The Sacred Hindu Books – The Vedas – An Overview

The Vedas, apart from being the holy Hindu books, are also the most ancient ones. The Hindus revere the Vedas as the most authoritative of all the sacred books. The Vedas are not written by one Sage but by many of them.

The knowledge that is provided by these holy books covers all facets of life. The Vedas were not written by humans and they are believed to have been directly revealed to the sages by God. These revelations were passed down to subsequent generations.

The Vedas – their classification:
The Vedas are four in number: The Rig Veda, the Sama Veda, the Yajur Veda, and the Atharva Veda. It would now be appropriate to briefly elaborate on the four Vedas.

• Rig Veda: The Rig Veda predates all the other Vedas and it is a compilation of numerous hymns. The hymns have been composed of many sages and the most important of these seers are Kanwa, Atri, Vishwamitra, Vashishta, Jamadagni, Bharadwaja, and Gotama. This is considered the most profound of the Vedas.
• Sama Veda: The Sama Veda is also inclusive of hymns, but the difference here is that these are in the form of songs. The salient aspect is that the songs have to be sung for specific forms of ritualistic worship as well as for yajnas. Many scholars have stated that if we consider Rig Veda as a source of knowledge, then Sama Veda is where a person obtains guidance for realization.
• Yajur Veda: We can call the Yajur Veda as the guidebook for the priests where the methods and rules for various rituals are described. Even to this day, most of the ceremonies in Hinduism are performed based on the stipulations of the Yajur Veda.
• Atharva Veda: The Atharva Veda deals with both the practical aspects of life as we as the path to heaven. This Veda is attributed to the Rishis Atharva and Angiras who are mentioned in the Rig Veda. The Atharva Veda also is mostly in the ‘Rik’ verse structure as with Rig Veda. The content of this Veda is practical and with many useful things to laymen like medical healing, economics, and governance. Prashna, Mundaka, and Mandukya which are the 10 major Upanishads are part of Atharva Veda.

The Vedas – Subdivisions
Each of the four Vedas is again subdivided into four types. Let us have a look at the details:

• The Samhitas: The Samhitas consist of a group of mantras and hymns dedicated to different deities. Various scholars argue that the mantras of Samhitas are purely symbolic and that it takes great effort to rightly interpret them.
• The Brahmanas: The Brahmanas include details about the performance of different rituals, rites, and ceremonies. These books focus on an in-depth explanation of the Samhitas, too.
• The Aranyakas: When “The Aranyakas” is literally translated into English, we get to read that as “Forest Books.” These are the books especially written for saints/hermits who have renounced worldly life and have started living in forests.
• The Upanishads: The Upanishads denote as being the Vedas’ ending part. They explain key spiritual aspects such as existence, soul, life, and the connection between the Atma (soul) and the Paramatma (the supreme cosmic source).

Rishi means a Sage. Rishi Bharadwaja is considered the 7 greatest Rishis. He lived a long life of 100 years in the study of the Vedas but could not complete it. He asked for another 100 years from Indra, the King of Devas, and was granted. Rishi Bharadwaja rigorously studied the Vedas for another 100 years. Even after that he could complete the Vedas and asked for further 100 years. Then Indra Deva said what he has learned in 200 years is only a fistful of a mountain, as the Vedas are endless. The more one studies the Vedas, the more new things they will learn.

Thousands of years back, it was another great Sage Veda Vyasa who studied all the Vedas and systematically organized the Vedas. He is the one who classified the Vedas as the Rig, Yajur, Sama, and Atharva Vedas. This allowed a learned person to master one of the Vedas over a decade or more. Only a rare few learned men would master more than one Veda in their lifetime.

Only three types of mantras or verses are used in the Vedas, they are Rik mantras (verses in metres – the basic rhythmic structure of a verse in poetry is called metre), sama mantras (musical verses meant to be sung), and Yajus mantras (prose mantras). The majority of Atharva Veda is Rik mantras.

The foundation of Hinduism is derived from the Vedas. The Vedas are also referred to as the Shrutis – realized by highly holy men as divine revelation. The information on a given topic is spread over the various Vedas. So many scholars have read the Vedas and organized a wide variety of books on various topics to make it easier for the layman to pursue a specific topic or subject.

Note: Published with the permission of hindueshop.com.