Rigveda

The Rigveda is the oldest of the four Vedas, a collection of Sanskrit hymns composed in ancient India. Its verses preserve the rituals, deities, and poetic traditions of early Vedic religion.

Veda: A body of ancient Sanskrit texts regarded as sacred revelation in Hindu traditions. The Rigveda is the earliest of the four Vedas.
Vedic sacrifice: A ritual offering performed with fire, invocations, and prescribed priestly actions in Vedic tradition. Many hymns praise deities invoked during sacrificial rites.
Nasadiya Sukta: A Rigvedic hymn that reflects on the origin of the cosmos and the limits of knowledge. Its creation speculation is among the collection’s most discussed passages.
Indo-Aryan migration: The movement of Indo-Aryan-speaking populations into South Asia during the second millennium BCE. The hymns reflect Indo-Aryan language and culture in ancient South Asia.
Brahmanas: Prose texts that explain Vedic rituals and their symbolic meanings. These later Vedic texts interpret rites and hymns within the Rigvedic tradition.
Vedic Sanskrit: The archaic Indo-Aryan language used in the Vedas and related early texts. Its vocabulary and grammar preserve an early form of Sanskrit.
Hotṛ: The Vedic priest responsible for reciting hymns and invocations during sacrifice. The Rigveda supplies the verses assigned chiefly to this reciting priest.
Purusha Sukta: A Rigvedic hymn describing the cosmic being Purusha and the world emerging from his sacrifice. It links cosmic creation with a description of social orders.
Indo-Iranian languages: A branch of the Indo-European language family including Indo-Aryan and Iranian languages. Rigvedic Sanskrit shares inherited features with ancient Iranian languages.
Upanishads: Philosophical texts that explore ultimate reality, the self, and liberation within the Vedic tradition. They inherit the authority of the Vedas while shifting emphasis toward philosophical inquiry.

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