "collection"), are collections of metric texts ("mantras"). There are four "Vedic" Samhitas: the Rig-Veda, Yajur-Veda, Sama-Veda and Atharva-Veda, most of which are available in several recensions (śākhā). In some contexts, the term Veda is used to refer only to these Samhitas, the collection of mantras. This is the oldest layer of Vedic texts, which were composed between circa 1500-1200 BCE (Rig Veda book 2-9),[note 1] and 1200-900 BCE for the other Samhitas. The Samhitas contain invocations to deities like Indra and Agni, "to secure their benediction for success in battles or for welfare of the cln."[35] The complete corpus of Vedic mantras as collected in Bloomfield's Vedic Concordance (1907) consists of some 89,000 padas (metrical feet), of which 72,000 occur in the four Samhitas.[36]
• The Brahmanas are prose texts that comment and explain the solemn rituals as well as expound on their meaning and many connected themes. Each of the Brahmanas is associated with one of the Samhitas or its recensions.[37][38] The oldest dated to about 900 BCE, while the youngest Brahmanas (such as the Shatapatha Brahmana), were complete by about 700 BCE.[39][40] The Brahmanas may either form separate texts or can be partly integrated into the text of the Samhitas. They may also include the Aranyakas and Upanishads.
• The Aranyakas, "wilderness texts" or "forest treaties", were composed by people who meditated in the woods as recluses and are the third part of the Vedas. The texts contain discussions and interpretations of ceremonies, from ritualistic to symbolic meta-ritualistic points of view.[41] It is frequently read in secondary literature.
• Older Mukhya Upanishads (Bṛhadāraṇyaka, Chandogya, Kaṭha, Kena, Aitareya, and others),[42][1] composed between 800 BCE and the end of the Vedic period.[43] The Upanishads are largely philosophical works, some in dialogue form. They are the foundation of Hindu philosophical thought and its diverse traditions.[44][45] Of the Vedic corpus, they alone are widely known, and the central ideas of the Upanishads are still influential in Hinduism.[44][46]
• The texts considered "Vedic" in the sense of "corollaries of the Vedas" are less clearly defined, and may include numerous post-Vedic texts such as the later Upanishads and the Sutra literature, such as Shrauta Sutras and Gryha Sutras, which are smriti texts. Together, the Vedas and these Sutras form part of the Vedic Sanskrit corpus.[1][note 3][note 4]
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.[47] 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 evolution of ideas, such as from actual sacrifice to symbolic sacrifice, and of spirituality in the Upanishads. This has inspired later Hindu scholars such as Adi Shankara to classify each Veda into karma-kanda (कर्म खण्ड, action/sacrificial ritual-related sections, the Samhitas and Brahmanas); and jnana-kanda (ज्ञान खण्ड, knowledge/spirituality-related sections, mainly the Upanishads').[48][49][50][51][52][note 5]
Śruti and smriti
Vedas are śruti "what is heard"),[53] distinguishing them from other religious texts, which are called smṛti ("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:
Authorship
Hindus consider the Vedas to be apauruṣeya, which means "not of a man, superhuman"[15] and "impersonal, authorless."[16][17][18] The Vedas, for orthodox Indian theologians, are considered revelations seen by ancient sages after intense meditation, and texts that have been more carefully preserved since ancient times.[19][20] In the Hindu Epic Mahabharata, the creation of Vedas is credited to Brahma.[54] The Vedic hymns themselves assert that they were skillfully created by Rishis (sages), after inspired creativity, just as a carpenter builds a chariot.[20][note 6]
The oldest part of the Rig Veda Samhita was orally composed in north-western India (Punjab) between c. 1500 and 1200 BC,[note 1] while book 10 of the Rig Veda, and the other Samhitas were composed between 1200-900 BCE more eastward, between the Yamuna and the Ganges, the heartland of Aryavarta and the Kuru Kingdom (c. 1200 – c. 900 BCE).[56][2][57][58][59] The "circum-Vedic" texts, as well as the redaction of the Samhitas, date to c. 1000–500 BCE.
According to tradition, Vyasa is the compiler of the Vedas, who arranged the four kinds of mantras into four Samhitas (Collections).[60][61]
Chronology, transmission and interpretation
See also: Vedic period
Chronology
The Vedas are among the oldest sacred texts.[62][63] 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,[2][56][64] although a wider approximation of c. 1700–1100 BC has also been given.[65][66][note 1] The other three Samhitas are considered to date from the time of the Kuru Kingdom, approximately c. 1200–900 BCE.[1] 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.[note 7] 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). Michael Witzel gives a time span of c. 1500 to c. 500–400 BCE. Witzel makes special reference to the Near Eastern Mitanni material of the 14th century BCE, the only epigraphic record of Indo-Aryan contemporary to the Rigvedic period. He gives 150 BCE (Patañjali) as a terminus ante quem for all Vedic Sanskrit literature, and 1200 BCE (the early Iron Age) as terminus post quem for the Atharvaveda.[67]
Transmission
The Vedas were orally transmitted since their composition in the Vedic period for several millennia.[68][21][69] The authoritative transmission[70] of the Vedas is by an oral tradition in a sampradaya from father to son or from teacher (guru) to student (shishya),[69][71][22][72][21] believed to be initiated by the Vedic rishis who heard the primordial sounds.[73] 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.[71][note 8] 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."[74]
The emphasis in this transmission[note 9] is on the "proper articulation and pronunciation of the Vedic sounds," as prescribed in the Shiksha,[76] the Vedanga (Vedic study) of sound as uttered in a Vedic recitation,[77][78] mastering the texts "literally forward and backward in fully acoustic fashion."[79] Houben and Rath note that the Vedic textual tradition cannot simply be characterized as oral, "since it also depends significantly on a memory culture."[80] The Vedas were preserved with precision with the help of elaborate mnemonic techniques,[21][22][23] such as memorizing the texts in eleven different modes of recitation (pathas),[70] using the alphabet as a mnemotechnical device,[81][82][note 10] "matching physical movements (such as nodding the head)[disputed – discuss] with particular sounds and chanting in a group"[83] and visualizing sounds by using mudras (hand signs).[84] 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.[85] 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.[82] According to Staal, criticising the Goody-Watt hypothesis "according to which literacy is more reliable than orality,"[86] 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.[note 11]
While according to Mookerji understanding the meaning (vedarthajnana[89] or artha-bodha[90][note 12]) of the words of the Vedas was part of the Vedic learning,[90] Holdrege and other Indologists[91] have noted that in the transmission of the Samhitas the emphasis is on the phonology of the sounds (śabda) and not on the meaning (artha) of the mantras.[91][92][71] Already at the end of the Vedic period their original meaning had become obscure for "ordinary people,"[92][note 13] and niruktas, etymological compendia, were developed to preserve and clarify the original meaning of many Sanskrit words.[92][94] 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."[91][note 14] The words of the mantras are "themselves sacred,"[95] and "do not constitute linguistic utterances."[24] Instead, as Klostermaier notes, in their application in Vedic rituals they become magical sounds, "means to an end."[note 15] 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."[96] 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.[24] 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 the mantras will be efficacious, irrespective of whether their discursive meaning is understood by human beings."[24][note 16] 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."[97]
A literary tradition is traceable in post-Vedic times, after the rise of Buddhism in the Maurya period,[note 17] perhaps earliest in the Kanva recension of the Yajurveda about the 1st century BCE; however oral tradition of transmission remained active.[68] Jack Goody has argued for an earlier literary tradition, concluding that the Vedas bear hallmarks of a literate culture along with oral transmission,[99][100] but Goody's views have been strongly criticised by Falk, Lopez Jr,. and Staal, though they have also found some support.[101][102]
The Vedas were written down only after 500 BCE,[103][68][21] but only the orally transmitted texts are regarded as authoritative, given the emphasis on the exact pronunciation of the sounds.[70] Witzel suggests that attempts to write down the Vedic texts towards the end of 1st millennium BCE were unsuccessful, resulting in smriti rules explicitly forbidding the writing down of the Vedas.[68] 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.[104] The Sampurnanand Sanskrit University has a Rigveda manuscript from the 14th century;[105] however, there are a number of older Veda manuscripts in Nepal that are dated from the 11th century onwards.[106]
Vedic learning
Main article: Svādhyāya
The Vedas, Vedic rituals and its ancillary sciences called the Vedangas, were part of the curriculum at ancient universities such as at Taxila, Nalanda and Vikramashila.[107][108][109][110] According to Deshpande, "the tradition of the Sanskrit grammarians also contributed significantly to the preservation and interpretation of Vedic texts."[111] Yāska (4th c. BCE[112]) wrote the Nirukta, which reflects the concerns about the loss of meaning of the mantras,[note 13] 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[note 18] is a rare[113] commentary on the Vedas, which is also referred to by contemporary scholars.[114]
Yaska and Sayana, reflecting an ancient understanding, state that the Veda can be interpreted in three ways, giving "the truth about gods, dharma and parabrahman."[115][116][note 19] The pūrva-kāņda (or karma-kanda), the part of the Veda dealing with ritual, gives knowledge of dharma, "which brings us satisfaction." The uttara-kanda (or jnana-kanda),[note 20] the part of the Veda dealing with the knowledge of the absolute, gives knowledge of Parabrahma, "which fulfills all of our desires."[117] According to Holdrege, for the exponents of karma-kandha the Veda is to be "inscribed in the minds and hearts of men" by memorization and recitation, while for the exponents of the jnana-kanda and meditation the Vedas express a transcendental reality which can be approached with mystical means.[118]
Holdrege notes that in Vedic learning "priority has been given to recitation over interpretation" of the Samhitas.[113] Galewicz states that Sayana, a Mimamsa scholar,[119][120][121] "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."[122] According to Galewicz, Sayana saw the purpose (artha) of the Veda as the "artha of carrying out sacrifice," giving precedence to the Yajurveda.[119] For Sayana, whether the mantras had meaning depended on the context of their practical usage.[122] 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."[123] Most Śrauta rituals are not performed in the modern era, and those that are, are rare.[124]
Mookerji notes that the Rigveda, and Sayana's commentary, contain passages criticizing as fruitless mere recitation of the Ŗik (words) without understanding their inner meaning or essence, the knowledge of dharma and Parabrahman.[125] Mookerji concludes that in the Rigvedic education of the mantras "the contemplation and comprehension of their meaning was considered as more important and vital to education than their mere mechanical repetition and correct pronunciation."[126] Mookerji refers to Sayana as stating that "the mastery of texts, akshara-praptī, is followed by artha-bodha, perception of their meaning."[90][note 12] Mookerji explains that the Vedic knowledge was first perceived by the rishis and munis. 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.[128] According to Mookerji, while these truths are imparted to the student by the memorized texts,[129] "the realization of Truth" and the knowledge of paramatman as revealed to the rishis is the real aim of Vedic learning, and not the mere recitation of texts.[130] The supreme knowledge of the Absolute, para Brahman-jnana, the knowledge of rta and satya, can be obtained by taking vows of silence and obedience[131] sense-restraint, dhyana, the practice of tapas (austerities),[116] and discussing the Vedanta.[131][note 21]
Vedic schools or recensions
Main article: Shakha
The four Vedas were transmitted in various śākhās (branches, schools).[133][134] Each school likely represented an ancient community of a particular area, or kingdom.[134] Each school followed its own canon. Multiple recensions are known for each of the Vedas.[133] 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 called Videha, in modern north Bihar, south of Nepal.[135] The Vedic canon in its entirety consists of texts from all the various Vedic schools taken together.[134]
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.[136][137]
The Vedas each have an Index[???] or Anukramani, the principal work of this kind being the general Index or Sarvānukramaṇī.[138][139]
Prodigious energy was expended by ancient Indian culture in ensuring that these texts were transmitted from generation to generation with inordinate fidelity.[140] For example, memorization of the sacred Vedas included up to eleven forms of recitation of the same text. The texts were subsequently "proof-read" by comparing the different recited versions. Forms of recitation included the jaṭā-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.[141] That these methods have been effective, is attested to by the preservation of the most ancient Indian religious text, the Rigveda, as redacted into a single text during the Brahmana period [700 BCE], without any variant readings within that school.[141]
The Vedas were likely written down for the first time around 500 BCE.[103] However, all printed editions of the Vedas that survive in the modern times are likely the version existing in about the 16th century AD.[142] [Michael Witzel, "Vedas and Upaniṣads", in: Flood 2003, p. 69, Quote: "... almost all printed editions depend on the late manuscripts that are hardly older than 500 years"]
Four Vedas
The canonical division of the Vedas is fourfold (turīya) viz.,[143]
1. Rigveda (RV)
2. Yajurveda (YV, with the main division TS vs. VS)
3. Samaveda (SV)
4. Atharvaveda (AV)
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).[144][145] The Rig Veda most likely was composed between c. 1500 and 1200.[note 1] 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.[134]
Each Veda has been subclassified into four major text types – the Samhitas (mantras and benedictions), the Aranyakas (text on rituals, ceremonies such as newborn baby's rites of passage, coming of age, marriages, retirement and cremation, sacrifices and symbolic sacrifices), the Brahmanas (commentaries on rituals, ceremonies and sacrifices), and the Upanishads (text discussing meditation, philosophy and spiritual knowledge).[7][9][10] The Upasanas (short ritual worship-related sections) are considered by some scholars[11][12] 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 and the European area, and some greater details are found in the Vedic era texts such as the Grhya Sūtras.[146]
Only one version of the Rigveda is known to have survived into the modern era.[135] 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.[147]
The texts of the Upanishads discuss ideas akin to the heterodox sramana-traditions.[13]
Rigveda
Main article: Rigveda
The Rigveda Samhita is the oldest extant Indic text.[149] It is a collection of 1,028 Vedic Sanskrit hymns and 10,600 verses in all, organized into ten books (Sanskrit: mandalas).[150] The hymns are dedicated to Rigvedic deities.[151]
The books were composed by poets from different priestly groups over a period of several centuries between c. 1500 and 1200 BC,[note 1] (the early Vedic period) in the Punjab (Sapta Sindhu) region of the northwest Indian subcontinent. According to Michael Witzel, the initial codification of the Rigveda took place at the end of the Rigvedic period at ca. 1200 BCE, in the early Kuru kingdom.[152]
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.[134]
The rituals became increasingly complex over time, and the king's association with them strengthened both the position of the Brahmans and the kings.[153] The Rajasuya rituals, performed with the coronation of a king, "set in motion [...] cyclical regenerations of the universe."[154] In terms of substance, the nature of hymns shift from praise of deities in early books to Nasadiya Sukta with questions such as, "what is the origin of the universe?, do even gods know the answer?",[148] the virtue of Dāna (charity) in society,[155] and other metaphysical issues in its hymns.[note 22]
There are similarities between the mythology, rituals and linguistics in Rigveda and those found in ancient central Asia, Iranian and Hindukush (Afghanistan) regions.[156]
Samaveda
Main article: Samaveda
The Samaveda Samhita[157] consists of 1549 stanzas, taken almost entirely (except for 75 mantras) from the Rigveda.[42][158] 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.[158]
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).[158] A melody in the song books corresponds to a verse in the arcika 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 a descending order. The songs in the later sections of the Samaveda have the least deviation from the hymns derived from the Rigveda.[158]
In the Samaveda, some of the Rigvedic verses are repeated.[159] Including repetitions, there are a total of 1875 verses numbered in the Samaveda recension translated by Griffith.[160] Two major recensions have survived, the Kauthuma/Ranayaniya and the Jaiminiya. Its purpose was liturgical, and they were the repertoire of the udgātṛ or "singer" priests.[161]
Yajurveda
Main article: Yajurveda
The Yajurveda Samhita consists of prose mantras.[162] 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.[162] 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.[163] Witzel dates the Yajurveda hymns to the early Indian Iron Age, after c. 1200 and before 800 BCE.[164] corresponding to the early Kuru Kingdom.[165]
A page from the Taittiriya Samhita, a layer of text within the Yajurveda
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.[166] Unlike the Samaveda which is almost entirely based on Rigveda mantras and structured as songs, the Yajurveda samhitas are in prose and linguistically, they are different from earlier Vedic texts.[167] The Yajur Veda has been the primary source of information about sacrifices during Vedic times and associated rituals.[168]
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.[169] The White Yajurveda separates the Samhita from its Brahmana (the Shatapatha 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).[170][171] 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 of Hindu philosophy.[172][173]
Atharvaveda
Main article: Atharvaveda
The Artharvaveda 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.[174] Most of the verses are metrical, but some sections are in prose.[174] Two different versions of the text – the Paippalāda and the Śaunakīya – have survived into the modern times.[174][175] The Atharvaveda was not considered as a Veda in the Vedic era, and was accepted as a Veda in late 1st millennium BCE.[176][177] It was compiled last,[178] probably around 900 BCE, although some of its material may go back to the time of the Rigveda,[179] or earlier.[174]
The Atharvaveda is sometimes called the "Veda of magical formulas",[180] an epithet declared to be incorrect by other scholars.[181] 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.[182][183] 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".[184] Many books of the Atharvaveda Samhita are dedicated to rituals without magic, such as to philosophical speculations and to theosophy.[181]
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 – marriage and cremation. The Atharva Veda also dedicates significant portion of the text asking the meaning of a ritual.[185]
Embedded Vedic texts
Manuscripts of the Vedas are in the Sanskrit language, but in many regional scripts in addition to the Devanagari. Top: Grantha script (Tamil Nadu), Below: Malayalam script (Kerala).
Further information: Brahmanas
The Brahmanas are commentaries, explanation of proper methods and meaning of Vedic Samhita rituals in the four Vedas.[37] They also incorporate myths, legends and in some cases philosophy.[37][38] Each regional Vedic shakha (school) has its own operating manual-like Brahmana text, most of which have been lost.[186] A total of 19 Brahmana texts have survived into modern times: two associated with the Rigveda, six with the Yajurveda, ten with the Samaveda and one with the Atharvaveda. The oldest dated to about 900 BCE, while the youngest Brahmanas (such as the Shatapatha Brahmana), were complete by about 700 BCE.[39][40] According to Jan Gonda, the final codification of the Brahmanas took place in pre-Buddhist times (ca. 600 BCE).[187]
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 ritual suktas (hymns) for the ceremony of marriage and rituals at the birth of a child.[188][189] The first hymn is a recitation that accompanies offering a Yajna oblation to Agni (fire) on the occasion of a marriage, and the hymn prays for prosperity of the couple getting married.[188][190] The second hymn wishes for their long life, kind relatives, and a numerous progeny.[188] 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 and artha.[188] However, these verses are incomplete expositions, and their complete context emerges only with the Samhita layer of text.[191]
Aranyakas and Upanishads
Further information: Vedanta, Upanishads, and Aranyakas
The Aranyakas layer of the Vedas include rituals, discussion of symbolic meta-rituals, as well as philosophical speculations.[12][41]
Aranyakas, however, neither are homogeneous in content nor in structure.[41] 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 word Aranyakas. 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 in Vanaprastha (retired, forest-dwelling) stage of their life, according to the historic age-based Ashrama system of human life.[192]
The Upanishads reflect the last composed layer of texts in the Vedas. They are commonly referred to as Vedānta, variously interpreted to mean either the "last chapters, parts of the Vedas" or "the object, the highest purpose of the Veda".[193] The central concern of the Upanishads are the connections "between parts of the human organism and cosmic realities."[194] 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."[195] The concepts of Brahman, the Ultimate Reality from which everything arises, and Ātman, the essence of the individual, are central ideas in the Upanishads,[196][197] 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.[195][197] The Upanishads are the foundation of Hindu philosophical thought and its diverse traditions,[44][198] and of the Vedic corpus, they alone are widely known, and the central ideas of the Upanishads have influenced the diverse traditions of Hinduism.[44][199]
Aranyakas are sometimes identified as karma-kanda (ritualistic section), while the Upanishads are identified as jnana-kanda (spirituality section).[49][50][51][note 5] In an alternate classification, the early part of Vedas are called Samhitas and the commentary are called the Brahmanas which together are identified as the ceremonial karma-kanda, while Aranyakas and Upanishads are referred to as the jnana-kanda.[52]
Post-Vedic literature
Vedanga
Main article: 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 to the people of that time.[200] The Vedangas were sciences that focused on helping understand and interpret the Vedas that had been composed many centuries earlier.[200]
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).[201][202][203]
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 of Hindu philosophy.[204][205][206] The Kalpa Vedanga studies, for example, gave rise to the Dharma-sutras, which later expanded into Dharma-shastras.[200][207]
Vedas
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 9/2/20
I have a larger vision or fantasy of original Indian Buddhism as an ocean with many icebergs, each representing the local textual traditions...of the different parts of the Indian world. Those icebergs are mostly gone...We have the Pali canon...the partial Sanskrit canon...They had a common core but they had many different texts in and around that basic commonality... and... there's no hope of finding them mainly for a simple physical reason, the climate of...India proper is such that organic materials...never last for more than a few hundred years. There are really no really old manuscripts in India proper. You only get the ancient manuscripts from the borderlands of India, in this case Gandhara which has a more moderate climate.
-- One Buddha, 15 Buddhas, 1,000 Buddhas, by Richard Salomon
The climate of Theravada countries is not conducive to the survival of manuscripts. Apart from brief quotations in inscriptions and a two-page fragment from the eighth or ninth century found in Nepal, the oldest known manuscripts are from late in the fifteenth century, and there is not very much from before the eighteenth.
-- Tripitaka, by New world Encyclopedia
-- Language and Testimony in Classical Indian Philosophy, by Madhav Deshpande
-- The Texts of the White Yajurveda, translated With a Popular Commentary by Ralph T.H. Griffith
-- The Veda of the Black Yajus School Entitled Taittiriya Sanhita, Translated from the Original Sanskrit Prose and Verse by Arthur Berriedale Keith, D.C.
-- Hymns of the Samaveda: Translated with a Popular Commentary, Ralph T.H. Griffith
-- The Hymns of the Atharvaveda, translated by Ralph T.H. Griffith
-- The Rig Veda, translated by Ralph T. H. Griffith
-- Ezourvedam: A French Veda of the Eighteenth Century, Edited with an Introduction by Ludo Rocher
-- Anquetil-Duperron's Search for the True Vedas, Excerpt from The Birth of Orientalism, by Urs App
-- Ezour-Védam: Europe’s illusory first glimpse of the Veda, by Dermot Killingley
-- The Absent Vedas, by Will Sweetman
-- The Arctic Home in the Vedas, by Wikipedia
-- Vedanta, by Wikipedia
-- Aryans, Jews, Brahmins: Theorizing Authority through Myths of Identity, by Dorothy M. Figueira
-- Claiming India: French Scholars and the Preoccupation With India During the Nineteenth Century, by Jyoti Mohan
Vedas
Four Vedas
Information
Religion: Hinduism
Language: Vedic Sanskrit
Period: c. 1500-1200 BCE (Rig Veda),[1][note 1]; c. 1200-900 BCE (Yajur Veda, Sama Veda, Atharva Veda)[1][2]
Verses: 20,379 mantras[3]
The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the Atharvaveda.
The Vedas (/ˈveɪdəz, ˈviː-/;[4] Sanskrit: वेदः vedaḥ, "knowledge") are 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.[5][6]
There are four Vedas: the Rigveda, the Yajurveda, the Samaveda and the Atharvaveda.[7][8] 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).[7][9][10] Some scholars add a fifth category – the Upasanas (worship).[11][12] The texts of the Upanishads discuss ideas akin to the heterodox sramana-traditions.[13]
Vedas are śruti ("what is heard"),[14] 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"[15] and "impersonal, authorless,"[16][17][18] revelations of sacred sounds and texts heard by ancient sages after intense meditation.[19][20]
The Vedas have been orally transmitted since the 2nd millennium BCE with the help of elaborate mnemonic techniques.[21][22][23] 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.[24] By reciting them the cosmos is regenerated, "by enlivening and nourishing the forms of creation at their base."[24]
The various Indian philosophies and Hindu denominations have taken differing positions on the Vedas; schools of Indian philosophy which acknowledge the primal authority of the Vedas are classified as "orthodox" (āstika).[note 2] 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.[13][25]
Etymology and usage
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."[26]
The noun is from Proto-Indo-European *u̯eidos, cognate to Greek (ϝ)εἶδος "aspect", "form" . This is not to be confused with the homonymous 1st and 3rd person singular perfect tense véda, cognate to Greek (ϝ)οἶδα (w)oida "I know". Root cognates are Greek ἰδέα, English wit, etc., Latin videō "I see", German wissen "to know" etc.[27]
The Sanskrit term veda as a common noun means "knowledge".[28] The term in some contexts, such as hymn 10.93.11 of the Rigveda, means "obtaining or finding wealth, property",[29] while in some others it means "a bunch of grass together" as in a broom or for ritual fire.[30]
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 isn't Sanskrit Vedas.[31][32] 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).[33]
Vedic texts
Rigveda manuscript in Devanagari
Vedic Sanskrit corpus
The term "Vedic texts" is used in two distinct meanings:
1. Texts composed in Vedic Sanskrit during the Vedic period (Iron Age India)
2. Any text considered as "connected to the Vedas" or a "corollary of the Vedas"[34]
The corpus of Vedic Sanskrit texts includes:
• The Samhitas (Sanskrit saṃhitā, "collection"), are collections of metric texts ("mantras"). There are four "Vedic" Samhitas: the Rig-Veda, Yajur-Veda, Sama-Veda and Atharva-Veda, most of which are available in several recensions (śākhā). In some contexts, the term Veda is used to refer only to these Samhitas, the collection of mantras. This is the oldest layer of Vedic texts, which were composed between circa 1500-1200 BCE (Rig Veda book 2-9),[note 1] and 1200-900 BCE for the other Samhitas. The Samhitas contain invocations to deities like Indra and Agni, "to secure their benediction for success in battles or for welfare of the cln."[35] The complete corpus of Vedic mantras as collected in Bloomfield's Vedic Concordance (1907) consists of some 89,000 padas (metrical feet), of which 72,000 occur in the four Samhitas.[36]
• The Brahmanas are prose texts that comment and explain the solemn rituals as well as expound on their meaning and many connected themes. Each of the Brahmanas is associated with one of the Samhitas or its recensions.[37][38] The oldest dated to about 900 BCE, while the youngest Brahmanas (such as the Shatapatha Brahmana), were complete by about 700 BCE.[39][40] The Brahmanas may either form separate texts or can be partly integrated into the text of the Samhitas. They may also include the Aranyakas and Upanishads.
• The Aranyakas, "wilderness texts" or "forest treaties", were composed by people who meditated in the woods as recluses and are the third part of the Vedas. The texts contain discussions and interpretations of ceremonies, from ritualistic to symbolic meta-ritualistic points of view.[41] It is frequently read in secondary literature.
• Older Mukhya Upanishads (Bṛhadāraṇyaka, Chandogya, Kaṭha, Kena, Aitareya, and others),[42][1] composed between 800 BCE and the end of the Vedic period.[43] The Upanishads are largely philosophical works, some in dialogue form. They are the foundation of Hindu philosophical thought and its diverse traditions.[44][45] Of the Vedic corpus, they alone are widely known, and the central ideas of the Upanishads are still influential in Hinduism.[44][46]
• The texts considered "Vedic" in the sense of "corollaries of the Vedas" are less clearly defined, and may include numerous post-Vedic texts such as the later Upanishads and the Sutra literature, such as Shrauta Sutras and Gryha Sutras, which are smriti texts. Together, the Vedas and these Sutras form part of the Vedic Sanskrit corpus.[1][note 3][note 4]
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.[47] 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 evolution of ideas, such as from actual sacrifice to symbolic sacrifice, and of spirituality in the Upanishads. This has inspired later Hindu scholars such as Adi Shankara to classify each Veda into karma-kanda (कर्म खण्ड, action/sacrificial ritual-related sections, the Samhitas and Brahmanas); and jnana-kanda (ज्ञान खण्ड, knowledge/spirituality-related sections, mainly the Upanishads').[48][49][50][51][52][note 5]
Śruti and smriti
Vedas are śruti "what is heard"),[53] distinguishing them from other religious texts, which are called smṛti ("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; Upanişads [...] are sometimes not to be distinguished from Āraṇyakas [...]; Brāhmaṇas contain older strata of language attributed to the Saṃhitās; there are various dialects and locally prominent traditions of the Vedic schools. Nevertheless, it is advisable to stick to the division adopted by Max Müller because it follows the Indian tradition, conveys the historical sequence fairly accurately, and underlies the current editions, translations, and monographs on Vedic literature."[42]
Authorship
Hindus consider the Vedas to be apauruṣeya, which means "not of a man, superhuman"[15] and "impersonal, authorless."[16][17][18] The Vedas, for orthodox Indian theologians, are considered revelations seen by ancient sages after intense meditation, and texts that have been more carefully preserved since ancient times.[19][20] In the Hindu Epic Mahabharata, the creation of Vedas is credited to Brahma.[54] The Vedic hymns themselves assert that they were skillfully created by Rishis (sages), after inspired creativity, just as a carpenter builds a chariot.[20][note 6]
The oldest part of the Rig Veda Samhita was orally composed in north-western India (Punjab) between c. 1500 and 1200 BC,[note 1] while book 10 of the Rig Veda, and the other Samhitas were composed between 1200-900 BCE more eastward, between the Yamuna and the Ganges, the heartland of Aryavarta and the Kuru Kingdom (c. 1200 – c. 900 BCE).[56][2][57][58][59] The "circum-Vedic" texts, as well as the redaction of the Samhitas, date to c. 1000–500 BCE.
According to tradition, Vyasa is the compiler of the Vedas, who arranged the four kinds of mantras into four Samhitas (Collections).[60][61]
Chronology, transmission and interpretation
See also: Vedic period
Chronology
The Vedas are among the oldest sacred texts.[62][63] 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,[2][56][64] although a wider approximation of c. 1700–1100 BC has also been given.[65][66][note 1] The other three Samhitas are considered to date from the time of the Kuru Kingdom, approximately c. 1200–900 BCE.[1] 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.[note 7] 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). Michael Witzel gives a time span of c. 1500 to c. 500–400 BCE. Witzel makes special reference to the Near Eastern Mitanni material of the 14th century BCE, the only epigraphic record of Indo-Aryan contemporary to the Rigvedic period. He gives 150 BCE (Patañjali) as a terminus ante quem for all Vedic Sanskrit literature, and 1200 BCE (the early Iron Age) as terminus post quem for the Atharvaveda.[67]
Transmission
The Vedas were orally transmitted since their composition in the Vedic period for several millennia.[68][21][69] The authoritative transmission[70] of the Vedas is by an oral tradition in a sampradaya from father to son or from teacher (guru) to student (shishya),[69][71][22][72][21] believed to be initiated by the Vedic rishis who heard the primordial sounds.[73] 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.[71][note 8] 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."[74]
The emphasis in this transmission[note 9] is on the "proper articulation and pronunciation of the Vedic sounds," as prescribed in the Shiksha,[76] the Vedanga (Vedic study) of sound as uttered in a Vedic recitation,[77][78] mastering the texts "literally forward and backward in fully acoustic fashion."[79] Houben and Rath note that the Vedic textual tradition cannot simply be characterized as oral, "since it also depends significantly on a memory culture."[80] The Vedas were preserved with precision with the help of elaborate mnemonic techniques,[21][22][23] such as memorizing the texts in eleven different modes of recitation (pathas),[70] using the alphabet as a mnemotechnical device,[81][82][note 10] "matching physical movements (such as nodding the head)[disputed – discuss] with particular sounds and chanting in a group"[83] and visualizing sounds by using mudras (hand signs).[84] 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.[85] 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.[82] According to Staal, criticising the Goody-Watt hypothesis "according to which literacy is more reliable than orality,"[86] 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.[note 11]
While according to Mookerji understanding the meaning (vedarthajnana[89] or artha-bodha[90][note 12]) of the words of the Vedas was part of the Vedic learning,[90] Holdrege and other Indologists[91] have noted that in the transmission of the Samhitas the emphasis is on the phonology of the sounds (śabda) and not on the meaning (artha) of the mantras.[91][92][71] Already at the end of the Vedic period their original meaning had become obscure for "ordinary people,"[92][note 13] and niruktas, etymological compendia, were developed to preserve and clarify the original meaning of many Sanskrit words.[92][94] 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."[91][note 14] The words of the mantras are "themselves sacred,"[95] and "do not constitute linguistic utterances."[24] Instead, as Klostermaier notes, in their application in Vedic rituals they become magical sounds, "means to an end."[note 15] 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."[96] 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.[24] 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 the mantras will be efficacious, irrespective of whether their discursive meaning is understood by human beings."[24][note 16] 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."[97]
A literary tradition is traceable in post-Vedic times, after the rise of Buddhism in the Maurya period,[note 17] perhaps earliest in the Kanva recension of the Yajurveda about the 1st century BCE; however oral tradition of transmission remained active.[68] Jack Goody has argued for an earlier literary tradition, concluding that the Vedas bear hallmarks of a literate culture along with oral transmission,[99][100] but Goody's views have been strongly criticised by Falk, Lopez Jr,. and Staal, though they have also found some support.[101][102]
The Vedas were written down only after 500 BCE,[103][68][21] but only the orally transmitted texts are regarded as authoritative, given the emphasis on the exact pronunciation of the sounds.[70] Witzel suggests that attempts to write down the Vedic texts towards the end of 1st millennium BCE were unsuccessful, resulting in smriti rules explicitly forbidding the writing down of the Vedas.[68] 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.[104] The Sampurnanand Sanskrit University has a Rigveda manuscript from the 14th century;[105] however, there are a number of older Veda manuscripts in Nepal that are dated from the 11th century onwards.[106]
Vedic learning
Main article: Svādhyāya
The Vedas, Vedic rituals and its ancillary sciences called the Vedangas, were part of the curriculum at ancient universities such as at Taxila, Nalanda and Vikramashila.[107][108][109][110] According to Deshpande, "the tradition of the Sanskrit grammarians also contributed significantly to the preservation and interpretation of Vedic texts."[111] Yāska (4th c. BCE[112]) wrote the Nirukta, which reflects the concerns about the loss of meaning of the mantras,[note 13] 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[note 18] is a rare[113] commentary on the Vedas, which is also referred to by contemporary scholars.[114]
Yaska and Sayana, reflecting an ancient understanding, state that the Veda can be interpreted in three ways, giving "the truth about gods, dharma and parabrahman."[115][116][note 19] The pūrva-kāņda (or karma-kanda), the part of the Veda dealing with ritual, gives knowledge of dharma, "which brings us satisfaction." The uttara-kanda (or jnana-kanda),[note 20] the part of the Veda dealing with the knowledge of the absolute, gives knowledge of Parabrahma, "which fulfills all of our desires."[117] According to Holdrege, for the exponents of karma-kandha the Veda is to be "inscribed in the minds and hearts of men" by memorization and recitation, while for the exponents of the jnana-kanda and meditation the Vedas express a transcendental reality which can be approached with mystical means.[118]
Holdrege notes that in Vedic learning "priority has been given to recitation over interpretation" of the Samhitas.[113] Galewicz states that Sayana, a Mimamsa scholar,[119][120][121] "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."[122] According to Galewicz, Sayana saw the purpose (artha) of the Veda as the "artha of carrying out sacrifice," giving precedence to the Yajurveda.[119] For Sayana, whether the mantras had meaning depended on the context of their practical usage.[122] 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."[123] Most Śrauta rituals are not performed in the modern era, and those that are, are rare.[124]
Mookerji notes that the Rigveda, and Sayana's commentary, contain passages criticizing as fruitless mere recitation of the Ŗik (words) without understanding their inner meaning or essence, the knowledge of dharma and Parabrahman.[125] Mookerji concludes that in the Rigvedic education of the mantras "the contemplation and comprehension of their meaning was considered as more important and vital to education than their mere mechanical repetition and correct pronunciation."[126] Mookerji refers to Sayana as stating that "the mastery of texts, akshara-praptī, is followed by artha-bodha, perception of their meaning."[90][note 12] Mookerji explains that the Vedic knowledge was first perceived by the rishis and munis. 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.[128] According to Mookerji, while these truths are imparted to the student by the memorized texts,[129] "the realization of Truth" and the knowledge of paramatman as revealed to the rishis is the real aim of Vedic learning, and not the mere recitation of texts.[130] The supreme knowledge of the Absolute, para Brahman-jnana, the knowledge of rta and satya, can be obtained by taking vows of silence and obedience[131] sense-restraint, dhyana, the practice of tapas (austerities),[116] and discussing the Vedanta.[131][note 21]
Vedic schools or recensions
Main article: Shakha
The four Vedas were transmitted in various śākhās (branches, schools).[133][134] Each school likely represented an ancient community of a particular area, or kingdom.[134] Each school followed its own canon. Multiple recensions are known for each of the Vedas.[133] 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 called Videha, in modern north Bihar, south of Nepal.[135] The Vedic canon in its entirety consists of texts from all the various Vedic schools taken together.[134]
The Kingdom of the Videhas and other kingdoms of the late Vedic period
Videha was an ancient Indo-Aryan tribe of north-eastern South Asia whose existence is attested [affirmed to be correct][???] during the Iron Age [900 BCE-700 Century BCE]. The population of Videha, the Vaidehas, were initially organised into a monarchy but later became a gaṇasaṅgha (an aristocratic oligarchic republic), presently referred to as the Videha Republic, which was part of the larger Vajjika League.
-- Videha, by Wikipedia
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.[136][137]
If we now compare the Purusha Sukta with the two hymns (162 and 163) of the first Mandala of the Rig-veda, it will, I think, be apparent that the first is not adapted to be used at a literal human sacrifice in the same manner as the last two are to he employed at the immolation of a horse. There are, no doubt, some mystical passages in the second of these two hymns, as in verse 3, where the horse is identified with Yama, Aditya, and Trita; and “in the last section of the Taittiriya Yajurveda the various parts of the horse’s body are described as divisions of time and portions of the universe: ‘morning is his head; the sun his eye; the air his breath; the moon his ear,’” etc. (Colebrooke’s Essays, i. 62).27 [Compare the commencement of the Brihaduranyaka Upanishad.] But the persons who officiate at the sacrifice, as referred to in these hymns, are ordinary priests of the ancient Indian ritual, — the hotri, adhvaryu, avayaj, etc. (i. 162, 5); and details are given of the actual slaughter of the animal (i. 162, 11). The Purusha Sukta, however does not contain the same indications of the literal immolation of a human victim. In it the sacrifice is not offered to the gods, but by the gods (verses 6, 7, 15, 16); no human priests are mentioned; the division of the victim (v. 11) must he regarded, like its slaughter (v. 7), as the work of the deities only. And the Purusha mentioned in the hymn could not well have been regarded as an ordinary man, as he is identified with the universe (v. 2), and he himself, or his immolation, is represented as the source of the creation (vv. 8, 10, 13, 14), and of the Vedas (v. 9).
As compared with by far the largest part of the hymns of the Rigveda, the Purusha Sukta has every character of modernness both in its diction and ideas. I have already observed that the hymns which we find in this collection are of very different periods. This, I believe, is not disputed.28 [See Dr. Haug's own remarks (quoted above, p. 4) on the period when the hymns were composed. ] The authors themselves, as we have seen, speak of newer and older hymns. So many as a thousand compositions of this description could scarcely have been produced within a very short space of time, and there is no reason to suppose that the literary activity of the ancient Hindus was confined to the period immediately preceding the collection of the hymns. But if we are to recognize any difference of age, what hymns can we more reasonably suppose to be the oldest than those which are at once archaic in language and style, and naive and simple in the character of their conceptions? and, on the other hand, what compositions can more properly be set down as the most recent than those which manifest an advance in speculative ideas, while their language approaches to the modern Sanskrit? These latter conditions seem to be fulfilled in the Purusha Sukta, as well as in hymns x. 71 and 72, x. 81 and 82, x. 121, and x. 129.
On this subject Mr. Colebrooke states his opinion as follows (Miscellaneous Essays i. 309, note): “That remarkable hymn (the Purusha Sukta) is in language, metre, and style, very different from the rest of the prayers with which it is associated. It has a decidedly more modern tone; and must have been composed after the Sanscrit language had been refined, and its grammar and rhythm perfected. The internal evidence which it furnishes serves to demonstrate the important fact that the compilation of the Vedas, in their present arrangement, took place after the Sanscrit tongue had advanced from the rustic and irregular dialect in which the multitude of hymns and prayers of the Veda was composed, to the polished and sonorous language in which the mythological poems, sacred and prophane (puranas and cavyas), have been written.”
Professor Max Muller expresses himself in a similar sense (Anc. Sansk. Lit., p. 570 f.): “There can be little doubt, for instance, that the 90th hymn of the 10th book .... is modern both in its character and in its diction. It is full of allusions to the sacrificial ceremonials, it uses technical philosophical terms, it mentions the three seasons in the order of Vasanta, spring; Grishma, summer; and Sarad, autumn; it contains the only passage in the Rig-veda where the four castes are enumerated. The evidence of language for the modern date of this composition is equally strong. Grishma, for instance, the name for the hot season, does not occur in any other hymn of the Rig-veda; and Vasanta also, the name of spring, does not belong to the earliest vocabulary of the Vedic poets. It occurs but once more in the Rig- veda (x. 161. 4), in a passage where the three seasons are mentioned in the order of Sarad, autumn; Hemanta, winter; and Vasanta, spring.”
Professor Weber (Indische Studien, ix. 3) concurs in this view. He observes: “That the Purusha Sukta, considered as a hymn of the Rig-veda, is among the latest portions of that collection, is clearly perceptible from its contents. The fact that the Sama-sanhita has not adopted any verse from it, is not without importance (compare what I have remarked in my Academical Prelections, p. 63). The Naigeya school, indeed, appears (although it is not quite certain),29 [See on this subject Weber’s foot-note, p. 3.] to have extracted the first five verses in the seventh prapathaka of the first Archika, which is peculiar to it.”
We shall see in the following chapter that the word brahmana occurs but rarely in the Rig-veda Sanhita, while brahman, “a priest,” from which the former is derived, is of constant occurrence. From this circumstance also, it may be reasonably concluded that the hymns in which the derivative occurs are among the latest. The same remark may be made of the word vaisya, as compared with vis.30 [Professor Aufrecht informs me that the word vaisya does not occur in any other hymn of the Rig-veda but the Purusha Sukta; only once in the Atharva-veda, v. 17, 9; and not at all in the Vaj. Sanh., except in the Purusha Sukta. The same scholar remarks, as another proof of the comparatively late date of the Purusha Sukta, that it is the only hymn which refers to the four different kinds of Vedic compositions rich, saman, chhandas, and yajush.]
-- Original Sanskrit Texts on the Origin and History of The People of India, Their Religion and Institutions. Collected, Translated, and Illustrated, by J. Muir, D.C.L., LL.D., Volume First, Mythical and Legendary Accounts of the Origin of Caste, With an Enquiry Into Its Existence in the Vedic Age, Second Edition
The Vedas each have an Index[???] or Anukramani, the principal work of this kind being the general Index or Sarvānukramaṇī.[138][139]
Prodigious energy was expended by ancient Indian culture in ensuring that these texts were transmitted from generation to generation with inordinate fidelity.[140] For example, memorization of the sacred Vedas included up to eleven forms of recitation of the same text. The texts were subsequently "proof-read" by comparing the different recited versions. Forms of recitation included the jaṭā-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.[141] That these methods have been effective, is attested to by the preservation of the most ancient Indian religious text, the Rigveda, as redacted into a single text during the Brahmana period [700 BCE], without any variant readings within that school.[141]
The Vedas were likely written down for the first time around 500 BCE.[103] However, all printed editions of the Vedas that survive in the modern times are likely the version existing in about the 16th century AD.[142] [Michael Witzel, "Vedas and Upaniṣads", in: Flood 2003, p. 69, Quote: "... almost all printed editions depend on the late manuscripts that are hardly older than 500 years"]
Four Vedas
The canonical division of the Vedas is fourfold (turīya) viz.,[143]
1. Rigveda (RV)
2. Yajurveda (YV, with the main division TS vs. VS)
3. Samaveda (SV)
4. Atharvaveda (AV)
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).[144][145] The Rig Veda most likely was composed between c. 1500 and 1200.[note 1] 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.[134]
Each Veda has been subclassified into four major text types – the Samhitas (mantras and benedictions), the Aranyakas (text on rituals, ceremonies such as newborn baby's rites of passage, coming of age, marriages, retirement and cremation, sacrifices and symbolic sacrifices), the Brahmanas (commentaries on rituals, ceremonies and sacrifices), and the Upanishads (text discussing meditation, philosophy and spiritual knowledge).[7][9][10] The Upasanas (short ritual worship-related sections) are considered by some scholars[11][12] 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 and the European area, and some greater details are found in the Vedic era texts such as the Grhya Sūtras.[146]
Only one version of the Rigveda is known to have survived into the modern era.[135] 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.[147]
Let us begin with the key to the whole system, the four Vedas: Rg Veda, Såma Veda, Yajur Veda, and Atharva Veda.
The oldest and most important in Vedic ritualism, as to later Indian religion, is the Rg Veda (hereafter also RV). This is a collection (Samhita) of rcs 'verses', forming hymns to be recited during ritual, praising various divinities. They were composed by a number of bards or bardic families, over a period of several hundred years, at the very least, as linguistic and stylistic evidence shows.8 [Possible between c. 1900 BC. and c. 1100 BCE, see above, n.1. This time frame includes only the period of possible immigration and settlement in Northern and North-West India; parts of the RV may have been composed already in Afghanistan (on the *Sarasvatī = Avest. Haraxaiti, etc.).] The ritual, as it appears in these hymns, is earlier and less developed than the "classical" one of the later texts, such as the Yajurveda Mantras and all of the Brahmanas. The Rg Veda has come down to us basically in only one9 [The other two about which we know something more than just their names are the Båskala and the Måndukeya schools, see Scheftelowitz, 1906.] extremely well preserved school, that of Śåkalya, who analyzed the traditional text] towards the end of the Brahmana period [700 BCE], apparently in Eastern India (Videha, N. Bihar). His grammatical analysis, in form of a text without any euphonic combinations (sandhi) has been transmitted as the RV-Padapåtha.10 [Edited in Max Müller's RV (1849-74), and also several times in India as separate volumes.]
The standard editions of the Rg Veda are that of Max Müller 1849-1874, incorporating Sayana's medieval commentary (14th cent.),11 [Cf. now also the earlier commentaries of the RV, ed. Vishva Bandhu 1963-66.] and the more compact one of T. Aufrecht 1877. The standard current translation is that of K. F. Geldner 1951 (written already in the Twenties), into German, which supersedes earlier ones such as that of H. Grassmann 1876-77. There is also an almost complete French translation by L. Renou 1955-69, and the first volume of a Russian translation by T. Ya. Elizarenkova has recently appeared (1989). Unfortunately there is no complete modern English translation, though there are unsatisfactory and outmoded ones by H. H. Wilson (1888) which largely depends on the medieval commentary of Sayana, and by R. T. H. Griffith (1889-92). There are also useful translations of selected hymns, such as that of W. D. O'Flaherty 1981a and Maurer 1986 which includes much of the preceding scholarship. An up-to-date, philologically sound translation of the entire text, incorporating the grammatical and semantic progress that has been made in recent decades, would be extremely welcome.
Other important tools for Rgvedic researches include the invaluable (if somewhat out of date) Wörterbuch of H. Grassmann 1872-75, which lists all the occurrences of all but the most common words in the RV, with definitions, grammatical identification, and contextual information; the Prolegomena and the Noten of H. Oldenberg (1888 and 1909, 1912 respectively), one of the leading Western Indologists, E.V. Arnold's treatise on Vedic meter (1905), one of the first attempts to develop an internal chronology of the text, and also several of Bloomfield's reference works (Concordance, Repetitions, Variants, see below).
The Atharva Veda (AV) stands a little apart from the other three Vedas, as it does not treat the śrauta rituals, but contains magical (black and white) and healing spells, as well as two more large sections containing speculative hymns and materials dealing with some important domestic rituals such as marriage and death, with the vråtya (s. below), and with royal power....
-- The Four Vedas, Excerpt from "Vedic Hinduism", by S.W. Jamison and M. Witzel, 1992
The texts of the Upanishads discuss ideas akin to the heterodox sramana-traditions.[13]
Rigveda
Main article: Rigveda
Nasadiya Sukta (Hymn of non-Eternity):
Who really knows?
Who can here proclaim it?
Whence, whence this creation sprang?
Gods came later, after the creation of this universe.
Who then knows whence it has arisen?
Whether God's will created it, or whether He was mute;
Only He who is its overseer in highest heaven knows,
He only knows, or perhaps He does not know.
—Rig Veda 10.129.6–7[148]
The Rigveda Samhita is the oldest extant Indic text.[149] It is a collection of 1,028 Vedic Sanskrit hymns and 10,600 verses in all, organized into ten books (Sanskrit: mandalas).[150] The hymns are dedicated to Rigvedic deities.[151]
The books were composed by poets from different priestly groups over a period of several centuries between c. 1500 and 1200 BC,[note 1] (the early Vedic period) in the Punjab (Sapta Sindhu) region of the northwest Indian subcontinent. According to Michael Witzel, the initial codification of the Rigveda took place at the end of the Rigvedic period at ca. 1200 BCE, in the early Kuru kingdom.[152]
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.[134]
The rituals became increasingly complex over time, and the king's association with them strengthened both the position of the Brahmans and the kings.[153] The Rajasuya rituals, performed with the coronation of a king, "set in motion [...] cyclical regenerations of the universe."[154] In terms of substance, the nature of hymns shift from praise of deities in early books to Nasadiya Sukta with questions such as, "what is the origin of the universe?, do even gods know the answer?",[148] the virtue of Dāna (charity) in society,[155] and other metaphysical issues in its hymns.[note 22]
Since the verses are largely flexible and adaptable to the different themes28 [See also p. 227 etc.], a change of mood or subject is not infrequently marked by a change of metrical form. In this connection it is worth noticing that already some of the Rgvedic poets not only had a sensitiveness to the metrical structure of their productions29 [Cf. 1, 186, 4; 8, 12, 10: 10, 114, 9; 130, 3.] and were acquainted with some technical terms30 [See e.g. 1, 164. 23ff.; 2, 43, 1; 10, 14, 16. Compare also 10, 90, 9 mentioning the creation of metres and melodies.], but also attributed a wonderful creative power to them: "by means of the jagati stanza and melody the Creator placed the river in the heavens"[!!!] (1, 164, 25). They moreover made an attempt to attribute them to, or co-ordinate them with, definite deities: the viraj is said to belong to the double deity Mitra-Varuna, the tristubh to Indra, the jagati to the Visve Devas31 [RV. 10, 130, 4f.; cf. 10, 124, 9.]. These tendencies became more pronounced in the Atharvaveda -- where a larger number of technical terms appears to be known32 [AV. 8, 9, 14; 20; 10, 25; 11, 7, 8; 12, 3, 10; 19, 21 etc.] -- to be developed into a more systematic whole by the authors of the brahmanas and aranyakas33 [RENOU, in JA 250 (1962), p. 173.]. As far as they are attached to the Rgveda their works are perhaps in a third of all their speculative passages more or less concerned with the metres which are systematically co-ordinated, not only with the gods, but also with other important concepts, such as the social classes, animals, parts of the body, the provinces and quarters of the universe34 [Cf. e.g. TS. 1, 7, 5, 4; SB. 1, 2, 5, 6; 1, 3, 2, 16; 1,4, 1, 34; 1, 7, 2, 13ff.; 10, 3, 2, 1ff. For a survey see SIDDHESWAR VARMA, in Proc. 16 AJOC II, p. 10.]. The gayatri, symbolizing the social order of the brahmins, is Agni's metre35 [E.g. TS. 2, 2, 5, 5.], the tristubh, the heroic metre par excellence, is Indra's and co-ordinated with nobility36 [Haug, Ai. B. I, p. 76.]. The metres become deities themselves37 [This great significance of the metres and metrical speech in general depends largely on the number of the syllables of which they consist and the belief that objects and concepts are closely connected with another by their numerical values and proportions. Df, e.g. AiB. 1, 1, 7. (See also p. 373).], instruments of creation, and are even raised higher than the gods38 [SB. 1, 8, 2, 14; 8, 2, 2, 8; cf. 8, 2, 3, 9. Elsewhere they are associates of the gods, e.g. AiB. 4, 5, 2.].[!!!]
-- Chapter IV: The Structure of the Rgvedic Poems, Excerpt from A History of Indian literature: Vedic Literature (Samhitas and Brahmanas), edited by Jan Gonda, Volume I, Fasc. 1, 1975
There are similarities between the mythology, rituals and linguistics in Rigveda and those found in ancient central Asia, Iranian and Hindukush (Afghanistan) regions.[156]
Samaveda
Main article: Samaveda
The Samaveda Samhita[157] consists of 1549 stanzas, taken almost entirely (except for 75 mantras) from the Rigveda.[42][158] 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.[158]
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).[158] A melody in the song books corresponds to a verse in the arcika 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 a descending order. The songs in the later sections of the Samaveda have the least deviation from the hymns derived from the Rigveda.[158]
In the Samaveda, some of the Rigvedic verses are repeated.[159] Including repetitions, there are a total of 1875 verses numbered in the Samaveda recension translated by Griffith.[160] Two major recensions have survived, the Kauthuma/Ranayaniya and the Jaiminiya. Its purpose was liturgical, and they were the repertoire of the udgātṛ or "singer" priests.[161]
Yajurveda
Main article: Yajurveda
The Yajurveda Samhita consists of prose mantras.[162] 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.[162] 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.[163] Witzel dates the Yajurveda hymns to the early Indian Iron Age, after c. 1200 and before 800 BCE.[164] corresponding to the early Kuru Kingdom.[165]
A page from the Taittiriya Samhita, a layer of text within the Yajurveda
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.[166] Unlike the Samaveda which is almost entirely based on Rigveda mantras and structured as songs, the Yajurveda samhitas are in prose and linguistically, they are different from earlier Vedic texts.[167] The Yajur Veda has been the primary source of information about sacrifices during Vedic times and associated rituals.[168]
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.[169] The White Yajurveda separates the Samhita from its Brahmana (the Shatapatha 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).[170][171] 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 of Hindu philosophy.[172][173]
Atharvaveda
Main article: Atharvaveda
The Artharvaveda 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.[174] Most of the verses are metrical, but some sections are in prose.[174] Two different versions of the text – the Paippalāda and the Śaunakīya – have survived into the modern times.[174][175] The Atharvaveda was not considered as a Veda in the Vedic era, and was accepted as a Veda in late 1st millennium BCE.[176][177] It was compiled last,[178] probably around 900 BCE, although some of its material may go back to the time of the Rigveda,[179] or earlier.[174]
The Atharvaveda is sometimes called the "Veda of magical formulas",[180] an epithet declared to be incorrect by other scholars.[181] 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.[182][183] 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".[184] Many books of the Atharvaveda Samhita are dedicated to rituals without magic, such as to philosophical speculations and to theosophy.[181]
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 Samaveda Samhita[157] consists of 1549 stanzas, taken almost entirely (except for 75 mantras) from the Rigveda.[42][158] 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.[158]
The text also includes hymns dealing with the two major rituals of passage – marriage and cremation. The Atharva Veda also dedicates significant portion of the text asking the meaning of a ritual.[185]
Embedded Vedic texts
Manuscripts of the Vedas are in the Sanskrit language, but in many regional scripts in addition to the Devanagari. Top: Grantha script (Tamil Nadu), Below: Malayalam script (Kerala).
Further information: Brahmanas
The Brahmanas are commentaries, explanation of proper methods and meaning of Vedic Samhita rituals in the four Vedas.[37] They also incorporate myths, legends and in some cases philosophy.[37][38] Each regional Vedic shakha (school) has its own operating manual-like Brahmana text, most of which have been lost.[186] A total of 19 Brahmana texts have survived into modern times: two associated with the Rigveda, six with the Yajurveda, ten with the Samaveda and one with the Atharvaveda. The oldest dated to about 900 BCE, while the youngest Brahmanas (such as the Shatapatha Brahmana), were complete by about 700 BCE.[39][40] According to Jan Gonda, the final codification of the Brahmanas took place in pre-Buddhist times (ca. 600 BCE).[187]
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 ritual suktas (hymns) for the ceremony of marriage and rituals at the birth of a child.[188][189] The first hymn is a recitation that accompanies offering a Yajna oblation to Agni (fire) on the occasion of a marriage, and the hymn prays for prosperity of the couple getting married.[188][190] The second hymn wishes for their long life, kind relatives, and a numerous progeny.[188] 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 and artha.[188] However, these verses are incomplete expositions, and their complete context emerges only with the Samhita layer of text.[191]
Aranyakas and Upanishads
Further information: Vedanta, Upanishads, and Aranyakas
The Aranyakas layer of the Vedas include rituals, discussion of symbolic meta-rituals, as well as philosophical speculations.[12][41]
Aranyakas, however, neither are homogeneous in content nor in structure.[41] 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 word Aranyakas. 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 in Vanaprastha (retired, forest-dwelling) stage of their life, according to the historic age-based Ashrama system of human life.[192]
The Upanishads reflect the last composed layer of texts in the Vedas. They are commonly referred to as Vedānta, variously interpreted to mean either the "last chapters, parts of the Vedas" or "the object, the highest purpose of the Veda".[193] The central concern of the Upanishads are the connections "between parts of the human organism and cosmic realities."[194] 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."[195] The concepts of Brahman, the Ultimate Reality from which everything arises, and Ātman, the essence of the individual, are central ideas in the Upanishads,[196][197] 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.[195][197] The Upanishads are the foundation of Hindu philosophical thought and its diverse traditions,[44][198] and of the Vedic corpus, they alone are widely known, and the central ideas of the Upanishads have influenced the diverse traditions of Hinduism.[44][199]
Aranyakas are sometimes identified as karma-kanda (ritualistic section), while the Upanishads are identified as jnana-kanda (spirituality section).[49][50][51][note 5] In an alternate classification, the early part of Vedas are called Samhitas and the commentary are called the Brahmanas which together are identified as the ceremonial karma-kanda, while Aranyakas and Upanishads are referred to as the jnana-kanda.[52]
Post-Vedic literature
Vedanga
Main article: 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 to the people of that time.[200] The Vedangas were sciences that focused on helping understand and interpret the Vedas that had been composed many centuries earlier.[200]
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).[201][202][203]
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 of Hindu philosophy.[204][205][206] The Kalpa Vedanga studies, for example, gave rise to the Dharma-sutras, which later expanded into Dharma-shastras.[200][207]