The Four Vedas

 

Āno bhadrāḥ kratavo yantu viśvataḥ —Let noble thoughts come to me from all directions (Ṛg Veda1.89.1).

Indians revere Sanskrit as Gīrvāṇa Bhasha–the language of the Devine. It is the liturgical language of Hinduism and Buddhism. The word Saṃskṛta means refined and well-ordered, for it was a language well regulated by the rules of grammar and was used in that refined form by the learned elite from very early times. As British Philologist William Jones observed, it has a perfect structure and is more exquisitely refined than Greek and Latin. However, it bears a stronger affinity to both of them.

The history of Sanskrit literature can be divided into two parts: the Vedic period, from 3000 BC to 600 BC and the Classic period, from 600 BC to 1100 AD. After the composition of Vedas, Sanskrit changed considerably: old inflections disappeared and new vocabulary and a simplified grammar emerged. A striking feature of Vedic Sanskrit is its tonic accent. It is considered as an apt language for vigorous and noble expression.

The Vedic literature 

The Vedas are the earliest literary production in Sanskrit. They are mostly religious in their content and form, and are four in number: Ṛg Veda, Sāma Veda, Yajur Veda, and Atharva Veda. They contain mantras, hymns of incantation and supplication addressed to natural and cosmic phenomena, such as Agni (fire), Surya and Savitri (the sun), Ushas (dawn), Rudras (the storms) and Indra (rain), and other abstract qualitatives such as Mitra (friendship), Varuna (moral authority), Indra (kingship), and Vāch (speech). The visions of the beauty of life and nature in the Vedas are extremely rich in poetic value. The glory of dawn and sunrise, and the silence and sweetness of nature, have received a rich and pure expression. 

The word Veda signifies knowledge and is interpreted in many ways. According to Sāyaṇa, the great Vedic commentator, “Veda is that by which the means of obtaining the transcendental goal of man is known”. He offered another definition: Istaprāpti-anistaparihārayor alaukika upāyah vedah (The Veda is that which makes known the transcendental means of obtaining the desirable and avoiding the undesirable). On the other hand, the Mimāmsā and Vedānta schools posit that the Veda is an eternal and infallible source of knowledge regarding Dharma. There are however, three important interpretations of Veda which merit our attention:

• the ritualists consider Veda as mainly a source book which informs us how to perform rituals for obtaining this-worldly and other-worldly good,
• polytheistic interpretation accepts Vedic gods as realities, and rituals as acts of propitiation and worship, and
• monotheistic interpretation states that the sum and substance of the Veda is the glorification of the one God, just as Ṛg Veda says, “Ekam sat; viprā bahudhā vadanti (Truth is one; sages call it by various names)”.

Irrespective of these interpretations, Vedas have a profound influence upon Indians: “The whole life of a Hindu, from conception up to the last funeral rites, has to be sanctified by the recitation of Vedic mantras”. There are three clear stages of development in Vedic literature:

• the first stage of development is associated with Samhita;
• the second stage of development is related to Brāhmmanas, and
• the third stage is related to Upanishads. 

Samhita, which is formed from the root words, sam meaning ‘correct’ and ‘proper’, and hita meaning ‘arranged’, denotes the ‘arrangement of Vedic hymns in unity’. Thus, the four Vedas with just mantras put together constitute Samhita literature.

In short, Samhita is the first and the main part of the Veda that contains mantras—prayers, litanies and hymns to God. The Samhita (four Vedas) is divided into ten Mandalas. Each Mandala is subdivided into Anuvākas, which are again divided into Sūktas containing a number of Riks. The composition of these hymns may have spread across many centuries. Yet, right from the earliest poems of Samhita, they maintain a strict metrical scheme and a well-established literary convention. 

Of the Samhita literature consisting of four Vedas, Ṛg Veda is the oldest. It is said to have been composed about 1500 BCE. But indologists like Nicholas Kazanas argued that Ṛg Veda was composed in the 4^th millennium BCE. He cited a combination of archaeological, linguistic, and astronomical evidence to support his argument. His basic argument is: Ṛg Veda has no knowledge at all of many features that characterize the Harappan culture, which began to emerge solidly c3000. So, he asserts that the Ṛg Veda predates the Mature Harappan culture. He even argues that there is no evidence of an Aryan invasion or migration. Wondering about mainstreamers’ insistence on the Aryan Invasion/Immigration/Ingress Theory, Kazanas expects “the new genetic evidence will soon force linguists to reconsider their theories”. It’s an interesting perspective that challenges mainstream views. 

Ṛg Veda consists only of verses—rik (laudatory stanza)—and hence it is also known as the ‘Veda of verses’. It has 10,552 rik/mantras, or hymns, that mainly praise different Gods. In these hymns, natural forces and phenomena are personified and deified. Ṛg Veda frequently mentions prayer and sacrifice as the means to acquire happiness. It also contains marriage, philosophical, and funeral, hymns. 

The authorship of the various Riks was attributed to the great seers, such as Vasistha, Gautama, Gritasamada, Vāmadeva, Vishvamitra, Atri, etc. These Riks, though they are said to be addressed to one supreme being, are praising his many powers under different names, such as: “Even He is Agni, He is Āditya, He is Vāyu, He is Chandramās, He is Śukra, He is Brahmā, He is Āpa, He is Prajāpati”. Hymns of this nature reveal that, “by the end of the Ṛg vedic period the polytheism of the Rishis had received a monotheistic tinge”. 

The Sāma Veda means ‘Veda of chants’. It is of lesser significance, for it has merely rearranged the stanzas taken from the Ṛg Veda, with the addition of 75 new stanzas, solely with reference to their place in the Soma sacrifice. These verses are supposed to be sung in a set fashion: the prolongation, repetition, and interpolation, of syllables were prescribed for singing. It is believed that these hymns are fruitful only when they are chanted in rhythm, with proper high and low notes called ‘swara’. It is the vibrations created that give value to the hymns. These are chanted during the high rituals. 

Yajur Veda consists not only of stanzas borrowed from Ṛg Veda, but also its own explanations of the Ṛg vedic hymns in prose. Here too, the contents are arranged in the order in which they are employed in various sacrifices. It is a compilation of the formulas prescribed by priests who, as the followers of Yajur Veda, are engaged in performing rituals. It contains some of the best hymns which transcend the stage of petty needs and longings, for the highest purpose, such as: Mitrasya mā cakṣusā sarvāni bhūtāni samīkṣantām, Mitrasya cakṣūsā sarvāni bhutāni samīkṣe, Mitrasya cakṣūsā samīkṣā mahe (May all beings look upon me with the eye of a friend, may I look on all beings with the eye of a friend, may we look on one another with the eye of a friend) (xxvi-18). What a catholicity of a prayer! 

In the beginning, it was only these three Vedas - trayī vidya  (the threefold knowledge) that were recognised as canonical scriptures. After a lapse of considerable time, Atharva Veda was compiled as the fourth Veda. Its contents are almost analogous to the Ṛg Veda, consisting of mostly metrical hymns. 

Atharva Veda “implies a philosophy of aggression: through witchcraft and magic, one should ruthlessly weed out one’s rivals and enemies, get things one wants, and also the persons one falls in love with. The demons similarly have to be kept at a distance by these means. To please and coerce the deities and departed ancestors, sacrifices are enjoined. Diseases have to be cured by medicines. Social life, success in business and agriculture, dominance in society, and intelligence—these are the values which the Atharva Veda holds up”. 

It is through oral communication that these Samhita texts are transmitted from generation to generation with the right phonetic accents and accuracy. Once these sacred hymns became part and parcel of the worship of deities and sacrifice to propitiate them, there, perhaps, has arisen a need to elaborate their significance, to ensure their observance rightly by later generations. 

Thus emerged Brāhmmanas and Aranykas. Brāhmmanas are prosaic in nature, dealing “with the rules and regulations laid down for the performance of the rites and sacrifices”, and are written in prose. They “explain the mutual relation of the sacred text and the ceremonial and as well as their symbolical meaning with reference to each other. They are considered to be the oldest prose writing in the Indi-European family”. 

The subject matter of the individual Brāhmmanas is defined by the Vedas to which they are attached. Thus, Ṛg Veda has two well-known Brāhmmanas: Kaushitaki and Aitreya. Tandya Brāhmmana belongs to Sāma Veda. Taitteriya and Shatpath belong to Yajur Veda. Gōpatha is attached to Atharva Veda. 

The second part of Vedas is Aranyaka. Each Veda has its own Aranyakas. They were authored by hermits who had withdrawn into the quiet of the forest to meditate. They dealt with the proper performance of the sacrifices and rituals, besides giving them a symbolic and spiritual interpretation. They are theosophical in character and are meant for the use of pious men who have returned to the forest and no longer perform sacrifices. They speculate about the world-soul under the names of Prāna and Purusha. Interestingly, Aranyakas mark the “transition from ritualistic to philosophic thought”.   

Vedas thus, portray God as the creator and source of goodness and truth. One’s life should be dedicated wholly to God. This does not, however, rule out the living of a full life here and now, for reality is good and is to be enjoyed. Indeed, the Vedic rishi would not allow either a licentious freedom to the senses, or an ascetic suppression of them. He prayed for both material welfare and spiritual good—spiritual good not only of himself, but of everybody, as can be realised from these prayers: O God, bestow on us the best treasures, the efficient mind, and spiritual lustre, the increase of wealth, the health of bodies, the sweetness of speech and fairness of days (Ṛg Veda II.21.6). 

Along with such petitional prayers, there are also universal prayers such as: May all men in this world live in happiness absolutely free from any kind of disease and with minds full of righteousness and devotion (Yajur Veda XVI.4). Such was the Vedic seers’ concern for auspiciousness that they wanted to clean this world from evil; physical in the shape of pain, psychological in the form of agony, and moral in the form of sin. Another of the greatest gifts of Vedic thought to Indians is the attitude of tolerance, and this is perhaps rooted in the kind of doubt reflected in the hymn of Creation: None knoweth whence creation has arisen; / And whether he has or has not produced it: / He who surveys it in the highest heaven, / He only knows, or haply he may know not (Ṛg Veda, X 129).

It is this hesitancy that minimized religious dogmatism in India. Another profound thought that Vedas gift is the belief in the oneness of reality. All is one: Brahman and Ātman are one. Man is one with God. Man is divine. All is divine. 

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