VEDA
VEDA
(excerpts from the book " Fundamentals of Hindu Culture" written by M.N. Singh)
The term Veda means knowledge, true or sacred knowledge. Veda does not denote any single book. It denotes an entire literature in different branches closely connected with each other. They are the oldest literature in the world. In the Vedas we find reflexes of laws and thoughts containing divine wisdom and also the thread which connects the present with the past. The Vedas are of perpetual interest and ever increasing value, not only due to their great antiquity, but also for the vast flood of light they throw on the early state of the Aryan society, speech and general mythology. They are the holy books which are the foundation of the Hindu Dharma religion, law, code of conduct and Hindu culture almost in all its aspects.
The Vedas are traditionally claimed to be Apaurusheya that is to say that they are not the composition of any human agency, but have existed from the beginning of the creation and will exist till eternity. The rishis (seers) are credited with “seeing and discovering them”.
The act of seeing and discovering, understood to be composition of the Vedas was spread over many centuries, in different localities and ascribed to many generations of poets, priests and philosophers called rishis. There may be a gap of even one thousand years between the oldest and latest hymns.
The Vedas are four in number, viz; Rigveda, the Veda of hymns; Yajurveda, the Veda of Sacrificial formulas; Samaveda, the Veda of chants and Atharvaveda, the Veda of incantations.
For a long time Atharvaveda was not recognized as a Veda. Ancient authorities often speak of only the first three – trayi as the Veda. The reason why only the trayi were generally mentioned to denote the Veda excluding the fourth, i.e. Atharvaveda is not because of their origin and antiquity but of their different uses. While the first three Vedas were meant to be used at the time of performing sacrifices to the gods – the Atharvaveda contained incantations prevalent among the common people which were of no use in religious sacrifices and so the orthodox sections of the society looked down upon these practices. The first three Vedas deal with the life here after, while the Atharvaveda deals with the present life.
Samhita: The four Vedas are samhitas – collections of hymns of unequal length. Krishna Dvaipayana is credited with the compilation and arrangement of these hymns. In the Indian tradition he is described as Vyasa meaning the compiler, arranger. There is no unanimity about his date. But general consensus is that he flourished in c.1200 BC.
The Vedic hymns are called sukta, meaning good saying. It shows that a vast mass of floating hymns was presented to Krishna Dvaipayana and it was left to him to select such hymns as suited his plan. Collection, inclusion, deletion and systematically arranging stray and scattered mantras according to a plan must have been a stupendous task, particularly at a time when the art of writing is believed to have been unknown.
Shruti: The Veda is also known as Shruti, meaning what has been heard. In the Indian tradition the Vedas are believed to have been revealed or communicated to certain holy sages – the rishis in the beginning. This divine knowledge was orally transmitted by one generation to another. Hence it is called Shruti.
In order to perpetuate the study of the Vedas in a proper manner Vyasa taught the four Vedas to his four principal disciples. He taught Rigveda to Paila, Yajurveda to Vaishampayana. Samaveda to Jaimini and Atharvaveda to Sumantra. This tradition is so strong among the Hindu scholars that one is led to conclude that it must have some historical basis for it.
Smriti means memory. It is different from the Veda. The Veda is based on the sacred and eternal sound of words which the rishis heard and transmitted orally to the succeeding generations. But the Smriti is only the content of the Veda as remembered and handed down in writing by the descendants of those rishis. The term Veda is applied to the mantra, the Brahmana portion of the Vedas, Aranyakas and Upanishads. The Veda is divided into two parts, mantra and Brahman.
The mantra i.e. instrument of conveying thought, consists of prayers and praises embodied in the metrical hymns. The Brahman is a collective term for the treatises called Brahman. They are found in prose and contain ritualistic glosses, explanations and the application of the hymns illustrated by rituals. Obviously they are of a later period than the mantra. They were composed by certain sections of Brahmins, hence they are so called. The Aranyakas and the Upanishads are mystical treatises composed in prose and also in verse. They speculate about nature of the spirit (Atma) and God. The Upanishads are also called Vedanta i.e. the end of the Vedas.
Shakha and Charana: Shakha means branch and charana means feet. The oral teaching of the Vedas produced shakhas and charanas. Although shakha and charana were sometimes used synonymously, the terms shakha properly applies to the traditional text being followed and charana denotes the ideal succession of teachers and pupils. Thus, the shakha may be taken as an equivalent of a traditional recession of a Veda handed down by different charanas or schools, each strictly adhering to its traditional text and interpretations. The shakha always consisted of a samhita and a Brahmana.
Hota, Adhvaryu, and Udgata: There were different priests for each of the Vedas who participated in sacrifices. Those whose duty was to recite (loudly) the mantras of Rigveda were called Hota and they were required to know the whole Veda. The priests of the Yajurveda who muttered the formulas in a peculiar manner at the time of sacrifices were called Adhvaryu and the chanters of verses of Samaveda were called Udgatas.
Rigveda: The Rigveda is the original Veda from which Yajurveda and Samaveda have been exclusively derived. Nearly one fifth of the Atharvaveda has also been taken from the Rigveda
Of various Shakhas of Rigveda only two, Sakala and Bashkala are available. Out of these two Sakala is more prominent. Truly speaking the Rigveda means the Veda available in the sakala shakha.
The greater portion of the Rigveda is believed to have originated on the banks of the river Sarasvati in the Punjab between c. 4000-2500 B.C.
There are two systems in which the Rigveda is divided. They are Ashtaka and Mandala.
i) Ashtaka – Octavo. According to this arrangement the Rigveda is divided into eight parts called Ashtaka. In each part there are eight chapters called Adhyayas. Every chapter is subdivided in classes called Vargas. Thus there are 2006 Vargas in the Rigveda.
ii) Mandala - Circle. According to this system the Rigveda is divided in 10 mandalas circles or groups. The total number of Suktas, hymns in all the mandalas is 1017. To these, 11 hymns of the valakhilya suktas were added at the end of the 8th mandala at some later date. Thus, the total number of hymns in the Rigveda comes to 1028. They contain 10552 richas or verses and 1,53,826 padas or words and 3,97,265 syllables.
The total number of hymns in both the arrangements is the same. It will be seen that hymns have been most scientifically arranged, classified, divided and meticulously counted to the extent of number of words and total number of letters. From the internal evidence found in Rigveda it is clear that out of a huge mass of literature only, a very small portion has been preserved. The hymns selected contain heterogeneous material. The first seven mandalas are similar in nature and are arranged according to a distinct plan. They contain the oldest, the most genuine and the most sacred hymns and retain, so far as the tradition goes, an integrated and not an incongruous whole. They have palpably remained as the Samhita was originally arranged. The 8th and the 9th mandalas betray quite a different system and 10th mandala, although compiled very late is arranged on the pattern of the two preceding mandalas.
The hymns have been arranged according to the names of the rishis to whom they were revealed or names of the families of the rishis (gotra) to whom they are ascribed. This arrangement also takes into account names of the deities to whom they are addressed.
The mantras in the 2nd to the 7th mandalas are attributed to Gritsamada, Vishvamitra, Vamadeva, Atri, Bharadvaja and Vasishtha respectively. Kanva and Angira are the rishis of the 8th mandala while the hymns of several rishis have been included in the 9th mandala. But 9th mandala has been created on the basis of the deity and the subject. Thus the mantras of this mandala are addressed to Soma. Hence it is also called Soma mandala. Soma was the juice of some plant, the stalks of which were pressed between two stones by the priests. The juice was sprinkled with water and purified in a strainer. Then the acid juice was trickled into jars and mixed with ghee etc. It was offered as libation to gods with appropriate rites or was drunk by the Brahmins. Its exhilarating effect was supposed to be prized. It was collected in moonlight on certain mountains of the Himalaya.
Two mandalas, i.e. the 1st and 10th are believed to be of later dates than the rest of the mandalas but they also contain some older hymns. Most of the hymns of the first half of the 1st mandala are believed to be the most ancient. The 10th mandala is undoubtedly the latest in the whole series.
Traditionally the Vedic deities to whom the hymns are addressed have been classified into three categories, viz, terrestrial, aerial or intermediaries and celestial. Prithivi, the earth, Agni, the fire; Somapa and rains belong to the first category. Indra, Rudra, Vayu, the air, Parjanya-clouds and Apah – the water belong to the second category and Varuna, Mitra, Surya – the Sun, Vishnu, Usha, the dawn belong to the third category. This classification is based on the nature to which the deities represent and, therefore, is the most practical and rational.
In some hymns, prayers have been addressed to dual deities, viz. Indra- Agni, Mitra-Varuna, Dyava-Prithvi, etc.
Vedic hymns are a combination of attributes, prayers and praises. They describe the goodness, generosity, power, vastness and even personal beauty of the deities who are invoked to bestow blessings, mostly of worldly and physical nature, viz; food, wealth, life, offspring, cattle, cows, horses, protection against enemies and victory over them and sometimes their destruction.
The Rik samhita is certainly a wonderful work which attests to the development of the Aryan mind at a time much before Homer and Hesoid. There is no doubt that this collection of hymns has been made essentially for religious purposes, as they were used during the performance of sacrifices. However, occasionally we come across fine outburst of real poetry. The Vedic Aryans had a fine sense of humour. A hymn in the 7th mandala recounts in a singularly jocular manner the approaching of frogs on the commencement of the rainy season and likens their croaking to the chanting of the Veda mantras by the Brahmins during the formal worship.
There is a hymn in the 10th mandala faithfully describing the lamentations of a gambler on his ruinous addiction to the game. There are numerous other instances of similar hymns of a purely secular nature. They were in all probability added later or it is also possible that they were retained inadvertently or for some reason or the other.
(excerpts from the book " Fundamentals of Hindu Culture" written by M.N. Singh)
The term Veda means knowledge, true or sacred knowledge. Veda does not denote any single book. It denotes an entire literature in different branches closely connected with each other. They are the oldest literature in the world. In the Vedas we find reflexes of laws and thoughts containing divine wisdom and also the thread which connects the present with the past. The Vedas are of perpetual interest and ever increasing value, not only due to their great antiquity, but also for the vast flood of light they throw on the early state of the Aryan society, speech and general mythology. They are the holy books which are the foundation of the Hindu Dharma religion, law, code of conduct and Hindu culture almost in all its aspects.
The Vedas are traditionally claimed to be Apaurusheya that is to say that they are not the composition of any human agency, but have existed from the beginning of the creation and will exist till eternity. The rishis (seers) are credited with “seeing and discovering them”.
The act of seeing and discovering, understood to be composition of the Vedas was spread over many centuries, in different localities and ascribed to many generations of poets, priests and philosophers called rishis. There may be a gap of even one thousand years between the oldest and latest hymns.
The Vedas are four in number, viz; Rigveda, the Veda of hymns; Yajurveda, the Veda of Sacrificial formulas; Samaveda, the Veda of chants and Atharvaveda, the Veda of incantations.
For a long time Atharvaveda was not recognized as a Veda. Ancient authorities often speak of only the first three – trayi as the Veda. The reason why only the trayi were generally mentioned to denote the Veda excluding the fourth, i.e. Atharvaveda is not because of their origin and antiquity but of their different uses. While the first three Vedas were meant to be used at the time of performing sacrifices to the gods – the Atharvaveda contained incantations prevalent among the common people which were of no use in religious sacrifices and so the orthodox sections of the society looked down upon these practices. The first three Vedas deal with the life here after, while the Atharvaveda deals with the present life.
Samhita: The four Vedas are samhitas – collections of hymns of unequal length. Krishna Dvaipayana is credited with the compilation and arrangement of these hymns. In the Indian tradition he is described as Vyasa meaning the compiler, arranger. There is no unanimity about his date. But general consensus is that he flourished in c.1200 BC.
The Vedic hymns are called sukta, meaning good saying. It shows that a vast mass of floating hymns was presented to Krishna Dvaipayana and it was left to him to select such hymns as suited his plan. Collection, inclusion, deletion and systematically arranging stray and scattered mantras according to a plan must have been a stupendous task, particularly at a time when the art of writing is believed to have been unknown.
Shruti: The Veda is also known as Shruti, meaning what has been heard. In the Indian tradition the Vedas are believed to have been revealed or communicated to certain holy sages – the rishis in the beginning. This divine knowledge was orally transmitted by one generation to another. Hence it is called Shruti.
In order to perpetuate the study of the Vedas in a proper manner Vyasa taught the four Vedas to his four principal disciples. He taught Rigveda to Paila, Yajurveda to Vaishampayana. Samaveda to Jaimini and Atharvaveda to Sumantra. This tradition is so strong among the Hindu scholars that one is led to conclude that it must have some historical basis for it.
Smriti means memory. It is different from the Veda. The Veda is based on the sacred and eternal sound of words which the rishis heard and transmitted orally to the succeeding generations. But the Smriti is only the content of the Veda as remembered and handed down in writing by the descendants of those rishis. The term Veda is applied to the mantra, the Brahmana portion of the Vedas, Aranyakas and Upanishads. The Veda is divided into two parts, mantra and Brahman.
The mantra i.e. instrument of conveying thought, consists of prayers and praises embodied in the metrical hymns. The Brahman is a collective term for the treatises called Brahman. They are found in prose and contain ritualistic glosses, explanations and the application of the hymns illustrated by rituals. Obviously they are of a later period than the mantra. They were composed by certain sections of Brahmins, hence they are so called. The Aranyakas and the Upanishads are mystical treatises composed in prose and also in verse. They speculate about nature of the spirit (Atma) and God. The Upanishads are also called Vedanta i.e. the end of the Vedas.
Shakha and Charana: Shakha means branch and charana means feet. The oral teaching of the Vedas produced shakhas and charanas. Although shakha and charana were sometimes used synonymously, the terms shakha properly applies to the traditional text being followed and charana denotes the ideal succession of teachers and pupils. Thus, the shakha may be taken as an equivalent of a traditional recession of a Veda handed down by different charanas or schools, each strictly adhering to its traditional text and interpretations. The shakha always consisted of a samhita and a Brahmana.
Hota, Adhvaryu, and Udgata: There were different priests for each of the Vedas who participated in sacrifices. Those whose duty was to recite (loudly) the mantras of Rigveda were called Hota and they were required to know the whole Veda. The priests of the Yajurveda who muttered the formulas in a peculiar manner at the time of sacrifices were called Adhvaryu and the chanters of verses of Samaveda were called Udgatas.
Rigveda: The Rigveda is the original Veda from which Yajurveda and Samaveda have been exclusively derived. Nearly one fifth of the Atharvaveda has also been taken from the Rigveda
Of various Shakhas of Rigveda only two, Sakala and Bashkala are available. Out of these two Sakala is more prominent. Truly speaking the Rigveda means the Veda available in the sakala shakha.
The greater portion of the Rigveda is believed to have originated on the banks of the river Sarasvati in the Punjab between c. 4000-2500 B.C.
There are two systems in which the Rigveda is divided. They are Ashtaka and Mandala.
i) Ashtaka – Octavo. According to this arrangement the Rigveda is divided into eight parts called Ashtaka. In each part there are eight chapters called Adhyayas. Every chapter is subdivided in classes called Vargas. Thus there are 2006 Vargas in the Rigveda.
ii) Mandala - Circle. According to this system the Rigveda is divided in 10 mandalas circles or groups. The total number of Suktas, hymns in all the mandalas is 1017. To these, 11 hymns of the valakhilya suktas were added at the end of the 8th mandala at some later date. Thus, the total number of hymns in the Rigveda comes to 1028. They contain 10552 richas or verses and 1,53,826 padas or words and 3,97,265 syllables.
The total number of hymns in both the arrangements is the same. It will be seen that hymns have been most scientifically arranged, classified, divided and meticulously counted to the extent of number of words and total number of letters. From the internal evidence found in Rigveda it is clear that out of a huge mass of literature only, a very small portion has been preserved. The hymns selected contain heterogeneous material. The first seven mandalas are similar in nature and are arranged according to a distinct plan. They contain the oldest, the most genuine and the most sacred hymns and retain, so far as the tradition goes, an integrated and not an incongruous whole. They have palpably remained as the Samhita was originally arranged. The 8th and the 9th mandalas betray quite a different system and 10th mandala, although compiled very late is arranged on the pattern of the two preceding mandalas.
The hymns have been arranged according to the names of the rishis to whom they were revealed or names of the families of the rishis (gotra) to whom they are ascribed. This arrangement also takes into account names of the deities to whom they are addressed.
The mantras in the 2nd to the 7th mandalas are attributed to Gritsamada, Vishvamitra, Vamadeva, Atri, Bharadvaja and Vasishtha respectively. Kanva and Angira are the rishis of the 8th mandala while the hymns of several rishis have been included in the 9th mandala. But 9th mandala has been created on the basis of the deity and the subject. Thus the mantras of this mandala are addressed to Soma. Hence it is also called Soma mandala. Soma was the juice of some plant, the stalks of which were pressed between two stones by the priests. The juice was sprinkled with water and purified in a strainer. Then the acid juice was trickled into jars and mixed with ghee etc. It was offered as libation to gods with appropriate rites or was drunk by the Brahmins. Its exhilarating effect was supposed to be prized. It was collected in moonlight on certain mountains of the Himalaya.
Two mandalas, i.e. the 1st and 10th are believed to be of later dates than the rest of the mandalas but they also contain some older hymns. Most of the hymns of the first half of the 1st mandala are believed to be the most ancient. The 10th mandala is undoubtedly the latest in the whole series.
Traditionally the Vedic deities to whom the hymns are addressed have been classified into three categories, viz, terrestrial, aerial or intermediaries and celestial. Prithivi, the earth, Agni, the fire; Somapa and rains belong to the first category. Indra, Rudra, Vayu, the air, Parjanya-clouds and Apah – the water belong to the second category and Varuna, Mitra, Surya – the Sun, Vishnu, Usha, the dawn belong to the third category. This classification is based on the nature to which the deities represent and, therefore, is the most practical and rational.
In some hymns, prayers have been addressed to dual deities, viz. Indra- Agni, Mitra-Varuna, Dyava-Prithvi, etc.
Vedic hymns are a combination of attributes, prayers and praises. They describe the goodness, generosity, power, vastness and even personal beauty of the deities who are invoked to bestow blessings, mostly of worldly and physical nature, viz; food, wealth, life, offspring, cattle, cows, horses, protection against enemies and victory over them and sometimes their destruction.
The Rik samhita is certainly a wonderful work which attests to the development of the Aryan mind at a time much before Homer and Hesoid. There is no doubt that this collection of hymns has been made essentially for religious purposes, as they were used during the performance of sacrifices. However, occasionally we come across fine outburst of real poetry. The Vedic Aryans had a fine sense of humour. A hymn in the 7th mandala recounts in a singularly jocular manner the approaching of frogs on the commencement of the rainy season and likens their croaking to the chanting of the Veda mantras by the Brahmins during the formal worship.
There is a hymn in the 10th mandala faithfully describing the lamentations of a gambler on his ruinous addiction to the game. There are numerous other instances of similar hymns of a purely secular nature. They were in all probability added later or it is also possible that they were retained inadvertently or for some reason or the other.
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