Knowra Vedas Vedas The Vedas are four ancient collections of Sanskrit hymns, ritual formulas, chants, and prayers that form Hinduism’s oldest sacred texts. They are the Rigveda, Yajurveda, Samaveda, and Atharvaveda.
Rigveda : The oldest Vedic collection, containing hymns addressed to deities and used in ritual. Its hymns are the earliest and largest collection within the four Vedas.
Śruti : The Hindu category of sacred knowledge understood as heard or revealed, including the Vedas. The Vedas are classified as śruti rather than as human-authored tradition.
Vedic period : The era of early Indo-Aryan society in South Asia, conventionally dated from the second to the first millennium BCE. The Vedas emerged and developed across this broad historical period.
Agnihotra : A daily Vedic fire offering made at sunrise and sunset using milk and prescribed recitations. This continuing rite draws on Vedic sacrificial practice and formulas.
Smriti : The Hindu category of remembered, humanly transmitted sacred tradition, including epics, law texts, and many Puranas. Smriti texts differ from the Vedas’ classification as heard or revealed śruti.
Yajurveda : A Vedic collection of prose formulas and verses used by priests conducting sacrifices. It supplies the formulas that accompany sacrificial actions.
Oral tradition : The transmission of knowledge through spoken performance and memorization across generations. Precisely trained recitation preserved Vedic texts before and alongside manuscripts.
Indo-Aryan languages : A branch of the Indo-Iranian language family that includes Sanskrit and many modern South Asian languages. The Vedas were composed in an early Indo-Aryan language.
Somayajna : A Vedic sacrifice centered on the preparation and offering of the soma plant’s ritual juice. Its complex ceremonies rely on hymns and procedures from several Vedic collections.
Puranas : A large body of Hindu texts presenting myths, genealogies, cosmology, pilgrimage traditions, and religious teachings. They convey Hindu teachings through narrative and devotion rather than Vedic liturgical collections.
Show all 27