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II "The
Vedas" II
Source : Complied
from various published articles on Vedas
The Vedas (Sanskrit: वेद) are the
main scriptural texts of the Hindu religion.
The term Veda comes from the root 'Vid',
to know. The word Veda means knowledge. When it is applied to
scripture, it signifies a book of knowledge. The Vedas are the
foundational scriptures of the Hindus. Initially the Vedas
were considered so sacred that they were only transmitted orally
from one generation of brahmans to the next. The passages of the
Vedas
were eventually written in Sanskrit, we believe,
near the end of the third century BC. Hindus believe that the vedas were revealed or "heared" (Srutri), not composed by
human beings, and that the power of Gods lies in these revealed
words. Because they contain the sacred syllables from which Gods
and mortals were born, the vedas are thought to have preceded
the universe, itself created from the scared syllable OM.
The Vedas are the
ultimate source to which all religious knowledge can be
traced.The Vedas are eternal. They
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are without beginning and
end. An ignorant man, may say how a book can be without
beginning or end. By the Vedas, no books are meant. Vedas came
out of the breath of the Lord. They are not the composition of
any human mind. They were never written, never created. Vedas
are eternal spiritual truths. Vedas are an embodiment of divine
knowledge. The books may be destroyed, but the knowledge cannot
be destroyed. Knowledge is eternal. In that sense, the Vedas are
eternal.
There are four Vedas
: the first, the Rigveda, was composed before 1200 BC,
followed by Samaveda and the Yajurveda and finally
the Atharvaveda. Each vedas is composed of two parts :
the Samhita, in which the hymns or mantras are
recited, and the Brahmanas which contain commentaries.
The Rigveda:
The Rigveda ("Wisdom of the Verses") contains 1,028 hymns
dedicated to thirty-three different Gods, but mostly to Lord
Indra, Agni and Soma. The 10,589 verses of Rigveda are
divided into 10 mandalas or books. Its priest is called
the Hotri, who officiated at scarifices and recited the
mantras of the Rigveda.
The Samaveda :
The Samaveda ("Wisdom of the Chants") is better known for
the intricacy and metre of its poetry. The Samaveda is a
collection samans or chants, drawn mainly from the eight
and ninth books of Rigveda, for the udgatri
priests who officiated at the soma sacrifice. The Samaveda
is a collection of songs than of mantras.
The Yajurveda:
Yajurs are sacred formulas, invocations and spells muttered by
the adhvaryu priests who performed sacrificial rites, so
the Yajurveda is called the "wisdom of the sacrifices".
This work contains specific sacrificial formulas which were
recited during that form of ceremony.
The Atharvaveda :
The Atharvaveda ("Wisdom of the Priests") is attributed to a
sage, or rishi, named Atharvan, and consists of a number
of hymns and magical incantations. Some scholars believe that
this scripture may have originated with the original pre-Aryan
culture of indigenous peoples, and because it deviated form the
other Vedas, it was not at first readily accepted.
Eventually it too was adopted as a ritual handbook by the
Brahmans, the highest class of priests.
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