Vedic Literature

After having gone through the multifarious definitions of religion and the various
theories regarding the origin of religion and after attempting to peep into the misty
haze of the Indo-European and Indo-iranian periods, we at last emerge into the
comparatively clearer day light of the Vedic period.

At the very threshold of Indian history we come across an extensive literature,

generally known as the Vedic literature. It covers, according to the most cautious
estimates, a period of seven or eight hundred tears and is essentially religious in
character. The whole of this literature naturally falls into thre well-defined literary
periods, marking three distinct stages in the growth of both the language and the
thought.

The three periods are:

I. The period of the four Vedas.

II.The period of the Brahmanas, including the older Aranyakas and the
Upanishads.
III. The period of the Sutras.
This scheme is adopted by Macdonell, but other authors divide the Vedic literature
differently. Thus max Muller distinguishes two seperate periods in the composition
and collection of the four Vedas, as follows;

(i) The Chhandas period, i.e. the period which the hymns of Rigveda were
composed.

(2). The Mantra period, i.e. the period during when the Vedic hymns and and
formulas were collected and ststematically arranged in four books or Samhitas.

In dividing the Vedic literature into any parts whatsoever we must bear in mind the
fact that, excepting the four Vedas and the Brahmanas, the Vedic literature that is
pre-Buddhistic and the Vedic literature that is post-Buddhistic is so mixed up, that its
division into chronologically seperate periods is impossible; for all the Aranyakas
and Upanishads were not written at a definite period, but during a period extending
over at least four to five hundred years. There are few Upanishads which are
undoubtedly anterior to the Sutras, but a lare number of them were written during
and after the Sutra period.

The Four Vedas

1
 The word Veda literally means 'knowledge' (from the root vid, to know), later
coming to mean 'sacred knowledge' or sacred lore', and is used in two different
senses. First it is used as a collective designation not only for the four Vedas or
collections, but also for the Brahmanas (including the Aranyakas and the Upanishads
appended to the Brahmanas). In this sense it is used synonymously with the word
Sruti or 'revealed texts' as opposed to Smriti or 'traditional texts'. In the second sense,
the word is used to denote each one of the four individual collections of hymns and
prayers, which are called the Rig-veda, the Sama-veda, the Yajur-veda and the
Atharva-veda.

The Rig-veda is the Veda of hymns and prayers addressed to the natural powers such
as the sky, earth, dawn, waters etc. as gods; and they were meant for loud recitation.

The Sama-veda is the Veda or chants and consists of hymns, mostly borrowed from
the Rigveda, which are set to music and are meant to be sung by the saman singers
during the performance of the Soma sacrifice. being almost entirely based on the
Rigveda it possesses practically no independent value.

the Yajur-veda is the Veda of 'sacrificial prayers' and besides a great many stanzas
borrowed from the Rigveda it also contains original prose formulas. There are two
schools of the Yajurveda, the Black and the White.

The Atharva-veda is a collection of quite a miscellaneous character. It contains, on

the one hand, several hymns borrowed from the Rigveda and especially the tenth
book of this collection, and on the other, various magical spells and incantations
directed against hostile agencies such as illness, demons and enemies of man in
general and of Brahmans in particular; on the whole this latter element of witchcraft
and sorcery predominates.