Indo-Iranian languages, p. The Rigveda is far more archaic than any other Indo-Aryan text. The Rigveda records an early stage of Vedic religion. There are strong linguistic and cultural similarities with the early Iranian Avesta, [30] deriving from the Proto-Indo-Iranian times, [31] [32] often associated with the early Andronovo culture or rather, the Sintashta culture within the early Andronovo horizon of ca.
The text in the following centuries underwent pronunciation revisions and standardization samhitapatha, padapatha. This redaction would have been completed around the 6th century BC. Writing appears in India around the 3rd century BC in the form of the Brahmi script, but texts of the length of the Rigveda were likely not written down until much later.
While written manuscripts were used for teaching in medieval times, they were written on birch bark or palm leaves, which decompose fairly quickly in the tropical climate, until the advent of the printing press from the 16th [ dubious — discuss ] century CE. Some Rigveda commentaries may date from the second half of the first millennium CE.
After their composition, the texts were preserved and codified by an extensive body of Vedic priesthood as the central philosophy of the Iron Age Vedic civilization. The Rigveda describes a mobile, semi-nomadic culture, with horse-drawn chariots, oxen-drawn wagons, and metal bronze weapons. The geography described is consistent with that of the Greater Punjab: Rivers flow north to south, the mountains are relatively remote but still visible and reachable Soma is a plant found in the high mountains, and it has to be purchased from tribal people.
Nevertheless, the hymns were certainly composed over a long period, with the oldest not preserved elements possibly reaching back to times close to the split of Proto-Indo-Iranian around BC [37] Thus there was some debate over whether the boasts of the destruction of stone forts by the Vedic Aryans and particularly by Indra refer to cities of the Indus Valley civilization or whether they rather hark back to clashes between the early Indo-Aryans with the BMAC in what is now northern Afghanistan and southern Turkmenistan separated from the upperIndus by the Hindu Kush mountain range, and some km distant.
While it is highly likely that the bulk of the Rigvedic hymns were composed in the Punjab, even if based on earlier poetic traditions, there is no mention of either tigers or rice [38] in the Rigveda as opposed to the later Vedas , suggesting that Vedic culture only penetrated into the plains of India after its completion. Similarly, there is no mention of iron as the term ayas occurring in the Rig Veda refers to useful metal in general.
There is a widely accepted timeframe for the initial codification of the Rigveda by compiling the hymns very late in the Rigvedic or rather in the early post-Rigvedic period, including the arrangement of the individual hymns in ten books, coeval with the composition of the younger Veda Samhitas. This time coincides with the early Kuru kingdom, shifting the center of Vedic culture east from the Punjab into what is now Uttar Pradesh.
The fixing of the samhitapatha by keeping Sandhi intact and of the padapatha by dissolving Sandhi out of the earlier metrical text , occurred during the later Brahmana period. Some of the names of gods and goddesses found in the Rigveda are found amongst other belief systems based on Proto-Indo-European religion, while words used share common roots with words from other Indo-European languages.
The horse ashva , cattle, sheep and goat play an important role in the Rigveda. There are also references to the elephant Hastin, Varana , camel Ustra, especially in Mandala 8 , ass khara, rasabha , buffalo Mahisa , wolf, hyena, lion Simha , mountain goat sarabha and to the gaur in the Rigveda.
The Aitareya-brahmana [41] and the Kaushitaki- or Sankhayana- brahmana evidently have for their groundwork the same stock of traditional exegetic matter. They differ, however, considerably as regards both the arrangement of this matter and their stylistic handling of it, with the exception of the numerous legends common to both, in which the discrepancy is comparatively slight.
There is also a certain amount of material peculiar to each of them. The term in some contexts, such as hymn Each Veda has four subdivisions — the Samhitas mantras and benedictions , the Aranyakas text on rituals, ceremonies, sacrifices and symbolic-sacrifices , the Brahmanas commentaries on rituals, ceremonies and sacrifices , and the Upanishads texts discussing meditation, philosophy and spiritual knowledge.
Some scholars add a fifth category — the Upasanas worship. The texts of the Upanishads discuss ideas akin to the heterodox sramana-traditions. No deep understanding of RigVeda is possible without having a clear perception of the two most widely occurring words in the RigVeda namely deva and yajna. Deva occurs in about thirteen hundred verses. Since Agni, Indra and so on, are characterized as devas, almost every verse in RigVeda refers to a deva directly or implicitly.
Deva is derived from the word div, to shine or illumine. The devas are beings endowed with consciousness, but without a physical body like the humans. Thus they are supra-physical beings endowed both with knowledge and power. The sages of RigVeda were great observers of not only nature external to them like the mountains, rivers, etc. They recognized different types of powers pulsating behind and within all aspects of manifestation. Behind each cosmic power, they divined the presence of a conscious being denoted as deva or devi.
Each deva is a distinct cosmic power. Even though RigVeda mentions thousands of devas, about thirty of them get detailed attention like Agni, Indra, Sarasvati, to mention a few.
RigVeda gives a picture of the qualities common to all devas in the forty hymns dedicated to the vishve-devah, the collectivity of all devas. Individual devas are described in different suktas. The class of brahmins who can recite the Vedic texts from beginning to end without a mistake, but who are absolutely ignorant of the meaning thereof, also testifies to the fact, that the systematic exegesis of the Veda has been woefully neglected.
How and why this spirit came over the votaries of Sanskrit is an enigma, especially when we remember that in the Mukti Upanishad, the oldest known work dealing with the exegesis of the Veda, the author concludes his introduction to the work with a high eulogium of him who understands the meaning of the Veda and a scathing censure of him who only repeats the words without knowing their meaning.
The disappointment experienced by the present student of the Veda is due more to the wrong standpoint which the student takes than to the nature of the study itself. The archaic character of the language and the distance by which we are removed from the Vedic times no doubt contribute to make the study difficult and tedious, but these drawbacks are nothing compared to the utility of the study and the interest which would follow from it, if it is only pursued in the right spirit.
Do you, young readers, come to the Rig Veda with the hope of finding in it the most sublime poetry? Then I am not surprised at the disappointment which would be in store for you. You must not expect to find in the Rig Veda the smooth and melodious verses of Kalidasa, nor the deep and heart-rending emotions of Bhavabhuti nor the polished and jingling music of anyone else nor the elaborate and highly finished art of Bhana, nor the deep significance of Magha nor the bewilderingly complex phrases of Bharavi.
All the same it cannot be denied that the hymns of the Rig Veda, at least some of them, are such as the goddess of poetry would be proud of. The freshness and beautiful imagery which characterize the hymns addressed to the Aurora, the heroic simplicity of some of the hymns addressed to the Thundering Bull, the homeliness which pervades some of the hymns to sTftr, cannot but appeal to a sympathetic and appreciating reader.
Though the Rig Veda as a work of poetry cannot at all stand comparison with best specimens of Sanskrit classical poetry, still it has something indescribable in it which cannot be lightly passed over. This is a controversial subject to say the least. Different date are assigned to the composition of each of the Vedas. It must be remembered here that the Vedas are essentially an oral tradition, passed by recitation and memory from one generation to the next.
They were only written down supposedly at the end of the 10th Century BC after a devastating 12 year famine. As to the Rig Veda, it is likely that the last of hymns were put in place with a terminus ante quem of BC. The earliest of the hymns is however a different matter. A terminus post quem given by Max Mueller would be BC. Dates given for the earliest compositions also stand at around BC, with astronomical observations corresponding to this date present in the Veda. The last of the Vedas was in its final form at the very latest by BC, because by this date the Upanishads began to be gleaned and set apart from the Vedas.
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