Constructing an Edifice
Almost twice as long as any of the others, Part II provides essential information about the Four Vedas as they were canonized and as we know them. It includes selections and translations. It examines not only the two earliest Vedas, the Rig- and Sāmavedas of which the melodies of the second are of indigenous origin; but also their constituents: the Saṃhitā collections that are the source of the later mantras, the voluminous prose Brāhmaṇas and Āraṇyakas that are replete with speculation on the meaning of rituals.
The story of the Yajurveda is different from that of the Rig- and Sāmavedas and led in other directions that will be further explored in Part III. The Atharvaveda is also rather different but its chief theoretical contribution, the thesis of Kautsa, will be included here.
Part II ends with the Classical Upaniṣads, sometimes similar to the speculative poems and puzzles of the late Rigveda. They developed the art of public debate and include the beginnings of Indian philosophy.
Construction of the edifice of the Four Vedas coincides with the movements in the eastern direction of some of the composers from the Indus Valley to the Gangetic Plains. The earliest Brāhmaṇas and Āraṇyakas were composed in the Kuru region, not far from modern Delhi, the latest as far east as what is now Bihar.