VEDAS

VEDAS . Specifically, the Vedas are often understood to comprise four collections of hymns and sacrificial formulas. In a more general sense, however, the term Veda does not denote only these four books, or any single book, but a whole literary complex, including the Saṃhitās, the Brāhmaṇas, the Ᾱraṇyakas, the Upaniṣads, the Sūtras, and the Vedāṅgas. The many texts, varied in form and content, that make up the Veda were composed over several centuries, in different localities, and by many generations of poets, priests, and philosophers. Tradition, however, will not admit the use of the word compose in this context, for the Veda is believed to be apauruṣeya, "not produced by human agency." It is eternal. Its so-called authors have merely "seen" or discovered it, and they are thus appropriately called ṛṣi s, or seers.

Vedic tradition notes that the apauruṣeya character of the Veda accords it ultimate validity in every respect. Moreover, the Veda is said to comprehend all knowledge (veda ). Indeed, most of the later Brahmanic disciplines claim the Veda as their fountainhead. The Veda has been passed from generation to generation by oral transmission. This fact explains the name śruti ("what is heard") by which the Veda is known. In order to preserve this extensive literature intact without the aid of writing, and to facilitate its precise memorizing, the Vedists devised various ways of reciting the Veda (pāṭhas or vikṛtis ) that involve permutations and combinations of the words in mantra s (versus) and prose formulas. The emergence of various schools (sākhā s) and subschools (caraṇa s) of Vedic study has also substantially helped the preservation of this large corpus of literature. At the same time, oral transmission may have resulted in the loss of a considerable portion of Vedic literature in the course of time.

Early History of the Veda

The literary history of the Veda is usually divided into four periods: the Saṃhitā period (c. 2000–1100 bce), the Brāhmaṇa-Ᾱraṇyaka period (c. 1100–800 bce), the Upaniṣadic period (c. 800–500 bce), and the Sūtra-Vedāṅga period (c. 500 bce onward). Broadly speaking, these four periods represent a chronological sequence, and a thread of logical development running through them invests them with a kind of unity. Yet only the literature of the first three periods is traditionally regarded as apauruṣeya. In particular, four collections of texts from the Saṃhitā period are commonly referred to as the four Vedas. These are the Ṛgveda Saṃhitā (the oldest collection), the Atharvaveda Saṃhitā, the Sāmaveda Saṃhitā, and the Yajurveda Saṃhitā.

Before the Vedic Aryans migrated into the northwestern region of India, then called Saptasindhu ("land of seven rivers"), their ancestors had lived together with the ancestors of the Iranian Aryans, presumably in Balkh and its environs, for a fairly long time (2200–2000 bce). It was there that the Proto-Aryan language and religion acquired their specific characteristics. The religion of the Proto-Aryans consisted mainly of the concepts of cosmic law (Vedic, ṛta; Avestan, aša ) and its administrator (Vedic, Asura Varuṇa; Avestan, Ahura Mazdā), a simple fire worship, and a cult centering on the sacred drink (Vedic, soma; Avestan, haoma ). Mantra s (magically potent verses) or hymns (groups of mantra s usually involving a single theme) relating to this religion were composed by the ancestors of the Vedic Aryans in an earlier form of Vedic Sanskrit. In the course of time, the ancestors of the Vedic Aryans left their home in Balkh and proceeded toward the alluring "land of seven rivers," while the ancestors of the Iranian Aryans migrated toward Iran. During their expedition to Saptasindhu and because of subsequent conflicts and colonization in that region, a significant strain was imposed on the old Vedic religion in the form of a hero cult with Indra as its chief divinity. The activity of composing mantra s and hymns relating to the old (Proto-Aryan) as well as the new Vedic (Indra) religion continued unabated throughout this time. Side by side with this religion of the "classes" among the Vedic Aryans developed the religion of the "masses," which was largely constituted of magic, sorcery, and witchcraft, and relating to which mantra s were also being composed. When, soon after, the Vedic Aryans had settled down in their new home to a life of comparative peace, leisure, and prosperity, poet-priests collected all the scattered mantras, old and new and relating to both the Proto-Aryan and Vedic religions. They revised and edited them, grouped them together into suitable hymns (where they were not already so grouped), and arranged those hymns according to a certain plan. As a result, two primary "collections" (saṃhitā s) were brought into existence: the Ṛgveda Saṃhitā and the Atharvaveda Saṃhitā (2000–1700 bce).

Ṛgveda SaṂhitĀ

The Ṛgveda Saṃhitā has come down to the present according to the recension of the Sakala school. It consists of 1,028 sūkta s (hymns) made up of varying numbers of metrical verses (mantra s, more commonly called ṛk s, which accounts for the name Ṛgveda ). The hymns are assembled in ten different books or maṇḍala s whose formation is governed mainly by the criterion of authorship. Among the classes of the Vedic Aryans, a few families had already acquired some measure of socioreligious prestige. The mantra s or hymns, which were traditionally believed to have been "seen" by the progenitor and other members of a particular family, were collected together to form the book of that family. The nucleus of the Ṛgveda is formed of six such family books, which are numbered from two to seven and which are ascribed respectively to the families of Gṛtsamada, Viśvāmitra, Vāmadeva, Atri, Bharadvāja, and Vasiṣṭha. Within a family book, the hymns are grouped according to the divinities to whom they are related. These divinity groups are then arranged in a certain fixed order, the group of hymns relating to Agni being placed first. Within each divinity group, the hymns are arranged in descending order according to the number of stanzas. The majority of hymns in the eighth book belong to the Kaṇva family. The first book is a collection of miniature maṇḍala s. Book nine is ritualistically oriented, all the hymns included in it, irrespective of authorship, being related to soma. The tenth book, which contains the same number of hymns as the first book (191), is a collection of residual hymns. There is another, later mechanical arrangement of the Ṛgveda that is obviously directed to the purpose of memorizing the Saṃhitā. According to this system, the entire Ṛgveda Saṃhitā is divided into eight divisions (aṣṭaka s), each division into eight chapters (adhyaya s), and each chapter into about thirty-three sections (varga s) of about five stanzas each.

The bulk of the Ṛgveda consists of mythology and the panegyrics and prayers that are either dependent on or independent of that mythology. The exclusively naturalistic, or ritualistic, or mystic interpretation of Vedic mythology is now generally discountenanced, and an evolutionary approach is increasingly favored. One may speak of three main phases of the evolution of the Rgvedic mythology: the phase represented by Ṛta-Varuṇa, Agni, and Soma; the phase represented by Indra and other heroic gods; and the phase represented by the admission into the Vedic pantheon of popular Aryan divinities (e.g., Viṣṇu) and pre-Vedic non-Aryan divinities (e.g., Rudra). Apart from mythology, the Ṛgveda also contains a few hymns of sociohistorical and philosophical purport.

Atharvaveda SaṂhitĀ

The Atharvaveda, which is aptly described as the Veda of the masses, is more heterogeneous and less inhibited than the Ṛgveda. The name Atharvāngirasaḥ, often used in reference to this Veda, indicates the twofold character of its contents—the wholesome, auspicious "white" magic of Atharvan, and the terrible, sorcerous "black" magic of Aṅgirgas. Another name of this Veda is Brahmaveda. The name has been explained by the fact that the Atharvaveda consists of brahman s (magically potent formulas), or by the fact that this Veda is the special concern of the brahman priest in the Vedic ritual. There is another explanation of the name. Because of the peculiar character of the contents of this Veda, it was for a long time not recognized as being as authoritative as the other three Vedas (trayi ). In reaction against this exclusivism, the Atharvavedins went to the other extreme and stated that the Ṛgveda, the Sāmaveda, and the Yajurveda were essentially "limited," for brahman alone was infinite, and this brahman was truly reflected only in the Atharvaveda. Thus, the Atharvaveda was called Brahmaveda. The Atharvaveda is also known by several other names, each of which emphasizes a specific trait of its character: It proves particularly efficacious in the performance of the duties of the purohita (royal priest), and is thus known as the Purohitaveda; it contains many hymns pertaining to the kṣatriya s (ruling or warrior class), and is thus called the Kṣatraveda; and it is the guide for the performers of the practices described in the five (pañca ) main ancillary texts (kalpa s) of this Veda, and thus is known as the Veda of the Pañcakalpins.

The Atharvaveda is available in two recensions, the Śaunaka and the Paippalāda (which is only partially available). The Śaunaka recension consists of 730 hymns grouped into twenty books (kāṇḍa s). About five-sixths of these hymns are metrical (arthasūkta s), whereas the remaining ones (paryāya-sūkta s) are made up of prose units (avasāna s). The Atharvaveda is less sophisticated in its meter, accent, and grammar than the Ṛgveda. The contents of the Atharvaveda may be broadly classified under the following headings: charms to counteract diseases and possession by evil spirits; prayers for health and longevity and for happiness and prosperity; spells pertaining to various kinds of relationships with women; hymns concerning the affairs of the king, as well as those intended to secure harmony in domestic, social, and political fields; and formulas for sorcery and imprecation and for exorcism and counterexorcism. Finally, the Atharvaveda contains quite a few hymns embodying highly theosophic and philosophical speculations.

SĀmaveda and Yajurveda SaṂhitĀs

The Sāmaveda and the Yajurveda are essentially liturgical collections and conceptually mark the transition from the Saṃhitā period to the Brāhmaṇa period. The Sāmaveda Saṃhitā is a collection of mantra s to be chanted at the various soma sacrifices by the udgātṛ priest and/or his assistants. The name Sāmaveda is, however, a misnomer; it is not a collection of sāman s, or chants, but rather a collection of verses, mostly derived from the Ṛgveda, which are intended to form the basis of proper sāman s (sāmayoni mantra s). Out of the traditionally mentioned thirteen sākhā s of the Sāmaveda, only three are known today: the Kauthuma, the Rāṇāyanīya, and the Jaiminīya, or Talavakāra. The Kauthuma Saṃhitā of the Sāmaveda is made up of two parts, the Pūrvārcika and the Uttarārcika. The Pūrvārcika consists of 585 mantra s and the Uttarārcika of 1,225 mantra s. However, the total number of mantra s in the Sāmaveda, not counting those that are repeated, is 1,549—all but 78 of them having been taken from the Ṛgveda, mostly its eighth and ninth maṇḍala s. For their use in the soma ritual, the sāmayoni mantra s are transformed into chants or ritual melodies, called gāna s, by means of such devices as the modification, prolongation, and repetition of the syllables in the mantra s and the occasional insertion of additional syllables (stobha s). Such gāna s are gathered in four books: the Grāmageyagāna, the Araṇyagāna, the Ūhagāna, and the Ūhyagāna. Of course, these gāna collections are quite distinct from the Sāmaveda. Since one sāmayoni mantra can be chanted in a variety of ways, it gives rise to several gāna s. Consequently, the number of gāna s is much larger than the number of sāmayoni mantra s. For instance, the number of gāna s belonging to the Kauthuma school is 2,722.

Whereas the Sāmaveda concerns itself exclusively with just one feature of the soma sacrifice, the Yajurveda treats the entire sacrificial system. Indeed, the Yajurveda may be regarded as the first regular textbook on the Vedic ritual as a whole. It deals mainly with the duties of the adhvaryu, the priest responsible for the actual performance of the various sacrificial rites. There are two major recensions of the Yajurveda, the Kṛṣṇa ("black") Yajurveda and the Śukla ("white") Yajurveda. The difference between them lies not so much in their contents as in their arrangement. In the Kṛṣṇa Yajurveda, the mantra s and the yaju s (sacrificial formulas in prose) and their ritualistic explanation and discussion (called brāhmaṇa ) are mixed together. Thus, in its form and content the Saṃhitā of the Kṛṣṇa Yajurveda is not particularly distinguishable from the Brāhmaṇa or the Ᾱraṇyaka of that Veda. In contrast, the Śukla Yajurveda contains only the mantra s and the yaju s, the corresponding ritualistic explanation and discussion being reserved for the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa that belongs to that Veda.

The Saṃhitās of four schools of the Kṛṣṇa Yajurveda —namely, the Taittirīya, the Kaṭha (or Kāṭhaka), the Maitrāyaṇī, and the Kapiṣṭhala Kaṭha—are available today either whole or in fragments. Incidentally, it may be noted that the Taittirīya school has preserved its literature perhaps most fully of all the Vedic schools, maintaining the continuity from the Saṃhitā period, through the Brāhmaṇa-Ᾱraṇyaka-Upaniṣad periods, up to the Sūtra period. The Taittirīya Saṃhitā is divided into seven kāṇḍa s, and, together with the Taittirīya Brāhmaṇa and the Taittirīya Ᾱraṇyaka, it covers almost the whole gamut of Vedic ritual. However, in these texts, the different sacrifices are not dealt with in any rational order.

A significant feature of the Śukla Yajurveda is that its entire literary corpus has come down in two distinct versions, the Mādhyandina and the Kāṇva. However, there is little essential difference between them in content and arrangement. The Śukla Yajurveda Saṃhitā, which is also known as the Vājasaneyi Saṃhitā in the Mādhyandina version, consists of forty chapters (adhyāya s). The first twenty-five adhyāya s contain mantra s and formulas relating to the principal sacrifices; the next four adhyāya s include additions to these basic mantra s and formulas; adhyāya s 30–39 deal with such sacrifices as the Puruṣamedha, the Sarvamedha, the Pitṛmedha, and the Pravargya; and the last adhyāya constitutes the well-known Īśa Upaniṣad.

See Also

Brāhmaṇas and Ᾱraṇyakas; Pristhood, article on Hindu Priesthood; Sūtra Literature; Upaniṣads; Vedāṅgas; Vedism and Brahmanism.

Bibliography

Translations of the Ṛgveda can be found in Hymns from the Rigveda, translated by A. A. Macdonnell (Calcutta, 1922); The Hymns of the Rigveda, 2 vols., translated by T. H. Griffith (Varanasi, 1920–1936; reprint, 1967); Ṛgveda Maṇḍala VII, translated by Hari Damodar Velankar (Bombay, 1963); and The Soma-hymns of the Ṛgveda, 3 vols., translated by Shrikrishna Sākhāram Bhawe (Baroda, India, 1957–1962).

Translations of other Vedas include three works translated by T. H. Griffith: The Hymns of the Samaveda (Varanasi, 1893; reprint, 1963), The Texts of the White Yajurveda (Varanasi, 1899), and The Hymns of the Atharvaveda, 2 vols. (Varanasi, 1895–1896; reprint, 1968); The Veda of the Black Yajus School Entitled the Taittiriya Sanhita, translated by Arthur Berriedale Keith (Cambridge, Mass., 1914); and Atharvaveda Samhitā, edited by C. R. Lanman and translated by William Dwight Whitney (Cambridge, Mass., 1905).

The few English translations of the Brāhmaṇas include Rigveda Brāhmaṇas, translated by Arthur Berriedale Keith (Cambridge, Mass., 1920); Paṇcavimśa-brāhmaṇa, translated by W. Caland (Calcutta, 1931); and The Śatapatha-Brāhmaṇa, translated by Julius Eggeling (Oxford, 1882–1900; reprint, Delhi, 1966).

The Ᾱraṇyaka literature is represented in English by The Aitareya Ᾱraṇyaka, edited and translated by Arthur Berriedale Keith (Oxford, 1909; reprint, 1969).

Secondary sources on Vedic religion include Maurice Bloomfield's The Religion of the Veda (New York, 1908; reprint, Varanasi, 1972); Arthur Berriedale Keith's The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads (Cambridge, Mass., 1925); Hermann Oldenberg's Die Religion des Veda, 2d ed. (Stuttgart and Berlin, 1917); Louis Renou's L'Inde classique (Paris, 1947); and my Exercises in Indology (Delhi, 1981), especially the chapter entitled "The Cultural Background of the Veda," pp. 68–93.

The religion of the Brāhmaṇas is discussed in Religion and Mythology of the Brahmanas, "Govind Vinayak Devasthali Series" (Poona, 1965); Jogiraj Basu's India of the Age of the Brāhmaṇas (Calcutta, 1969); and Sylvain Lévi's La doctrine du sacrifice dans les brāhmaṇas (Paris, 1898).

Secondary sources on Vedic literature include my Vedic Mythological Tracts (Delhi, 1979) and Insights into Hinduism (Delhi, 1979), especially the chapter entitled "Literature of Brahmanism in Sanskrit," pp. 320–372, and Jan Gonda's Vedic Literature (Wiesbaden, 1975).

New Sources

Choudhary, B. K. From Kinship to Social Hierarchy: The Vedic Experience. Patna, 1999.

Elizarenkova, Tatyana J. Language and Style of the Vedic Rsis. Albany, 1995.

Facets of Vedic Studies. Edited by Bidyut Lata Ray. New Delhi, 2000.

Inside the Texts, Beyond the Texts: New Approaches to the Study of the Vedas: Proceedings of the International Vedic Workshop. Harvard University, June 1989. Cambridge, Mass., and Columbia, Mo., 1997.

Jamison, Stephanie W. The Ravenous Hyenas and the Wounded Sun: Myth and Ritual in Ancient India. (Myth and Poetics.) Ithaca, N.Y., 1991.

Jamison, Stephanie W. Sacrificed Wife/Sacrificer's Wife: Women, Ritual, and Hospitality in Ancient India. New York, 1996.

Mahony, William K. The Artful Universe: An Introduction to the Vedic Religious Imagination. Albany, 1998.

Malamoud, Charles. Cooking the World: Ritual and Thought in Ancient India. Translated from the French by David White. Delhi; New York, 1996.

R. N. Dandekar (1987)

Revised Bibliography