Rik-samhita

Rig-Veda consists of 1017 hymns. Including valakhilya sutras it is 1028. It is divided into 10 mandalas
or eight ashtakas. Mandala division is considered to be logical as it is a categorisation based on rishi,
god or goddess and subject matter. Ashtakas division is a simple, mechanical division and traditional
in nature. Western writers hold that the Rig-Veda was written by several writers at different periods.
The hymns in six mandalas, beginning with the second, are ascribed to one sage. These six
mandalas , uniform in character and internal arrangement , must have formed the nucleus of the rik-
samhita. The hymns in the eighth mandala are ascribed to two sages and those in the other
mandalas to a number of sages. The whole of ninth mandala is about soma sacrifice. The four
mandalas 1, 8-10 must have been composed by different dates in different periods and attached to
the nucleus later.

Rig-Veda has five recensions. Shakala, baskala, aswalayana, Santayana and mandukeya.

Extra points from Telugu pstu version.

Prosody in Rig-Veda : Gayatri, Jaati, Brihati, trishtup, Pankti, and Anushtup.

Rig-Veda has many stotras on god's and goddesses Agni, Indra, Vishnu, Ushas, etc. Rig-Veda has
many correspondences with Zend Avesta in this aspect.

Rig-Veda has many discussions on philosophical as well as worldly matters.

It also has type of dialogues - Yama-yami, urvasi-pururavas, saama-phani etc.

It has various sutras like nasadiya sukta, hiranyagarbha sukta, and purusha sukta which have a
philosophical and metaphysical import.

Some of the items of Rig-Veda have become subject matter for puranic stories like vamanavatara
originating from Vishnu sukta.

Aksha sukta which advises against gambling and recommends agriculture habit is representative of
social consciousness.

Looking at the sukta imaam naareeravidhava , first it was assumed that Rig-Veda supported the
superstition of satisahagamana. But later by a comparative study of taittireeya aranyaka , etc, it was
realised that Rig-Veda was in favour of widow re-marriage.

The time of Rig-Veda had been of much contention among philologists and archeologists. After
considering several opinions, taking into consideration observations of comparative philologists, after
taking into account astronomical calculations made by veterans like BG Tilak, balakrishna dixit, and
basing the time indicated by the clay tablets found in boguz-kui in modern turkey, it is decided that
Rig-Veda might be of the period 2000-1500 BC .
 Yajus-samhita

, as per this, the word Veda applies not

only to hymns in the rik-samhita format but equally to brahmanas in the form of prose mixed
commentary. In. Yajus-samhita , this is the speciality. In addition to mantras you have prose
describing modalities of the use of the mantra part. If we do not have accompanying text delineating
the ritual pat, we may not know the proper way of putting the mantras to intended purpose. So we
can be reasonably sure that the time of brahmanas was the starting period of the sacrificial part of
the vedic culture. The priest connected with yajurveda is called as adhvaryu. . He
is the person who leads the sacrifice.

The time of yajurveda is considered to be about the same as Rig-Veda or about two hundred years
later.

It has two parts. Taittireeaya samhita and sukta yajurvaeda samhita.

samhita:

1. the main portion of this has been divided into Kandas or ashtakas.
2. Each ashtakas is divided into prapathaka or prashna and each prashna into anuvakas. Each
anuvaka is again divided into mandala or panchashat. This Samhita has seven ashtakas, 44
prashnas, 957 anuvakas, 2198 panchashats are there.
3. The main theme of this Veda is sacrifice. If is of three kinds ekaaha, Aheena, and satra.
4. The sacrifice that is completed within a day is ekaaha. Agnishtoma, atyagni etc.
5. The sacrifice that take two to twelve days are sutyas or vikruti yagas.
6. Sacrifices like poundareeka take anywhere from 12 days to a few years.
7. Animal killing was a part these sacrificial rites. Though non violence was advocated in
Vedas , animal killing for the purpose of the sacrificial purposes was permitted. Over a period
of time, an aversion developed towards the animal killing and eventually it was stopped.
8. Like Rig-Veda, yajurvaeda too has prosodies of different types but only for the mantra , not
for the prose part, resembling the brahmanas.
9. Sukla yajurvaeda is known to have 15 branches, and Krishna yajurveda 12. But now only 2
branches of sukla yajurveda and 4 of Krishna yajurveda are available.
10. Sukla yajurvaeda :-
11. contains only the hymns part. The samhita is known as vajasaneyi samhita. It has two
rescensions Kanwa and madhyandina . Vajasaneyi samhita has 40 chapters, 25_36 are
known as khila. Fortieth chapter isha Upanishad.
12. Vajasaneyi samhita deals with important sacrifices like vajapeya , ashwamedha, sarvamedha
and others.
13. Brihadaranyaka Upanishad is part of sukla yajurveda.
14. Krishna yajurvaeda :-
15.