Veda

(“knowledge”) The oldest and most
authoritative group of Hindu sacred
texts, also designated by the term shruti
(“heard”). According to tradition, these
texts were not composed by human
beings, but are based in the primordial
vibrations of the cosmos itself. The
ancient sages, whose faculties of perception had been honed through arduous religious practice, were able to
“hear” and understand these vibrations,
and transmitted them to others in a lineage of learning. On one level, the term
veda is part of the names of four individual texts—the Rg Veda, Sama Veda,
Yajur Veda, and Atharva Veda, each of
which has a differing focus and content.
The term veda is also a collective term
for the material in these texts or their
associated appendices: the Vedic hymns
(samhitas), the Brahmanas, the
Aranyakas, and the Upanishads.
Although these four groups of texts are
all considered part of the Vedas, they
have very different forms and characteristics. The samhitas are hymns of praise
addressed to particular deities, and are
found mainly in the Rg Veda and the
Sama Veda. In contrast, the Brahmanas
are detailed ritual manuals, giving the
instructions for performing complex
sacrificial rites; the Aranyakas and the
Upanishads are speculative ponderings
on the nature of the cosmos. The Vedas
were considered so sacred that for 3,000
years they were not written down, but
transmitted orally, a mode of transmission that still persists today. The Vedas’
power comes not from their literal
meaning, but from their very sound,
which is the identical sound heard by
the sages long ago. To safeguard this tradition, Hindus developed an elaborate
system of mnemonics to ensure that the
texts would not be altered or corrupted,
thus preserving their efficacy.