Ancient Sanskrit Literature - The Vedas

from Hinduism, Ancient and Modern

THE chief source of our religion, and the basis of the whole of our social fabric, is the Veda, which all sastras declare to be Anadi and Apaurusheya (eternal and not the work of man), but that of the Supreme Being himself. The same is also the belief of the majority of the Hindus of the present day. No higher authority is acknowledged by them in religious or social matters. All ceremonial custom in order to be valid must be traced to the Veda. All prayers, offices of religion and philosophical speculation which are not based upon the Veda, are not binding upon the Hindus. The names of the rishis, all things that have been created, the varieties of form seen in existent things, and the course of actions, are all declared to have their origin in them. The four modes of life of the student, of the householder, of the recluse and the sage, the means of escape from the Samsara and absorption into Brahman, sacrifice, performance of all good actions, and meditation of every description are all founded upon the Veda. "Two Brahmanas should be known, the Brahman represented by sound and the Brahman which is beyond the Vedas and is supreme. He who has mastered the Brahman represented by the word (Shabda), attains to the Supreme Brahman." This is the dictum of the Vedas themselves regarding the world and what is beyond it. The word Veda, however, means knowledge, not merely books containing mantras uttered by certain rishis, and the above belief of the Hindus, is therefore based upon truth "In the Krita age, when men worshipped only one Brahman, they looked upon the Rig, the Yajur, the Sama, and the rites and ceremonies performed from motives of reward, as different from the object of their worship. They then practised only Yoga by means of penances. In the Treta, the Vedas, the various sacrifices (tapas), the distinction between the several orders and the four modes of life, existed in perfection. In consequence, however, of the decrease in the period of life in that age, all these fell from that perfect condition. In the Kali all the Vedas become so scarce that they may not be seen by men." (Mahabharata Mokshadharma, Chapter 232). Read more about the Hindu concept of time and the different ages.

The rishis, when they declare "Brahma to be the cause of the Veda," do not, moreover, say so with reference to the particular words or arrangement of words found in the published treatises now known as the Vedas, but to the intuition which prompted them to promulgate them for the benefit of the world. It is also declared in the sastras that at the end of the four yugas, the Vedas disappear, and at each new creation the seven rishis descend to the earth to re-establish them. In each age Vishnu takes an incarnation for the protection of dharma, and in the Dwapara age he appeared as Krishna Dwipayana Vyasa, to make four divisions of the Vedas on account of the shortness of human life and the diminution of human energy. Twenty Vyasas have appeared in the world from time to time. Krishna Dwipayana, known as the Veda Vyasa, took four pupils, to each of whom he taught one of the Vedas, to Paila the Rig, to Vaisampayana the Yajur, to Jaimini the Sama, and to Sumanta the Atharva. This seems to show that there was originally one Veda subsequently made into four by Vyasa, and that even these four were subsequently further subdivided into various schools or sakhas, according to the advance of Aryan society downwards into the plains of India and their increasing sub-divisions. This proves that knowledge (Veda) and not books are eternal, and that as remarked by Patanjali in his Mahabhashya, the sense of the Vedas (artha) is eternal, not the words (Varnanupurvi).

Rig Veda

The Rig had two samhitas by Indra Pramati and Bhaskli, and these again were sub-divided into four sakhas. The portion of the Rig now preserved, is that of the Sakalya school. It comprises ten mandalas and 1,017 suktas and eleven supplementary hymns. Each mandala is the work of one rishi or his descendants. The suktas are prayers or invocations to the gods, and the rishis are principally Vasistha, Medhathiti, Devathiti, Brahmathiti, Parvata, Narada, Manu, Vaivasvata, Maun Kasyapa and others. The gods to whom the hymns are addressed, are 33 ("thrice eleven" as the Veda says). These are the eight Vasus, the eleven Rudras, the twelve Adityas, Prajapati and Vashatkara. Other hymns are addressed to Soma, heaven and earth, the Purusha, Hiranyagarbha, etc. The gods are, however, spoken of as “having all a beginning” and above them is the Supreme Being whose commands they obey. "Brahmanas call one sat by various names Agni, Yama, Matrisvana." The gods have all the physical aspects of humanity, and are looked upon as bestowers of long life and prosperity, and the rishis feel their dependence upon them. "Thou art our keeper, wise, preparer of our path, we for thy service sing hymns of praise. Thee as protector of our bodies we invoke Thee savior, as the comforter, as one who loveth us," we invoke. Thus they addressed their gods.

The Rig Veda carries us back to a society happy in its simplicity. "Cheerful in spirit, ever more and keen of sight, with scores of children free from sickness and sin, long living may we look upon thee, O Surya, uprising day by day." So they wished and prayed. Truth and law were their sustainers. "Truth bears the earth, by law (rita) the Adityas stand secure" Beautiful is the story of Urvasi and Pururavas; how she disappeared on the latter breaking the prescribed condition of not appearing before her unclothed, and how he vainly implores her to return. The myth is said to typify the dawn and the sun; how on the appearance of the latter the former disappears. The meter principally employed is the gayatri, consisting of three lines of eight syllables each. The other meters are the jagati, consisting of four lines of twelve syllables each, and the trishtubh of four lines of eleven syllables each. The Rig Veda is the book of the hotri priest at the sacrifice.

Sama Veda

The Samaveda is next in order. It is the Veda of the Udgatri priest. It is mostly taken from the Rig Veda, and consists of four portions, containing 460 hymns, of which only 75 are not found in the Rig Veda. There are, according to the Vishnu Purana, not only two, but many more sakhas of this Veda. Sumanta, son of Jaimini, had two pupils, Hiranyanabha and Paushyanji. Each of these had fifteen pupils who composed as many samhitas. At present there are only two schools of this Veda extant, the Kauthumi and the Ranayani. The Samaveda is now and then sung at Yagyas, but one cannot easily follow the chanter.

Yajur Veda

Next comes the Yajur Veda. According to the Vishnu Purana, Vaisampayana made 27 sakhas of the Yajur Veda and communicated each of them to one of his disciples. Of these, Yajnavalkya was the most learned, but on account of a quarrel between teacher and pupil, he did not adhere to what the former had taught him and obtained from the sun the Ayatyama, which even Vaisampayana did not know. Fifteen branches of this school originated from Kanva and other pupils of Yajnavalkya. The schools of the Yajur Veda largely found in India at one time were the Katha, the Maitrayani, theTaitareya and the Vajasaneyi. They are now found only in name. Separated from its explanatory portion, this Veda is called the White or the Sukla, with it the Black or the Krishna Yajur Veda. The Yajur Veda is not merely a collection of sacrificial formulae, but also contains some of the grandest hymns addressed to the Supreme Being and other lesser gods, and in it may be traced the seed of that Advaitism which was so fully developed in the Upanishads. It consists of 40 chapters. The rishis are mostly the same as those of the Rig Veda, with some additions like Susruta, Yajnavalkya, Asuri, etc. The meters are also the same, with some additions like Brahmi, Vrishati, Brahmi Jagati, Nichritgayatri, Arshigayatri, Virata, Trishtubh, etc. The Veda, is however, sung at sacrifices, and the notes of which each mantra is to be sung are given with it. The gods of the Yajur Veda are greater in number than those of the Rig Veda, and Rudra here assumes a more prominent aspect than he did in the Rig. Vishnu, who is here identified with Yagya Prajapati, becomes later on the chief of the gods, and Rudra, Sankara or Siva of Hindu mythology. There is here a greater tendency towards unity than in the older Veda. We read, for instance, "He is verily the Agni, the Aditya, the Vayu and the Moon. He is the Pure. He is Brahma. He is the waters. He is the Prajapati. All moments were created after the resplendent Purusha. None is able to compass him neither in the transverse direction nor in the middle. There is no image of him whose name is the Great Glory. He is our relation. He is our progenitor, our maker. He knows all the worlds" (Chapter 23). Its sixteenth chapter, which is known as the Rudri, is always read by its followers in honor of Siva. Its fortieth chapter forms the well known Ishavasya Upanishad. About half the hymns of this Veda are found in the Rig.

Atharva Veda

We now come to the Atharva Veda. Manu does not recognize it as one of the Vedas, and he speaks of only the Rig, the Yajur, and the Sama as the Vedas. "The Supreme Creator Brahma milked from Agni, Vayu and the Sun the three Vedas – the Rig, Yajur and Sama for the accomplishment of sacrifice" (Manu 1-23). It is, however, recognized in the Mahabharata and some of the Upanishads as one of the four Vedas. The Vishnu Purana mentions its samhitas as

1. the Kalpa which concerns rites and ceremonials;
2. the Nakshatra which concerns worship of planets;
3. the Vaitana which relates to the rules for oblations;
4. the Samhita which concerns the rules of sacrifice;
5. the Angiras which concerns prayers for destruction of enemies; and
6. the Santi which concerns the destruction of evil.

To say that this Veda deals only with magic and incantations, is therefore not correct. Its two sakhas, now extant, are the Pippalada and the Saunaka. It consists of 20 kandas and 731 hymns, and is the Veda of Brahma, the chief-priest, who superintended the whole of the sacrifice.

Conclusion

This is a rough outline of the Vedas. Instead of their being the outpourings of a primitive race, the evidence furnished by them points to a comparatively civilized and truthful state of society. Not only for the evolution of religious beliefs, but also for a much higher purpose, there is no study equal to the Vedas. Modern India may be disappointed in attempting to trace in Vedic hymns the achievements of modern science, as is claimed by some Indian thinkers, but in spite of all difference of time and circumstances, the study of even their Samhita portion cannot fail to be elevating to the Hindus of the present day. To them the Veda reveals the fact that their ancestors were not satisfied with the worship of nature, but went from nature to nature's God. It tells them that the corruptions which now assail Hindu society were neither found in the Vedic period, nor sanctioned by the Rishis, that the Veda is not responsible for idol worship, caste distinction, child-marriage, or the mythology of latter times which forms the creed of the masses now-a-days. Much of its ritual is of no practical use now, but there is still a very large portion, especially the philosophic, capable of serving as an unerring guide to all Hindus who wish to purify their own or the lives of their countrymen.

Source: Nath, Rai Bahadur. Hinduism, Ancient and Modern.

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