The Vedic Literature: an essence of the past

Do you want to know about the glorious past of our country, and yes, by the term 'country' I mean the whole Indian subcontinent, and if you want to know the ancient history of the country then the Vedic literature is must to know.The word Veda derived from the the ancient Sanskrit word “Vid” which means “Knowledge”. It was also believed that the Veda is not created by humans, the knowledge was gifted to us by gods and comprehended by “Rishi” ( The sages), that's why it has also called 'Apourasheya' (not created by humans).

But now the question arises, what is the “Veda” and what is “Vedic Literature”? Well the Veda and the Vedic literature is divided in two phases or may be in to 2 different time periods. First, the early Vedic period & then comes the later Vedic period. As we all know the whole Vedic literature was written in Sanskrit language and the script for the Sanskrit was “Devanagari”. The language belonged to the Indo-Aryan language family.

So as we follow up, the early Vedic period was started in 1500 BCE and lasted up to 950 BCE. The only literary work of this period was the “Rig Veda”.The early Vedic period was started before thes Aryan knew writing, so all their literary works were nothing but oral tradition. The Guru (Teacher) passed down the knowledge to the Sisha (student) by giving dictations in several sessions, and the student had to listen to the teacher and they used to repeat it after him. That’s why the early vedic literature was described as “Shruti”(hear). Later, by 1200 B.C.E it was finally written down. The very nature of the “Rig Veda” or the “Early Vedic period” was religion-centric. The “Rig Veda” is subdivided into 10 books and the 1027 Suktas (stanzas). This whole collection of metrical hymns written in Sanskrit, were called as "Rig" so that’s where the name “Rig Veda” comes from. Each and every hymn from the “Rig Veda” is included with its metric and the author of the hymn. Researcher says that even in the Rigveda we can find clear example of differences in cultural aspect. Oldenburg and many more researcher say that from book 2 - book 7 are written earlier and the 10th book was added later as per extended appendix.

Speaking of later Vedic age, each and every literature which is not “Rig Veda” and up to “Upanishada” was the literary works of the said timeline.  

The literary works of the later Vedic age was divided into three Vedas, which are, 

1) Sama Veda, 2) Yajura Veda & 3) Atharva Veda.

The Sama Veda is the collection of 1875 metrical hymns, that’s why it has another name of “Sama Gan” (songs from Sama Veda). As a matter of fact from 1875 hymns, at-least 1549 hymns  were repetition  from the  8^th and the 9^th book of the Rig Veda. There are only 75 hymns which are unique. The Sama Veda is again subdivided into three parts follows as,

The Yajura Veda was divided into 2 different schools , likewise –1) Sukla (2) Krishna

Yajura veda consists of various ways of rituals and yaggas. It has 1,875 hymns, subjected to many unique type of ritual for different purpose which was practiced by the priest. The Yajura Veda was written in form of half metrical and half prose and many of it’s hymn was taken or build on the foundation of the “Rig Veda”  which defies that it was far more younger than the “Rig Veda”.This Veda is split into five Brahmana part, likewise; 1) Taitiriyo Brahmana, 2) Maitarayani Brahmana, 

3) Koth Brahmana, 4) Apostmba Brahmana, 5) Satapatha Brahmana, 

The Atharva Veda is the the most newer Veda to know. the  Atharva Veda has a total of 731 hymns which was divided into 20 chapters. The older name of the Atharva Veda is “Atharbaangiras”,  which literally means “Arthavana” and “Angiras”. These are the name of 2 famous sages (who might have written the book). The matter of concern is, for ages the Athava Veda wasn't been honored as a Veda. If we look into the Kautilya’s Arthashastra we can look upon his remarks saying," A king should learn all three (trio)of the Veda’s”. There is clearly no mention about the Atharva Veda.The real reason behind this oppression was not known but scholar had assumed that the Atharva Veda is collection of magical hymns, in which some magic were good deeds and some for bad, it also does comply the pre-Vedic thoughts and tradition which isn't affined to the Vedic culture.

The Upanishada is considered as Vedantya (the end of the Veda) that vibes upon the ideologies and brief summeries of previous Vedas. There are number of Upanishadas associated with the other four mainstream Vedas, such as the Rigveda is characterised by 1) Aitareyo Upanishada, 2) Koishatki Upanishada ; Samaveda is treasured with 1) Chhandogya Upanishada, 2) Keno Upanishada, 3) Jeiminiyo Upanishada ; the contents of Yajuraveda are defined in 1) Koth Upanishada, 2) Teittiriya Upanishada, 3) Maitrayani Upanishada, 4) Setambara Upanishada, 5) Brihadaranyaka Upanishada & 6) Ish Upanishada ; and at last Atharvaveda is discussed in 1) Mandukkya Upanishada, 2) Manduka Upanishada & 3) Prashna Upanishada.

1) Pancahabingsha Tandya Brahmana, 2) Sarabingsha Brahmana & 3) Jiminiya Brahmana.