Nirukta

(“explanation”) One of the six Vedangas.
These were the auxiliary branches of
knowledge associated with the use of
the Vedas, the oldest Hindu religious
texts. Nirukta is concerned with the etymological explanations of archaic
words. This was apparently a serious
problem, since almost one-quarter of
the words in the Veda occur only once,
and with the passage of time their precise meanings became either unclear or
unknown. The most famous nirukta
text—known simply as the Nirukta—
was written by Yaska the grammarian,
in about the fifth century B.C.E. His work
was immeasurably helpful to later readers, but it is clear that even in Yaska’s
time the meanings for many of these
words had become uncertain and
unclear. Aside from nirukta, the other
Vedangas are vyakarana (Sanskrit
grammar), chandas (Sanskrit prosody),
kalpa (ritual instructions), shiksha (correct pronunciation), and jyotisha (auspicious times for sacrifices).