The Vedas in the Agni Purāṇa

Veda, “the sacred knowledge”

The Agni Purāṇa, which Agni Deva taught to Vasishṭha Maharshi, names the four Vedas, the Ṛk, Yajus, Sāma and Atharva, as the first of the aparā vidyā (the lower knowledge), with one lakh mantras among them, mantras that bless all and give the four purushārthas (the four aims of life). It teaches that the Vedas are the very form of Bhagavān Vishṇu, who is praised in them as Agni and as Yajñeśvara, the lord of yajña. It tells how Keśava, in the Matsya avatāra, slew the dānava Hayagrīva, who had stolen the Vedas from Brahmā, and protected them; how Śrī Mahāvishṇu, descending as Vedavyāsa at the end of the Dvāpara yuga, divided the one Veda into four and gave each to a śishya; and how each Veda branched into its śākhās. It gives the Vedas their places in pūjā and in the abhisheka of a king, and lays down how the Veda is to be learned, kept and honoured. These teachings are gathered here, with their chapters.

Vyāsa’s division of the Veda

The Agni Purāṇa tells the division of the Veda in its account of the manvantaras. In every manvantara the saptarshis spread the Veda over the earth. At the end of the Dvāpara yuga, Śrī Mahāvishṇu descends in the form of Vedavyāsa and divides the Veda. At first the Veda was one, with four caraṇas (quarters) and one lakh ṛks; “at first the Yajurveda was one”, and Vyāsa divided it into four. He taught the Ṛgveda to Paila, the Yajurveda to Vaiśampāyana, the Sāmaveda to Jaimini and the Atharvaveda to Sumantu. He laid down which Veda each ṛtvij (officiant of the yajña) should use: the Adhvaryu performs his office with the Yajurveda, the Hotā with the Ṛgveda, the Udgātā with the Sāma mantras and the Brahmā with the Atharvaveda. The divisions of the Veda into śākhās, the itihāsas and the Purāṇas are all forms of Vishṇu. Then the Vedas spread through the śishyas of Vyāsa and their śishyas:

  • Ṛgveda. Paila, Vyāsa’s first śishya, was the master of the Ṛgveda. The saṃhitā was given to Pramati and Bāshkala, and Bāshkala divided his saṃhitā into four and gave it to his śishyas. The Ṛgveda has two śākhās, the Sāṅkhyāyana and the Āśvalāyana, and the text gives two thousand mantras in a thousand Ṛgveda brāhmaṇas. Kṛshṇa Dvaipāyana and others accepted the Ṛgveda as pramāṇa (authority).
  • Yajurveda. The wise Vaiśampāyana made twenty-seven śākhās of the tree of the Yajurveda, and Yājñavalkya and others received the Kāṇva, the Vājasaneya and other śākhās. The Yajurveda has 1,999 mantras, with a thousand mantras in the brāhmaṇas, and eighty-six śākhās, among them the Kāṇva, Mādhyandina, Kaṭha, Maitrāyaṇī, Taittirīya and Vaiśampāyanika.
  • Sāmaveda. Jaimini made the branches of the tree of the Sāmaveda. Sumantu and Sukarmā each composed a saṃhitā, and Sukarmā received a thousand saṃhitās from his guru. The Sāmaveda has two śākhās, the Kauthuma and the Ātharvaṇāyanī, four gānas (modes of singing), among them the Āraṇyaka, the Ukthaka and the Ūha, and 9,425 mantras.
  • Atharvaveda. Sumantu made a śākhā of the Atharvaveda and taught it to thousands of śishyas, beginning with Paippalāda. The ṛshis who began its śākhās are Sumantu, Jājali, Ślokāyanī, Śaunaka, Pippalāda, Muñjakeśa and others. It has sixteen thousand mantras and a hundred Upanishads.

By the grace of Vyāsa, Sūta spread the Purāṇa-saṃhitā in detail.

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 150, 271

The Vedas are Bhagavān Vishṇu

The Agni Purāṇa teaches that the Vedas are Bhagavān Vishṇu himself. In the verse with which the sādhaka bows on entering the yāga-maṇḍapa, he says: “Namaskāra to Śrīdhara, the imperishable, who does good to the Vedas and the brāhmaṇas. The Ṛg, Yajus, Sāma and Atharva Vedas are of the form of Vishṇu. All śabda (sound and word) is of the form of Vishṇu. Namaskāra to that Bhagavān Vishṇu.” At its close, Agnideva tells Vasishṭha that the vidyā in the form of the Ṛg, Yajus, Sāma and Atharva is Vishṇu, the cause of the world. Vishṇu, who is of the form of the two vidyās, is sung in all the Vedas as Agni, as the Paramātmā and as the mouth of the devas; in the Vedas and the Purāṇas he is described as Yajña-mūrti, the form of yajña. The Paramātmā, the support of all, is praised in the Veda and the Vedānta by the name Vishṇu, and he alone is Yajñeśvara. The whole body of sacred word, the Veda, the Purāṇa, the vidyās, the Upanishads, the ślokas, the sūtras and the bhāshyas, arose from this Paramātmā alone.

The Agni Purāṇa also tells how Bhagavān Vishṇu protected the Vedas. At the end of the past kalpa, when Bhūloka and all the lokas sank into the ocean, Bhagavān Vishṇu took the Matsya avatāra, and Keśava slew the dānava Hayagrīva, who had stolen the Vedas from Brahmā, and protected the Vedas and the mantras. In the Kuśāpāmārjana stotra he is hailed as the Mahāyajña-Varāha, who bears the earth on his tusk, whose body is the Vedas; and as Vāmana, son of Kaśyapa, of very small body, adorned with the Ṛg, Yajur and Sāma Vedas, whose speech is full of their hidden truths. In the mūrti of Bhagavān Hayagrīva, his four hands hold the śaṅkha, the cakra, the gadā and the Vedas.

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 2, 31, 34, 49, 174, 271, 376, 379, 383

The rules of Veda study

The Agni Purāṇa gives the rules of Veda study. The brahmacārī lives with his guru until he has completed the study of the Veda; then he offers dakshiṇā to the guru and takes the vratānta-snāna, the bath that ends his vow, or he becomes a naishṭhika brahmacārī and stays in the gurukula all his life. Teaching the Veda (adhyāpana) and studying it (adhyayana) are among the six dharmas of the brāhmaṇa, and āstikya-buddhi, faith in the Veda and the higher world, is among the dharmas common to all.

How the Veda is learned matters. Veda-adhyayana learned from a bad guru is burnt and dry; to drag the syllables this way and that while giving the meaning is called “eaten up”; learning from a good guru is auspicious, and Veda-adhyayana done with good svara (accent) and a good mouth is radiant. One must never blame the Veda, the śāstras, the king, the ṛshis or the devatās. A dvija who teaches the Veda to one not entitled to it becomes free of that pāpa only by eating restricted food for a year. Japa of the Veda, with prāṇāyāma, japa of the Gāyatrī and vrata, removes pāpas, and ātma-jñāna (knowledge of the ātmā) arises from the study of the Veda, from yajña, brahmacarya, tapas, śraddhā, control of the senses, fasting and truth. Among the siddhis that come to a yogī and can turn him from his path, all the śāstras beginning with the Vedas flash forth in him of themselves.

The Veda shapes a king’s conduct too. Of the four vidyās a king reflects on, the trayī, the three Vedas, teaches dharma and adharma. He wins the favour of elders in learning by behaving as those who have studied the Vedas with their aṅgas behave, and his purohita must be well versed in the three Vedas. Jaigīshavya taught that karma enjoined by the Ṛg, Yajus and Sāma, done as duty and without attachment, brings śreyas (the highest good).

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 151, 153, 155, 170–171, 238–239, 336, 376, 382

The Vedas among the vidyās

The Agni Purāṇa opens with the two vidyās. The parā vidyā, the higher knowledge, teaches Brahman, which cannot be seen or grasped and has no gotra and no śākhā. The aparā vidyā is the four Vedas, the six Vedāṅgas (Śikshā, Kalpa, Vyākaraṇa, Nirukta, Jyotisha and Chandas), Kośa, Mīmāṃsā, Dharma-śāstra, Purāṇa, Nyāya, Āyurveda, Saṅgīta, Dhanurveda and Artha-śāstra. Both are forms of Vishṇu. The Ṛgveda and the rest, which give happiness to all the devatās, are called Apara Brahma, because they teach the Apara Brahma; the Muṇḍaka Upanishad of the Atharvaveda also says that two vidyās are to be known. Agnideva teaches again at the end that Brahman is of two kinds, Śabda-brahman and Parabrahman: the vidyā of the Vedas is the Apara-brahman, and the imperishable akshara is the Parabrahman. Through the Ṛgveda and the rest the aparā vidyās are taught. The Agni Purāṇa itself, spoken by Agni, is called equal to the Veda.

At the abhisheka of a king, the fourteen vidyās are asked to protect him: the four Vedas beginning with the Ṛgveda, the six Vedāṅgas, Mīmāṃsā, Nyāya, Dharmaśāstra and Purāṇa. The Veda is also one of the siddhānta-pañcaka, the five doctrines, with Sāṅkhya, Yoga, Pāśupata and Pāñcarātra.

The Vedas are the root of the other sacred sciences. In the mantrapīṭha of five mantras that Bhagavān Śiva taught Devī Pārvatī, the first mantras are those of the Ṛg, Yajus, Sāma and Atharva Vedas. The chandas (metres) that Piṅgala taught follow the root mantras of the Veda. The Vedas and loka (common usage) are the sources of kāvya. The mantra oṃ namaḥ śivāya is called the Pañcākshara in the Veda and the Shaḍakshara in the world; the thirty-two syllables told in the Veda are the form of Aghora-Śiva. In the number-words of the chandas, veda stands for four.

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 1, 124, 219, 324, 327–328, 337, 379, 383

The Vedas in pūjā and rites

The Agni Purāṇa gives the four Vedas their places in pūjā:

  • In the catur-vyūha nyāsa (the placing of the fourfold form on the body), the Ṛgveda is placed on the hand as pervading, the Yajurveda on the fingers, the Atharva on the two palms and the Sāmaveda on the head, the heart and the feet.
  • In the Bhadra maṇḍala, the Ṛgveda and the Yajurveda are worshipped on the north-eastern lotus, and the Sāmaveda and the Atharvaveda are the first two names on the sixteen-petalled lotus.
  • At the dvāra-yāga, the pūjā of the doors of the yāga-maṇḍapa, the Ṛgveda is worshipped with Indra and Śobhana in the east, the Yajurveda with Yama and Subhadra in the south, the Sāmaveda with Varuṇa and Sudhanvā in the west, and the Atharvaveda with Soma and Suhotra in the north. At each door of the yajña-maṇḍapa of a liṅga’s adhivāsana stands one Veda, among the guardians who remove vighnas (obstacles) and protect the yajña.
  • In the pūjā of the Śālagrāma, the four Vedas beginning with the Ṛgveda are worshipped in the directions beginning with the east; in the pūjā of Kubjikā they are worshipped in the south-west.
  • When a book of the Purāṇas is installed, the nyāsa of the Purusha Sūkta and the Vedas is done on it before the prāṇa-pratishṭhā, the pūjā and the caru-homa.
  • At the adhivāsana of a liṅga, brāhmaṇas expert in the Vedas recite the śānti-pāṭha of their own śākhās: the Ṛgvedins in the east recite the Śrī Sūkta, the Pāvamānī ṛks, the Maitreya Brāhmaṇa and the Vṛshākapi mantras; the Sāmavedins in the south sing the Devavrata, the Bhāruṇḍa, the Jyeshṭha-sāma, the Rathantara-sāma and the Purusha-gīta; the Yajurvedins in the west recite the Rudra Sūkta, the Purusha Sūkta and the Ślokādhyāya; and the Atharvavedins in the north recite, with śraddhā, the Nīlarudra, the Sūkshma and the Atharvaśiras.

At the abhisheka of a king, the brāhmaṇas recite Veda mantras. A distinguished brāhmaṇa among the Ṛgvedīs bathes the king with honey and a Sāmavedī vipra with kuśa-water, and a Yajurvedī and an Atharvavedī brāhmaṇa place a tilaka of gorocana on his head and throat with the mantra beginning gandhadvārām. Among the blessings spoken over him: “May the ten devatās born in the kula of Aṅgiras, and the four Vedas, perform your abhisheka for siddhi.”

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 25, 30, 34, 47, 63, 96, 144, 218–219

Sources

  • Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 1–2, 25, 30–31, 34, 47, 49, 63, 96, 124, 144, 150–151, 153, 155, 170–171, 174, 218–219, 238–239, 271, 324, 327–328, 336–337, 376, 379, 382–383