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The Rigveda (Sanskrit ऋग्वेद ṛgveda, a compound of ṛc "praise, verse"^[1] and veda "knowledge") is an ancient Indian sacred collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns dedicated to the gods (devas). Literature regarded as central to the Hindu literary tradition was predominantly composed in Sanskrit, Indeed much of the morphology and linguistic "Veda" redirects here For other uses see Veda (disambiguation. The Yajurveda ( Sanskrit यजुर्वेदः, a Tatpurusha compound of yajus "sacrificial formula' + veda The Samaveda ( Sanskrit: सामवेद sāmaveda, from sāman "melody" + veda "knowledge") is third (in the usual The Atharvaveda ( Sanskrit: अथर्ववेद atharvaveda, a Tatpurusha compound of {{IAST|atharvan}}, an ancient Rishi The oral tradition of the Vedas ( Śrauta) consists of several pathas, "recitations" or ways of chanting the Vedic Mantras Such traditions The Brāhmaṇa s ( Devanagari: sa ब्राह्मणं are part of the Hindu śruti literature The Aranyakas (Sanskrit आरण्यक āraṇyaka) are part of the Hindu śruti, the four Vedas these religious texts were composed in The Upanishads ( Devanagari: उपनिषद् IAST: upaniṣad also spelled "Upanisad" are Hindu scriptures that constitute the core teachings The Upanishads ( Devanagari: उपनिषद् IAST: upaniṣad also spelled "Upanisad" are Hindu scriptures that constitute the core teachings The Aitareya Upanishad is one of the older "primary" Upanishads commented upon by Shankara. The Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upanishad ( Sanskrit: बृहदारण्यक उपनिषद् is one of the older "primary" ( Mukhya The Isha Upanishad ( īśa upaniṣad, otherwise Ishopanishad īśopaniṣad or īśāvāsya upaniṣad) is one of the shortest of the Upanishads The Taittiriya Upanishad is one of the older " primary " Upanishads commented upon by Shankara. The Chandogya Upanishad is one of the "primary" ( Mukhya) Upanishads Together with the Jaiminiya Upanishad Brahmana and the Brihadaranyaka The Kena Upanishad (kenopaniṣad is one of the older "primary" Upanishads commented upon by Shankara. The Muṇḍaka Upanishad is one of the older "primary" ( Mukhya) Upanishads commented upon by Shankara. Māndūkya Upanishad is the shortest Upanishads - the scriptures of Hindu Vedanta. The Kaṭha Upanishad is one of the older Mukhya "primary" Upanishads commented upon by Shankara. Prashna Upanishad ( IAST praṣnopaniṣad is one of the older "primary" Upanishads commented upon by Shankara. The Shvetashvatara Upanishad (Sanskrit Śvetāśvatara) (400 - 200 BCE is one of the older "primary" Upanishads It is associated with the Black The Vedanga ( vedāṅga, "member of the Veda" are six auxiliary disciplines for the understanding and tradition of the Vedas. See Shiksha (NGO for the Indian non-governmental organization The main principle of Vedic meter is measurement by the number of syllables The Sanskrit grammatical tradition of vyākaraṇa is one of the six Vedanga disciplines Nirukta ("explanation etymological interpretation" is one of the six {{IAST|Vedānga}} disciplines of Hinduism, treating Etymology, particularly Jyotiṣa ( Sanskrit jyotiṣa, from jyótis- "light heavenly body" also spelled Jyotish and Jyotisha in English Kalpa is one of the six disciplines of Vedanga, treating Ritual. Indian epic poetry is the Epic poetry written in the Indian subcontinent. The Rāmāyaṇa ( Devanāgarī: sa रामायण is an ancient Sanskrit epic attributed to the Hindu sage ( Maharishi) Valmiki The following is a bibliography of Hindu scriptures and texts. Smriti (Sanskrit स्मृति " that which is remembered " refers to a specific body of Hindu religious Scripture If you are looking for the singer see Shruti Haasan. For other meanings see Śruti (disambiguation. For other meanings see Purana (disambiguation. The Puranas ( Sanskrit: sa पुराण purāṇa, "of ancient times" Darśana ( Darshan, दर्शन is a Sanskrit term meaning "sight" (in the sense of an instance of seeing or beholding from a root Pāñcarātra are Vaishnavite devotional texts dedicated to a single deity Sriman Narayana who manifests in different forms Tantras (" Looms " or " Weavings " refers to numerous and varied scriptures pertaining to any of several esoteric traditions In Hinduism a Stotra is a hymn of praise These hymns praise aspects of the divine such as Devi, Siva, or Vishnu. Dharmaśāstra is a genre of Sanskrit texts and refers to the śāstra, or Indic branch of learning pertaining to Hindu Dharma, religious The Nalayira Divya Prabandha (or Nalayira Divya Prabhandham) is a collection of 4000 verses (Naalayira in Tamil means 'four thousand' composed before 8th century The Tevaram ( Tamil: தேவாரம் Teva means "God" aram means "garland") denotes the first seven volumes of the Śrī Rāmacaritamānas ( Devanāgarī: hi श्री राम चरित मानस ( Hindi / Avadhi) is an Epic poem composed by the The Shikshapatri ( Devanagari: शिक्षापत्री is a text of two hundred and twelve verses written in Sanskrit by Bhagwan Swaminarayan The Vachanamrut of Bhagwan Swaminarayan is the most sacred and foundational scripture of the Swaminarayan faith. Ananda Sutram is the basic scripture of modern Yoga composed in Sanskrit by Shrii Shrii Anandamurti (1921-1990 in the year 1961 Sanskrit (sa संस्कृता वाक् saṃskṛtā vāk, for short sa संस्कृतम् saṃskṛtam) is a historical In Sanskrit grammar a tatpuruṣa (तत्पुरुष compound is a dependent determinative compound, i This article deals with the geophysical region in Asia For geopolitical treatments see South Asia. Vedic Sanskrit is an ancient Indian language, the language of the Vedas, the oldest Shruti texts of Hinduism. A hymn is a type of Song, usually religious specifically written for the purpose of praise adoration or Prayer, and typically addressed to a deity/deities There are 1028 hymns in the Rigveda, most of them dedicated to specific deities. Deva (देव in Devanagari script pronounced as /'d̪evə/ is the Sanskrit word for "god Deity " It is counted among the four canonical sacred texts (śruti) of Hinduism known as the Vedas. If you are looking for the singer see Shruti Haasan. For other meanings see Śruti (disambiguation. Hinduism is a religious tradition that originated in the Indian subcontinent. "Veda" redirects here For other uses see Veda (disambiguation. ^[2] Some of its verses are still recited as Hindu prayers, at religious functions and other auspicious occasions, putting it among the world's oldest religious texts in continued use.

It is also one of the oldest texts of any Indo-European language. Philological and linguistic evidence indicate that the Rigveda was composed in the Sapta Sindhu (a land of seven great rivers) (corresponding to the Punjab region of present-day northern Pakistan and northwestern India), roughly between 1500–1000 BCE (the early Vedic period). See Comparative linguistics for the narrower field of "comparative philology" The Sapta Sindhu ( Sanskrit: सप्त सिंधु also Hapta Hindu in Avestan "seven rivers" are the seven sacred rivers in Indian mythology Punjab ( ਪੰਜਾਬ پنجاب, पंजाब پنجاب also Panjab (پنجاب meaning "Land of the Five Rivers") (c Pakistan () officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located in South Asia, Southwest Asia, Middle East and India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country The Vedic Period (or Vedic Age) is the period in the History of India during which the Vedas, the oldest sacred texts of Hinduism, were being There are strong linguistic and cultural similarities with the early Iranian Avesta, deriving from the Proto-Indo-Iranian times, often associated with the early Andronovo culture of ca. The Avesta is the primary collection of sacred texts of Zoroastrianism, composed in the Avestan language. Proto-Indo-Iranian, is the reconstructed Proto-language of the Indo-Iranian branch of Indo-European. Indo-Iranian originspng|thumb|300px|Archaeological cultures associated with Indo-Iranian migrations (after EIEC) 2000 BCE (Sintastha, Arkhaim, etc. ).

Text

The surviving form of the Rigveda is based on an early Iron Age (c. The Iron Age in the Indian subcontinent succeeds the Late Harappan (Cemetery H culture also known as the last phase of the Indus Valley Tradition 10th c. BCE) collection that established the core 'books' (mandalas 2-7, strictly ordered according to author, deity and meter ^[3]) and a later redaction, co-eval with the redaction of the other Vedas, dating several centuries after the hymns were composed. "Veda" redirects here For other uses see Veda (disambiguation. This redaction also included some additions (contradicting the strict ordering scheme) and orthoepic changes to the Vedic Sanskrit such as the regularization of sandhi (termed orthoepische Diaskeuase by Oldenberg, 1888). Orthoepy (/'ɔːθəʊiːpɪ/ or /ɔː'θəʊɪpɪ/ means the correct use of words, from the Greek orth- + -epos correct + word speech Vedic Sanskrit is an ancient Indian language, the language of the Vedas, the oldest Shruti texts of Hinduism. Sandhi ( Sanskrit saṃdhi sa संधि "joining" is a cover term for a wide variety of phonological processes that occur at Morpheme

As with the other Vedas, the redacted text has been handed down in several versions, most importantly the Padapatha that has each word isolated in 'pausa' form and is used for just one way of memorization; and the Samhitapatha that combines words according to the rules of sandhi (the process being described in the Pratisakhya) and is the memorized text used for recitation. The oral tradition of the Vedas ( Śrauta) consists of several pathas, "recitations" or ways of chanting the Vedic Mantras Such traditions Pratisakhyas, collectively constituting four treatises are works dealing with the Phonetic aspects of the Sanskrit language used in Vedas.

The Padapatha and the Pratisakhya anchor the text's fidelity and meaning^[4] and the fixed text was preserved with unparalleled fidelity for more than a millennium by oral tradition alone. Oral tradition, oral culture and oral lore is a way for a society to transmit history, literature, law and other Knowledges The Rigveda was probably not written down until the Gupta period(4th to 6th century CE). The Gupta Empire ( Hindi: गुप्त राजवंश was ruled by members of the Gupta dynasty from around 320 to 550 C The oldest surviving manuscripts date to the 11th century.

The original text ("original" in the sense that it aims to recover the hymns as composed by the Rishis) is close to Samhitapatha, but metrical and other observations allow to reconstruct an earlier form, as printed in the Harvard Oriental Series, vol. A rishi (ṛṣi denotes a Vedic poet by whom Vedic hymns were composed or according to post-Vedic tradition a "sage" to whom they were "originally revealed" (Ṛṣis 50 (1994) ^[5]

Organization

The text is organized in 10 books, known as Mandalas, of varying age and length. The "family books": mandalas 2-7, are the oldest part of the Rigveda and the shortest books; they are arranged by length and account for 38% of the text. The eight and ninth mandalas, comprising hymns of mixed age, account for 15% and 9%, respectively. The eighth Mandala of the Rigveda has 103 hymns Other than the "family books" (Mandalas 2-7 dated as an old part of the RV and RV 1 and The ninth Mandala of the Rigveda, also called the Soma Mandala has 114 hymns entirely devoted to Sóma Pávamāna, "Purifying Soma The first part of first (RV 1. The first Mandala ("book" of the Rigveda has 191 hymns 1-50) and the tenth are the latest. The tenth Mandala of the Rigveda has 191 hymns Together with Mandala 1, it forms the latest part of the Rigveda containing much mythological material Books 1 and 10 are the longest books, of 191 suktas each, and form 37% of the text.

Each mandala consists of hymns called sūkta (su-ukta, literally, "well recited, eulogy") intended for various sacrificial rituals. Eu- (Greek εὖ- the combining form of the adjective ευς "good" is a prefix meaning "good well" Vāk or Vāc (stem vāc-, nominative vāk) is the Sanskrit word for "speech" "voice" "talk" or "language" In Hinduism, Yajna ( Devanagari यज्ञ IAST yajña; also anglicized as Yagna, Yagya or Yadnya The sūktas in turn consist of individual stanzas called ṛc ("praise", pl. ṛcas), which are further analysed into units of verse called pada ("foot"). In verse, many meters use a foot as the basic unit in their description of the underlying rhythm of a poem The meters most used in the ṛcas are the jagati(a pada consists of 12 syllables), trishtubh(11), viraj(10) and gayatri or anushtubh(8). The main principle of Vedic meter is measurement by the number of syllables The main principle of Vedic meter is measurement by the number of syllables Tristubh is the name of a Vedic meter of 44 syllables (four Padas of eleven syllables each or any hymn composed in this meter Gayatri (गायत्री gāyatrī is the feminine form of gāyatra, a Sanskrit word for a song or a hymn The main principle of Vedic meter is measurement by the number of syllables

For pedagogical convenience, each mandala is synthetically divided into roughly equal sections of several sūktas, called anuvāka ("recitation"), which modern publishers often omit. Another scheme divides the entire text over the 10 mandalas into aṣṭaka ("eighth"), adhyāya ("chapter") and varga ("class"). Some publishers give both classifications in a single edition.

The most common numbering scheme is by book, hymn and stanza (and pada a, b, c . . . , if required). E. g. , the first pada is

• 1. 1. 1a agním īḷe puróhitaṃ "Agni I invoke, the housepriest"

and the final pada is

• 10. 191. 4d yáthā vaḥ súsahā́sati

Recensions

Two major shakhas ("branches", i. A shakha ( Sanskrit IAST śākhā, literally "branch" or "limb" is a Hindu theological school that specializes in learning e. schools or recensions), Śākala and Bāṣkala, have survived, which are practically identical.

The Śākala recension has 1,017 regular hymns, and an appendix of 11 vālakhilya hymns^[6] which are now customarily included in the 8th mandala (as 8. The eighth Mandala of the Rigveda has 103 hymns Other than the "family books" (Mandalas 2-7 dated as an old part of the RV and RV 1 and 49–8. 59), for a total of 1028 hymns. ^[7] The Bāṣkala recension includes 8 of these vālakhilya hymns among its regular hymns, making a total of 1025 regular hymns for this śākhā. ^[8] In addition, the Bāṣkala recension has its own appendix of 98 hymns, the Khilani. The Khilani are a collection of 98 " Apocryphal " hymns of the Rigveda, recorded in the Bāṣkala, but not in the Śākala Shakha ^[9]

In the 1877 edition of Aufrecht, the 1028 hymns of the Rigveda contain a total of 10,552 ṛcs, or 39,831 padas. The Shatapatha Brahmana gives the number of syllables to be 432,000,^[10] while the metrical text of van Nooten and Holland (1994) has a total of 395,563 syllables (or an average of 9. The Shatapatha Brahmana (sa शतपथ ब्राह्मण śatapatha brāhmaṇa, " Brahmana of one-hundred paths" abbreviated ŚB 93 syllables per pada); counting the number of syllables is not straightforward because of issues with sandhi and the post-Rigvedic pronunciation of syllables like súvar as svàr.

Rishis

See also: Anukramani

Tradition associates a rishi (the composer) with each ṛc of the Rigveda. An anukramaṇī (also anukramaṇikā) is an index of Vedic hymns recording poetic meter, content and traditions of authorship A rishi (ṛṣi denotes a Vedic poet by whom Vedic hymns were composed or according to post-Vedic tradition a "sage" to whom they were "originally revealed" (Ṛṣis ^[11] Most sūktas are attributed to single composers. The "family books" (2-7) are so-called because they have hymns by members of the same clan in each book; but other clans are also represented in the Rigveda. In all, 10 families of rishis account for more than 95% of the ṛcs; for them the Rigveda includes a lineage-specific āprī hymn (a special sūkta of rigidly formulaic structure, used for animal sacrifice in the soma ritual). Soma ( Sanskrit: सोम) or Haoma ( Avestan) from Proto-Indo-Iranian * sauma-, was a ritual drink of importance In Hinduism, Yajna ( Devanagari यज्ञ IAST yajña; also anglicized as Yagna, Yagya or Yadnya

Contents

See also: Rigvedic deities

The Rigvedic hymns are dedicated to various deities, chief of whom are Indra, a heroic god praised for having slain his enemy Vrtra; Agni, the sacrificial fire; and Soma, the sacred potion or the plant it is made from. There are 1028 hymns in the Rigveda, most of them dedicated to specific deities. Indra ( Sanskrit: इन्द्र or इंद्र Indra, Malay: Indera, Thai: พระอินทร์ Phra-Intra In the early Vedic religion, Vritra ( Sanskrit: वृत्र ( Devanāgarī) or Vṛtra ( IAST) "the enveloper" was an Asura Agni is a Hindu and Vedic deity. The word agni is Sanskrit for "fire" (noun cognate with Latin ignis Soma ( Sanskrit: सोम) or Haoma ( Avestan) from Proto-Indo-Iranian * sauma-, was a ritual drink of importance Equally prominent gods are the Adityas or Asura gods Mitra-Varuna and Ushas (the dawn). In Hinduism, the Ādityas are a group of Devas or celestial gods the sons of Āditi and Kashyapa. This article is about the Vedic deity Mitra. For other divinities with related names see the general article Mitra. In Vedic religion, Varuna or Waruna ( Devanagari:वरुण IAST: varuṇa) is a god of the Sky, of Rain and Ushas (sa उषस् uṣas) Sanskrit for " Dawn " is a Vedic deity, and consequently a Hindu deity as well Also invoked are Savitr, Vishnu, Rudra, Pushan, Brihaspati or Brahmanaspati, as well as deified natural phenomena such as Dyaus Pita (the shining sky, Father Heaven ), Prithivi (the earth, Mother Earth), Surya (the sun god), Vayu or Vata (the wind), Apas (the waters), Parjanya (the thunder and rain), Vac (the word), many rivers (notably the Sapta Sindhu, and the Sarasvati River). In Vedic religion, Savitr ( stem) Savitā ( Nominative singular) is a Solar deity (see Deva) and one of the For other meanings see Vishnu (disambiguation. Vishnu ( IAST viṣṇu Devanagari विष्णु (honorific Rudra ( Sanskrit: रुद्रः is a Rigvedic god of the storm the wind and the hunt For the port city in Korea see Pusan Pushan, also known as Puchan, is the Hindu god of meeting Brihaspati (or Brahmanaspati) is the name of a Vedic deity, personification of piety and religion the chief offerer of prayers and sacrifices represented as Brihaspati (or Brahmanaspati) is the name of a Vedic deity, personification of piety and religion the chief offerer of prayers and sacrifices represented as In the Vedic religion Dyauṣ Pitar   is the Sky Father, husband of Prithvi and father of Agni and Indra ( RV 4 Prithvi ( Sanskrit: pṛthvī, also pṛthivī) is the Hindu Earth and Mother Goddess. In Hinduism, Surya ( Devanagari: सूर्य sūrya, lit "the Supreme Light" Malay: Suria; Thai: In Hinduism Vayu ( Sanskrit: वायु, IAST: Vāyu Malay: Bayu Thai: Phra Pai is a primary deity the father of Parjanya (parjánya is the Hindu deity of rain, often identified with Indra, the " Bull " of the Rigveda. Rivers play a prominent part in the hymns of the Rigveda, and consequently in early Vedic religion. The Sapta Sindhu ( Sanskrit: सप्त सिंधु also Hapta Hindu in Avestan "seven rivers" are the seven sacred rivers in Indian mythology The Sarasvati River ( Sanskrit: sa सरस्वती नदी sárasvatī nadī) is one of the chief Rigvedic rivers mentioned in ancient Hindu The Adityas, Vasus, Rudras, Sadhyas, Ashvins, Maruts, Rbhus, and the Vishvadevas ("all-gods") as well as the "thirty-three gods" are the groups of deities mentioned. In Hinduism, the Ādityas are a group of Devas or celestial gods the sons of Āditi and Kashyapa. The Ashvins (अश्विन ( aśvin- "possessor of horses" "horse tamer" "cavalier" dual aśvinau) or Ashwini Kumaras In Hinduism the Maruts ( Sanskrit: मरुत also known as the Marutgana and the Rudras are storm deities and sons of Rudra and Diti In Hinduism, the Ribhus (ṛbhú- meaning "clever skilful" cognate to Latin labor and perhaps to English Elf, said of The Visvedevas ( Sanskrit: विश्वेदेवाः ( viśve-devāḥ "all-gods" are the various Vedic gods taken together

The hymns mention various further minor gods, persons, concepts, phenomena and items, and contain fragmentary references to possible historical events, notably the struggle between the early Vedic people (known as Vedic Aryans, a subgroup of the Indo-Aryans) and their enemies, the Dasa or Dasyu and their mythical prototypes, the Paṇi (the Bactrian Parna). The Vedic Period (or Vedic Age) is the period in the History of India during which the Vedas, the oldest sacred texts of Hinduism, were being Dasa ( IAST dāsa) is a Sanskrit term Under the primary meaning 'enemy' sometimes relates to tribes identified as the enemies of the Aryan

Rigveda (padapatha) manuscript in Devanagari, early 19th century. After a scribal benediction ("śrīgaṇéśāyanamaḥ ;; Aum(3) ;;"), the first line has the opening words of RV. 1. 1. 1 (agniṃ ; iḷe ; puraḥ-hitaṃ ; yajñasya ; devaṃ ; ṛtvijaṃ). The Vedic accent is marked by underscores and vertical overscores in red. The Pitch accent of Vedic Sanskrit, or Vedic accent for brevity is traditionally divided by Sanskrit grammarians into three qualities udātta

• Mandala 1 comprises 191 hymns. The first Mandala ("book" of the Rigveda has 191 hymns Hymn 1. 1 is addressed to Agni, and his name is the first word of the Rigveda. Agni is a Hindu and Vedic deity. The word agni is Sanskrit for "fire" (noun cognate with Latin ignis The remaining hymns are mainly addressed to Agni and Indra, as well as Varuna, Mitra, the Ashvins, the Maruts, Usas, Surya, Rbhus, Rudra, Vayu, Brhaspati, Visnu, Heaven and Earth, and all the Gods. Indra ( Sanskrit: इन्द्र or इंद्र Indra, Malay: Indera, Thai: พระอินทร์ Phra-Intra
• Mandala 2 comprises 43 hymns, mainly to Agni and Indra. The second Mandala of the Rigveda has 43 hymns mainly to Agni and Indra chiefly attributed to the Rishi {{IAST|gṛtsamada śaunohotra Agni is a Hindu and Vedic deity. The word agni is Sanskrit for "fire" (noun cognate with Latin ignis Indra ( Sanskrit: इन्द्र or इंद्र Indra, Malay: Indera, Thai: พระอินทร์ Phra-Intra It is chiefly attributed to the Rishi gṛtsamada śaunahotra.
• Mandala 3 comprises 62 hymns, mainly to Agni and Indra and the Vishvedevas. The third Mandala of the Rigveda has 62 hymns mainly to Agni and Indra. Agni is a Hindu and Vedic deity. The word agni is Sanskrit for "fire" (noun cognate with Latin ignis Indra ( Sanskrit: इन्द्र or इंद्र Indra, Malay: Indera, Thai: พระอินทร์ Phra-Intra The verse 3. 62. 10 has great importance in Hinduism as the Gayatri Mantra. Hinduism is a religious tradition that originated in the Indian subcontinent. This is an article dedicated to Gayatri Mantra or sacred religious chant common to Hinduism and Brahmoism. Most hymns in this book are attributed to viśvāmitra gāthinaḥ.
• Mandala 4 comprises 58 hymns, mainly to Agni and Indra as well as the Rbhus, Ashvins, Brhaspati, Vayu, Usas, etc. The fourth Mandala of the Rigveda has 58 hymns mainly to Agni and Indra. Agni is a Hindu and Vedic deity. The word agni is Sanskrit for "fire" (noun cognate with Latin ignis Indra ( Sanskrit: इन्द्र or इंद्र Indra, Malay: Indera, Thai: พระอินทร์ Phra-Intra Most hymns in this book are attributed to vāmadeva gautama.
• Mandala 5 comprises 87 hymns, mainly to Agni and Indra, the Visvedevas ("all the gods'), the Maruts, the twin-deity Mitra-Varuna and the Asvins. The fifth Mandala of the Rigveda has 87 hymns Most hymns in this book are attributed to the Atri family Agni is a Hindu and Vedic deity. The word agni is Sanskrit for "fire" (noun cognate with Latin ignis Indra ( Sanskrit: इन्द्र or इंद्र Indra, Malay: Indera, Thai: พระอินทร์ Phra-Intra The Visvedevas ( Sanskrit: विश्वेदेवाः ( viśve-devāḥ "all-gods" are the various Vedic gods taken together In Hinduism the Maruts ( Sanskrit: मरुत also known as the Marutgana and the Rudras are storm deities and sons of Rudra and Diti Mitra and Varuna are two deities ( Asuras frequently referred to in the ancient Indian scripture of the Rigveda. The Ashvins (अश्विन ( aśvin- "possessor of horses" "horse tamer" "cavalier" dual aśvinau) or Ashwini Kumaras Two hymns each are dedicated to Ushas (the dawn) and to Savitr. Ushas (sa उषस् uṣas) Sanskrit for " Dawn " is a Vedic deity, and consequently a Hindu deity as well In Vedic religion, Savitr ( stem) Savitā ( Nominative singular) is a Solar deity (see Deva) and one of the Most hymns in this book are attributed to the atri clan.
• Mandala 6 comprises 75 hymns, mainly to Agni and Indra, all the gods, Pusan, Ashvin, Usas, etc. The sixth Mandala of the Rig Veda has 75 hymns mainly to Agni and Indra. Agni is a Hindu and Vedic deity. The word agni is Sanskrit for "fire" (noun cognate with Latin ignis Indra ( Sanskrit: इन्द्र or इंद्र Indra, Malay: Indera, Thai: พระอินทร์ Phra-Intra Most hymns in this book are attributed to the bārhaspatya family of Angirasas.
• Mandala 7 comprises 104 hymns, to Agni, Indra, the Visvadevas, the Maruts, Mitra-Varuna, the Asvins, Ushas, Indra-Varuna, Varuna, Vayu (the wind), two each to Sarasvati (ancient river/goddess of learning) and Vishnu, and to others. The seventh Mandala of the Rigveda has 104 hymns Most hymns in this book are attributed to {{IAST|vasiṣṭha maitravaurṇi}}. Agni is a Hindu and Vedic deity. The word agni is Sanskrit for "fire" (noun cognate with Latin ignis Indra ( Sanskrit: इन्द्र or इंद्र Indra, Malay: Indera, Thai: พระอินทร์ Phra-Intra The Visvedevas ( Sanskrit: विश्वेदेवाः ( viśve-devāḥ "all-gods" are the various Vedic gods taken together In Hinduism the Maruts ( Sanskrit: मरुत also known as the Marutgana and the Rudras are storm deities and sons of Rudra and Diti Mitra and Varuna are two deities ( Asuras frequently referred to in the ancient Indian scripture of the Rigveda. The Ashvins (अश्विन ( aśvin- "possessor of horses" "horse tamer" "cavalier" dual aśvinau) or Ashwini Kumaras Ushas (sa उषस् uṣas) Sanskrit for " Dawn " is a Vedic deity, and consequently a Hindu deity as well In Vedic religion, Varuna or Waruna ( Devanagari:वरुण IAST: varuṇa) is a god of the Sky, of Rain and In Vedic religion, Varuna or Waruna ( Devanagari:वरुण IAST: varuṇa) is a god of the Sky, of Rain and In Hinduism Vayu ( Sanskrit: वायु, IAST: Vāyu Malay: Bayu Thai: Phra Pai is a primary deity the father of Saraswati (pronounced as; Sanskrit: sa सरस्वती sarasvatī; Malay: Saraswati Thai: สุรัสวดี is the For other meanings see Vishnu (disambiguation. Vishnu ( IAST viṣṇu Devanagari विष्णु (honorific Most hymns in this book are attributed to vasiṣṭha maitravaruṇi.
• Mandala 8 comprises 103 hymns to various gods. The eighth Mandala of the Rigveda has 103 hymns Other than the "family books" (Mandalas 2-7 dated as an old part of the RV and RV 1 and Hymns 8. 49 to 8. 59 are the apocryphal vālakhilya. Hymns 1-48 and 60-66 are attributed to the kāṇva clan, the rest to other (Angirasa) poets.
• Mandala 9 comprises 114 hymns, entirely devoted to Soma Pavamana, the cleansing of the sacred potion of the Vedic religion. The ninth Mandala of the Rigveda, also called the Soma Mandala has 114 hymns entirely devoted to Sóma Pávamāna, "Purifying Soma Soma ( Sanskrit: सोम) or Haoma ( Avestan) from Proto-Indo-Iranian * sauma-, was a ritual drink of importance
• Mandala 10 comprises additional 191 hymns, frequently in later language, addressed to Agni, Indra and various other deities. The tenth Mandala of the Rigveda has 191 hymns Together with Mandala 1, it forms the latest part of the Rigveda containing much mythological material Agni is a Hindu and Vedic deity. The word agni is Sanskrit for "fire" (noun cognate with Latin ignis Indra ( Sanskrit: इन्द्र or इंद्र Indra, Malay: Indera, Thai: พระอินทร์ Phra-Intra It contains the Nadistuti sukta which is in praise of rivers and is important for the reconstruction of the geography of the Vedic civilization and the Purusha sukta which has great significance in Hindu social tradition. The Nadistuti sukta (Sanskrit नदिस्तुति सुक्त,"hymn of praise of Rivers quot is hymn 10 Purusha sukta ( puruṣa sūkta) is hymn 10.90 of the Rigveda, dedicated to Purusha, the "cosmic man" It also contains the Nasadiya sukta (10. The Nasadiya Sukta (after the incipit ná ásat "not the non-existent" is the 129th hymn of the 10th Mandala of the Rigveda. 129), probably the most celebrated hymn in the west, which deals with creation. The marriage hymns (10. 85) and the death hymns (10. 10-18) still are of great importance in the performance of the corresponding Grhya rituals. Kalpa is one of the six disciplines of Vedanga, treating Ritual.

Dating and historical context

Geography of the Rigveda, with river names; the extent of the Swat and Cemetery H cultures are also indicated. Rivers play a prominent part in the hymns of the Rigveda, and consequently in early Vedic religion. The Gandhara grave (or Swāt) culture emerges from ca 1600 BC, and flourishes in Gandhara, Pakistan ca The Cemetery H culture developed out of the northern part of the Indus Valley Civilization around 1900 BCE in and around the Punjab region which is located on the

The Rigveda is far more archaic than any other Indo-Aryan text. For this reason, it was in the center of attention of western scholarship from the times of Max Müller and Rudolf Roth onwards. For the Danish Colonel Max Müller see Second War of Schleswig. The Rigveda records an early stage of Vedic religion. This article discusses the historical religious practices in the Vedic time period see Hinduism and Indian religions for details There are strong linguistic and cultural similarities with the early Iranian Avesta,^[13] deriving from the Proto-Indo-Iranian times,^[14][15] often associated with the early Andronovo culture of ca. The Iranian languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family and its subfamily Indo-Iranian. The Avesta is the primary collection of sacred texts of Zoroastrianism, composed in the Avestan language. Proto-Indo-Iranian, is the reconstructed Proto-language of the Indo-Iranian branch of Indo-European. Indo-Iranian originspng|thumb|300px|Archaeological cultures associated with Indo-Iranian migrations (after EIEC) 2000 BCE. ^[16] The Rigveda's core is accepted to date to the late Bronze Age, making it one of the few examples (next to old Greek and Chinese texts) of Bronze Age literature with an unbroken tradition. The term Bronze Age refers to a period in human cultural development when the most advanced Metalworking (at least in systematic and widespread use included techniques for The Ancient Greek language is the historical stage in the development of the Hellenic language family spanning the Archaic (c The History of literature begins with the History of writing, in Bronze Age Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt, although the oldest literary Its composition is usually dated to roughly between 1700–1100 BC. ^[17] The text in the following centuries underwent pronunciation revisions and standardization (samhitapatha, padapatha). The oral tradition of the Vedas ( Śrauta) consists of several pathas, "recitations" or ways of chanting the Vedic Mantras Such traditions This redaction would have been completed around the 6th century BC. ^[18] Exact dates are not established, but they fall within the pre-Buddhist period (500, or rather 400 BCE).

Writing appears in India around the 3th century BC in the form of the Brahmi script, but texts of the length of the Rigveda were likely not written down until much later, the oldest surviving manuscript dating to the 11th century, while some Rigveda commentaries may date from the second half of the first millennium CE. While written manuscripts were used for teaching in medieval times, they were written on birch bark or palm leaves, which decompose fairly quickly in the tropical climate, until the advent of the printing press from the 16th century. A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a medium (such as paper or cloth thereby transferring an image The hymns were thus preserved by oral tradition for up to a millennium from the time of their composition until the redaction of the Rigveda, and the entire Rigveda was preserved in shakhas for another 2,500 years from the time of its redaction until the editio princeps by Rosen, Aufrecht and Max Müller. Oral tradition, oral culture and oral lore is a way for a society to transmit history, literature, law and other Knowledges A shakha ( Sanskrit IAST śākhā, literally "branch" or "limb" is a Hindu theological school that specializes in learning

After their composition, the texts were preserved and codified by an extensive body of Vedic priesthood as the central philosophy of the Iron Age Vedic civilization. Priests of the Vedic religion were officiants of the ''yajna'' service The Vedic Period (or Vedic Age) is the period in the History of India during which the Vedas, the oldest sacred texts of Hinduism, were being The Brahma Purana and the Vayu Purana name one Vidagdha as the author of the Padapatha. Brahma Purana, one of the major eighteen Puranas, is a Hindu religious text The Vayu Purana ( Hindi: वायु पुराण is a Shaiva Purana, a Hindu religious text dedicated to the god Vayu (the wind ^[19] The Rk-pratishakhya names Sthavira Shakalya of the Aitareya Aranyaka as its author. See Shiksha (NGO for the Indian non-governmental organization The Aranyakas (Sanskrit आरण्यक āraṇyaka) are part of the Hindu śruti, the four Vedas these religious texts were composed in ^[20]

The Rigveda describes a mobile, semi-nomadic culture, with horse-drawn chariots, oxen-drawn wagons, and metal (bronze) weapons. Nomadic people, (from the νομάδες nomádes, "those who let pasture herds" also known as nomads, are communities of people that The chariot is the earliest and simplest type of Carriage, used in both peace and war as the chief vehicle of many ancient peoples The geography described is consistent with that of the Greater Punjab: Rivers flow north to south, the mountains are relatively remote but still visible and reachable (Soma is a plant found in the high mountains, and it has to be purchased from tribal people). Punjab ( ਪੰਜਾਬ پنجاب, पंजाब پنجاب also Panjab (پنجاب meaning "Land of the Five Rivers") (c Rivers play a prominent part in the hymns of the Rigveda, and consequently in early Vedic religion. Soma ( Sanskrit: सोम) or Haoma ( Avestan) from Proto-Indo-Iranian * sauma-, was a ritual drink of importance Nevertheless, the hymns were certainly composed over a long period, with the oldest (not preserved) elements possibly reaching back to times close to the split of Proto-Indo-Iranian (around 2000 BC)^[21] Thus there was some debate over whether the boasts of the destruction of stone forts by the Vedic Aryans and particularly by Indra refer to cities of the Indus Valley civilization or whether they rather hark back to clashes between the early Indo-Aryans with the BMAC in what is now northern Afghanistan and southern Turkmenistan (separated from the upper Indus by the Hindu Kush mountain range, and some 400 km distant). Proto-Indo-Iranian, is the reconstructed Proto-language of the Indo-Iranian branch of Indo-European. The Indus Valley Civilization (Mature period 2600&ndash1900 BCE abbreviated IVC, was an ancient Civilization that flourished in the Indus River basin The Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex (or BMAC, also known as the Oxus civilization) is the modern archaeological designation for a Bronze Age Afghanistan /æfˈgænɪstæn/ officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan ( Pashto: د افغانستان اسلامي جمهوریت, Turkmenistan ( Türkmenistan; also known as Turkmenia) is a Turkic country in Central Asia. The Indus River { Sanskrit: सिन्धु Sindhu; Urdu: urd {{Nastaliq سندھ}} Sindh; Sindhi: snd The Hindu Kush is a Mountain range located between Afghanistan and Pakistan. While it is highly likely that the bulk of the Rigvedic hymns were composed in the Punjab, even if based on earlier poetic traditions, there is no mention of either tigers or rice^[22] in the Rigveda (as opposed to the later Vedas), suggesting that Vedic culture only penetrated into the plains of India after its completion. The tiger ( Panthera tigris) is a member of the Felidae family the largest and the most powerful of the four " Big cats quot in the Genus Rice is a Cereal foodstuff which forms an important part of the diet of many people worldwide and as such it is a staple food for many Similarly, there is no mention of iron as the term ayas occurring in the Rig Veda refers to useful metal in general. Iron (ˈаɪɚn is a Chemical element with the symbol Fe (ferrum and Atomic number 26 ^[23] The "black metal" (kṛṣṇa ayas) is first mentioned in the post-Rigvedic texts (Atharvaveda etc. ). The Iron Age in northern India begins in the 10th century in the Greater Panjab and at the 12th century BC with the Black and Red Ware (BRW) culture. The black and red ware culture (BRW is an early Iron Age Archaeological culture of the northern Indian subcontinent. There is a widely accepted timeframe for the beginning codification of the Rigveda by compiling the hymns very late in the Rigvedic or rather in the early post-Rigvedic period, including the arrangement of the individual hymns in ten books, coeval with and the composition of the younger Veda Samhitas. This time coincides with the early Kuru kingdom, shifting the center of Vedic culture east from the Punjab into what is now Uttar Pradesh. Kuru ( Sanskrit: कुरु was the name of an Indo-Aryan tribe and their kingdom in the Vedic civilization of India, and later a Uttar Pradesh (उत्तर प्रदेश اتر پردیش pronounced, Translation: Northern Province) referred to as '''U The fixing of the samhitapatha (by keeping Sandhi) intact and of the padapatha (by dissolving Sandhi out of the earlier metrical text), occurred during the later Brahmana period. Sandhi ( Sanskrit saṃdhi sa संधि "joining" is a cover term for a wide variety of phonological processes that occur at Morpheme

Some of the names of gods and goddesses found in the Rigveda are found amongst other belief systems based on Proto-Indo-European religion, while words used share common roots with words from other Indo-European languages. There are 1028 hymns in the Rigveda, most of them dedicated to specific deities. The existence of similarities among the deities and religious practices of the Indo-European (IE peoples allows glimpses of a common Proto-Indo-European The roots of the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European language (PIE are basic Morphemes carrying a Lexical meaning

An author outside the mainstream, N. Kazanas^[24] in a polemic against the so-called "Aryan Invasion Theory" suggests a date as early as 3100 BC, based on an identification of the early Rigvedic Sarasvati River as the Ghaggar-Hakra and on glottochronological arguments. The Sarasvati River ( Sanskrit: sa सरस्वती नदी sárasvatī nadī) is one of the chief Rigvedic rivers mentioned in ancient Hindu The Ghaggar-Hakra River is a believed to be an intermittent river in India and Pakistan that flows only during the Monsoon season Glottochronology refers to methods in Historical linguistics used to estimate the time at which languages diverged based on the assumption that the basic (core vocabulary of Being a polemic against mainstream scholarship, this is in diametrical opposition to views in mainstream historical linguistics, and supports the controversial Out of India theory, which assumes a date as late as 3000 BC for the age of late Proto-Indo-European itself. The Out of India theory ( OIT, also called the Indian Urheimat Theory) is the proposition that the Indo-European language family originated in Some writers based on astronomical calculations even claim dates as early as 4000 BC,^[25] a date well within the Indian Neolithic. Archaeoastronomy (also spelled archeoastronomy) is the study of how peoples in the past "have understood the phenomena in the sky how they used phenomena Mehrgarh, ( Urdu: م‍ﮩ‍رگڑھ) one of the most important Neolithic (7000 BC to 3200 BC sites in Archaeology, lies on what ^[26].

The horse (ashva), cattle, sheep and goat play an important role in the Rigveda. The horse ( Equus caballus) is a hoofed ( Ungulate) Mammal, one of eight living species of the family Equidae. Aśvaḥ (a Sanskrit word for a Horse) is one of the significant animals finding references in several Hindu scriptures. Cattle, colloquially referred to as cows, are domesticated Ungulates a member of the Subfamily Bovinae of the family There are also references to the elephant (Hastin, Varana), camel (Ustra, especially in Mandala 8), ass (khara, rasabha), buffalo (Mahisa), wolf, hyena, lion (Simha), mountain goat (sarabha) and to the gaur in the Rigveda. Elephants ( family: Elephantidae) are large land Mammals of the order Proboscidea. Hastin is a term for Elephant used in Vedic texts Other terms for elephant include ibha and varana Camels are Even-toed ungulates within the Genus Camelus. The Dromedary, one-humped or Arabian camel has a single hump and the The eighth Mandala of the Rigveda has 103 hymns Other than the "family books" (Mandalas 2-7 dated as an old part of the RV and RV 1 and The grey wolf or gray wolf ( Canis lupus) also known as the timber wolf or simply wolf, is a Mammal of the order Carnivora The Hyaenidae is a Mammalian family of order Carnivora. The Hyaenidae family native to both African and Asian continents consists of four The lion ( Panthera leo) is a member of the family Felidae and one of four Big cats in the Genus Panthera. The gaur (ˈɡaʊɚ ( Bos gaurus, previously Bibos gauris) is a large dark-coated bovine animal of South Asia and Southeast Asia. ^[27] The peafowl (mayura), the goose (hamsa) and the chakravaka (Anas casarca) are some birds mentioned in the Rigveda. The term peafowl refers to Gallinaceous Birds classified within the genera Rheinardia Argusianus Afropavoand Pavo

Hindu tradition

According to Hindu tradition, the Rigvedic hymns were collected by Paila under the guidance of Vyāsa, who formed the Rigveda Samhita as we know it. A paila is an Earthenware Bowl used as plate in several South American countries Vyāsa ( Devanāgarī: व्यास is a central and revered figure in the majority of Hindu traditions According to the Śatapatha Brāhmana, the number of syllables in the Rigveda is 432,000, equalling the number of muhurtas (1 day = 30 muhurtas) in forty years. The Shatapatha Brahmana (sa शतपथ ब्राह्मण śatapatha brāhmaṇa, " Brahmana of one-hundred paths" abbreviated ŚB This statement stresses the underlying philosophy of the Vedic books that there is a connection (bandhu) between the astronomical, the physiological, and the spiritual. Physiology (from Greek grc φύσις physis, "nature origin" and grc -λογία -logia) is the study of the mechanical physical

The authors of the Brāhmana literature discussed and interpreted the Vedic ritual. The Brāhmaṇa s ( Devanagari: sa ब्राह्मणं are part of the Hindu śruti literature Yaska was an early commentator of the Rigveda by discussing the meanings of difficult words. Yāska (यास्कः(6th-5th centuries BC according to Shukla Georgetown University was a Sanskrit grammarian who preceded Pānini. In the 14th century, Sāyana wrote an exhaustive commentary on it. Sāyaṇa ( सायण, with honorific Sāyaṇācārya;died 1387 was an important commentator on the Vedas He flourished under King Bukka I Other Bhāṣyas (commentaries) that have been preserved up to present times are those by Mādhava, Skandasvāmin and Veńkatamādhava.

Vedantic and Hindu reformist views

Since the 19th and 20th centuries, some reformers like Swami Dayananda, founder of the "Arya Samaj" and Sri Aurobindo have attempted to re-interpret the Vedas to conform to modern and established moral and spiritual norms. This page is about the founder of the Arya Samaj. For others known by the same name please see Swami Dayananda (disambiguation Arya Samaj ( Sanskrit ārya samāja sa आर्य समाज " Noble Society" is a Hindu reform movement founded in India Sri Aurobindo (শ্রী অরবিন্দ Sri Ôrobindo) ( August 15, 1872 – December 5, 1950) was an Indian They moved the Vedantic perception of the Rigveda from the original ritualistic content to a more symbolic or mystical interpretation. Vedanta ( Devanagari: sa वेदान्त Vedānta) is a spiritual tradition explained in the Upanishads that is concerned with the Self-realisation For example, instances of animal sacrifice were not seen by them as literal slaughtering, but as transcendental processes. Animal Sacrifice is the Ritual killing of an Animal as part of a Religion. In Philosophy, the adjective transcendental and the noun transcendence convey three different but related primary meanings all of them derived from the word's literal

The Sarasvati river, lauded in RV 7. The Sarasvati River ( Sanskrit: sa सरस्वती नदी sárasvatī nadī) is one of the chief Rigvedic rivers mentioned in ancient Hindu 95 as the greatest river flowing from the mountain to the sea is sometimes equated with the Ghaggar-Hakra river, which went dry perhaps before 2600 BC or certainly before 1900 BC. The Ghaggar-Hakra River is a believed to be an intermittent river in India and Pakistan that flows only during the Monsoon season Others argue that the Sarasvati was originally the Helmand in Afghanistan. The Helmand River (also spelled Helmend Helmund Hirmand; Pashto: fa هیرمند هلمند fa-Latn Hīrmand Helmand, Latin: Afghanistan /æfˈgænɪstæn/ officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan ( Pashto: د افغانستان اسلامي جمهوریت, These questions are tied to the debate about the Indo-Aryan migration (termed "Aryan Invasion Theory") vs. Models of the Indo-Aryan migration discuss scenarios of Prehistoric migrations of the early Indo-Aryans to their historically attested areas of settlement ( North the claim that Vedic culture together with Vedic Sanskrit originated in the Indus Valley Civilisation (termed "Out of India theory"), a topic of great significance in Hindu nationalism, addressed for example by Amal Kiran and Shrikant G. Talageri. The Indus Valley Civilization (Mature period 2600&ndash1900 BCE abbreviated IVC, was an ancient Civilization that flourished in the Indus River basin The Out of India theory ( OIT, also called the Indian Urheimat Theory) is the proposition that the Indo-European language family originated in For Veer Savarkar's book see Hindutva (book. Hindutva (Devanagari हिन्दुत्व "Hinduness" a word coined by Vinayak Kaikhosru Dadhaboy (KD Sethna (born 26 November 1904) is an Indian poet scholar writer philosopher and cultural critic The Rigveda A Historical Analysis is a book by Shrikant G Talageri (b Subhash Kak has claimed that there is an astronomical code in the organization of the hymns. Subhash Kak (सुभाष काक Subhāṣ Kāk) (born March 26, 1947 in Srinagar, Kashmir) is an Indian American Bal Gangadhar Tilak, also based on astronomical alignments in the Rigveda, in his "The Orion" (1893) claimed presence of the Rigvedic culture in India in the 4th millennium BC, and in his "Arctic Home in the Vedas" (1903) even argued that the Aryans originated near the North Pole and came south during the Ice Age. Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak (बाळ गंगाधर टिळक ( July 23 1856 - August 1 1920) was an Indian nationalist An ice age is a period of long-term reduction in the Temperature of the Earth 's surface and atmosphere resulting in an expansion of continental Ice sheets

Ancillary Texts

Rigveda Brahmanas

See also: Brahmana

Of the Brahmanas that were handed down in the schools of the Bahvṛcas (i. The Brāhmaṇa s ( Devanagari: sa ब्राह्मणं are part of the Hindu śruti literature e. "possessed of many verses"), as the followers of the Rigveda are called, two have come down to us, viz. those of the Aitareyins and the Kaushitakins. The Aitareya-brahmana^[28] and the Kaushitaki- (or Sankhayana-) brahmana evidently have for their groundwork the same stock of traditional exegetic matter. The Aitareya Brahmana (AB is the Brahmana associated with the Rigveda in the Shakala Shakha. The Kaushitaki Brahmana is a Brahmana (expository commentaries of Brahmanic rituals of the Bashkala Shakha (branch associated with the Rigveda (most They differ, however, considerably as regards both the arrangement of this matter and their stylistic handling of it, with the exception of the numerous legends common to both, in which the discrepancy is comparatively slight. There is also a certain amount of material peculiar to each of them. The Kaushitaka is, upon the whole, far more concise in its style and more systematic in its arrangementfeatures which would lead one to infer that it is probably the more modern work of the two. It consists of thirty chapters (adhyaya); while the Aitareya has forty, divided into eight books (or pentads, pancaka), of five chapters each. The last ten adhyayas of the latter work are, however, clearly a later addition though they must have already formed part of it at the time of Panini (ca. 5th c. BC), if, as seems probable, one of his grammatical sutras, regulating the formation of the names of Brahmanas, consisting of thirty and forty adhyayas, refers to these two works. In this last portion occurs the well-known legend (also found in the Shankhayana-sutra, but not in the Kaushitaki-brahmana) of Shunahshepa, whom his father Ajigarta sells and offers to slay, the recital of which formed part of the inauguration of kings. While the Aitareya deals almost exclusively with the Soma sacrifice, the Kaushitaka, in its first six chapters, treats of the several kinds of haviryajna, or offerings of rice, milk, ghee, &c. , whereupon follows the Soma sacrifice in this way, that chapters 7-10 contain the practical ceremonial and 11-30 the recitations (shastra) of the hotar. Sayana, in the introduction to his commentary on the work, ascribes the Aitareya to the sage Mahidasa Aitareya (i. e. son of Itara), also mentioned elsewhere as a philosopher; and it seems likely enough that this person arranged the Brahmana and founded the schcol of the Aitareyins. Regarding the authorship of the sister work we have no information, except that the opinion of the sage Kaushitaki is frequently referred to in it as authoritative, and generally in opposition to the Paingya — the Brahmana, it would seem, of a rival school, the Paingins. Probably, therefore, it is just what one of the manuscripts calls it — the Brahmana of Sankhayana (composed) in accordance with the views of Kaushitaki.

Rigveda Aranyakas

See also: Aranyaka

Each of these two Brahmanas is supplemented by a "forest book", or Aranyaka. The Aranyakas (Sanskrit आरण्यक āraṇyaka) are part of the Hindu śruti, the four Vedas these religious texts were composed in The Aranyakas (Sanskrit आरण्यक āraṇyaka) are part of the Hindu śruti, the four Vedas these religious texts were composed in The Aitareyaranyaka is not a uniform production. It consists of five books (aranyaka), three of which, the first and the last two, are of a liturgical nature, treating of the ceremony called mahavrata, or great vow. The last of these books, composed in sutra form, is, however, doubtless of later origin, and is, indeed, ascribed by Hindu authorities either to Shaunaka or to Ashvalayana. The second and third books, on the other hand, are purely speculative, and are also styled the Bahvrca-brahmana-upanishad. Again, the last four chapters of the second book are usually singled out as the Aitareyopanishad, ascribed, like its Brahmana (and the first book), to Mahidasa Aitareya; and the third book is also referred to as the Samhita-upanishad. As regards the Kaushitaki-aranyaka, this work consists of 15 adhyayas, the first two (treating of the mahavrata ceremony) and the 7th and 8th of which correspond to the 1st, 5th, and 3rd books of the Aitareyaranyaka, respectively, whilst the four adhyayas usually inserted between them constitute the highly interesting Kaushitaki (brahmana-) upanishad, of which we possess two different recensions. The remaining portions (9-15) of the Aranyaka treat of the vital airs, the internal Agnihotra, etc. , ending with the vamsha, or succession of teachers.

Manuscripts

There are 30 manuscripts of Rigveda at the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, collected in the 19th century by Georg Bühler, Franz Kielhorn and others, originating from different parts of India, including Kashmir, Gujarat, the then Rajaputana, Central Provinces etc. The Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (BORI is located in Pune, Maharashtra, India. Professor Johann Georg Bühler (July 19 1837—April 8 1898 was a scholar of ancient Indian languages and law This article is about the geographical region of greater Kashmir Gujarat (ગુજરાત Gujǎrāt, pronounced) is a state in western India. Rājputāna, also called Rājwār was the name of present Rājasthān state the largest state of the Republic of India in terms of area before its formation in 1949 CE The Central Provinces and Berar was a province of British India. They were transferred to Deccan College, Pune, in the late 19th century. Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute is a post-graduate institute of Archeology and Linguistics in Pune, India. Pune (ˈpuːneɪ Marathi: पुणे Hindi: पूना formerly Poona, is the second largest city in the state of Maharashtra They are in the Sharada and Devanagari scripts, written on birch bark and paper. The Śāradā, or Sharada, script (sa शारदा is an Abugida writing system of the Brahmic family of scripts developed from ca The oldest of them is dated to 1464.

Of these 30 manuscripts, 9 contain the samhita text, 5 have the padapatha in addition. 13 contain Sayana's commentary. At least 5 manuscripts (MS. no. 1/A1879-80, 1/A1881-82, 331/1883-84 and 5/Viś I) have preserved the complete text of the Rigveda. MS no. 5/1875-76, written on birch bark in bold Sharada, was used by Max Müller for his edition of the Rigveda with Sayana’s commentary. For the Danish Colonel Max Müller see Second War of Schleswig.

Max Müller used 24 manuscripts, while the Pune Edition used over five dozen manuscripts, but the editors of Pune Edition could not procure many manuscripts used by Max Müller and by Bombay Edition, as well as from some other sources ; hence the total number of extant manuscripts must surpass perhaps eighty at least^[29]

Editions

• editio princeps: Friedrich Max Müller, The Hymns of the Rigveda, with Sayana's commentary, London, 1849-75, 6 vols. For the Danish Colonel Max Müller see Second War of Schleswig. For the Danish Colonel Max Müller see Second War of Schleswig. For the Danish Colonel Max Müller see Second War of Schleswig. Sāyaṇa ( सायण, with honorific Sāyaṇācārya;died 1387 was an important commentator on the Vedas He flourished under King Bukka I , 2nd ed. 4 vols. , Oxford, 1890-92.
• Theodor Aufrecht, 2nd ed. Simon Theodor Aufrecht ( January 7, 1822 &ndash April 3, 1907) was a German Indologist. , Bonn, 1877.
• Sontakke, N. S. , ed. (1933-46,Reprint 1972-1983. ), Rgveda-Samhitā: Śrimat-Sāyanāchārya virachita-bhāṣya-sametā (First ed. ), Pune: Vaidika Samśodhana Maṇḍala . The Editorial Board for the First Edition included N. S. Sontakke (Managing Editor), V. K. Rājvade, M. M. Vāsudevaśāstri, and T. S. Varadarājaśarmā.
• B. van Nooten und G. Holland, Rig Veda, a metrically restored text, Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies, Harvard University, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England, 1994.

Translations

The first published translation of any portion of the Rigveda in any Western language was into Latin, by Friedrich August Rosen (Rigvedae specimen, London 1830). Friedrich August Rosen (2 September 1805 in Hannover – 2 September 1837 in London was a German Orientalist, brother of Georg Rosen and a close friend Predating Müller's editio princeps of the text, Rosen was working from manuscripts brought back from India by Colebrooke. Henry Thomas Colebrooke ( June 15, 1765 - March 18, 1837) was an English Orientalist.

H. H. Wilson was the first to make a complete translation of the Rig Veda into English, published in six volumes during the period 1850-88. Horace Hayman Wilson (London 26 September, 1786 – London 8 May, 1860) was an English orientalist. ^[30] Wilson's version was based on the commentary of Sāyaṇa. In 1977, Wilson's edition was enlarged by Nag Sharan Singh (Nag Publishers, Delhi, 2nd ed. 1990).

In 1889, Ralph T.H. Griffith published his translation as The Hymns of the Rig Veda, published in London (1889). Ralph Thomas Hotchkin Griffith (1826-1906 scholar of Indology, B ^[31]

A German translation was published by Karl Friedrich Geldner, Der Rig-Veda: aus dem Sanskrit ins Deutsche Übersetzt, Harvard Oriental Studies, vols. Friedrich Karl Geldner ( December 17, 1852 &ndash February 5, 1929) was a German Linguist best known for his analysis and 33–37 (Cambridge, Mass. : 1951-7). ^[32]

Geldner's tranlsation was the philologically best-informed to date, and a Russian translation based on Geldner's by Tatyana Yakovlena Elizarenkova was published by Nauka 1989-1999^[33]

A 2001 revised edition of Wilson's translation was published by Ravi Prakash Arya and K. Nauka (Hаука lit trans Science) is a Russian Publisher of academic books and journals L. Joshi. ^[34] The revised edition updates Wilson's translation by replacing obsolete English forms with more modern equivalents, giving the English translation along with the original Sanskrit text in Devanagari script, along with a critical apparatus.

In 2004 the United States' National Endowment for the Humanities funded Joel Brereton and Stephanie W. Jamison as project directors for a new original translation to be issued by Oxford University Press. ^[35][36]

Numerous partial translations exist into various languages. Notable examples include:

• A. A. Macdonell. Arthur Anthony Macdonell (1854 - 1930 7th of Lochgarry, was a noted Sanskrit scholar Hymns from the Rigveda (Calcutta, London, 1922); A Vedic Reader for Students (Oxford, 1917).
• French: A. Langlois, Rig-véda, ou livre des hymnes, Paris 1948-51 ISBN 2-7200-1029-4
• Hungarian: Laszlo Forizs, Rigvéda - Teremtéshimnuszok (Creation Hymns of the Rig-Veda), Budapest, 1995 ISBN 963-85349-1-5 Hymns of the Rig-Veda

Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty issued a modern selection with a translation of 108 hymns, along with critical apparatus. Wendy Doniger (born November 20 1940) is an American scholar of history of religion A bibliography of translations of the Rig Veda appears as an Appendix that work. ^[37]

A new German translations of books 1 and 2 was presented in 2007 by Michael Witzel and Toshifumi Goto (ISBN 978-3-458-70001-2 / ISBN 978-3-458-70001-3). Michael Witzel (born July 18, 1943 at Schwiebus, Germany now Poland is Wales Professor of Sanskrit at Harvard University, United

Notes

Bibliography

Commentary

• Sayana (14th century)
  • ed. Sāyaṇa ( सायण, with honorific Sāyaṇācārya;died 1387 was an important commentator on the Vedas He flourished under King Bukka I Müller 1849-75 (German translation);
  • ed. Müller (original commentary of Sāyana in Sanskrit based on 24 manuscripts).
  • ed. Sontakke et al, published by Vaidika Samsodhana Mandala, Pune (2nd ed. 1972) in 5 volumes.
• Rgveda-Samhitā Srimat-sāyanāchārya virachita-bhāṣya-sametā, ed. by Sontakke et al, published by Vaidika Samśodhana Mandala,Pune-9,1972 ,in 5 volumes (It is original commentary of Sāyana in Sanskrit based on over 60 manuscripts).
• Sri Aurobindo: Hymns of the Mystic Fire (Commentary on the Rig Veda), Lotus Press, Twin Lakes, Wisconsin ISBN 0-914955-22-5 [2]
• Rgveda-Samhita, Text in Devanagari, English translation Notes and indices by H. Sri Aurobindo (শ্রী অরবিন্দ Sri Ôrobindo) ( August 15, 1872 – December 5, 1950) was an Indian H. Wilson, Ed. W. F. Webster, originally in 1888, Published Nag Publishers 1990, 11A/U. A. Jawaharnagar,Delhi-7.

Philology

• Vashishtha Narayan Jha, A Linguistic Analysis of the Rgveda-Padapatha Sri Satguru Publications, Delhi (1992).
• Thomas Oberlies, Die Religion des Rgveda, Wien 1998.
• Oldenberg, Hermann: Hymnen des Rigveda. Hermann Oldenberg (1854-1920 was a German scholar of Indology, and Professor at Kiel (1898 and Göttingen (1908 1. Teil: Metrische und textgeschichtliche Prolegomena. Berlin 1888; Wiesbaden 1982.
• — Die Religion des Veda. Berlin 1894; Stuttgart 1917; Stuttgart 1927; Darmstadt 1977
• — Vedic Hymns, The Sacred Books of the East vo, l. 46 ed. Friedrich Max Müller, Oxford 1897
• Bjorn Merker, Rig Veda Riddles In Nomad Perspective, Mongolian Studies, Journal of the Mongolian Society XI, 1988. For the Danish Colonel Max Müller see Second War of Schleswig.

Historical

• Bryant, Edwin (2001), The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture: The Indo-Aryan Migration Debate, Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 0195137779 
• Lal, B. Edwin Bryant is an Author and Indologist. He received a PhD in religion from Columbia University in 1997 B. 2005. The Homeland of the Aryans. Evidence of Rigvedic Flora and Fauna & Archaeology, New Delhi, Aryan Books International.
• Talageri, Shrikant: The Rigveda: A Historical Analysis, 2000. The Rigveda A Historical Analysis is a book by Shrikant G Talageri (b The Rigveda A Historical Analysis is a book by Shrikant G Talageri (b ISBN 81-7742-010-0

Archaeoastronomy

• Tilak, Bal Gangadhar: The Orion, 1893. Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak (बाळ गंगाधर टिळक ( July 23 1856 - August 1 1920) was an Indian nationalist

See also

• Vedas
• Upanishads

External links

• Rigveda - Nominations submitted by India in 2006-2007 for inclusion in the Memory of the World Register. (.doc format)

Text

• in Devanagari (Wikisource)
• in ASCII transliteration (Wikisource)
• in Devanagari and IAST (sacred-texts. "Veda" redirects here For other uses see Veda (disambiguation. The Upanishads ( Devanagari: उपनिषद् IAST: upaniṣad also spelled "Upanisad" are Hindu scriptures that constitute the core teachings com)
• mp3 audio download (gatewayforindia. com)[North Indian style, i. e. , without meter or same meter, yeha swara]

Translation

• Ralph Griffith, The Rig Veda 1895, full text, (online at sacred-texts. Ralph Thomas Hotchkin Griffith (1826-1906 scholar of Indology, B com)
• English translation based on Sayana and Wilson, full text online

Interpretation

• Rig Veda (Sri Aurobindo Kapali Sastry Institute)