The
Vedas (
Sanskrit वेद véda, "
knowledge") are a large body of texts originating in
ancient India. Composed in
Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the oldest layer of
Sanskrit literature and the oldest
scriptures of
Hinduism.
[1][2]
The class of "
Vedic texts" is aggregated around the four canonical
Saṃhitās or Vedas proper (
turīya), of which three (
traya) are related to the performance of
yajna (
sacrifice) in historical (
Iron Age)
Vedic religion:
- The Rigveda, containing hymns to be recited by the hotṛ;
- The Yajurveda, containing formulas to be recited by the adhvaryu or officiating priest;
- The Samaveda, containing formulas to be sung by the udgātṛ.
The fourth is the
Atharvaveda, a collection of spells and incantations, apotropaic charms and speculative hymns.
[3]
According to Hindu tradition, the Vedas are
apauruṣeya "not of human agency",
[4] are supposed to have been directly revealed, and thus are called
śruti ("what is heard").
[5][6] The four
Saṃhitās are
metrical (with the exception of prose commentary interspersed in the
Black Yajurveda). The term
saṃhitā literally means "composition, compilation". The individual verses contained in these compilations are known as
mantras.
Some selected Vedic mantras are still recited at prayers, religious
functions and other auspicious occasions in contemporary Hinduism.
The various Indian
philosophies and
sects
have taken differing positions on the Vedas. Schools of Indian
philosophy which cite the Vedas as their scriptural authority are
classified as "orthodox" (
āstika). Other traditions, notably
Buddhism and
Jainism, which did not regard the Vedas as authorities are referred to by traditional Hindu texts as "heterodox" or "non-orthodox" (
nāstika) schools.
[7][8] In addition to Buddhism and Jainism,
Sikhism[9][10] and
Brahmoism,
[11] many non-Brahmin Hindus in
South India [12] do not accept the authority of the Vedas. Certain South Indian Brahmin communities such as
Iyengars consider the
Tamil Divya Prabandham or writing of the
Alvar saints as equivalent to the Vedas.
[13] In most
Iyengar temples in South India the
Divya Prabandham is recited daily along with Vedic Hymns.
Etymology and Usage
The
Sanskrit word
véda "knowledge, wisdom" is derived from the root
vid- "to know". This is reconstructed as being derived from the
Proto-Indo-European root
*u̯eid-, meaning "see" or "know".
[14]
As a noun, the word appears only in a single instance in the Rigveda, in
RV 8.19.5, translated by Griffith as "ritual lore":
- yáḥ samídhā yá âhutī / yó védena dadâśa márto agnáye / yó námasā svadhvaráḥ
- "The mortal who hath ministered to Agni with oblation, fuel, ritual lore, and reverence, skilled in sacrifice."[15]
The noun is from
Proto-Indo-European *u̯eidos, cognate to
Greek (ϝ)εἶδος "aspect", "form" . Not to be confused is the homonymous 1st and 3rd person singular perfect tense
véda, cognate to Greek
(ϝ)οἶδα (w)oida "I know". Root cognates are Greek
ἰδέα,
English wit, etc.,
Latin video "I see", etc.
[16]
In English, the term
Veda is often used loosely to refer to the
Samhitas (collection of
mantras, or chants) of the four canonical Vedas (
Rigveda,
Yajurveda,
Samaveda and
Atharvaveda).
The Sanskrit term
veda as a common noun means "knowledge", but can also be used to refer to fields of study unrelated to liturgy or ritual, e.g. in
agada-veda "medical science",
sasya-veda "science of agriculture" or
sarpa-veda "science of snakes" (already found in the early
Upanishads);
durveda means "with evil knowledge, ignorant".
[17]
Chronology
Main article:
Vedic period
The Vedas are among the
oldest sacred texts. The Samhitas date to roughly 1500–1000 BCE, and the "circum-Vedic" texts, as well as the
redaction of the Samhitas, date to c. 1000-500 BCE, resulting in a
Vedic period, spanning the mid 2nd to mid 1st millennium BCE, or the
Late Bronze Age and the
Iron Age.
[18] The Vedic period reaches its peak only after the composition of the mantra texts, with the establishment of the various
shakhas all over Northern India which annotated the mantra
samhitas with
Brahmana discussions of their meaning, and reaches its end in the age of
Buddha and
Panini and the rise of the
Mahajanapadas (archaeologically,
Northern Black Polished Ware). Michael Witzel gives a time span of c. 1500 BCE to c. 500-400 BCE. Witzel makes special reference to the Near Eastern
Mitanni material of the 14th c. BCE the only epigraphic record of Indo-Aryan contemporary to the Rigvedic period. He gives 150 BCE (
Patañjali) as a
terminus ante quem for all Vedic Sanskrit literature, and 1200 BCE (the early
Iron Age) as
terminus post quem for the Atharvaveda.
[19]
Transmission of texts in the Vedic period was by
oral tradition alone, preserved with precision with the help of elaborate
mnemonic techniques. A literary tradition set in only in post-Vedic times, after the rise of
Buddhism in the
Maurya period, perhaps earliest in the
Kanva recension of the Yajurveda about the 1st century BCE; however oral tradition predominated until c. 1000 CE.
[20]
Due to the ephemeral nature of the manuscript material (birch bark or
palm leaves), surviving manuscripts rarely surpass an age of a few
hundred years.
[21]
The Benares Sanskrit University has a Rigveda manuscript of the
mid-14th century; however, there are a number of older Veda manuscripts
in
Nepal belonging to the Vajasaneyi tradition that are dated from the 11th century onwards.
Categories of Vedic texts
The term "Vedic texts" is used in two distinct meanings:
- Texts composed in Vedic Sanskrit during the Vedic period (Iron Age India)
- Any text considered as "connected to the Vedas" or a "corollary of the Vedas"[22]
Vedic Sanskrit corpus
The corpus of
Vedic Sanskrit texts includes:
- The Samhita (Sanskrit saṃhitā, "collection"), are collections of metric texts ("mantras"). There are four "Vedic" Samhitas: the Rig-Veda, Sama-Veda, Yajur-Veda, and Atharva-Veda, most of which are available in several recensions (śākhā). In some contexts, the term Veda
is used to refer to these Samhitas. This is the oldest layer of Vedic
texts, apart from the Rigvedic hymns, which were probably essentially
complete by 1200 BC, dating to ca. the 12th to 10th centuries BC. The
complete corpus of Vedic mantras as collected in Bloomfield's Vedic Concordance (1907) consists of some 89,000 padas (metric feet), of which 72,000 occur in the four Samhitas.[23]
- The Brahmanas
are prose texts that discuss, in technical fashion, the solemn
sacrificial rituals as well as comment on their meaning and many
connected themes. Each of the Brahmanas is associated with one of the
Samhitas or its recensions. The Brahmanas may either form separate texts
or can be partly integrated into the text of the Samhitas. They may
also include the Aranyakas and Upanishads.
- The Aranyakas,
"wilderness texts" or "forest treaties", were composed by people who
meditated in the woods as recluses and are the third part of the Vedas.
The texts contain discussions and interpretations of dangerous rituals
(to be studied outside the settlement) and various sorts of additional
materials. It is frequently read in secondary literature.
- Some of the older Mukhya Upanishads (Bṛhadāraṇyaka, Chandogya, Kaṭha).[24][25]
- Certain Sūtra literature, i.e. the Shrautasutras and the Grhyasutras.
The
Shrauta Sutras, regarded as belonging to the smriti, are late Vedic in language and content, thus forming part of the Vedic Sanskrit corpus.
[25][26]
The composition of the Shrauta and Grhya Sutras (ca. 6th century BC)
marks the end of the Vedic period , and at the same time the beginning
of the flourishing of the "circum-Vedic" scholarship of
Vedanga, introducing the early flowering of classical
Sanskrit literature in the
Mauryan and
Gupta periods.
While production of Brahmanas and Aranyakas ceases with the end of
the Vedic period, there is a large number of Upanishads composed after
the end of the Vedic period. While most of the ten
Mukhya Upanishads can be considered to date to the Vedic or Mahajanapada period, most of the 108 Upanishads of the full
Muktika canon date to the Common Era.
The
Brahmanas,
Aranyakas, and
Upanishads often interpret the polytheistic and ritualistic
Samhitas in philosophical and metaphorical ways to explore abstract concepts such as the Absolute (
Brahman), and the soul or the self (
Atman), introducing
Vedanta philosophy, one of the major trends of later
Hinduism.
The Vedic Sanskrit corpus is the scope of
A Vedic Word Concordance (
Vaidika-Padānukrama-Koṣa)
prepared from 1930 under Vishva Bandhu, and published in five volumes
in 1935-1965. Its scope extends to about 400 texts, including the entire
Vedic Sanskrit corpus besides some "sub-Vedic" texts.
- Volume I: Samhitas
- Volume II: Brahmanas and Aranyakas
- Volume III: Upanishads
- Volume IV: Vedangas
A revised edition, extending to about 1800 pages, was published in 1973-1976.
Shruti literature
The texts considered "Vedic" in the sense of "corollaries of the
Vedas" is less clearly defined, and may include numerous post-Vedic
texts such as
Upanishads or
Sutra literature. These texts are by many Hindu sects considered to be
shruti (Sanskrit:
śruti; "the heard"), divinely revealed like the Vedas themselves. Texts not considered to be
shruti are known as
smriti (Sanskrit:
smṛti; "the remembered"), of human origin. This indigenous system of categorization was adopted by
Max Müller and, while it is subject to some debate, it is still widely used. As Axel Michaels explains:
These classifications are often not tenable for linguistic and formal reasons: There is not only one
collection at any one time, but rather several handed down in separate
Vedic schools; Upanişads ... are sometimes not to be distinguished from Āraṇyakas...; Brāhmaṇas contain older strata of language attributed to the Saṃhitās;
there are various dialects and locally prominent traditions of the
Vedic schools. Nevertheless, it is advisable to stick to the division
adopted by Max Müller because it follows the Indian tradition, conveys
the historical sequence fairly accurately, and underlies the current
editions, translations, and monographs on Vedic literature."[24]
The
Upanishads
are largely philosophical works in dialog form. They discuss questions
of nature philosophy and the fate of the soul, and contain some mystic
and spiritual interpretations of the Vedas. For long, they have been
regarded as their putative end and essence, and are thus known as
Vedānta ("the end of the Vedas"). Taken together, they are the basis of
the
Vedanta school.
Vedic schools or recensions
Study of the extensive body of Vedic texts has been organized into a number of different schools or branches (Sanskrit
śākhā, literally "branch" or "limb") each of which specialized in learning certain texts.
[27]
Multiple recensions are known for each of the Vedas, and each Vedic
text may have a number of schools associated with it. Elaborate methods
for preserving the text were based on memorizing by heart instead of
writing. Specific techniques for parsing and reciting the texts were
used to assist in the memorization process. (
See also: Vedic chant)
Prodigous energy was expended by ancient Indian culture in ensuring
that these texts were transmitted from generation to generation with
inordinate fidelity.
[28] For example, memorization of the sacred
Vedas included up to eleven
forms of recitation
of the same text. The texts were subsequently "proof-read" by comparing
the different recited versions. Forms of recitation included the
jaṭā-pāṭha
(literally "mesh recitation") in which every two adjacent words in the
text were first recited in their original order, then repeated in the
reverse order, and finally repeated again in the original order.
[29]
That these methods have been effective, is testified to by the preservation of the most ancient Indian religious text, the
Ṛigveda, as a redacted into single text during the
Brahmana period, without any variant readings.
[29]
The Four Vedas
The canonical division of the Vedas is fourfold (
turīya) viz.,
[32]
- Rigveda (RV)
- Yajurveda (YV, with the main division TS vs. VS)
- Sama-Veda (SV)
- Atharva-Veda (AV)
Of these, the first three were the principal original division, also called "
trayī vidyā", that is, "the triple sacred science" of reciting hymns (RV), performing sacrifices (YV), and chanting (SV).
[33][34] This triplicity is so introduced in the
Brahmanas (
ShB,
ABr
and others), but the Rigveda is the older work of the three from which
the other two borrow, next to their own independent Yajus, sorcery and
speculative mantras.
Thus, the Mantras are properly of three forms: 1.
Ric, which are verses of praise in metre, and intended for loud recitation; 2.
Yajus, which are in prose, and intended for recitation in lower voice at sacrifices; 3.
Sāman, which are in metre, and intended for singing at the
Soma ceremonies.
The Yajurveda, Samaveda and Atharvaveda are independent collections of mantras and hymns intended as manuals for the
Adhvaryu,
Udgatr and
Brahman priests respectively.
The Atharvaveda is the fourth Veda. Its status has occasionally been
ambiguous, probably due to its use in sorcery and healing. However, it
contains very old materials in early Vedic language.
Manusmrti, which often speaks of the three Vedas, calling them
trayam-brahma-sanātanam,
"the triple eternal Veda". The Atharvaveda like the Rigveda, is a
collection of original incantations, and other materials borrowing
relatively little from the Rigveda. It has no direct relation to the
solemn
Śrauta
sacrifices, except for the fact that the mostly silent Brahmán priest
observes the procedures and uses Atharvaveda mantras to 'heal' it when
mistakes have been made. Its recitation also produces long life, cures
diseases, or effects the ruin of enemies.
Each of the four Vedas consists of the metrical
Mantra or Samhita and the prose
Brahmana
part, giving discussions and directions for the detail of the
ceremonies at which the Mantras were to be used and explanations of the
legends connected with the Mantras and rituals. Both these portions are
termed
shruti
(which tradition says to have been heard but not composed or written
down by men). Each of the four Vedas seems to have passed to numerous
Shakhas or schools, giving rise to various recensions of the text. They each have an Index or
Anukramani, the principal work of this kind being the general Index or
Sarvānukramaṇī.
Rigveda
The
Rigveda Samhita is the oldest extant
Indic text.
[35] It is a collection of 1,028
Vedic Sanskrit hymns and 10,600 verses in all, organized into ten books (Sanskrit:
mandalas).
[36] The hymns are dedicated to
Rigvedic deities.
[37]
The books were composed by poets from different priestly groups over a
period of several centuries, commonly dated to the period of roughly
the second half of the 2nd millennium BCE (the early
Vedic period) in the
Punjab (
Sapta Sindhu) region of the
Indian subcontinent.
[38]
There are strong linguistic and cultural similarities between the Rigveda and the early Iranian
Avesta, deriving from the
Proto-Indo-Iranian times, often associated with the
Andronovo culture; the earliest horse-drawn chariots were found at Andronovo sites in the
Sintashta-Petrovka cultural area near the
Ural Mountains and date to ca. 2000 BCE.
[39]
Yajurveda
The
Yajurveda Samhita
consists of archaic prose mantras and also in part of verses borrowed
and adapted from the Rigveda. Its purpose was practical, in that each
mantra must accompany an action in sacrifice but, unlike the Samaveda,
it was compiled to apply to all sacrificial rites, not merely the
Somayajna. There are two major groups of
recensions
of this Veda, known as the "Black" (Krishna) and "White" (Shukla)
Yajurveda (Krishna and Shukla Yajurveda respectively). While White
Yajurveda separates the Samhita from its Brahmana (the
Shatapatha Brahmana),
the e Black Yajurveda intersperses the Samhita with Brahmana
commentary. Of the Black Yajurveda four major recensions survive
(Maitrayani, Katha, Kapisthala-Katha, Taittiriya).
Samaveda
The
Samaveda Samhita (from
sāman, the term for a melody applied to metrical hymn or song of praise
[40]) consists of 1549 stanzas, taken almost entirely (except for 78 stanzas) from the Rigveda.
[24]
Like the Rigvedic stanzas in the Yajurveda, the Samans have been
changed and adapted for use in singing. Some of the Rigvedic verses are
repeated more than once. Including repetitions, there are a total of
1875 verses numbered in the Samaveda recension translated by Griffith.
[41]
Two major recensions remain today, the Kauthuma/Ranayaniya and the
Jaiminiya. Its purpose was liturgical, as the repertoire of the
udgātṛ or "singer" priests who took part in the sacrifice.
Atharvaveda
Main article:
Atharvaveda
The
Artharvaveda Samhita is the text 'belonging to the
Atharvan and
Angirasa poets. It has 760 hymns, and about 160 of the hymns are in common with the Rigveda.
[42] Most of the verses are metrical, but some sections are in prose.
[42] It was compiled around 900 BCE, although some of its material may go back to the time of the Rigveda,
[43] and some parts of the Atharva-Veda are older than the Rig-Veda
[42] though not in linguistic form.
The Atharvaveda is preserved in two recensions, the Paippalāda and Śaunaka.
[42] According to Apte it had nine schools (
shakhas).
[44]
The Paippalada text, which exists in a Kashmir and an Orissa version,
is longer than the Saunaka one; it is only partially printed in its two
versions and remains largely untranslated.
Unlike the other three Vedas, the Atharvanaveda has less connection with sacrifice.
[45][46]
Its first part consists chiefly of spells and incantations, concerned
with protection against demons and disaster, spells for the healing of
diseases, for long life and for various desires or aims in life.
[42][47]
The second part of the text contains speculative and philosophical hymns.
[48]
The Atharvaveda is a comparatively late extension of the "Three
Vedas" connected to priestly sacrifice to a canon of "Four Vedas". This
may be connected to an extension of the sacrificial rite from involving
three types of priest to the inclusion of the
Brahman overseeing the ritual.
[49]
The Atharvaveda is concerned with the material world or world of man
and in this respect differs from the other three vedas. Atharvaveda also
sanctions the use of force, in particular circumstances and similarly
this point is a departure from the three other vedas.
Brahmanas
The mystical notions surrounding the concept of the one "Veda" that would flower in
Vedantic philosophy have their roots already in
Brahmana literature, for example in the
Shatapatha Brahmana. The Vedas are identified with
Brahman, the universal principle (ŚBM 10.1.1.8, 10.2.4.6).
Vāc
"speech" is called the "mother of the Vedas" (ŚBM 6.5.3.4, 10.5.5.1).
The knowledge of the Vedas is endless, compared to them, human knowledge
is like mere handfuls of dirt (
TB 3.10.11.3-5). The universe itself was originally encapsulated in the three Vedas (ŚBM 10.4.2.22 has
Prajapati reflecting that "truly, all beings are in the triple Veda").
Vedanta
While contemporary traditions continued to maintain Vedic ritualism (
Śrauta,
Mimamsa),
Vedanta
renounced all ritualism and radically re-interpreted the notion of
"Veda" in purely philosophical terms. The association of the three Vedas
with the
bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ mantra is found in the
Aitareya Aranyaka: "
Bhūḥ is the Rigveda,
bhuvaḥ is the Yajurveda,
svaḥ is the Samaveda" (1.3.2). The Upanishads reduce the "essence of the Vedas" further, to the syllable
Aum (
ॐ). Thus, the
Katha Upanishad has:
- "The goal, which all Vedas declare, which all austerities aim at,
and which humans desire when they live a life of continence, I will tell
you briefly it is Aum" (1.2.15)
In post-Vedic literature
Vedanga
Six technical subjects related to the Vedas are traditionally known as
vedāṅga "limbs of the Veda". V. S. Apte defines this group of works as:
"N. of a certain class of works regarded as auxiliary to the Vedas
and designed to aid in the correct pronunciation and interpretation of
the text and the right employment of the Mantras in ceremonials."[50]
These subjects are treated in
Sūtra literature dating from the end of the Vedic period to
Mauryan times, seeing the transition from late
Vedic Sanskrit to
Classical Sanskrit.
The six subjects of Vedanga are:
Parisista
Pariśiṣṭa
"supplement, appendix" is the term applied to various ancillary works
of Vedic literature, dealing mainly with details of ritual and
elaborations of the texts logically and chronologically prior to them:
the
Samhitas,
Brahmanas,
Aranyakas and
Sutras.
Naturally classified with the Veda to which each pertains, Parisista
works exist for each of the four Vedas. However, only the literature
associated with the
Atharvaveda is extensive.
- The Āśvalāyana Gṛhya Pariśiṣṭa is a very late text associated with the Rigveda canon.
- The Gobhila Gṛhya Pariśiṣṭa is a short metrical text of two chapters, with 113 and 95 verses respectively.
- The Kātiya Pariśiṣṭas, ascribed to Kātyāyana, consist of 18 works enumerated self-referentially in the fifth of the series (the Caraṇavyūha)
- The Kṛṣṇa Yajurveda has 3 parisistas The Āpastamba Hautra Pariśiṣṭa, which is also found as the second praśna of the Satyasāḍha Śrauta Sūtra', the Vārāha Śrauta Sūtra Pariśiṣṭa and the Kātyāyana Śrauta Sūtra Pariśiṣṭa.
- For the Atharvaveda, there are 79 works, collected as 72 distinctly named parisistas.[51]
Puranas
A traditional view given in the
Vishnu Purana (likely dating to the
Gupta period[52]) attributes the current arrangement of four Vedas to the mythical sage
Vedavyasa.
[53]
Puranic tradition also postulates a single original Veda that, in
varying accounts, was divided into three or four parts. According to the
Vishnu Purana (3.2.18, 3.3.4 etc.) the original Veda was divided into four parts, and further fragmented into numerous shakhas, by Lord
Vishnu in the form of
Vyasa, in the
Dvapara Yuga; the
Vayu Purana (section 60) recounts a similar division by Vyasa, at the urging of
Brahma. The
Bhagavata Purana (12.6.37) traces the origin of the primeval Veda to the syllable
aum, and says that it was divided into four at the start of
Dvapara Yuga,
because men had declined in age, virtue and understanding. In a
differing account Bhagavata Purana (9.14.43) attributes the division of
the primeval veda (
aum) into three parts to the monarch
Pururavas at the beginning of
Treta Yuga. The Mahabharata (santiparva 13,088) also mentions the division of the Veda into three in
Treta Yuga.
[54]
Upaveda
The term
upaveda ("applied knowledge") is used in traditional literature to designate the subjects of certain technical works.
[55][56] Lists of what subjects are included in this class differ among sources. The
Charanavyuha mentions four Upavedas:
But
Sushruta and
Bhavaprakasha mention Ayurveda as an upaveda of the Atharvaveda.
Sthapatyaveda (architecture),
Shilpa Shastras (arts and crafts) are mentioned as fourth upaveda according to later sources.
Buddhist and Jain views
Buddhism and Jainism do not reject the Vedas, but merely their absolute authority.
[citation needed]
Buddhism
In the Buddhist
Vinaya Pitaka of the
Mahavagga (I.245)
[57] section the Buddha declared that the Veda in its true form was declared to the Vedic rishis "Atthako, Vâmako, Vâmadevo,
Vessâmitto,
Yamataggi,
Angiraso,
Bhâradvâjo,
Vâsettho,
Kassapo, and
Bhagu"
[58] but that it was altered by a few Brahmins who introduced animal sacrifices. The Vinaya Pitaka's section
Anguttara Nikaya: Panchaka Nipata says that it was on this alteration of the true Veda that the Buddha refused to pay respect to the Vedas of his time.
[59]
Also in the "Brahmana Dhammika Sutta" (II,7)
[60] of the
Suttanipata section of Vinaya Pitaka
[61]
there is a story of when the Buddha was in Jetavana village and there
were a group of elderly Brahmin ascetics who sat down next to the Buddha
and asked him, "
Do the present Brahmans follow the same rules, practise the same rites, as those in the more ancient times?"
The Buddha replied, "No." The elderly Brahmins asked the Buddha that if
it were not inconvenient for him, that he would tell them of the
Brahmana Dharma of the previous generation. The Buddha replied: "
There
were formerly rishis, men who had subdued all passion by the keeping of
the sila precepts and the leading of a pure life...Their riches and
possessions consisted in the study of the Veda and their treasure was a
life free from all evil...The Brahmans, for a time, continued to do
right and received in alms rice, seats, clothes, and oil, though they
did not ask for them. The animals that were given they did not kill; but
they procured useful medicaments from the cows, regarding the as
friends and relatives, whose products give strength, beauty and health."
So in this passage also the Buddha describes when the Brahmins were
studying the Veda but the animal sacrifice customs had not yet began.
The Buddha was declared to have been born as a Brahmin who was a
knower of the Vedas and its philosophies in a number of his previous
lives acording to Buddhist scriptures. Other Buddhas too were said to
have been born as Brahmins that were trained in the Vedas.
The
Mahasupina Jataka[62] and
Lohakumbhi Jataka[63] declares that Brahmin
Sariputra
in a previous life was a Brahmin that prevented animal sacrifice by
declaring that animal sacrifice was actually against the Vedas.
Jainism
A Jain sage intereprets the Vedic sacrifices as metaphorical:
- "Body is the altar, mind is the fire blazing with the ghee of
knowledge and burning the sacrificial sticks of impurities produced from
the tree of karma;..."[64]
Further, Jain Sage Jinabhadra in his
Visesavasyakabhasya cites a numeber of passages from the Vedic Upanishads.
[65]
Jain are in conformity with the Vedas in reference to both the Vedas' and Jainism' acceptance of the 22 Tirthankaras:
- Of Rishabha (1st Tirthankara Rishabha) is written:
- "But Risabha went on, unperturbed by anything till he became
sin-free like a conch that takes no black dot, without obstruction ...
which is the epithet of the First World-teacher, may become the
destroyer of enemies" (Rig Veda X.166)
- Of Aristanemi (Tirthankara Neminatha) is written:
- "So asmakam Aristanemi svaha Arhan vibharsi sayakani dhanvarhanistam yajatam visvarupam arhannidam dayase" (Astak 2, Varga 7, Rig Veda)
"Fifth" and other Vedas
Some post-Vedic texts, including the
Mahabharata, the
Natyasastra and certain
Puranas, refer to themselves as the "
fifth Veda".
[66] The earliest reference to such a "fifth Veda" is found in the
Chandogya Upanishad. "
Dravida Veda" is a term for canonical
Tamil Bhakti texts.
[citation needed]
Other texts such as the
Bhagavad Gita or the
Vedanta Sutras are considered
shruti or "Vedic" by some
Hindu denominations but not universally within Hinduism. The
Bhakti movement, and
Gaudiya Vaishnavism in particular extended the term
veda to include the
Sanskrit Epics and Vaishnavite devotional texts such as the
Pancaratra.
[67]
Western Indology
The study of Sanskrit in the West began in the 17th century. In the early 19th century,
Arthur Schopenhauer drew attention to Vedic texts, specifically the Upanishads. The importance of Vedic Sanskrit for
Indo-European studies
was also recognized in the early 19th century. English translations of
the Samhitas were published in the later 19th century, in the
Sacred Books of the East series edited by
Müller between 1879 and 1910.
[68] Ralph T. H. Griffith also presented English translations of the four Samhitas, published 1889 to 1899.
