The Vedas 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.
Hindus consider the Vedas to be apauruṣeya, which means "not of a
man, superhuman" and "impersonal, authorless".
Vedas are also called sruti ("what is heard") literature,
distinguishing them from other religious texts, which are called smṛti
("what is remembered"). The Veda, 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. In the Hindu Epic the Mahabharata,
the creation of Vedas is credited to Brahma.
The Vedic hymns themselves assert that they were skillfully created by Rishis (sages), after inspired creativity,
just as a carpenter builds a chariot.
According to tradition, Vyasa is the compiler of the Vedas, who
arranged the four kinds of mantras into four Samhitas. There are
four Vedas: the Rigveda, the Yajurveda, the Samaveda
and the Atharvaveda. Each Veda has been
subclassified into four major text types – the Samhitas
(mantras and benedictions), the Aranyakas (text on rituals, ceremonies,
sacrifices and symbolic-sacrifices), the Brahmanas (commentaries on rituals,
ceremonies and sacrifices), and the Upanishads
(texts discussing meditation, philosophy and spiritual knowledge).Some scholars
add a fifth category - the Upasanas (worship).
The various Indian philosophies
and denominations have taken differing
positions on the Vedas. Schools of Indian philosophy which cite the Vedas as
their scriptural authority are classified as "orthodox" (āstika). Other śramaṇa
traditions, such as Lokayata, Carvaka, Ajivika, Buddhism
and Jainism, which did not regard the Vedas as
authorities, are referred to as "heterodox" or
"non-orthodox" (nastika) schools.
Despite their differences, just like the texts of the śramaṇa traditions, the
layers of texts in the Vedas discuss similar ideas and concepts.
Etymology and usage
The Sanskrit word veda "knowledge,
wisdom" is derived from the root vid- "to know". This is
reconstructed as being derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *u̯eid-, meaning "see" or
"know".
The Sanskrit term veda as a common noun
means "knowledge". The term in some contexts, such as hymn 10.93.11
of the Rigveda, means "obtaining or finding wealth, property",
while in some others it means "a bunch of grass together" as in a
broom or for ritual fire. A related word Vedena appears in hymn 8.19.5
of the Rigveda.
Chronology
The Vedas are among the oldest sacred texts.
The Samhitas date to roughly 1700–1100 BCE, and the "circum-Vedic"
texts, as well as the redaction of the Samhitas, date to c. 1000-500 BCE,
resulting in a Vedic period, spanning the mid-2nd to mid-1st millennium BCE, or
the Late Bronze Age and the Iron Age. The Vedic period reaches its peak only
after the composition of the mantra texts, with the establishment of the
various shakhas all over Northern India which annotated the mantra samhitas
with Brahmana discussions of their meaning, and reaches its end in the age of
Buddha and Panini and the rise of the Mahajanapadas (archaeologically, Northern
Black Polished Ware). 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 (Patanjali) as a terminus ante quem for all
Vedic Sanskrit literature, and 1200 BCE (the early Iron Age) as terminus post
quem for the Atharvaveda.
Transmission of texts in the Vedic period was
by oral tradition, preserved with precision with the help of elaborate mnemonic
techniques. A literary tradition is traceable in post-Vedic times, after the
rise of Buddhism in the Maurya period, perhaps earliest in the Kanva recension
of the Yajurveda about the 1st century BCE; however oral tradition of
transmission remained active. Witzel suggests the possibility of written Vedic
texts towards the end of 1st millennium BCE. Some scholars such as Jack Goody
state that "the Vedas are not the product of an oral society", basing
this view by comparing inconsistencies in the transmitted versions of
literature from various oral societies such as the Greek, Serbia and other
cultures, then noting that the Vedic literature is too consistent and vast to
have been composed and transmitted orally across generations, without being
written down. However, adds Goody, the Vedic texts likely involved both a
written and oral tradition, calling it a "parallel products of a literate
society".
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. The Sampurnanand Sanskrit University has a Rigveda
manuscript from the 14th century; however, there are a number of older Veda
manuscripts in Nepal that are dated from the 11th century onwards.
Ancient universities
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.
Categories of Vedic texts
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"
Vedic Sanskrit corpus
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, Sama-Veda, Yajur-Veda, and
Atharva-Veda, most of which are available in several recensions (śākhā).
In some contexts, the term Veda is used to refer to these Samhitas. This
is the oldest layer of Vedic texts, apart from the Rigvedic hymns, which were
probably essentially complete by 1200 BCE, dating to c. the 12th to 10th
centuries BCE. 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.
·
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. 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. It is frequently read in secondary literature.
·
Older Mukhya Upanishads (Bṛhadāraṇyaka, Chandogya,
Kaṭha, Kena, Aitareya, and others).
The Vedas (sruti) are different from Vedic era
texts such as Shrauta Sutras and Gryha Sutras, which are smriti texts.
Together, the Vedas and these Sutras form part of the Vedic Sanskrit corpus.
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.
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 (कर्मखण्ड, action/ritual-related sections) and jnana-kanda
(ज्ञानखण्ड, knowledge/spirituality-related sections).
Shruti literature
The texts considered "Vedic" in the
sense of "corollaries of the Vedas" is less clearly defined, and may
include numerous post-Vedic texts such as the later Upanishads and the Sutra
literature. Texts not considered to be shruti are known as smriti
(Sanskrit: smṛti; "the remembered"), or texts of remembered
traditions. 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."
The Upanishads are largely philosophical
works, some in dialogue form. They are the foundation of Hindu philosophical
thought and its diverse traditions. Of the Vedic corpus, they alone are widely
known, and the central ideas of the Upanishads are at the spiritual core of
Hindus.
Vedic schools or recensions
The four Vedas were transmitted in various
sakhas (branches, schools). Each school likely represented an ancient community
of a particular area, or kingdom. Each school followed its own canon. Multiple
recensions 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 called Videha, in
modern north Bihar, south of Nepal. The Vedic canon in its entirety consists of
texts from all the various Vedic schools taken together.
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 or Anukramani, the principal work of this kind being the general
Index or Sarvānukramaṇī.
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 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. That these methods have been effective,
is testified to by the preservation of the most ancient Indian religious text,
the Rigveda, as redacted into a single text during the Brahmana
period, without any variant readings within that school.
The Vedas were likely written down for the
first time around 500 BCE. However, all printed editions of the Vedas that
survive in the modern times are likely the version existing in about the 16th
century AD.
Four Vedas
The canonical division of the Vedas is
fourfold (turīya) viz.,
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). The Rigveda is the
oldest work, which Witzel states are probably from the period of 1900 to 1100
BCE. Witzel, also 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 – 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).
The Upasanas (short ritual worship-related sections) are considered by some
scholars as the fifth part. Witzel notes that the rituals, rites and ceremonies
described in these ancient texts reconstruct to a large degree the
Indo-European marriage rituals observed in a region spanning the Indian
subcontinent, Persia 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.
Rigveda
The Rigveda Samhita is the oldest extant Indic
text. It is a collection of 1,028 Vedic Sanskrit hymns and 10,600 verses in
all, organized into ten books (Sanskrit: mandalas). The hymns are
dedicated to Rigvedic deities.
The books were composed by poets from
different priestly groups over a period of several centuries from roughly the
second half of the 2nd millennium BCE (the early Vedic period), starting with
the Punjab (Sapta Sindhu) region of the northwest Indian subcontinent. 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. 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?", the virtue of Dāna (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.
Samaveda
The Samaveda Samhita consists of 1549 stanzas,
taken almost entirely (except for 75 mantras) from the Rigveda. 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 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.
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 the udgatṛ or
"singer" priests.
Yajurveda
The Yajurveda Samhita consists of prose
mantras. It is a compilation of ritual offering formulas that were said by a
priest while an individual performed ritual actions such as those before the
yajna fire.
The earliest and most ancient layer of
Yajurveda samhita includes about 1,875 verses, that are distinct yet borrow and
build upon the foundation of verses in Rigveda. Unlike the Samaveda which is
almost entirely based on Rigveda mantras and structured as songs, the Yajurveda
samhitas are in prose and linguistically, they are different from earlier Vedic
texts. 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 (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). 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.
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. Most of the verses are
metrical, but some sections are in prose. Two different versions of the text –
the Paippalāda and the Śaunakīya – have survived into 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. 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. 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 to theosophy.
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.
Embedded Vedic texts
Brahmanas
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
Vedic shakha (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 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. According to Jan 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 ritual suktas (hymns) for the ceremony
of marriage and rituals at the birth of a child. 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. 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 and artha. However, these verses are incomplete expositions,
and their complete context emerges only with the Samhita layer of text.
Aranyakas and Upanishads
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 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.
The Upanishads reflect the last composed layer
of texts in the Vedas. They are commonly referred to as Vedanta,
variously interpreted to mean either the "last chapters, parts of the
Vedas" or "the object, the highest purpose of the Veda". The
concepts of Brahman (Ultimate Reality) and Atman (Soul, Self) are central ideas
in all the Upanishads, and "Know your Atman" their thematic focus.
The Upanishads are the foundation of Hindu philosophical thought and its
diverse traditions. Of the Vedic corpus, they alone are widely known, and the
central ideas of the Upanishads have influenced the diverse traditions of
Hinduism.
Aranyakas are sometimes identified as karma-kanda (ritualistic section),
while the Upanishads are identified as jnana-kanda (spirituality
section). 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.
·
Sketch of the Historical
Grammar of the Rig and Atharva Vedas, Edward Vernon Arnold, Journal of the American
Oriental Society
·
A Vedic Concordance, Maurice Bloomfield,
Harvard University (an alphabetic index to every line, every stanza of the
Vedas published before 1906)
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