Types Of Vedas

By Isha Pathania

The Vedas are usually a large body of religious texts which originated in ancient India. Vedas

are written in Vedic Sanskrit. Vyasa compiled the Vedas and arranged all the four kinds of

mantras into four Samhitas(it is also known as collections).The message of the vedas is to

inform about the Hinduism religion. The texts constitute the oldest layer of Sanskrit literature

and also the oldest scriptures of Hinduism. The Vedas teaches us to follow the truth. It also

teaches us to aceept nothing except the truth. The original manuscripts of the Vedas never

existed. The Vedas were initially conveyed through the oral tradition, just like the Homeric

poems which were found in Greece. The God of the vedas is Brahma. In the

beginning, Brahma originated from the cosmic golden egg and after that he created the

good and the evil, light and the dark from his own person. He is also the creator of the four

types: gods, demons, ancestors, and the men (the first man on Earth was Manu). The

number of Vedas are four namely the Rigveda, the Yajurveda, the Samaveda and the

Atharvaveda. There are total 20,379 mantras in all of the four vedas.

The Rigveda   means the knowledge of the verses. It is an ancient Indian  collection of hyms

which are written in the language Vedic Sanskrit. It is one of the four sacred recognized

 texts of Hinduism which are well  known as the Vedas. The Rigveda is the oldest

known  text which is written in the language Vedic Sanskirit. The early layers of the

Rigveda are one of the oldest extant texts in any of the  Indo-European language. The

sounds and texts of the Rig veda have been transferred orally since the 2nd millennium

BCE.The Rig veda were composed between c. 1500-1200B.C.E.The text is layered and it

comprises of the Samhita, Brahmanas, Aranyakas and the  Upanishads. The Rigveda

Samhita is the core text, and it is a collection of total 10 books (which are also known as the

maṇḍalas) and it consists of 1,028 hymns (sūktas) in about total 10,600 verses (also

called ṛc,which is an eponymous of the name Rigveda). In the eight books of the Rigveda –

the books 2 through 9  were composed the untimeliest, the hymns primarily discuss topics

like the  cosmology  and it also praises the deities. Some of its verses are still to recited

during Hindu rites of the passage celebrations (like in the weddings) and prayers, which

makes it primarily the world's oldest religious text in the continued usage.

Yajurveda is a compound(it is made up by the combination of two words)Sanskrit word,

which is composed of yajus and veda.The period of the Yajurveda was from c. 1200-800

B.C.E.There are 40 chapters of the Yajurveda(chapters are also known as adhyayas in

Vedic sanskrit).The yajurveda were transferred orally among people through the language

Vedic sanskrit.There are total of 1,975 matras in the Yajurveda. Each regional edition (also

known as the recension) of Yajurveda comprises of  Samhita, Brahmana,the  Aranyakas

and the  Upanishads as the part of the text,along with the

Shrautasutras, Grhyasutras and Pratishakhya which are attached to the text.The Yajurveda

also has six upanishads embedded wihtin it.

The Samaveda (sāman means "song" and veda means "knowledge"), is the Veda of various

melodies and many chants. It is an ancient text which is of the language Vedic Sanskrit and

it is a part of the Hindu scriptures. One of the four Vedas, it is a ritual text and it consists of

one thousand five hundred and forty nine verses. All but seventy five verses have been

taken from the Rig Veda.Three alteration of the Samaveda have survived and the varying

manuscripts of the Veda have been found in many parts of India.The Sama Veda

represents the force which is of spiritual knowledge and the power of the devotion. The

book was disclosed to Vayu rishi. It involves hymns of the Rigveda which has been  put to a

musical measure. Thus the text of the Sama Veda is just an alternative version of Rigveda.

The Atharva Veda is a Vedic-era which comprises a collection of some spells, prayers,

charms, and the various hymns. There are prayers which could protect crops from the

lightning and to protect crops also from the drought,there are many charms against

venomous serpents, love spells, healing spells,about hundreds of verses, in which some

are derived from the Rig Veda and all of the prayers and hymns are very ancient. Among

the ten of the major Upanisads of the four Vedas,there are three very important Upanisads

namely Prasna, Mundaka and Mandukya Upanisads which belong to the Atharva veda.

The Atharva Veda is a great mine of Indian wisdom which is meant not only for peace of

mind in the other world but also for guiding to a joyful and fruitful life.

By Isha Pathania