The four Vedas at a glance
Four collections, one tradition. What each Veda contains, how it was used, and how it has been kept alive by memory for more than three thousand years.
Ṛgveda: the hymns
The Ṛgveda is the oldest and largest. Its 1,028 hymns (sūktas), with 10,552 verses in all, are arranged in ten books called maṇḍalas. They praise Agni (fire), Indra, Uṣas (dawn), Soma and many other powers, and a few, such as the Hymn of Creation (10.129), ask how the world began. Most scholars date the bulk of the hymns to the second half of the second millennium BCE.
Sāmaveda: the melodies
The Sāmaveda is a book of songs. Almost all of its verses also appear in the Ṛgveda, but here they are set to melodies (sāman) sung during the Soma ritual. Its singers developed a notation for pitch, and many people see in these chants an early root of Indian music.
Yajurveda: the ritual
The Yajurveda holds the formulas spoken by the priest who performs the ritual actions. It has two branches. The Śukla (“white”) Yajurveda keeps the formulas apart from their explanation; the Kṛṣṇa (“black”) Yajurveda mixes formulas and prose explanation together. Vedyatra will show the two branches side by side as parallel editions.
Atharvaveda: daily life
The Atharvaveda gathers hymns for healing, protection, harmony at home, long life and the Earth itself. It shows the concerns of ordinary households as well as the questions of thinkers. The guide “Hymns for daily life” looks at it more closely.
Kept alive by memory
For most of their history the Vedas were not read but recited. Students learned them by heart from teachers, using several methods of recitation (pāṭhas) that repeat the words in different orders, so that not a syllable would change. In 2003 UNESCO proclaimed the tradition of Vedic chanting a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.
Families of reciters (śākhās) preserved slightly different versions of each Veda. When Vedyatra publishes a Veda it names the śākhā its text follows.