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Veda
A collection of poems or hymns composed in archaic Sanskrit and identified to
the Indo-European-talking peoples who entered India through the 2nd millennium
BCE. No definite date can be ascribed to the composition of the Vedas, but the
interval of about 1500-1200 BCE is acceptable to most scholars. The hymns formed
a liturgical body that partially grew up across the soma ritual and sacrifice
and had been recited or chanted throughout rituals. They praised a wide pantheon
of gods, a few of whom personified natural and cosmic phenomena, resembling
fireplace (Agni), the Sun (Surya and Savitr), daybreak (Usas, a goddess), storms
(the Rudras), and rain (Indra), while others represented abstract qualities
similar to friendship (Mitra), moral authority (Varuna), kingship (Indra), and
speech (Vach, a goddess).
The foremost collection, or Samhita, of such poems, from which the hotri
(“reciter”), drew the fabric for his recitations, is the Rigveda (“Information
of the Verses”). Sacred formulas often called mantras have been recited by the
adhvaryu, the priest responsible for the sacrificial hearth and for carrying out
the ceremony. These mantras and verses have been drawn into the Samhita
generally known as the Yajurveda (“Information of the Sacrifice”). A third group
of monks, headed by the udgatri (“chanter”), performed melodic recitations
linked to verses that were drawn nearly fully from the Rigveda but had been
arranged as a separate Samhita, the Samaveda (“Information of the Chants”).
Along with these three Vedas-Rig, Yajur, and Sama, known as the trayi-vidya
(“threefold knowledge”)-is a group of hymns, magic spells, and incantations
often called the Atharvaveda (“Data of the Fire Priest”), which includes
numerous local traditions and remains partly outdoors the Vedic sacrifice. A
number of centuries later, maybe about 900 BCE, the Brahmanas have been composed
as glosses on the Vedas, containing many myths and philosophical discussions.
The Brahmanas were followed by different texts, Aranyakas (“Forest Books”) and
Upanishads, which took philosophical discussions in new directions, invoking a
doctrine of monism and freedom from the cycle of rebirth.
The complete corpus of Vedic literature-the Samhitas, the Brahmanas, the
Aranyakas, and the Upanishads-was thought of Shruti (“What Is Heard”), the
product of divine revelation. The whole of the literature appears to have been
preserved orally (although there will need to have been early manuscripts to
assist reminiscence). To at the present time, several of these works, notably
the three oldest Vedas, are recited with subtleties of intonation and rhythm
which have been handed down from the early days of Vedic religion in India.
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