An Idiots Guide to Ancient Hinduism- compiled by Vijay Raghavan :D

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ContentsArticlesHindu texts Vedas Rigveda Samaveda Yajurveda Vedic chant Brahmana Aranyaka Upanishads Shiksha Vedic meter Vykaraa Nirukta Kalpa (Vedanga) Hindu astrology Aitareya Upanishad Brihadaranyaka Upanishad Isha Upanishad Taittiriya Upanishad Katha Upanishad Shvetashvatara Upanishad Chndogya Upaniad Kena Upanishad Mundaka Upanishad Mandukya Upanishad Prashna Upanishad Brahma Purana Brahmanda Purana Brahma Vaivarta Purana Markandeya Purana Bhavishya Purana Vishnu Purana Bhagavata Purana Naradiya Purana 1 5 16 28 29 32 34 37 40 58 63 65 69 70 73 84 85 87 90 94 97 101 105 107 109 111 114 114 116 117 118 121 123 134

Garuda Purana Padma Purana Agni Purana Shiva Purana Linga Purana Skanda Purana Vayu Purana Sanskrit Hindu Puranas Brahman Mantra Vedanta Shiva Vishnu Brahma Om Yoga Shakha Bhakti tman (Hinduism) Vaishnavism

135 139 141 143 145 146 148 150 169 174 181 194 208 213 235 255 260 267 283 287 292 294

ReferencesArticle Sources and Contributors Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors 301 309

Article LicensesLicense 312

Hindu texts

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Hindu textsThe Literature regarded as central to the Vedic and Hindu literary tradition was originally predominantly composed in Sanskrit. Indeed, much of the morphology inherent in the learning of Sanskrit is inextricably linked to study of the Vedas and other early texts. Vedic literature is divided by tradition into two categories: Shruti that which is heard (traditionally understood as revelation) and Smriti that which is remembered (stemming from human authors, not revelation). The Vedas constituting the former category are considered sacred texts or scripture by many followers of Hindu religion. The post-Vedic scriptures form the latter category: the various shastras and the itihaasas, or histories in epic Sanskrit verse. Holding an ambiguous position between the Upanishads of the Vedas and the epics, the Bhagavad Gita is considered to be revered scripture by most Hindus today.

The VedasThe Vedas form the oldest layer of Sanskrit literature[1] and the oldest sacred texts of Hinduism.[2] According to the Rigveda itself, the Vedic Mantras were composed by various seers who had 'seen' (d) them in deep concentration (dh). However, to post-Vedic tradition, the Vedas are apaurueya "not human compositions",[3] being supposed to have been directly revealed, and thus are called ruti ("what is heard").[4] [5] A number of Vedic mantras are recited as Hindu prayers, at religious functions and other auspicious occasions. The philosophies and religious sects that developed in the Indian subcontinent have taken various positions on the Vedas. Schools of Indian philosophy which cite the Vedas as their scriptural authority are classified as "orthodox" (stika). Other Indian philosophies, such as Buddhism, Jainism and materialism, did not accept the authority of the Vedas and the former two evolved into separate religions. In Indian philosophy these groups are referred to as "heterodox" or "non-Vedic" (nstika) schools.[6] The central focus of all four Vedas is Vedic sacrifice (yaja), officiated by four main priests, each using materials from one of the four Vedas. Ritual is mediated by the fire-god Agni, through whom can the priests and thus the rest of society gain access to the Devas. The four Vedas are the ig-, Yajur-, Sma- and Atharva Vedas. They are transmitted in various shkhs, or branches of knowledge. Depending on the branch, various early different commentaries (Brahmanas)and instructions (Sutras) are associated with each Veda. 1. The igveda contains hymns (mantras) addressed to the gods that contain much of the mythology and ancient-most Vedic ritual practice; 2. The Smaveda consists almost exclusively of mantras from the Rig Veda, arranged in an order that was used for singing at the Soma sacrifice; 3. The Yajurveda contains prose mantras and verses extracted from the Rigveda used in ritual,in addition to detailed prose 'commentaries' (brhmaa sections) on the sacrifices; and 4. The Atharvaveda comprises magical spells against enemies, sorcerers, diseases and mistakes made during the sacrificial ritual, as well as hymns dealing with household and royal rites, and in the speculative books (8-12) some spiritual content.[7] Each of the four Veda has traditionally been divided into several sections: 1. The Mantra portion, also called the Sahit (), is a collection of hymns and prose mantras to be used in Vedic sacrifices. 2. The Brhmaas portion () (not to be confused with Brahman, or the brahmin caste), contains the explanation of some of the mantras as well as prose commentaries explaining the meaning of the mantras and rituals.

Hindu texts The Brhmaas style texts, commenting on the procedure and purpose of the Sahits, are further divided: 1. the rayakas (), which conclude the Brahmanas, are composed along a blurry line between 2. the Upanihads (), which mainly contain early philosophical and metaphysical texts about the nature of macrocosm (the gods and the universe),ritual (yaja) and microcosm (humans) as well as the relationship between the soul (tman) and the universal Brahman. The Upanishads are often referred to collectively as Vedanta ("the end of the Vedas"), not only because they appear physically in the concluding sections of each Veda, but also because their teachings are traditionally seen as the culmination of all other Vedic knowledge.[8]

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The UpanishadsWhile the Upanishads are part of the "Vedas", their actual importance to Hindu philosophy has exceeded that of Hindu scriptures; indirectly, it resulted in the Bhagavad Gita, which is a self-proclaimed yoga upanishad. As such, they are different from the Samhitas and Brahmanas and are the basis of Vedantic thought. The Upanishads ("Sittings near, laying siege to [a Teacher]") are part of the Shruti and primarily discuss early philosophy; they also contain accounts of various debates between contemporary priests and sages. There are more than 200 texts counted as Upanishads; however, only 13 are generally accepted as primary. The Upanishads have been acknowledged by scholars and philosophers from both East and West, from Schrdinger, Thoreau and Emerson and Schopenhauer to Mahatma Gandhi and Aurobindo Ghosh. Total number of Upanishads almost 1008, from them 108 are main, and from 108, mainly accepted as actual 11. This 11 nos. of Upanashads are main (1) Esha, (2) Ken, (3) Katho, (4) Mundaka, (5) Mandukkya, (6) Taitariya, (7) Oaitariya, (8) Prashna, (9) Shetaswatar, (10) Chandyagya, (11) Brihadaranayaka.

Post-Vedic Hindu scripturesThe new texts that appeared afterwards were called Smriti. Smriti literature includes Itihasas (epics like Ramayana, Mahabharata), Harivamsa Puranas, Agamas and Darshanas. The Dharmashastras (law books), though derivatives of earlier Vedic texts such as the Dharmasutras, are traditionally considered as part of the Smrti. From time to time great law-givers (e.g. Manu, Yajnavalkya and Parashara) emerged, who collected existing customs and laws and to ensure that the then way of life was consistent with both the Vedic spirit and the changing times. However, Dharmashastras have been disregarded by many groups of Hindus, namely those following Vedanta, Bhakti, bhakti and Tantra streams of Hinduism, even if they practically speaking still follow the samskaras from birth to death. One aspect of the philosophy reflected in the epics is the concept of Avatar (appearance of God on the Earth). The two main avataras of Vishnu that appear in the epics are Rama, the hero of the Ramayana, and Krishna, the protagonist in the Mahabharata. Unlike some of the deities of the Vedic Samhitas and the all-pervading and formless Brahman of the Upanishads, the avataras have more developed personalities, as loving and righteous descents of the Supreme Being among mortals.

The Bhagavad GitaMany followers of Hindu religion or Sanatana Dharma opine that the most succinct and powerful abbreviation of the overwhelmingly diverse realm of Vedic thought is to be found in the Bhagavad Gita (also known simply "The Gita"). Essentially, it is a microcosm of Vedanta- Bhakti, Yogic, and Karmic aspects of Sanatan Dharma, or Vedic religion. Bhagavad Gita (literally: Song of the Lord) is a revered part of the epic poems of the Mahabharata, book 6. It speaks not only to Vaishnavas but to all people of all faiths, and it is accepted by the members of most Hindus as a seminal text. The "tag line" of each chapter of the Bhagavad Gita refers to the book as the "Gita Upanishad" and as a "yoga text," as Lord Krishna speaks the truths of yoga and the Upanishads for all.

Hindu texts What holds the devotee's mind foremost is Krishna's repeated injunction to abandon the mortal self to the infinite love of the Lord. He not only speaks to the mind and to the Atman, individual spirit's innate sense of Dharma, but calls for overwhelming love. By loving God one also loves the immortal Self, finds harmony in oneself, and finds oneself at peace with the entire cosmos. The Gita speaks of cultivating the intellect, properly using the body, and always remaining equipoised in relation to the greater Self. The Bhagavad Gita truly presents itself as a liberation text universal in its message. In the Bhagavadgita Krishna stresses "nishkam karma" (means self-less or desire-less action; an action performed without any expectation of fruits or results).

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The PuranasThe Puranas are a vast medieval literature of stories and allegory. Eighteen are considered to be Mahapuranas, or Great Puranas, and thus authoritative references on the Gods and Goddesses, religious rites and holy places (most of which are in the Indian subcontinent, known as Bharat). Eighteen (18)are considered main purans called "Mahapuranas", and another Eighteen (18) are "Upapuranas". That means total number of Puranas in Hindu Literature are 36. Maharapuranas (18) - (1) Brahma (2) Padma (3) Vaishnav (4) Shaiva (5) Bhagvat (6) Naradiya (7) Markendeya (8) Agneya (9) Bhaibishya (10) Brhamabaibarta (11) Linga (12) Baraha (13) Skanda (14) Baman (15) Kourma (16) Matsa (17) Garud (18) Brahmanda Upapuranas (18) - (1) Aadi (2) Nrisingha (3) Bayu (4) Shiva (5) Dharma (6) Durbasa (7) Narad (8) Nandikeshwar (9) Ushana (10) Kapil (11) Barun (12) Shamba (13) Kalika (14) Maheswar (15) Devi (16) Padma (17) Parasar (18) Marichi one Upparana also available (19) Bhaskar Total 37 Hindu Puranas available, 18 Mahapuranas, and 19 Upapuranas

The Tevaram Saivite hymnsThe Tevaram is a body of remarkable hymns exuding Bhakti composed more than 14001200 years ago in the classical Tamil language by three Saivite composers. They are credited with igniting the Bhakti movement in the whole of India.

Divya Prabandha Vaishnavite hymnsThe Nalayira Divya Prabandha (or Nalayira (4000) Divya Prabhamdham) is a divine collection of 4,000 verses (Naalayira in Tamil means 'four thousand') composed before 8th century AD[1], by the 12 Alvars, and was compiled in its present form by Nathamuni during the 9th 10th centuries. The work is the beginning of the canonization of the twelve Vaishnava poet saints, and these hymns are still sung extensively today. The works were lost before they were collected and organized in the form of an anthology by Nathamunigal. The Prabandha sings the praise of Sriman Narayana (or Vishnu) and his many forms. The Alvars sung these songs at various sacred shrines. These shrines are known as the Divya Desams. In South India, especially in Tamil Nadu, the Divya Prabhandha is considered as equal to the Vedas, hence the epithet Dravida Veda. In many temples, Srirangam, for example, the chanting of the Divya Prabhandham forms a major part of the daily service. Prominent among the 4,000 verses are the 1,100+ verses known as the Thiru Vaaymozhi, composed by Nammalvar (Kaaril Maaran Sadagopan) of Thiruk Kurugoor.

Hindu texts

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Other Hindu textsOther famous texts of Hinduism include those of the bhakti yoga school (loving devotion to God) such as the Ramcharitmanas of Tulsidas (an epic poem based on the Ramayana), the Gita Govinda of Jayadeva (a religious song of the divine love of Krishna and his consort Radha), Adi Shankara's commentaries and other works, Ramanujacharya's nine books including "Sri Bhasya", Madhvacharya's commentaries and the Devi Mahatmya (the tales of Devi, the mother goddess, in her many forms as Shakti, Durga, Parvati, etc.).

References[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] see e.g. MacDonell 2004, pp.2939; Sanskrit literature (2003) in Philip's Encyclopedia. Accessed 2007-08-09 see e.g. Radhakrishnan & Moore 1957, p.3; Witzel, Michael, "Vedas and Upaniads", in: Flood 2003, p.68 Apte, pp. 109f. has "not of the authorship of man, of divine origin" Apte 1965, p.887 Muller 1891, pp.1718 Flood 1996, p.82 Swami Nikhilananda, The Upanishads: A New Translation Vol.I, at 3-4 (5th Ed. 1990) ISBN 0-911206-15-9 Swami Nikhilananda, The Upanishads: A New Translation Vol.I, at 3-7 (5th Ed. 1990) ISBN 0-911206-15-9

Further reading Kapoor, Dr. S.S. (2005). Hinduism: An Introduction (History, Scriptures, Prayers and Phylosophy) (http:// books.google.com/books?id=a9EqbEi11FoC).

Hanuman Chalisa in English Rhymeknol (http:/ / knol. google. com/ k/ munindra-misra/ sri-hanuman-chalisa-english-hindi/ 1ac8r252a8rvj/ 6?collectionId=1ac8r252a8rvj.8&position=7#) by Munindra Misra

External links Sacred-Texts: Hinduism (http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/index.htm) Clay Sanskrit Library (http://claysanskritlibrary.org) publishes Sanskrit literature with downloadable materials. Encyclopedia of Authentic Hinduism (http://www.encyclopediaofauthentichinduism.org) Hindubooks.org (http://www.hindubooks.org/) Krishna.com - The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust (http://www.krishna.com/) Bhagavad-gita online and extensive other resources Hindu Poets (http://www.poetseers.org/spiritual_and_devotional_poets/india/) - Collection of Hindu Poetry Prapatti.com (http://www.prapatti.com) - Collection of Sukthams, and other manthras Sanskrit Documents Collection (http://sanskritdocuments.org): Documents in ITX format of Upanishads, Stotras etc. GRETIL: Gttingen Register of Electronic Texts in Indian Languages (http://www.sub.uni-goettingen.de/ ebene_1/fiindolo/gretil.htm), a cumulative register of the numerous download sites for electronic texts in Indian languages. Gaudiya Grantha Mandira (http://www.granthamandira.com/) - A Sanskrit Text Repository. This site also provides encoding converter. Hindu Bhajans ~ Hindu Spiritual Music (http://www.jaitridev.com/hindu-bhajans.php)

Vedas

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VedasThe Vedas (Sanskrit vda, "knowledge") are a large body of texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the oldest layer of Sanskrit literature and the oldest scriptures of Hinduism.[1] [2] The class of "Vedic texts" is aggregated around the four canonical Sahits or Vedas proper (turya), of which the first three (traya) are related to the performance of yajna (sacrifice) in historical Vedic religion: 1. 2. 3. 4. The Rigveda, containing hymns to be recited by the hot; The Yajurveda, containing formulas to be recited by the adhvaryu or officiating priest; The Samaveda, containing formulas to be sung by the udgt. The fourth is the Atharvaveda, a collection of spells and incantations, apotropaic charms and speculative hymns.[3]

The Rig Veda manuscripts have been selected for inscription in UNESCO's "Memory of the World" Register 2007.[4] According to Hindu tradition, the Vedas are apaurueya "not of human agency",[5] are supposed to have been directly revealed, and thus are called ruti ("what is heard").[6] [7] The four Sahits are metrical (with the exception of prose commentary interspersed in the Krishna Yajurveda). The term sahit literally means "composition, compilation". The individual verses contained in these compilations are known as mantras. Some selected Vedic mantras are still recited at prayers, religious functions and other auspicious occasions in contemporary Hinduism. The various Indian philosophies and sects have taken differing positions on the Vedas. Schools of Indian philosophy which cite the Vedas as their scriptural authority are classified as "orthodox" (stika). Other traditions, notably Buddhism and Jainism, which did not regard the Vedas as authorities are referred to by traditional Hindu texts as "heterodox" or "non-orthodox" (nstika) schools.[8] [9] In addition to Buddhism and Jainism, Sikhism[10] [11] and Brahmoism,[12] many non-Brahmin Hindus in South India [13] do not accept the authority of the Vedas. Certain South Indian Brahmin communities such as Iyengars consider the Tamil Divya Prabandham or writing of the Alvar saints as equivalent to the Vedas.[14] In most Iyengar temples in South India the Divya Prabandham is recited daily along with Vedic Hymns.

Etymology and usageThe Sanskrit word vda "knowledge, wisdom" is derived from the root vid- "to know". This is reconstructed as being derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *ueid-, meaning "see" or "know".[15] As a noun, the word appears only in a single instance in the Rigveda, in RV 8.19.5, translated by Griffith as "ritual lore": y samdh y hut / y vdena dada mrto agnye / y nmas svadhvar "The mortal who hath ministered to Agni with oblation, fuel, ritual lore, and reverence, skilled in sacrifice."[16] The noun is from Proto-Indo-European *ueidos, cognate to Greek () "aspect", "form" . Not to be confused is the homonymous 1st and 3rd person singular perfect tense vda, cognate to Greek () (w)oida "I know". Root cognates are Greek , English wit, etc., Latin video "I see", etc.[17] In English, the term Veda is often used loosely to refer to the Samhitas (collection of mantras, or chants) of the four canonical Vedas (Rigveda, Yajurveda, Samaveda and Atharvaveda). The Sanskrit term veda as a common noun means "knowledge", but can also be used to refer to fields of study unrelated to liturgy or ritual, e.g. in agada-veda "medical science", sasya-veda "science of agriculture" or sarpa-veda "science of snakes" (already found in the early Upanishads); durveda means "with evil knowledge, ignorant".[18]

Vedas

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ChronologyThe Vedas are among the oldest sacred texts. The Samhitas date to roughly 15001000 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.[19] 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 BCE to c. 500-400 BCE. Witzel makes special reference to the Near Eastern Mitanni material of the 14th c. BCE the only epigraphic record of Indo-Aryan contemporary to the Rigvedic period. He gives 150 BCE (Patajali) as a terminus ante quem for all Vedic Sanskrit literature, and 1200 BCE (the early Iron Age) as terminus post quem for the Atharvaveda.[20] Transmission of texts in the Vedic period was by oral tradition alone, preserved with precision with the help of elaborate mnemonic techniques. A literary tradition set in only 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 predominated until c. 1000 CE.[21] 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.[22] The Benares Sanskrit University has a Rigveda manuscript of the mid-14th century; however, there are a number of older Veda manuscripts in Nepal belonging to the Vajasaneyi tradition that are dated from the 11th century onwards.

Categories of Vedic textsThe 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"[23]

Vedic Sanskrit corpusThe corpus of Vedic Sanskrit texts includes: The Samhita (Sanskrit sahit, "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 (kh). 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 BC, dating to ca. the 12th to 10th centuries BC. The complete corpus of Vedic mantras as collected in Bloomfield's Vedic Concordance (1907) consists of some 89,000 padas (metric feet), of which 72,000 occur in the four Samhitas.[24] The Brahmanas are prose texts that discuss, in technical fashion, the solemn sacrificial rituals as well as comment 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 dangerous rituals (to be studied outside the settlement) and various sorts of additional materials. It is frequently read in secondary literature. Some of the older Mukhya Upanishads (Bhadrayaka, Chandogya, Kaha).[25] [26] Certain Stra literature, i.e. the Shrautasutras and the Grhyasutras. The Shrauta Sutras, regarded as belonging to the smriti, are late Vedic in language and content, thus forming part of the Vedic Sanskrit corpus.[26] [27] The composition of the Shrauta and Grhya Sutras (ca. 6th century BC) marks the

Vedas end of the Vedic period , and at the same time the beginning of the flourishing of the "circum-Vedic" scholarship of Vedanga, introducing the early flowering of classical Sanskrit literature in the Mauryan and Gupta periods. While production of Brahmanas and Aranyakas ceases with the end of the Vedic period, there is a large number of Upanishads composed after the end of the Vedic period. While most of the ten Mukhya Upanishads can be considered to date to the Vedic or Mahajanapada period, most of the 108 Upanishads of the full Muktika canon date to the Common Era. The Brahmanas, Aranyakas, and Upanishads often interpret the polytheistic and ritualistic 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. The Vedic Sanskrit corpus is the scope of A Vedic Word Concordance (Vaidika-Padnukrama-Koa) prepared from 1930 under Vishva Bandhu, and published in five volumes in 1935-1965. Its scope extends to about 400 texts, including the entire Vedic Sanskrit corpus besides some "sub-Vedic" texts. Volume I: Samhitas Volume II: Brahmanas and Aranyakas Volume III: Upanishads Volume IV: Vedangas A revised edition, extending to about 1800 pages, was published in 1973-1976.

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Shruti literatureThe texts considered "Vedic" in the sense of "corollaries of the Vedas" is less clearly defined, and may include numerous post-Vedic texts such as Upanishads or Sutra literature. These texts are by many Hindu sects considered to be shruti (Sanskrit: ruti; "the heard"), divinely revealed like the Vedas themselves. Texts not considered to be shruti are known as smriti (Sanskrit: smti; "the remembered"), of human origin. This indigenous system of categorization was adopted by Max Mller 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; Upaniads ... are sometimes not to be distinguished from rayakas...; Brhmaas contain older strata of language attributed to the Sahits; there are various dialects and locally prominent traditions of the Vedic schools. Nevertheless, it is advisable to stick to the division adopted by Max Mller because it follows the Indian tradition, conveys the historical sequence fairly accurately, and underlies the current editions, translations, and monographs on Vedic literature."[25] The Upanishads are largely philosophical works in dialog form. They discuss questions of nature philosophy and the fate of the soul, and contain some mystic and spiritual interpretations of the Vedas. For long, they have been regarded as their putative end and essence, and are thus known as Vednta ("the end of the Vedas"). Taken together, they are the basis of the Vedanta school.

Vedic schools or recensionsStudy of the extensive body of Vedic texts has been organized into a number of different schools or branches (Sanskrit kh, literally "branch" or "limb") each of which specialized in learning certain texts.[28] Multiple recensions are known for each of the Vedas, and each Vedic text may have a number of schools associated with it. Elaborate methods for preserving the text were based on memorizing by heart instead of writing. Specific techniques for parsing and reciting the texts were used to assist in the memorization process. (See also: Vedic chant)

Vedas Prodigous energy was expended by ancient Indian culture in ensuring that these texts were transmitted from generation to generation with inordinate fidelity.[29] 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 ja-pha (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 again in the original order.[30] That these methods have been effective, is testified to by the preservation of the most ancient Indian religious text, the igveda, as redacted into a single text during the Brahmana period, without any variant readings.[30]

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The four VedasThe canonical division of the Vedas is fourfold (turya) viz.,[31] 1. Rigveda (RV) 2. Yajurveda (YV, with the main division TS vs. VS) 3. Sama-Veda (SV) 4. Atharva-Veda (AV) Of these, the first three were the principal original division, also called "tray vidy", that is, "the triple sacred science" of reciting hymns (RV), performing sacrifices (YV), and chanting (SV).[32] [33] This triplicity is so introduced in the Brahmanas (ShB, ABr and others), but the Rigveda is the older work of the three from which the other two borrow, next to their own independent Yajus, sorcery and speculative mantras.Rigveda (padapatha) manuscript in Devanagari, early 19th century Thus, the Mantras are properly of three forms: 1. Ric, which are verses of praise in metre, and intended for loud recitation; 2. Yajus, which are in prose, and intended for recitation in lower voice at sacrifices; 3. Sman, which are in metre, and intended for singing at the Soma ceremonies.

The Yajurveda, Samaveda and Atharvaveda are independent collections of mantras and hymns intended as manuals for the Adhvaryu, Udgatr and Brahman priests respectively. The Atharvaveda is the fourth Veda. Its status has occasionally been ambiguous, probably due to its use in sorcery and healing. However, it contains very old materials in early Vedic language. Manusmrti, which often speaks of the three Vedas, calling them trayam-brahma-santanam, "the triple eternal Veda". The Atharvaveda like the Rigveda, is a collection of original incantations, and other materials borrowing relatively little from the Rigveda. It has no direct relation to the solemn rauta sacrifices, except for the fact that the mostly silent Brahmn priest observes the procedures and uses Atharvaveda mantras to 'heal' it when mistakes have been made. Its recitation also produces long life, cures diseases, or effects the ruin of enemies. Each of the four Vedas consists of the metrical Mantra or Samhita and the prose Brahmana part, giving discussions and directions for the detail of the ceremonies at which the Mantras were to be used and explanations of the legends connected with the Mantras and rituals. Both these portions are termed shruti (which tradition says to have been heard but not composed or written down by men). Each of the four Vedas seems to have passed to numerous Shakhas or schools, giving rise to various recensions of the text. They each have an Index or Anukramani, the

Vedas principal work of this kind being the general Index or Sarvnukrama.

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RigvedaThe Rigveda Samhita is the oldest extant Indic text.[34] It is a collection of 1,028 Vedic Sanskrit hymns and 10,600 verses in all, organized into ten books (Sanskrit: mandalas).[35] The hymns are dedicated to Rigvedic deities.[36] The books were composed by poets from different priestly groups over a period of several centuries, commonly dated to the period of roughly the second half of the 2nd millennium BCE (the early Vedic period) in the Punjab (Sapta Sindhu) region of the Indian subcontinent.[37] There are strong linguistic and cultural similarities between the Rigveda and the early Iranian Avesta, deriving from the Proto-Indo-Iranian times, often associated with the Andronovo culture; the earliest horse-drawn chariots were found at Andronovo sites in the Sintashta-Petrovka cultural area near the Ural Mountains and date to ca. 2000 BCE.[38]

YajurvedaThe Yajurveda Samhita consists of archaic prose mantras and also in part of verses borrowed and adapted from the Rigveda. Its purpose was practical, in that each mantra must accompany an action in sacrifice but, unlike the Samaveda, it was compiled to apply to all sacrificial rites, not merely the Somayajna. There are two major groups of recensions of this Veda, known as the "Black" (Krishna) and "White" (Shukla) Yajurveda (Krishna and Shukla Yajurveda respectively). While White Yajurveda separates the Samhita from its Brahmana (the Shatapatha Brahmana), the e Black Yajurveda intersperses the Samhita with Brahmana commentary. Of the Black Yajurveda four major recensions survive (Maitrayani, Katha, Kapisthala-Katha, Taittiriya).

SamavedaThe Samaveda Samhita (from sman, the term for a melody applied to metrical hymn or song of praise[39] ) consists of 1549 stanzas, taken almost entirely (except for 78 stanzas) from the Rigveda.[25] Like the Rigvedic stanzas in the Yajurveda, the Samans have been changed and adapted for use in singing. Some of the Rigvedic verses are repeated more than once. Including repetitions, there are a total of 1875 verses numbered in the Samaveda recension translated by Griffith.[40] Two major recensions remain today, the Kauthuma/Ranayaniya and the Jaiminiya. Its purpose was liturgical, as the repertoire of the udgt or "singer" priests who took part in the sacrifice.

AtharvavedaThe Artharvaveda Samhita is the text 'belonging to the Atharvan and Angirasa poets. It has 760 hymns, and about 160 of the hymns are in common with the Rigveda.[41] Most of the verses are metrical, but some sections are in prose.[41] It was compiled around 900 BCE, although some of its material may go back to the time of the Rigveda,[42] and some parts of the Atharva-Veda are older than the Rig-Veda[41] though not in linguistic form. The Atharvaveda is preserved in two recensions, the Paippalda and aunaka.[41] According to Apte it had nine schools (shakhas).[43] The Paippalada text, which exists in a Kashmir and an Orissa version, is longer than the Saunaka one; it is only partially printed in its two versions and remains largely untranslated. Unlike the other three Vedas, the Atharvanaveda has less connection with sacrifice.[44] [45] Its first part consists chiefly of spells and incantations, concerned with protection against demons and disaster, spells for the healing of diseases, for long life and for various desires or aims in life.[41] [46] The second part of the text contains speculative and philosophical hymns.[47] The Atharvaveda is a comparatively late extension of the "Three Vedas" connected to priestly sacrifice to a canon of "Four Vedas". This may be connected to an extension of the sacrificial rite from involving three types of priest to the inclusion of the Brahman overseeing the ritual.[48]

Vedas The Atharvaveda is concerned with the material world or world of man and in this respect differs from the other three vedas. Atharvaveda also sanctions the use of force, in particular circumstances and similarly this point is a departure from the three other vedas.

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BrahmanasFurther information: Brahmanas The mystical notions surrounding the concept of the one "Veda" that would flower in Vedantic philosophy have their roots already in Brahmana literature, for example in the Shatapatha Brahmana. The Vedas are identified with Brahman, the universal principle (BM 10.1.1.8, 10.2.4.6). Vc "speech" is called the "mother of the Vedas" (BM 6.5.3.4, 10.5.5.1). The knowledge of the Vedas is endless, compared to them, human knowledge is like mere handfuls of dirt (TB 3.10.11.3-5). The universe itself was originally encapsulated in the three Vedas (BM 10.4.2.22 has Prajapati reflecting that "truly, all beings are in the triple Veda").

VedantaFurther information: Vedanta,Upanishads,andAranyakas While contemporary traditions continued to maintain Vedic ritualism (rauta, Mimamsa), Vedanta renounced all ritualism and radically re-interpreted the notion of "Veda" in purely philosophical terms. The association of the three Vedas with the bhr bhuva sva mantra is found in the Aitareya Aranyaka: "Bh is the Rigveda, bhuva is the Yajurveda, sva is the Samaveda" (1.3.2). The Upanishads reduce the "essence of the Vedas" further, to the syllable Aum (). Thus, the Katha Upanishad has: "The goal, which all Vedas declare, which all austerities aim at, and which humans desire when they live a life of continence, I will tell you briefly it is Aum" (1.2.15)

In post-Vedic literatureVedangaVeda Vyasa attributed to have compiled the Vedas

Six technical subjects related to the Vedas are traditionally known as vedga "limbs of the Veda". V. S. Apte defines this group of works as: "N. of a certain class of works regarded as auxiliary to the Vedas and designed to aid in the correct pronunciation and interpretation of the text and the right employment of the Mantras in ceremonials."[49] These subjects are treated in Stra literature dating from the end of the Vedic period to Mauryan times, seeing the transition from late Vedic Sanskrit to Classical Sanskrit. The six subjects of Vedanga are: Phonetics (ik) Ritual (Kalpa) Grammar (Vykaraa) Etymology (Nirukta)

Meter (Chandas) Astronomy (Jyotia)

Vedas

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ParisistaPariia "supplement, appendix" is the term applied to various ancillary works of Vedic literature, dealing mainly with details of ritual and elaborations of the texts logically and chronologically prior to them: the Samhitas, Brahmanas, Aranyakas and Sutras. Naturally classified with the Veda to which each pertains, Parisista works exist for each of the four Vedas. However, only the literature associated with the Atharvaveda is extensive. The valyana Ghya Pariia is a very late text associated with the Rigveda canon. The Gobhila Ghya Pariia is a short metrical text of two chapters, with 113 and 95 verses respectively. The Ktiya Pariias, ascribed to Ktyyana, consist of 18 works enumerated self-referentially in the fifth of the series (the Caraavyha)and the Ktyyana rauta Stra Pariia. The Ka Yajurveda has 3 parisistas The pastamba Hautra Pariia, which is also found as the second prana of the Satyasha rauta Stra', the Vrha rauta Stra Pariia For the Atharvaveda, there are 79 works, collected as 72 distinctly named parisistas.[50]

PuranasA traditional view given in the Vishnu Purana (likely dating to the Gupta period[51] ) attributes the current arrangement of four Vedas to the mythical sage Vedavyasa.[52] Puranic tradition also postulates a single original Veda that, in varying accounts, was divided into three or four parts. According to the Vishnu Purana (3.2.18, 3.3.4 etc.) the original Veda was divided into four parts, and further fragmented into numerous shakhas, by Lord Vishnu in the form of Vyasa, in the Dvapara Yuga; the Vayu Purana (section 60) recounts a similar division by Vyasa, at the urging of Brahma. The Bhagavata Purana (12.6.37) traces the origin of the primeval Veda to the syllable aum, and says that it was divided into four at the start of Dvapara Yuga, because men had declined in age, virtue and understanding. In a differing account Bhagavata Purana (9.14.43) attributes the division of the primeval veda (aum) into three parts to the monarch Pururavas at the beginning of Treta Yuga. The Mahabharata (santiparva 13,088) also mentions the division of the Veda into three in Treta Yuga.[53]

UpavedaThe term upaveda ("applied knowledge") is used in traditional literature to designate the subjects of certain technical works.[54] [55] Lists of what subjects are included in this class differ among sources. The Charanavyuha mentions four Upavedas: Medicine (yurveda), associated with the Rigveda Archery (Dhanurveda), associated with the Yajurveda Music and sacred dance (Gndharvaveda), associated with the Samaveda Military science (Shastrashastra), associated with the Atharvaveda

But Sushruta and Bhavaprakasha mention Ayurveda as an upaveda of the Atharvaveda. Sthapatyaveda (architecture), Shilpa Shastras (arts and crafts) are mentioned as fourth upaveda according to later sources.

Buddhist and Jain viewsBuddhism and Jainism do not reject the Vedas, but merely their absolute authority. Buddhism In the Buddhist Vinaya Pitaka of the Mahavagga (I.245)[56] section the Buddha declared that the Veda in its true form was declared to the Vedic rishis "Atthako, Vmako, Vmadevo, Vessmitto, Yamataggi, Angiraso, Bhradvjo, Vsettho, Kassapo, and Bhagu"[57] but that it was altered by a few Brahmins who introduced animal sacrifices. The Vinaya Pitaka's section Anguttara Nikaya: Panchaka Nipata says that it was on this alteration of the true Veda that the Buddha refused to pay respect to the Vedas of his time.[58]

Vedas Also in the "Brahmana Dhammika Sutta" (II,7)[59] of the Suttanipata section of Vinaya Pitaka[60] there is a story of when the Buddha was in Jetavana village and there were a group of elderly Brahmin ascetics who sat down next to the Buddha and asked him, "Do the present Brahmans follow the same rules, practise the same rites, as those in the more ancient times?" The Buddha replied, "No." The elderly Brahmins asked the Buddha that if it were not inconvenient for him, that he would tell them of the Brahmana Dharma of the previous generation. The Buddha replied: "There were formerly rishis, men who had subdued all passion by the keeping of the sila precepts and the leading of a pure life...Their riches and possessions consisted in the study of the Veda and their treasure was a life free from all evil...The Brahmans, for a time, continued to do right and received in alms rice, seats, clothes, and oil, though they did not ask for them. The animals that were given they did not kill; but they procured useful medicaments from the cows, regarding the as friends and relatives, whose products give strength, beauty and health." So in this passage also the Buddha describes when the Brahmins were studying the Veda but the animal sacrifice customs had not yet began. The Buddha was declared to have been born as a Brahmin who was a knower of the Vedas and its philosophies in a number of his previous lives according to Buddhist scriptures. Other Buddhas too were said to have been born as Brahmins that were trained in the Vedas. The Mahasupina Jataka[61] and Lohakumbhi Jataka[62] declares that Brahmin Sariputra in a previous life was a Brahmin that prevented animal sacrifice by declaring that animal sacrifice was actually against the Vedas. Jainism A Jain sage intereprets the Vedic sacrifices as metaphorical: "Body is the altar, mind is the fire blazing with the ghee of knowledge and burning the sacrificial sticks of impurities produced from the tree of karma;..."[63] Further, Jain Sage Jinabhadra in his Visesavasyakabhasya cites a numeber of passages from the Vedic Upanishads.[64] Jain are in conformity with the Vedas in reference to both the Vedas' and Jainism' acceptance of the 22 Tirthankaras: Of Rishabha (1st Tirthankara Rishabha) is written: "But Risabha went on, unperturbed by anything till he became sin-free like a conch that takes no black dot, without obstruction ... which is the epithet of the First World-teacher, may become the destroyer of enemies" (Rig Veda X.166) Of Aristanemi (Tirthankara Neminatha) is written: "So asmakam Aristanemi svaha Arhan vibharsi sayakani dhanvarhanistam yajatam visvarupam arhannidam dayase" (Astak 2, Varga 7, Rig Veda)

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"Fifth" and other VedasSome post-Vedic texts, including the Mahabharata, the Natyasastra and certain Puranas, refer to themselves as the "fifth Veda".[65] The earliest reference to such a "fifth Veda" is found in the Chandogya Upanishad. "Dravida Veda" is a term for canonical Tamil Bhakti texts. Other texts such as the Bhagavad Gita or the Vedanta Sutras are considered shruti or "Vedic" by some Hindu denominations but not universally within Hinduism. The Bhakti movement, and Gaudiya Vaishnavism in particular extended the term veda to include the Sanskrit Epics and Vaishnavite devotional texts such as the Pancaratra.[66]

Vedas

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Western IndologyFurther information: Sanskrit in the West The study of Sanskrit in the West began in the 17th century. In the early 19th century, Arthur Schopenhauer drew attention to Vedic texts, specifically the Upanishads. The importance of Vedic Sanskrit for Indo-European studies was also recognized in the early 19th century. English translations of the Samhitas were published in the later 19th century, in the Sacred Books of the East series edited by Mller between 1879 and 1910.[67] Ralph T. H. Griffith also presented English translations of the four Samhitas, published 1889 to 1899.

Notes[1] see e.g. Radhakrishnan & Moore 1957, p.3; Witzel, Michael, "Vedas and Upaniads", in: Flood 2003, p.68; MacDonell 2004, pp.2939; Sanskrit literature (2003) in Philip's Encyclopedia. Accessed 2007-08-09 [2] Sanujit Ghose (2011). " Religious Developments in Ancient India (http:/ / www. ancient. eu. com/ article/ 230/ )" in Ancient History Encyclopedia. [3] Bloomfield, M. The Atharvaveda and the Gopatha-Brahmana, (Grundriss der Indo-Arischen Philologie und Altertumskunde II.1.b.) Strassburg 1899; Gonda, J. A history of Indian literature: I.1 Vedic literature (Samhitas and Brahmanas); I.2 The Ritual Sutras. Wiesbaden 1975, 1977 [4] http:/ / hinduism. about. com/ od/ scripturesepics/ a/ rigveda. htm [5] Apte, pp. 109f. has "not of the authorship of man, of divine origin" [6] [7] [8] [9] Apte 1965, p.887 Mller 1891, pp.1718 Flood 1996, p.82 "The brahmin by caste alone, the teacher of the Veda, is (jokingly) etymologized as the 'non-meditator' (ajjhyaka). Brahmins who have memorized the three Vedas (tevijja) really know nothing: it is the process of achieving Enlightenment - what the Buddha is said to have achieved in the three watches of that night - which constitutes the true 'three knowledges.'" R.F. Gombrich in Paul Williams, ed., "Buddhism: Critical Concepts in Religious Studies." Taylor and Francis 2006, page 120. [10] Chahal, Dr. Devindar Singh (Jan-June 2006), "Is Sikhism a Unique Religion or a Vedantic Religion?", Understanding Sikhism - the Research Journal 8 (1): 35. [11] Aad Guru Granth Sahib, Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, Amritsar, 1983 [12] "Eclecticism and Modern Hindu Discourse, Brian Hatcher, OUP 1999" [13] The Dravidian Movement by Gail Omvedt [14] The Vernacular Veda by Vasudha Narayanan [15] Monier-Williams 2006, p.1015; Apte 1965, p.856 [16] K.F. Geldner. Der Rig-Veda, Harvard Oriental Series 33-37, Cambridge 1951 [17] see e.g. Pokorny's 1959 Indogermanisches etymologisches Wrterbuch s.v. u(e)id-; Rix' Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben, ueid-. Old-slavic and old-church slavonic/old bulgarian form ' "knowledge" and verb ' "to know" [18] Monier-Williams (1899) [19] Gavin Flood sums up mainstream estimates, according to which the Rigveda was compiled from as early as 1500 BCE over a period of several centuries. Flood 1996, p.37 [20] Witzel, Michael, "Vedas and Upaniads", in: Flood 2003, p.68 [21] For the possibility of written texts during the first century BCE see: Witzel, Michael, "Vedas and Upaniads", in: Flood 2003, p.69; For oral composition and oral transmission for "many hundreds of years" before being written down, see: Avari 2007, p.76. [22] Brodd, Jefferey (2003), World Religions, Winona, MN: Saint Mary's Press, ISBN978-0-88489-725-5 [23] according to ISKCON, Hindu Sacred Texts (http:/ / hinduism. iskcon. com/ tradition/ 1105. htm), "Hindus themselves often use the term to describe anything connected to the Vedas and their corollaries (e.g. Vedic culture)". [24] 37,575 are Rigvedic. Of the remaining, 34,857 appear in the other three Samhitas, and 16,405 are known only from Brahmanas, Upanishads or Sutras [25] Michaels 2004, p.51. [26] Witzel, Michael, "Vedas and Upaniads", in: Flood 2003, p.69. [27] For a table of all Vedic texts see Witzel, Michael, "Vedas and Upaniads", in: Flood 2003, pp.100101. [28] Flood 1996, p.39. [29] (Staal 1986) [30] (Filliozat 2004, p.139) [31] Radhakrishnan & Moore 1957, p.3; Witzel, Michael, "Vedas and Upaniads", in: Flood 2003, p.68 [32] MacDonell 2004, pp.2939

Vedas[33] Witzel, M., " The Development of the Vedic Canon and its Schools : The Social and Political Milieu (http:/ / www. people. fas. harvard. edu/ ~witzel/ canon. pdf)" in Witzel 1997, pp.257348 [34] see e.g. Avari 2007, p.77. [35] For 1,028 hymns and 10,600 verses and division into ten mandalas, see: Avari 2007, p.77. [36] For characterization of content and mentions of deities including Agni, Indra, Varuna, Soma, Surya, etc. see: Avari 2007, p.77. [37] see e.g. Avari 2007, p.77. Max Mller gave 17001100 BCE, Michael Witzel gives 1450-1350 BCE as terminus ad quem. [38] Drews, Robert (2004), Early Riders: The beginnings of mounted warfare in Asia and Europe, New York: Routledge, p.50 [39] Apte 1965, p.981. [40] For 1875 total verses, see numbering given in Ralph T. H. Griffith. Griffith's introduction mentions the recension history for his text. Repetitions may be found by consulting the cross-index in Griffith pp. 491-99. [41] Michaels 2004, p.56. [42] Flood 1996, p.37. [43] Apte 1965, p.37. [44] Flood 1996, p.36. [45] Witzel, Michael, "Vedas and Upaniads", in: Flood 2003, p.76. [46] Radhakrishnan & Moore 1957, p.3. [47] "The latest of the four Vedas, the Atharva-Veda, is, as we have seen, largely composed of magical texts and charms, but here and there we find cosmological hymns which anticipate the Upanishads, -- hymns to Skambha, the 'Support', who is seen as the first principle which is both the material and efficient cause of the universe, to Prna, the 'Breath of Life', to Vc, the 'Word', and so on." Zaehner 1966, p.vii. [48] "There were originally only three priests associated with the first three Sahits, for the Brahman as overseer of the rites does not appear in the g Veda and is only incorporated later, thereby showing the acceptance of the Atharva Veda, which had been somewhat distinct from the other Sahits and identified with the lower social strata, as being of equal standing with the other texts."Flood 1996, p.42. [49] Apte 1965, p.387. [50] BR Modak, The Ancillary Literature of the Atharva-Veda, New Delhi, Rashtriya Veda Vidya Pratishthan, 1993, ISBN 81-215-0607-7 [51] Flood 1996, p.111 dates it to the 4th century CE. [52] Vishnu Purana, translation by Horace Hayman Wilson, 1840, Ch IV, http:/ / www. sacred-texts. com/ hin/ vp/ vp078. htm [53] Muir 1861, pp.2031 [54] Monier-Williams 2006, p.207. (http:/ / www. ibiblio. org/ sripedia/ ebooks/ mw/ 0200/ mw__0240. html) Accessed 5 April 2007. [55] Apte 1965, p.293. [56] P. 494 The Pali-English dictionary By Thomas William Rhys Davids, William Stede [57] P. 245 The Vinaya piaka: one of the principle Buddhist holy scriptures ..., Volume 1 edited by Hermann Oldenberg [58] P. 44 The legends and theories of the Buddhists, compared with history and science By Robert Spence Hardy [59] P. 94 A history of Indian literature, Volume 2 by Moriz Winternitz [60] P. 45-46 The legends and theories of the Buddhists, compared with history and science By Robert Spence Hardy [61] P. 577 Dictionary of Pali Proper Names: Pali-English By G.P. Malalasekera [62] P. 30 The Jataka or Stories of the Buddha's Former Births By E. B. Cowell [63] P. 92 Studies in Jain literature by Vaman Mahadeo Kulkarni, reshh Kastrabh Llabh Smraka Nidhi [64] P. 93 Studies in Jain literature by Vaman Mahadeo Kulkarni, reshh Kastrabh Llabh Smraka Nidhi [65] Sullivan 1994, p.385 [66] Goswami, Satsvarupa (1976), Readings in Vedic Literature: The Tradition Speaks for Itself, S.l.: Assoc Publishing Group, pp.240 pages, ISBN0912776889 [67] Mller, Friedrich Max (author) & Stone, Jon R. (author, editor) (2002). The essential Max Mller: on language, mythology, and religion. Illustrated edition. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 0312293097, 9780312293093. Source: (http:/ / books. google. com. au/ books?id=Q96EsUCVlLsC& printsec=frontcover& dq=Max+ Mller& ei=SRjkS6LcI4TulQSj6InGCQ& cd=3#v=onepage& q& f=false) (accessed: Friday May 7, 2010), p.44

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References Apte, Vaman Shivram (1965), The Practical Sanskrit Dictionary (4th revised & enlarged ed.), Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN81-208-0567-4. Avari, Burjor (2007), India: The Ancient Past, London: Routledge, ISBN978-0-415-35616-9 Flood, Gavin (1996), An Introduction to Hinduism, Cambridge University Press, ISBN0-521-43878-0 Flood, Gavin, ed. (2003), The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism, Malden, MA: Blackwell, ISBN1-4051-3251-5 Holdrege, Barbara A. (1995), Veda and Torah, SUNY Press, ISBN0791416399 MacDonell, Arthur Anthony (2004), A History of Sanskrit Literature, Kessinger Publishing, ISBN1417906197 Michaels, Axel (2004), Hinduism: Past and Present, Princeton University Press, ISBN0-691-08953-1

Vedas Monier-Williams, Monier, ed. (2006), Monier-Williams Sanskrit Dictionary, Nataraj Books, ISBN18-81338-58-4. Muir, John (1861), Original Sanskrit Texts on the Origin and Progress of the Religion and Institutions of India (http://books.google.com/?id=_VCXTBk-PtoC), Williams and Norgate Mller, Max (1891), Chips from a German Workshop (http://books.google.com/?id=J8Zo_rtoWAEC), New York: C. Scribner's sons. Radhakrishnan, Sarvepalli; Moore, Charles A., eds. (1957), A Sourcebook in Indian Philosophy (12th Princeton Paperback ed.), Princeton University Press, ISBN0-691-01958-4. Smith, Brian K., Canonical Authority and Social Classification: Veda and "Vara" in Ancient Indian Texts-, History of Religions, The University of Chicago Press (1992), 103-125. Sullivan, B. M. (Summer 1994), "The Religious Authority of the Mahabharata: Vyasa and Brahma in the Hindu Scriptural Tradition", Journal of the American Academy of Religion 62 (1): 377401, doi:10.1093/jaarel/LXII.2.377. Witzel, Michael (ed.) (1997), Inside the Texts, Beyond the Texts. New Approaches to the Study of the Vedas, Harvard Oriental Series, Opera Minora vol. 2, Cambridge: Harvard University Press Zaehner, R. C. (1966), Hindu Scriptures, London: Everyman's Library

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LiteratureOverviews J. Gonda, Vedic Literature: Sahits and Brhmaas, A History of Indian literature. Vol. 1, Veda and Upanishads (1975), ISBN 9783447016032. J. A. Santucci, An Outline of Vedic Literature (1976). S. Shrava, A Comprehensive History of Vedic Literature Brahmana and Aranyaka Works, Pranava Prakashan (1977). Concordances M. Bloomfield, A Vedic Concordance (1907) Vishva Bandhu, Bhim Dev, S. Bhaskaran Nair (eds.), Vaidika-Padnukrama-Koa: A Vedic Word-Concordance, Vishveshvaranand Vedic Research Institute, Hoshiarpur, 19631965, revised edition 1973-1976. Conference proceedings Griffiths, Arlo and Houben, Jan E. M. (eds.), The Vedas : texts, language & ritual: proceedings of the Third International Vedic Workshop, Leiden 2002, Groningen Oriental Studies 20, Groningen : Forsten, (2004), ISBN 90-6980-149-3.

External links GRETIL etexts (http://www.sub.uni-goettingen.de/ebene_1/fiindolo/gretil.htm#Veda) The Vedas at sacred-texts.com (http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/index.htm#vedas) Vedas: Rig, Sama, Yajur, and Atharva (http://www.comparative-religion.com/hinduism/vedas/) Vedas and Upanishads Complete set (http://www.gayathrimanthra.com/Library.html)

Rigveda

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RigvedaThe Rigveda (Sanskrit: gveda, a compound of c "praise, verse"[1] and veda "knowledge") is an ancient Indian sacred collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns. It is counted among the four canonical sacred texts (ruti) of Hinduism known as the Vedas.[2] Some of its verses are still recited as Hindu prayers, at religious functions and other occasions, putting these among the world's oldest religious texts in continued use. The Rigveda contains several mythological and poetical accounts of the origin of the world, hymns praising the gods, and ancient prayers for life, prosperity, etc.[3] It is one of the oldest extant texts in any Indo-European language. Philological and linguistic evidence indicate that the Rigveda was composed in the north-western region of the Indian subcontinent, roughly between 17001100 BC[4] (the early Vedic period).

TextThe surviving form of the Rigveda is based on an early Iron Age (c. 10th c. BC) collection that established the core 'family books' (mandalas 27, ordered by author, deity and meter [5] ) and a later redaction, co-eval with the redaction of the other Vedas, dating several centuries after the hymns were composed. This redaction also included some additions (contradicting the strict ordering scheme) and orthoepic changes to the Vedic Sanskrit such as the regularization of sandhi (termed orthoepische Diaskeuase by Oldenberg, 1888). As with the other Vedas, the redacted text has been handed down in several versions, most importantly the Padapatha that has each word isolated in pausa form and is used for just one way of memorization; and the Samhitapatha that combines words according to the rules of sandhi (the process being described in the Pratisakhya) and is the memorized text used for recitation. The Padapatha and the Pratisakhya anchor the text's fidelity and meaning[6] and the fixed text was preserved with unparalleled fidelity for more than a millennium by oral tradition alone. In order to achieve this the oral tradition prescribed very structured enunciation, involving breaking down the Sanskrit compounds into stems and inflections, as well as certain permutations. This interplay with sounds gave rise to a scholarly tradition of morphology and phonetics. The Rigveda was probably not written down until the Gupta period (4th to 6th century AD), by which time the Brahmi script had become widespread (the oldest surviving manuscripts date to the Late Middle Ages).[7] The oral tradition still continued into recent times. The original text (as authored by the Rishis) is close to but not identical to the extant Samhitapatha, but metrical and other observations allow to reconstruct (in part at least) the original text from the extant one, as printed in the Harvard Oriental Series, vol. 50 (1994).[8]

OrganizationThe text is organized in 10 books, known as Mandalas, of varying age and length. The "family books": mandalas 27, are the oldest part of the Rigveda and the shortest books; they are arranged by length and account for 38% of the text. The eighth and ninth mandalas, comprising hymns of mixed age, account for 15% and 9%, respectively. The first and the tenth mandalas are the youngest; they are also the longest books, of 191 suktas each, accounting for 37% of the text. Each mandala consists of hymns called skta (su-ukta, literally, "well recited, eulogy") intended for various sacrificial rituals. The sktas in turn consist of individual stanzas called c ("praise", pl. cas), which are further analysed into units of verse called pada ("foot"). The meters most used in the cas are the jagati (a pada consists of 12 syllables), trishtubh (11), viraj (10), gayatri and anushtubh (8). For pedagogical convenience, each mandala is synthetically divided into roughly equal sections of several sktas, called anuvka ("recitation"), which modern publishers often omit. Another scheme divides the entire text over the

Rigveda 10 mandalas into aaka ("eighth"), adhyya ("chapter") and varga ("class"). Some publishers give both classifications in a single edition. The most common numbering scheme is by book, hymn and stanza (and pada a, b, c ..., if required). E.g., the first pada is 1.1.1a agnm e purhita "Agni I invoke, the housepriest" and the final pada is 10.191.4d yth va ssahsati

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RecensionsThe major Rigvedic shakha ("branch", i. e. recension) that has survived is that of kalya. Another shakha that may have survived is the Bkala, although this is uncertain.[9] [10] [11] The surviving padapatha version of the Rigveda text is ascribed to kalya.[12] The kala recension has 1,017 regular hymns, and an appendix of 11 vlakhilya hymns[13] which are now customarily included in the 8th mandala (as 8.498.59), for a total of 1028 hymns.[14] The Bkala recension includes 8 of these vlakhilya hymns among its regular hymns, making a total of 1025 regular hymns for this kh.[15] In addition, the Bkala recension has its own appendix of 98 hymns, the Khilani.[16] In the 1877 edition of Aufrecht, the 1028 hymns of the Rigveda contain a total of 10,552 cs, or 39,831 padas. The Shatapatha Brahmana gives the number of syllables to be 432,000,[17] while the metrical text of van Nooten and Holland (1994) has a total of 395,563 syllables (or an average of 9.93 syllables per pada); counting the number of syllables is not straightforward because of issues with sandhi and the post-Rigvedic pronunciation of syllables like svar as svr.

RishisTradition associates a rishi (the composer) with each c of the Rigveda.[18] Most sktas are attributed to single composers. The "family books" (27) are so-called because they have hymns by members of the same clan in each book; but other clans are also represented in the Rigveda. In all, 10 families of rishis account for more than 95% of the cs; for each of them the Rigveda includes a lineage-specific pr hymn (a special skta of rigidly formulaic structure, used for animal sacrifice in the soma ritual).Family Angiras Kanva Vasishtha pr I.142 I.13 VII.2 cas [19]

3619 (especially Mandala 6) 1315 (especially Mandala 8) 1276 (Mandala 7) 983 (Mandala 3) 885 (Mandala 5)

Vishvamitra III.4 Atri Bhrgu Kashyapa Grtsamada Agastya Bharata V.5

X.110 473 IX.5 II.3 I.188 X.70 415 (part of Mandala 9) 401 (Mandala 2) 316 170

Rigveda

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ManuscriptsThere are, for example, 30 manuscripts of Rigveda at the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, collected in the 19th century by Georg Bhler, Franz Kielhorn and others, originating from different parts of India, including Kashmir, Gujarat, the then Rajaputana, Central Provinces etc. They were transferred to Deccan College, Pune, in the late 19th century. They are in the Sharada and Devanagari scripts, written on birch bark and paper. The oldest of them is dated to 1464. The 30 manuscripts of Rigveda preserved at the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Pune were added to UNESCO's "Memory of the World Register in 2007.[20] [21] Of these 30 manuscripts, 9 contain the samhita text, 5 have the padapatha in addition. 13 contain Sayana's commentary. At least 5 manuscripts (MS. no. 1/A1879-80, 1/A1881-82, 331/1883-84 and 5/Vi I) have preserved the complete text of the Rigveda. MS no. 5/1875-76, written on birch bark in bold Sharada, was only in part used by Max Mller for his edition of the Rigveda with Sayana's commentary. Mller used 24 manuscripts then available to him in Europe, while the Pune Edition used over five dozen manuscripts, but the editors of Pune Edition could not procure many manuscripts used by Mller and by the Bombay Edition, as well as from some other sources; hence the total number of extant manuscripts known then must surpass perhaps eighty at least[22]

ContentsThe Rigvedic hymns are dedicated to various deities, chief of whom are Indra, a heroic god praised for having slain his enemy Vrtra; Agni, the sacrificial fire; and Soma, the sacred potion or the plant it is made from. Equally prominent gods are the Adityas or Asura gods MitraVaruna and Ushas (the dawn). Also invoked are Savitr, Vishnu, Rudra, Pushan, Brihaspati or Brahmanaspati, as well as deified natural phenomena such as Dyaus Pita (the shining sky, Father Heaven ), Prithivi (the earth, Mother Earth), Surya (the sun god), Vayu or Vata (the wind), Apas (the waters), Parjanya (the thunder and rain), Vac (the word), many rivers (notably the Sapta Sindhu, and the Sarasvati River). The Adityas, Vasus, Rudras, Sadhyas, Ashvins, Maruts, Rbhus, and the Vishvadevas ("all-gods") as well as the "thirty-three gods" are the groups of deities mentioned. The hymns mention various further minor gods, persons, phenomena and items, and contain fragmentary references to possible historical events, notably the struggle between the early Vedic people (known as Vedic Aryans, a subgroup of the Indo-Aryans) and their enemies, the Dasa or Dasyu and their mythical prototypes, the Pai (the Bactrian Parna).

Rigveda

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Mandala 1 comprises 191 hymns. Hymn 1.1 is addressed to Agni, and his name is the first word of the Rigveda. The remaining hymns are mainly addressed to Agni and Indra, as well as Varuna, Mitra, the Ashvins, the Maruts, Usas, Surya, Rbhus, Rudra, Vayu, Brhaspati, Visnu, Heaven and Earth, and all the Gods. Mandala 2 comprises 43 hymns, mainly to Agni and Indra. It is chiefly attributed to the Rishi gtsamada aunahotra. Mandala 3 comprises 62 hymns, mainly to Agni and Indra and the Vishvedevas. The verse 3.62.10 has great importance in Hinduism as the Gayatri Mantra. Most hymns in this book are attributed to vivmitra gthina. Mandala 4 comprises 58 hymns, mainly to Agni and Indra as well as the Rbhus, Ashvins, Brhaspati, Vayu, Usas, etc. Most hymns in this book are attributed to vmadeva gautama.Rigveda (padapatha) manuscript in Devanagari, early 19th century. After a scribal benediction ("rgayanama ;; Aum(3) ;;"), the first line has the opening words of RV.1.1.1 (agni ; ie ; pura-hita ; yajasya ; deva ; tvija). The Vedic accent is marked by underscores and vertical overscores in red.

Mandala 5 comprises 87 hymns, mainly to Agni and Indra, the Visvedevas ("all the gods'), the Maruts, the twin-deity Mitra-Varuna and the Asvins. Two hymns each are dedicated to Ushas (the dawn) and to Savitr. Most hymns in this book are attributed to the atri clan. Mandala 6 comprises 75 hymns, mainly to Agni and Indra, all the gods, Pusan, Ashvin, Usas, etc. Most hymns in this book are attributed to the brhaspatya family of Angirasas. Mandala 7 comprises 104 hymns, to Agni, Indra, the Visvadevas, the Maruts, Mitra-Varuna, the Asvins, Ushas, Indra-Varuna, Varuna, Vayu (the wind), two each to Sarasvati (ancient river/goddess of learning) and Vishnu, and to others. Most hymns in this book are attributed to vasiha maitravarui. Mandala 8 comprises 103 hymns to various gods. Hymns 8.49 to 8.59 are the apocryphal vlakhilya. Hymns 148 and 6066 are attributed to the kva clan, the rest to other (Angirasa) poets. Mandala 9 comprises 114 hymns, entirely devoted to Soma Pavamana, the cleansing of the sacred potion of the Vedic religion. Mandala 10 comprises additional 191 hymns, frequently in later language, addressed to Agni, Indra and various other deities. It contains the Nadistuti sukta which is in praise of rivers and is important for the reconstruction of the geography of the Vedic civilization and the Purusha sukta which has great significance in Hindu social tradition. It also contains the Nasadiya sukta (10.129), probably the most celebrated hymn in the west, which deals with creation. The marriage hymns (10.85) and the death hymns (10.1018) still are of great importance in the performance of the corresponding Grhya rituals.

Rigveda

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Dating and historical contextThe Rigveda's core is accepted to date to the late Bronze Age, making it one of the few examples with an unbroken tradition. Its composition is usually dated to roughly between 17001100 BC.[23] The Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture (s.v. Indo-Iranian languages, p.306) gives 15001000.[24] Being composed in an early Indo-Aryan language, the hymns must post-date the Indo-Iranian separation, dated to roughly 2000 BC.[25] A reasonable date close to that of the composition of the core of the Rigveda is that of the Indo-Aryan Mitanni documents of c. 1400 BC.[26] Other evidence also points to a composition close to 1400 BC[27] [28]

Geography of the Rigveda, with river names; the extent of the Swat and Cemetery H cultures are also indicated.

The Rigveda is far more archaic than any other Indo-Aryan text. For this reason, it was in the center of attention of western scholarship from the times of Max Mller and Rudolf Roth onwards. The Rigveda records an early stage of Vedic religion. There are strong linguistic and cultural similarities with the early Iranian Avesta,[29] deriving from the Proto-Indo-Iranian times,[30] [31] often associated with the early Andronovo culture of ca. 2000 BC.[32] The text in the following centuries underwent pronunciation revisions and standardization (samhitapatha, padapatha). This redaction would have been completed around the 6th century BC.[33] Exact dates are not established, but they fall within the pre-Buddhist period (500, or rather 400 BC). Writing appears in India around the 3rd century BC in the form of the Brahmi script, but texts of the length of the Rigveda were likely not written down until much later, the oldest surviving Rigvedic manuscript dating to the 14th century. While written manuscripts were used for teaching in medieval times, they were written on birch bark or palm leaves, which decompose fairly quickly in the tropical climate, until the advent of the printing press from the 16th century. Some Rigveda commentaries may date from the second half of the first millennium CE. The hymns were thus preserved by oral tradition for up to a millennium from the time of their composition until the redaction of the Rigveda, and the entire Rigveda was preserved in shakhas for another 2,500 years from the time of its redaction until the editio princeps by Rosen, Aufrecht and Max Mller. After their composition, the texts were preserved and codified by an extensive body of Vedic priesthood as the central philosophy of the Iron Age Vedic civilization. The Brahma Purana and the Vayu Purana name one Vidagdha as the author of the Padapatha.[34] The Rk-pratishakhya names Sthavira Shakalya of the Aitareya Aranyaka as its author.[35] The Rigveda describes a mobile, semi-nomadic culture, with horse-drawn chariots, oxen-drawn wagons, and metal (bronze) weapons. The geography described is consistent with that of the Greater Punjab: Rivers flow north to south, the mountains are relatively remote but still visible and reachable (Soma is a plant found in the high mountains, and it has to be purchased from tribal people). Nevertheless, the hymns were certainly composed over a long period, with the oldest (not preserved) elements possibly reaching back to times close to the split of Proto-Indo-Iranian (around 2000 BC)[36] Thus there was some debate over whether the boasts of the destruction of stone forts by the Vedic Aryans and particularly by Indra refer to cities of the Indus Valley civilization or whether they rather hark back to

Rigveda clashes between the early Indo-Aryans with the BMAC in what is now northern Afghanistan and southern Turkmenistan (separated from the upper Indus by the Hindu Kush mountain range, and some 400km distant). While it is highly likely that the bulk of the Rigvedic hymns were composed in the Punjab, even if based on earlier poetic traditions, there is no mention of either tigers or rice[37] in the Rigveda (as opposed to the later Vedas), suggesting that Vedic culture only penetrated into the plains of India after its completion. Similarly, there is no mention of iron as the term ayas occurring in the Rig Veda refers to useful metal in general.[38] The "black metal" (ka ayas) is first mentioned in the post-Rigvedic texts (Atharvaveda etc.). The Iron Age in northern India begins in the 10th century in the Greater Panjab. There is a widely accepted timeframe for the beginning codification of the Rigveda by compiling the hymns very late in the Rigvedic or rather in the early post-Rigvedic period, including the arrangement of the individual hymns in ten books, coeval with and the composition of the younger Veda Samhitas. This time coincides with the early Kuru kingdom, shifting the center of Vedic culture east from the Punjab into what is now Uttar Pradesh. The fixing of the samhitapatha (by keeping Sandhi) intact and of the padapatha (by dissolving Sandhi out of the earlier metrical text), occurred during the later Brahmana period. Some of the names of gods and goddesses found in the Rigveda are found amongst other belief systems based on Proto-Indo-European religion, while words used share common roots with words from other Indo-European languages. The horse (ashva), cattle, sheep and goat play an important role in the Rigveda. There are also references to the elephant (Hastin, Varana), camel (Ustra, especially in Mandala 8), ass (khara, rasabha), buffalo (Mahisa), wolf, hyena, lion (Simha), mountain goat (sarabha) and to the gaur in the Rigveda.[39] The peafowl (mayura), the goose (hamsa) and the chakravaka (Anas casarca) are some birds mentioned in the Rigveda.

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Ancillary TextsRigveda BrahmanasOf the Brahmanas that were handed down in the schools of the Bahvcas (i.e. "possessed of many verses"), as the followers of the Rigveda are called, two have come down to us, namely those of the Aitareyins and the Kaushitakins. The Aitareya-brahmana[40] and the Kaushitaki- (or Sankhayana-) brahmana evidently have for their groundwork the same stock of traditional exegetic matter. They differ, however, considerably as regards both the arrangement of this matter and their stylistic handling of it, with the exception of the numerous legends common to both, in which the discrepancy is comparatively slight. There is also a certain amount of material peculiar to each of them. The Kaushitaka is, upon the whole, far more concise in its style and more systematic in its arrangement features which would lead one to infer that it is probably the more modern work of the two. It consists of thirty chapters (adhyaya); while the Aitareya has forty, divided into eight books (or pentads, pancaka), of five chapters each. The last ten adhyayas of the latter work are, however, clearly a later addition though they must have already formed part of it at the time of Pini (ca. 5th c. BC), if, as seems probable, one of his grammatical sutras, regulating the formation of the names of Brahmanas, consisting of thirty and forty adhyayas, refers to these two works. In this last portion occurs the well-known legend (also found in the Shankhayana-sutra, but not in the Kaushitaki-brahmana) of Shunahshepa, whom his father Ajigarta sells and offers to slay, the recital of which formed part of the inauguration of kings. While the Aitareya deals almost exclusively with the Soma sacrifice, the Kaushitaka, in its first six chapters, treats of the several kinds of haviryajna, or offerings of rice, milk, ghee, &c., whereupon follows the Soma sacrifice in this way, that chapters 710 contain the practical ceremonial and 1130 the recitations (shastra) of the hotar. Sayana, in the introduction to his commentary on the work, ascribes the Aitareya to the sage Mahidasa Aitareya (i.e. son of Itara), also mentioned elsewhere as a philosopher; and it seems likely enough that this person arranged the Brahmana and founded the school of the Aitareyins. Regarding the authorship of the sister work we have no information, except that the opinion of the sage Kaushitaki is frequently referred to in it as authoritative, and generally in

Rigveda opposition to the Paingyathe Brahmana, it would seem, of a rival school, the Paingins. Probably, therefore, it is just what one of the manuscripts calls itthe Brahmana of Sankhayana (composed) in accordance with the views of Kaushitaki.

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Rigveda AranyakasEach of these two Brahmanas is supplemented by a "forest book", or Aranyaka. The Aitareyaranyaka is not a uniform production. It consists of five books (aranyaka), three of which, the first and the last two, are of a liturgical nature, treating of the ceremony called mahavrata, or great vow. The last of these books, composed in sutra form, is, however, doubtless of later origin, and is, indeed, ascribed by Hindu authorities either to Shaunaka or to Ashvalayana. The second and third books, on the other hand, are purely speculative, and are also styled the Bahvrca-brahmana-upanishad. Again, the last four chapters of the second book are usually singled out as the Aitareyopanishad, ascribed, like its Brahmana (and the first book), to Mahidasa Aitareya; and the third book is also referred to as the Samhita-upanishad. As regards the Kaushitaki-aranyaka, this work consists of 15 adhyayas, the first two (treating of the mahavrata ceremony) and the 7th and 8th of which correspond to the 1st, 5th, and 3rd books of the Aitareyaranyaka, respectively, whilst the four adhyayas usually inserted between them constitute the highly interesting Kaushitaki (brahmana-) upanishad, of which we possess two different recensions. The remaining portions (915) of the Aranyaka treat of the vital airs, the internal Agnihotra, etc., ending with the vamsha, or succession of teachers.

Medieval Hindu scholarshipAccording to Hindu tradition, the Rigvedic hymns were collected by Paila under the guidance of Vysa, who formed the Rigveda Samhita as we know it. According to the atapatha Brhmana, the number of syllables in the Rigveda is 432,000, equalling the number of muhurtas (1 day = 30 muhurtas) in forty years. This statement stresses the underlying philosophy of the Vedic books that there is a connection (bandhu) between the astronomical, the physiological, and the spiritual. The authors of the Brhmana literature discussed and interpreted the Vedic ritual. Yaska was an early commentator of the Rigveda by discussing the meanings of difficult words. In the 14th century, Syana wrote an exhaustive commentary on it. A number of other commentaries bhyas were written during the medieval period, including the commentaries by Skandasvamin (pre-Sayana, roughly of the Gupta period), Udgitha (pre-Sayana), Venkata-Madhava (pre-Sayana, ca. 10th to 12th century) and Mudgala (after Sayana, an abbreviated version of Sayana's commentary).[41]

In contemporary HinduismHindu revivalismSince the 19th and 20th centuries, some reformers like Swami Dayananda Saraswati, founder of the Arya Samaj and Sri Aurobindo have attempted to re-interpret the Vedas to conform to modern and established moral and spiritual norms. Dayananda considered the Vedas (which he defined to include only the samhitas) to be source of truth, totally free of error and containing the seeds of all valid knowledge. Contrary to common understanding, he was adamant that Vedas were monotheistic and that they did not sanction idol worship.[42] Starting 1877, he intended to publish commentary on the four vedas but completed work on only the Yajurveda, and a partial commentary on the Rigveda. Dayananda's work is not highly regarded by Vedic scholars and Indologist Louis Renou, among others, dismissed it as, "a vigorous (and from our point of view, extremely aberrant) interpretation in the social and political sense."[43] [44]

Rigveda Dayananda and Aurobindo moved the Vedantic perception of the Rigveda from the original ritualistic content to a more symbolic or mystical interpretation. For example, instances of animal sacrifice were not seen by them as literal slaughtering, but as transcendental processes.

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"Indigenous Aryans" debateFurther information: Indigenous AryansandOut of India theory Questions surrounding the Rigvedic Sarasvati River and the Nadistuti sukta in particular have become tied to an ideological debate on the Indo-Aryan migration (termed "Aryan Invasion Theory") versus the claim that Vedic culture, together with Vedic Sanskrit, originated in the Indus Valley Civilization (termed "Out of India theory"), a topic of great significance in Hindu nationalism, addressed for example by K. D. Sethna and in Shrikant G. Talageri's The Rigveda: A Historical Analysis. Subhash Kak (1994) claimed that there is an "astronomical code" in the organization of the hymns. Bal Gangadhar Tilak, also based on astronomical alignments in the Rigveda, in his "The Orion" (1893) had claimed presence of the Rigvedic culture in India in the 4th millennium BC, and in his The Arctic Home in the Vedas (1903) even argued that the Aryans originated near the North Pole and came south during the ice age. Debate on alternative suggestions on the date of the Rigveda, typically much earlier dates, are mostly taking place outside of scholarly literature. Some writers out of the mainstream claim to trace astronomical references in the Rigveda, dating it to as early as 4000 BC,[45] a date well within the Indian Neolithic.[46] Publications to this effect have increased during the late 1990s to early 2000s in the context of historical revisionism in Hindu nationalism, notably in books published by Voice of India.[47]

TranslationsThe first published translation of any portion of the Rigveda in any Western language was into Latin, by Friedrich August Rosen (Rigvedae specimen, London 1830). Predating Mller's editio princeps of the text, Rosen was working from manuscripts brought back from India by Colebrooke. H. H. Wilson was the first to make a complete translation of the Rig Veda into English, published in six volumes during the period 185088.[48] Wilson's version was based on the commentary of Syaa. In 1977, Wilson's edition was enlarged by Nag Sharan Singh (Nag Publishers, Delhi, 2nd ed. 1990). In 1889, Ralph T.H. Griffith published his translation as The Hymns of the Rig Veda, published in London (1889).[49] A German translation was published by Karl Friedrich Geldner, Der Rig-Veda: aus dem Sanskrit ins Deutsche bersetzt, Harvard Oriental Studies, vols. 3337 (Cambridge, Massachusetts: 1951-7).[50] Geldner's translation was the philologically best-informed to date, and a Russian translation based on Geldner's by Tatyana Elizarenkova was published by Nauka 19891999[51] A 2001 revised edition of Wilson's translation was published by Ravi Prakash Arya and K. L. Joshi.[52] The revised edition updates Wilson's translation by replacing obsolete English forms with more modern equivalents, giving the English translation along with the original Sanskrit text in Devanagari script, along with a critical apparatus. In 2004 the United States' National Endowment for the Humanities funded Joel Brereton and Stephanie W. Jamison as project directors for a new original translation to be issued by Oxford University Press.[53] [54] Numerous partial translations exist into various languages. Notable examples include: A. A. Macdonell. Hymns from the Rigveda (Calcutta, London, 1922); A Vedic Reader for Students (Oxford, 1917). French: A. Langlois, Rig-vda, ou livre des hymnes, Paris 194851 ISBN 2-7200-1029-4 Hungarian: Laszlo Forizs, Rigvda Teremtshimnuszok (Creation Hymns of the Rig-Veda), Budapest, 1995 ISBN 963-85349-1-5 Hymns of the Rig-Veda [55]

Rigveda Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty issued a modern selection with a translation of 108 hymns, along with critical apparatus. A bibliography of translations of the Rig Veda appears as an Appendix that work.[56] A new German translations of books 1 and 2 was presented in 2007 by Michael Witzel and Toshifumi Goto (ISBN 978-3-458-70001-2 / ISBN 978-3-458-70001-3). A partial Hindi translation by Govind Chandra Pande was published in 2008 (by Lokbharti Booksellers and Distributors, Allahabad, covering books 35).

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Notes[1] derived from the root c "to praise", cf. Dhtuptha 28.19. Monier-Williams translates "a Veda of Praise or Hymn-Veda" [2] There is some confusion with the term "Veda", which is traditionally applied to the texts associated with the samhita proper, such as Brahmanas or Upanishads. In English usage, the term Rigveda is usually used to refer to the Rigveda samhita alone, and texts like the Aitareya-Brahmana are not considered "part of the Rigveda" but rather "associated with the Rigveda" in the tradition of a certain shakha. [3] Werner, Karel (1994). A Popular Dictionary of Hinduism. Curzon Press. ISBN 0700710493. [4] Oberlies (1998:155) gives an estimate of 1100 BC for the youngest hymns in book 10. Estimates for a terminus post quem of the earliest hymns are more uncertain. Oberlies (p. 158) based on 'cumulative evidence' sets wide range of 17001100 [5] H. Oldenberg, Prolegomena,1888, Engl. transl. New Delhi: Motilal 2004 [6] K. Meenakshi (2002). "Making of Pini". In George Cardona, Madhav Deshpande, Peter Edwin Hook. Indian Linguistic Studies: Festschrift in Honor of George Cardona. Motilal Banarsidass. pp.235. ISBN8120818857. [7] The oldest manuscript in the Pune collection dates to the 15th century. The Benares Sanskrit University has a Rigveda manuscript of the 14th century. Earlier manuscripts are extremely rare; the oldest known manuscript preserving a Vedic text was written in the 11th century in Nepal (catalogued by the Nepal-German Manuscript Preservation Project (http:/ / www. uni-hamburg. de/ ngmcp/ about_ngmpp_e. html), Hamburg. [8] B. van Nooten and G. Holland, Rig Veda. A metrically restored text. Cambridge: Harvard Oriental Series 1994 [9] Michael Witzel says that "The RV has been transmitted in one recension (the kh of kalya) while others (such as the Bkala text) have been lost or are only rumored about so far." Michael Witzel, p. 69, "Vedas and Upaniads", in: The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism, Gavin Flood (ed.), Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2005. [10] Maurice Winternitz (History of Sanskrit Literature, Revised English Translation Edition, 1926, vol. 1, p. 57) says that "Of the different recensions of this Sahit, which once existed, only a single one has come down to us." He adds in a note (p. 57, note 1) that this refers to the "recension of the kalaka-School." [11] Sures Chandra Banerji (A Companion To Sanskrit Literature, Second Edition, 1989, Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, pp. 300301) says that "Of the 21 recensions of this Veda, that were known at one time, we have got only two, viz. kala and Vkala." [12] Maurice Winternitz (History of Sanskrit Literature, Revised English Translation Edition, 1926, vol. 1, p. 283. [13] Mantras of "khila" hymns were called khailika and not cas (Khila meant distinct "part" of Rgveda separate from regular hymns; all regular hymns make up the akhila or "the whole" recognised in a kh, although khila hymns have sanctified roles in rituals from ancient times). [14] Hermann Grassmann had numbered the hymns 1 through to 1028, putting the vlakhilya at the end. Griffith's translation has these 11 at the end of the 8th mandala, after 8.92 in the regular series. [15] cf. Preface to Khila section by C.G.Kshikar in Volume-5 of Pune Edition of RV (in references). [16] These Khilani hymns have also been found in a manuscript of the kala recension of the Kashmir Rigveda (and are included in the Poone edition). [17] equalling 40 times 10,800, the number of bricks used for the uttaravedi: the number is motivated numerologically rather than based on an actual syllable count. [18] In a few cases, more than one rishi is given, signifying lack of certainty. [19] Talageri (2000), p.33 [20] "Rigveda" (http:/ / portal. unesco. org/ ci/ en/ ev. php-URL_ID=22389& URL_DO=DO_TOPIC& URL_SECTION=201. html). UNESCO Memory of the World Programme. . [21] hinduism.about.com (http:/ / hinduism. about. com/ od/ scripturesepics/ a/ rigveda. htm) [22] cf. Editorial notes in various volumes of Pune Edition, see references. [23] Oberlies (1998:155) gives an estimate of 1100 BC for the youngest hymns in book 10. Estimates for a terminus post quem of the earliest hymns are far more uncertain. Oberlies (p. 158) based on 'cumulative evidence' sets wide range of 17001100 [24] Philological estimates tend to date the bulk of the text to the second half of the second millennium. Compare Max Mller's statement "the hymns of the Rig-Veda are said to date from 1500 BC" ('Veda and Vedanta', 7th lecture in India: What Can It Teach Us: A Course of Lectures Delivered Before the University of Cambridge, World Treasures of the Library of Congress Beginnings by Irene U. Chambers, Michael S. Roth. [25] Mallory, J. P.; Adams, Douglas Q. (1997). "Indo-Iranian Languages". Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture. Fitzroy Dearborn. [26] "As a possible date ad quem for the RV one usually adduces the Hittite-Mitanni agreement of the middle of the 14th cent. B.C. which mentions four of the major Rgvedic gods: mitra, varuNa, indra and the nAsatya azvin)" M. Witzel, Early Sanskritization Origin and development of the Kuru state (http:/ / www. ejvs. laurasianacademy. com/ ejvs0104/ ejvs0104a. txt). [27] The Vedic People: Their History and Geography, Rajesh Kochar, 2000, Orient Longman, ISBN 8125013849

Rigveda[28] Rigveda and River Saraswati: class.uidaho.edu (http:/ / www. class. uidaho. edu/ ngier/ 306/ contrasarav. htm) [29] Oldenberg 1894 (tr. Shrotri), p.14 "The Vedic diction has a great number of favourite expressions which are common with the Avestic, though not with later Indian diction. In addition, there is a close resemblance between them in metrical form, in fact, in their overall poetic character. If it is noticed that whole Avesta verses can be easily translated into the Vedic alone by virtue of comparative phonetics, then this may often give, not only correct Vedic words and phrases, but also the verses, out of which the soul of Vedic poetry appears to speak." [30] Mallory 1989 p.36 "Probably the least-contested observation concerning the various Indo-European dialects is that those languages grouped together as Indic and Iranian show such remarkable similarities with one another that we can confidently posit a period of Indo-Iranian unity..." [31] Bryant 2001:130131 "The oldest part of the Avesta... is linguistically and culturally very close to the material preserved in the Rgveda... There seems to be economic and religious interaction and perhaps rivalry operating here, which justifies scholars in placing the Vedic and Avestan worlds in close chronological, geographical and cultural proximity to each other not far removed from a joint Indo-Iranian period." [32] Mallory 1989 "The identification of the Andronovo culure as Indo-Iranian is commonly accepted by scholars." [33] Oldenberg (p. 379) places it near the end of the Brahmana period, seeing that the older Brahmanas still contain pre-normalized Rigvedic citations. The Brahmana period is later than the composition of the samhitas of the other Vedas, stretching for about the 10th to 6th centuries. This would mean that the redaction of the texts as preserved was completed in roughly the 6th century BC. The EIEC (p. 306) gives a 7th century date. [34] . The Shatapatha Brahmana refers to a Vidagdha Shakalya without discussing anything related to the Padapatha. [35] Jha 1992 [36] minority opinions name dates as early as the 4th millennium BC; " The Aryan Non-Invasionist Model (http:/ / www. voiceofdharma. com/ books/ ait/ ch63. htm)" by Koenraad Elst [37] There is however mention of ApUpa, Puro-das and Odana in the Rigveda, terms that, at least in later texts, refer to rice dishes, see Talageri (2000) [38] The term "ayas" (=metal) occurs in the Rigveda, usually translated as "bronze", although Chakrabarti, D.K. The Early Use of Iron in India (1992) Oxford University Press argues that it may refer to any metal. If ayas refers to iron, the Rigveda must date to the late 2nd millennium at the earliest. [39] among others, Macdonell and Keith, and Talageri 2000, Lal 2005 [40] Edited, w