1200 B.C.) is the oldest of the four vedas and consists of 1028 hymns praising the ancient gods. 4) The Upanishads consist of the mystical and philosophical teachings of Hinduism. 3) The Aranyakas concern worship and meditation. 2) The Brahmanas are rituals and prayers to guide the priests in their duties. The Vedas are made up of four compositions, and each veda in turn has four parts which are arranged chronologically: 1) The Samhitas are the most ancient part of the Vedas, consisting of hymns of praise to God. These commentaries include the Brahmanas, Aranyakas, and Upanishads.ġ3th century Shatapatha Brahmana 14th Khanda Prapathaka 3-4, page 1 front, Sanskrit, Devanagari script Textual commentaries written by priests are attached to and elaborate on each of the Vedas and are also considered part of Vedic literature.
The Vedas are collections of hymns and ritual instructions used to perform Vedic ceremonies, and the theology and philosophy they contain form the foundation of the indigenous religious systems of India which today we call Hinduism. Mahabharata īhagavad Gita (Arnold translation) /wiki/The_Bhagavad_Gita īhagavad Gita at Sacred Texts īhagavad Gita Fitzgerald, Das Professor of Sanskrit, Department of Classics, Brown University /Departments/Sanskrit_in_Classics Ramayana as a Monomyth from UC Berkeley Ramayana and Mahabharata condensed verse translation by Romesh Chunder Dutt Sanskrit Documents Collection: Documents in ITX format of Upanishads, Stotras etc. 1 /stream and Volume 2 /stream Ĭlay Sanskrit Library Sanskrit and Prakrit Hindu, Buddhist and Jain Manuscripts Vol. Īll About Hinduism by Swami Sivananda Īdvaita Vedanta Hinduism by Sangeetha Menon, International Encyclopedia of Philosophy (one of the non-Theistic school of Hindu philosophy) Journal of Hindu Studies, Oxford University Press /jhs Hinduism by Swami Nikhilananda, The Ramakrishna Mission. The Hindu Religion, Swami Vivekananda (1894), Wikisource Vedic Hinduism SW Jamison and M Witzel, Harvard University International Encyclopedia of Philosophy by Shyam Ranganathan, York University /hindu Websites and Resources on Hinduism: Hinduism Today Heart of Hinduism (Hare Krishna Movement) India Divine Religious Tolerance Hindu Page /hinduism Hinduism Index /~gk1415/hinduism Wikipedia article Wikipedia Oxford center of Hindu Studies Hindu Website /hinduindex Hindu Gallery Hindusim Today Image Gallery Įncyclopædia Britannica Online article For hundreds, maybe even thousands of years, the texts were passed on orally. Vedic texts are sometimes called shruti, which means hearing. Hindus believe that the texts were received by scholars direct from God and passed on to the next generations by word of mouth.
and were introduced to India by the Aryans. They got their present form between 1200-200 B.C. The Vedas are the most ancient religious texts which define truth for Hindus. The Vedas also provide early records of astronomy and mathematics in India that came out of Vedic ritual and temple construction. Brahmin priests methodically memorized the content of the Vedas to ensure their consistent transmission to subsequent generations. They are considered divine revelation or sruti ("that which has been heard") as opposed to texts of human origin, smrti ("that which is remembered"). The Vedas are Hinduism's oldest and most sacred texts, and compiled by Vyasa Krishna Dwaipayana. These scriptures do not mention the word 'Hindu' but many scriptures discuss dharma, which can be rendered as 'code of conduct', 'law', or 'duty' Hindus believe that the Vedas texts were received by scholars direct from God and passed on to the next generations by word of mouth. Veda is a Sanskrit word meaning “knowledge” or “sacred knowledge”. The main Hindu texts are the Vedas and their supplements (books based on the Vedas).