LIFE IN VEDIC LITERATURE

Vedic literature is one of the oldest literature. Veda means 'knowledge' and soon it began to mean 'sacred

Knowledge' in vedic literature there are four compilations- Rig Veda, Sam Veda, Yajur Veda and Atharva Veda.

The Rig Veda is the oldest and consists of ten thousand hymns in praise of the beauty of the earth and powers. Same veda have 1875 verses out of which 75 are borrowed from the Rig Veda.

Yajur Veda has 2000 Mantras in prose. They are sacrificial formula. Atharva Veda have 6000 Mantras and were to produce spells of magic and sorcery directed against disease. The sacred vedic literature includes the Brahmanas, Aranyakas and Upanishads.

The Brahamanas are prose works which give the rule for rituals and explanations. They contain myths and legends that have reference to the sacrificial cult. Aranyakas contain the adventures of others thinkers who retired to forests.

The term Upanishad means the sitting down near the teacher, for communication and progressive evolution. There are four Upanishads- Taitiriya, Yajnika, Isa and Mandukya Upanishad. The Kanika is sometime regarded as four Upanishads in one.

The ancillary traditions grew up around the vedas such as smriti and shruti, the smriti texts are classified into five vedangas. Kalpana Sutras give instructions about rituals- The Griha Sutras deal with domestic rituals.

Brahma Sutras deal with secular as well as religious law. The Sulva Sutras contains rules for measurement and building fire altars. They are the older works on Indian mathematics.

The other five vedangas are phonetics, grammar, etymology, metrics and astronomy.