Vedas (By Arun Joshi,9888933043)

The Vedas are a large body of texts originating in Ancient India. They form the oldest layer of Sanskrit literature and the oldest sacred texts of Hinduism.
According to Hindu tradition, the Vedas are apauruṣeya "not of human agency"being supposed to have been directly revealed, and thus are called śruti ("what is heard").Vedic mantras are recited at Hindu prayers, religious functions and other auspicious occasions. The mystic dimensions and applications of these mantras as a way of obtaining the physical immortality was elaborated in Sri Aurobindo's Secret of the Veda
The class of "Vedic texts" is aggregated around the four canonical samhitas or Vedas proper, of which three (trayi) are related to the performance of yajna (sacrifice) in historical (Iron Age). The hymns address nature gods such as Varuna (water), Vayu (air), Agni (fire), Indra (thunder-king of gods) etc. asking for prosperity, progeny and so on. The hymns are mean to be recited while performing fire sacrifices and other rituals.

Vedic religion:
1. the Rigveda, containing hymns to be recited by the hotṛ or reciting priest;
2. the Yajurveda, containing formulas to be recited by the adhvaryu or officiating priest;
3. the Samaveda, containing formulas to be sung by the udgātṛ or chanting priest.
4. the Atharvaveda, is one of the oldest and is relatively great in extent from a collection of praises, stories, predictions, charms and some speculative hymns used by the priests .

Philosophies and sects that developed in the Indian subcontinent 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 traditions, notably Buddhism and Jainism, though they are (like the vedanta) similarly concerned with liberation did not regard the Vedas as divine ordinances but rather human expositions of the sphere of higher spiritual knowledge, hence not sacrosanct. These groups are referred to by traditional Hindu texts as "heterodox" or "non-orthodox" (nāstika) schools. In addition to Buddhism and Jainism, Sikhism also does not accept the authority of the Vedas.

Dating

The Vedas are among the oldest sacred texts in the world dating from c. 1500-500BCE. Most Indologists agree that an oral tradition existed long before a literary tradition tentatively may have been set in (in one shakha, Kanva) from about the 1st century BCE; however it was again superseded by oral tradition until c. 1000 CE. 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 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.

The Vedic period lasts for about a millennium, spanning the Late Bronze Age and the Iron Age. 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. 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 Mitanni material of ca. 1400 BCE as the only epigraphic record of Indo-Aryan that may date to the Rigvedic period. However Mitanni Indo-Aryan is linguistically slightly older than the language of the Rigveda, and the comparison thus still does not allow for an absolute dating of any Vedic text. 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.

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 Samhita (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 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.
• 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, or "wilderness texts", are the concluding part of the Brahmanas that contain discussions and interpretations of dangerous rituals (to be studied outside the settlement) and various sorts of additional materials. They are not "forest texts" for ascetics, as is frequently read in secondary literature.
• some of the older Mukhya Upanishads (Bṛhadāraṇyaka, Chandogya, Kaṭha).
• Certain Sutra 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. The composition of the Shrauta and Grhya Sutras (ca. 6th century BC) marks the 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-Padānukrama-Koṣa) 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


Shruti literature

Śruti is a term that describes the sacred texts which comprise the central canon of Hinduism. These works span the entire history of Hinduism, beginning with the some of the earliest known Hindu texts and ending in the early modern period with the later Upanishads. Śruti literature differs from Smrti, or "remembered" texts - which are based upon tradition. Śruti are considered revealed records of the "cosmic sound of truth" heard by rishis (saints or sages).
Pre-eminent in śruti literature are the four Vedas:
• Rig-Veda (hymns recited by the hotar)
• Yajur-Veda (hymns recited by the adhvaryu)
• Sama-Veda (hymns recited by the udgatr)
• Atharva-Veda (a collection of ancient spells and charms)

Rigveda

The Rig-Veda Samhita is the oldest significant existent Indian 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 some 500 years, which Avari dates as 1400 BCE to 900 BCE, if not earlier According to Max Müller, based on internal evidence (philological and linguistic), the Rigveda was composed roughly between 1700–1100 BCE (the early Vedic period) in the Punjab (Sapta Sindhu) region of the Indian subcontinent.

Yajurveda

The Yajur-Veda ("Veda of sacrificial formulas") consists of archaic prose mantras and also in part of verses borrowed and adapted from the Rig-Veda. Its purpose was practical, in that each mantra must accompany an action in sacrifice but, unlike the Sama-Veda, it was compiled to apply to all sacrificial rites, not merely the Soma offering. There are two major recensions of this Veda known as the "Black" and "White" Yajur-Veda. The origin and meaning of these designations are not very clear. The White Yajur-Veda contains only the verses and formulas (yajus) necessary for the sacrifice, while their discussion exists in a separate work, the Shatapatha Brahmana. It differs widely from the Black Yajurveda, which incorporates such discussions in the work itself, often immediately following the verses.

Samaveda

The Sama-Veda is the "Veda of melodies" or "Knowledge of melodies". The name of this Veda is from the Sanskrit word sāman which means a melody applied to metrical hymn or song of praise. It consists of 1549 stanzas, taken entirely (except 78) from the Rig-Veda. Like the Rigvedic stanzas in the Yajurveda, the Samans have been changed and adapted for use in singing.

Atharvaveda

The Artharva-Veda is the "Knowledge of the [atharvans] (and Angirasa)". The Artharva-Veda or Atharvangirasa is the text 'belonging to the Atharvan and Angirasa' poets. Apte defined an atharvan as a priest who worshipped fire and Soma. However, the etymology of Atharvan is unclear, but according to Mayrhofer it is related to Avesta athravan .he denies any connection with fire priests. Atharvan was an ancient term for a certain Rishi even in the Rigveda. (The older secondary literature took them as priests who worshipped fire).
The Atharva-Veda Saṃhitā has 760 hymns, and about 160 of the hymns are in common with the Rig-Veda. Most of the verses are metrical, but some sections are in prose.

Brahmana

The Brāhmaṇas are part of the Hindu śruti literature. They are commentaries on the four Vedas, detailing the proper performance of rituals.
Each Vedic shakha (school) had its own Brahmana, and it is not known how many of these texts existed during the Mahajanapadas period. About twenty Brahmana have survived into modern times.
The Brahmanas were seminal in the dvelopment of later Indian thought and scholarship, including Hindu philosophy, predecessors of Vedanta, law, astronomy, geometry, linguistics (Panini), the concept of Karma, or the stages in life such as brahmacarya, grihastha and eventually, sannyasi. Some Brahmanas contain sections that are Aranyakas or Upanishads in their own right.

Vedanta

While contemporary traditions continued to maintain Vedic ritualism (Shrauta, Mimamsa), Vedanta renounced all ritualism and radically re-interpreted the notion of "Veda" in purely philosophical terms.
Vedanta is a spiritual tradition explained in the Upanishads that is concerned with the self-realisation by which one understands the ultimate nature of reality (Brahman). Vedanta which implies "the end of all knowledge" - by definition is not restricted or confined to one book and there is no sole source for Vedantic philosophy. Vedanta is based on immutable spiritual laws that are common to religions and spiritual traditions worldwide. Vedanta as the end of knowledge refers to a state of self-realisation, attainment, or cosmic consciousness. Historically and currently Vedanta is understood as a state of transcendence and not as a concept that can be grasped by the intellect alone.

Upanishad

The Upanishads are Hindu scriptures that constitute the core teachings of Vedanta. They do not belong to any particular period of Sanskrit literature: the oldest, such as the Brhadaranyaka and Chandogya Upanishads, date to the late Brahmana period (around the middle of the first millennium BCE), while the latest were composed in the medieval and early modern period. The Upanishads realize monist ideas, some of which were hinted at in the earlier texts, and they have exerted an important influence on the rest of Hindu and Indian philosophy.

"Principal" Upanishads

The following list includes the eleven "principal" (mukhya) Upanishads commented upon by Shankara, and accepted as shruti by most Hindus. Each is associated with one of the four Vedas (Rigveda (ṚV), Samaveda (SV), White Yajurveda (ŚYV), Black Yajurveda (KYV), Atharvaveda (AV));
1. Aitareya (ṚV)
2. Bṛhadāraṇyaka (ŚYV)
3. Taittirīya (KYV)
4. Chāndogya (SV)
5. Kena (SV)
6. Īṣa (ŚYV)
7. Śvetāśvatara(KYV)
8. Kaṭha (KYV)
9. Muṇḍaka (AV)
10. Māṇḍūkya (AV)
11. Praśna (AV)


Vedanga

The Vedanga ( "member of the Veda") are six auxiliary disciplines for the understanding and tradition of the Vedas.
1. Shiksha phonetics and phonology (sandhi)
2. Chandas meter
3. Vyakarana grammar
4. Nirukta): etymology
5. Jyotisha astrology and astronomy, dealing particularly with the auspicious days for performing sacrifices.
6. Kalpa;ritual

Traditionally, vyākaraṇa and nirukta are shared across all four Vedas, while each veda has its own śikṣā, chandas, kalpa and jyotiṣa. The Vedangas are first mentioned in the Mundaka Upanishad as topics to be observed by students of the Vedas. Later, they developed into independent disciplines, each with its own corpus of Sutras.

The six branches of Vedic science, included under the term Vedanga, are as follows:
1. Shiksha, or Phonetics. The privileged position of representing this subject is assigned to a small treatise ascribed to the great grammarian Panini, viz, the Paniniya shiksha, extant in two different (Rik and Yajus) recensions. But neither this treatise nor any other of the numerous shikshas which have recently come to light can lay claim to any very high age. Scholars, however, usually include under this head certain works, called Pratishakhya, i.e. "belonging to a certain shakha or recension", which deal minutely with the phonetic peculiarities of the several Samhitas, and are of great importance for the textual criticism of the Vedic Samhitas.
2. Chhandas, or Metre. Tradition makes the Chhandas-sutra of Pingala the starting-point of prosody. The Vedic metres, however, occupy but a small part of this treatise, and they are evidently dealt with in a more original manner in the Nidana-sutra of the Samaveda, and in a chapter of the Rik-pratishakhya. For profane prosody, on the other hand, Pingala's treatise is rather valuable, no less than 160 metres being described by him.
3. Vyakarana, or Grammar. Panini's famous grammar is said to be the Vedanga; but it marks the culminating point of grammatical research rather than the beginning, and besides treats chiefly of the post-Vedic language.
4. Nirukta, or Etymology. Yaska's Nirukta is the traditional representative of this subject, and this important work certainly deals entirely with Vedic etymology and explanation. It consists, in the first place, of strings of words in three chapters: (1) synonymous words; (2) such as are purely or chiefly Vedic; and (3) names of deities. These lists are followed by Yaska's commentary, interspersed with numerous illustrations. Yasaka, again, quotes several predecessors in the same branch of science; and it is probable that the original works on this subject consisted merely of lists of words similar to those handed down by him.
5. Jyotisha, or Astronomy. Although astronomical calculations are frequently referred to in older works in connection with the performance of sacrifices, the metrical treatise which has come down to us in two different recensions under the title of Jyotisha, ascribed to one Lagadha, or Lagata, seems indeed to be the oldest existing systematic treatise on astronomical subjects. With the exception of some apparently spurious verses of one of the recensions, it betrays no sign of the Greek influence which shows itself in Hindu astronomical works from about the 3rd century of our era; and its date may therefore be set down as probably not later than the early centuries after Christ.
6. Kalpa, or Ceremonial. Tradition does not single out any special work as the Vedanga in this branch of Vedic science; but the sacrificial practice gave rise to a large number of systematic sutra-manuals for the several classes of priests. The most important of these works have come down to us, and they occupy by far the most prominent place among the literary productions of the sutra-period. The Kalpa-sutras, or rules of ceremonial, are of two kinds: (I) the Srauta-sutras, which are based on the shruti, and teach the performance of the great sacrifices, requiring three sacrificial fires; and (2) the Smrta-sutras, or rules based on the smiti or tradition. The latter class again includes two kinds of treatises: (1) the Grhya-sutras, or domestic rules, treating of ordinary family rites, such as marriage, birth, namegiving, &c., connected with simple offerings in the domestic fire; and (2) the Samayacharika- (or Dharma-) sutras, which treat of customs and temporal duties, and are supposed to have formed the chief sources of the later law-books. Besides, the Shrauta-sutras of the Yajurveda have usually attached to them a set of so-called Shulva-sutras, i.e. rules of the cord, which treat of the measurement by means of cords, and the construction, of different kinds of altars required for sacrifices. These treatises are of special interest as supplying important information regarding the earliest geometrical operations in India. Along with the Sutras may be classed a large number of supplementary treatises, usually called Parishishta (παραλιπομενα), on various subjects connected with the sacred texts and Vedic religion generally.

Supplementary Vedas

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