What Are The Vedas?
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The Vedas (literally “wisdom”), are key religious texts. They consist of four collections of hymns, philosophical teachings and instructions that are recited verbally:
the Sama Veda (chants and melodies), the Rig Veda (hymns to different gods), the Yajur Veda (ritual instructions), and the Atharva Veda (popular incantations and folklore).
Other prominent religious texts, like the epic Mahabharata, are often called “the Fifth Veda.”
… Each Veda is attached to associated literature called Brahmanas, which are concerned especially with rituals, and Upanishads, which explore a deeper philosophical understanding
of the universe. The Upanishads and their interpretations are sometimes called Vedanta, literally the “end of the Vedas.”
The Pluralism Project, Harvard University
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The four Vedas are the earliest Indian texts composed orally in archaic Sanskrit during the late Bronze and
early Iron Ages (c. 1400–400 BCE). They consist of religious poetry and ritual formulas, followed by
text layers of explanatory prose, early philosophy, and, finally, voluminous ritual manuals.
Michael Witzel, Oxford Bibliographies
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The Vedas are the religious texts which inform the religion of Hinduism (also known as Sanatan Dharma meaning “Eternal Order” or “Eternal Path”). The term veda means “knowledge”
in that they are thought to contain the fundamental knowledge relating to the underlying cause of, function of, and personal response to existence.
They are considered among the oldest, if not the oldest, religious works in the world. They are commonly referred to as “scripture”, which is accurate in that they can be defined
as holy writ concerning the nature of the Divine. Unlike the scriptures of other religions, however, the Vedas are not thought to have been revealed to a certain person or persons at
a specific historical moment; they are believed to have always existed and were apprehended by sages in deep meditative states at some point prior to c. 1500 BCE but precisely
when is unknown.
The Vedas existed in oral form and were passed down from master to student for generations until they were committed to writing between c. 1500 - c. 500 BCE
(the so-called Vedic Period) in India.
Joshua J. Mark, World History Encyclopedia
