Vedās

Veda, “the sacred knowledge”

Kuśa has other meanings too: see all meanings of Kuśa. Pāpa has other meanings too: see all meanings of Pāpa. Rohiṇī has other meanings too: see all meanings of Rohiṇī. Yajña has other meanings too: see all meanings of Yajña. Atirātra has other meanings too: see all meanings of Atirātra. Dvārapāla has other meanings too: see all meanings of Dvārapāla. Jñāna has other meanings too: see all meanings of Jñāna. Kalpa has other meanings too: see all meanings of Kalpa. Yoga has other meanings too: see all meanings of Yoga. Haṃsa has other meanings too: see all meanings of Haṃsa. Śatānīka has other meanings too: see all meanings of Śatānīka. Sumatī has other meanings too: see all meanings of Sumatī. Babhru has other meanings too: see all meanings of Babhru. Dakshiṇā has other meanings too: see all meanings of Dakshiṇā. Guru has other meanings too: see all meanings of Guru. Kauśika has other meanings too: see all meanings of Kauśika.

The Vedas are the oldest scriptures of Sanātana Dharma. The word veda means “knowledge”. No human author composed them: the ṛshis received them in deep meditation and handed them down by careful recitation, from teacher to student, for thousands of years, and so they are called śruti, “that which is heard”. Each of the four Vedas contains mantras of praise (Saṃhitās), guides to ritual (Brāhmaṇas), teachings for those who withdraw to the forest (Āraṇyakas), and philosophical teachings (Upanishads). The Ṛgveda is the oldest of the four. The Itihāsas, the Purāṇas and the Dharmaśāstras, composed later by ṛshis, are smṛti, “that which is remembered”; they explain and apply what the Vedas teach, and the Veda is the authority. The Veda was once one. At the end of the Dvāpara yuga Śrī Mahāvishṇu, descending as Veda Vyāsa, divided it into four and gave each to a śishya: the Ṛgveda to Paila, the Yajurveda to Vaiśampāyana, the Sāmaveda to Jaimini and the Atharvaveda to Sumantu. He laid down that in the yajña the hotā serves with the Ṛgveda, the adhvaryu with the Yajurveda, the udgātā with the Sāma mantras and the brahmā with the Atharvaveda.

The Vāmana Purāṇa honours the Vedas as the best of all āgamas (scriptures) and as the pramāṇa (authority) at the root of dharma, which enjoins yajña; when King Vena reviled them and forbade yajña, the ṛshis struck him down, and Vāyu declared that there is no atonement for Vedanindā, the reviling of the Veda. It tells that the four Vedas came forth from the mouth of Bhagavān Vishṇu in the form of Brahmā, that Bhagavān Vishṇu rescued them, and that, as Brahmā says, even the Vedas do not know who that Purushottama is. When Bhagavān Vishṇu appeared as Vāmana, all the Vedas, adorned with their svaras (accents), took refuge in him, and though he is himself the ocean of the Vedas, he studied them and mastered the śruti in one month, to set the example for the world. The Agni Purāṇa, which Agni Deva taught to Vasishṭha Maharshi, names the four Vedas, with one lakh mantras among them, as the first of the aparā vidyā and the very form of Bhagavān Vishṇu, who is praised in them as Agni and as Yajñeśvara. It tells how Keśava, in the Matsya avatāra, slew the dānava Hayagrīva, who had stolen the Vedas from Brahmā, and it lays down how the Veda is learned from a good guru, kept and honoured.

The Bhāgavata Purāṇa, which Sūta tells Śaunaka and the ṛshis of Naimisha, and Śuka tells King Parīkshit, says that Parameśvara by his saṅkalpa (will) alone made the Veda shine forth for Brahmā, that the four Vedas came forth from Brahmā’s four faces, and that Śrī Hari himself, born as Vyāsa, divided the one Veda into four saṃhitās so that the yajña of the four ṛtvijas would go on and even people of dull mind could hold the Veda. Bhagavān Vishṇu, as Matsya and as Hayagrīva, brought back the Vedas when they were stolen. The Purāṇa calls the Veda apaurusheya (made by no person), the very form of Nārāyaṇa and Brahman in the form of sound, and calls itself the ripe fruit fallen from the kalpavṛksha of the Veda, holding the essence of all the Vedas, the Rāmāyaṇa and the Bhārata.

Each of the four Vedas, each of the studies that grew around them so that they could be recited, understood and applied correctly, and each of the two Purāṇas’ teachings on the Vedas has its own full page. Each is given below in short, with a link to its page.

The four Vedas

Ṛgveda

The Ṛgveda is the first of the four Vedas, the Veda of the ṛks, the verses of praise, arranged in ten maṇḍalas. In the yajña it is the Veda of the hotā, the ṛtvij who calls the devatās with its ṛks. The Agni Purāṇa names it first whenever it names the Vedas, and teaches that Brahmā brought forth the Ṛg, Yajus and Sāma Vedas from his mouth so that yajña could be performed. With the other Vedas it is the Apara Brahma and the aparā vidyā, and the vidyā in the form of the four Vedas is Bhagavān Vishṇu himself.

When Vedavyāsa divided the Veda, which at first had one lakh ṛks, he gave the Ṛgveda to his first śishya Paila. From that line come Pramati and Bāshkala, who divided his saṃhitā into four, and the two śākhās of the Ṛgveda, Sāṅkhyāyana and Āśvalāyana.

The Ṛgveda is placed on the hand in the nyāsa of pūjā, worshipped at the eastern door of the yāga-maṇḍapa with Indra, and at a king’s abhisheka a Ṛgvedī brāhmaṇa bathes him with honey. Pushkara taught Paraśurāma the Ṛgvidhāna: the japa and homa of the Gāyatrī, the Praṇava, the Aghamarshaṇa and the ṛks and sūktas of every maṇḍala, each for its own aim, from health, wealth and children to freedom from pāpa and moksha. The Ṛgveda also has its own Śrīsūkta, the fifteen ṛks beginning hiraṇyavarṇāṃ hariṇīm.

In the Bhāgavata Purāṇa the Ṛgveda came forth from the eastern face of Brahmā, and Vyāsa taught this saṃhitā, called Bahvṛca, to Paila, from whom its śākhās spread through Indrapramiti and Bāshkala. The one who hears of this division of the Veda-saṃhitās is freed of all pāpa.

Yajurveda

The Yajurveda is the Veda of the yajus, the mantras with which the adhvaryu, the ṛtvij who carries out the acts of the yajña, does his work. It has two main forms, the Kṛshṇa (Black) and the Śukla (White) Yajurveda. The Agni Purāṇa tells that Brahmā created it from his mouth with the Ṛg and Sāma Vedas, and that “at first the Yajurveda was one”, until Vyāsa divided it into four.

Vyāsa’s śishya Vaiśampāyana made twenty-seven śākhās of the tree of the Yajurveda, and Yājñavalkya and others received the Kāṇva and Vājasaneya śākhās. Pushkara gives its measure: 1,999 mantras, a thousand more in the brāhmaṇas, and eighty-six śākhās, among them the Kāṇva, Mādhyandina, Kaṭha, Maitrāyaṇī, Taittirīya and Vaiśampāyanika.

In pūjā the Yajurveda is placed on the fingers in nyāsa and worshipped at the southern door of the yāga-maṇḍapa, and at a king’s abhisheka a Yajurvedī brāhmaṇa places the tilaka on him. The śiras (head) of the Gāyatrī, oṃ āpo jyotī raso’mṛtaṃ brahma, is a Yajurveda mantra, without metre. In the Yajur-vidhāna Pushkara teaches the uses of its mantras, each with its offering and its phala, for peace, health, wealth, sons, rain, victory and freedom from pāpa, and closes with the Gāyatrī as the supreme state of Bhagavān Vishṇu.

In the Bhāgavata Purāṇa the Yajurveda came forth from the southern face of Brahmā, and Vyāsa taught it to Vaiśampāyana. The yajus mantras that Yājñavalkya gave back became the Taittirīya, and Sūrya Deva, in the form of a horse, taught Yājñavalkya the yajus mantras of the Vājasaneya saṃhitās.

Sāmaveda

The Sāmaveda is the Veda of the sāmans, the verses, mostly from the Ṛgveda, set to melodies and sung by the udgātā in the yajña. In the Vāmana Purāṇa Bhagavān Vishṇu himself is praised as the one whose form is the Sāmaveda: Mādhava “whose form is the Sāmaveda” is called on to protect Skanda, and Maheśvara praises Bhagavān Vishṇu as Sāmaveda-rūpa. Vena praises Bhagavān Śiva as made of the Ṛg, Yajus and Sāma Vedas.

When Bhagavān Vishṇu was born as Vāmana, he learned the Sāmaveda from Bharadvāja the Āṅgirasa, with its great sound and its great ākhyānas, together with the art of music. The Sāma chant resounds in the sabhā of Brahmā in Brahmaloka, and with the four Vedas Brahmā bound Kuṭilā when, turned to water by his śāpa, she was about to flood his loka.

In the Agni Purāṇa, Vyāsa‘s śishya Jaimini made the branches of the tree of the Sāmaveda. It has two śākhās, Kauthuma and Ātharvaṇāyanī, four gānas (modes of singing) and 9,425 mantras. It is placed on the head, heart and feet in nyāsa and worshipped at the western door of the yāga-maṇḍapa; a Sāmavedī vipra bathes a king with kuśa-water at his abhisheka; and Pushkara taught Paraśurāma the Sāma-vidhāna, the use of the sāmans in japa and homa for every aim.

In the Bhāgavata Purāṇa the Sāmaveda came forth from the western face of Brahmā, and Vyāsa taught this saṃhitā, called Chandoga because its mantras are sung, to Jaimini, whose disciple Sukarma made a thousand śākhās of it.

Atharvaveda

The Atharvaveda is the fourth of the four Vedas, with mantras for daily life, such as health, long life, protection and peace in the home and the kingdom. In the yajña the ṛtvij called the brahmā performs his office with it. When Vedavyāsa divided the Veda, his śishya Sumantu received 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, among them the Muṇḍaka Upanishad, which teaches that two vidyās are to be known. Like the other Vedas, it is a form of Bhagavān Vishṇu.

The Atharvavedins recite the Atharvaśiras, which frees one from all pāpa, at the adhivāsana of a liṅga, and by the method of the Atharvaveda the king’s purohita performs the rites of śānti (peace) and pushṭi (increase). Pushkara taught Paraśurāma its Atharva-vidhāna: homa to its ten gaṇas of mantras, with the eighteen śāntis, and single mantras for śānti, health, long life, fearlessness and every desire.

In the Bhāgavata Purāṇa the Atharvaveda came forth from the northern face of Brahmā, and Vyāsa taught this saṃhitā, famed as the Atharvāṅgirasa, to the muni Sumantu, from whom it passed through Kabandha to Pathya and Vedadarśa.

The studies that support the Vedas

Vedāṅgas

The Vedāṅgas, “limbs of the Veda”, are the six helping sciences studied so that the Veda could be recited correctly, understood and applied in yajña: Śikshā (pronunciation), Vyākaraṇa (grammar), Chandas (metre), Nirukta (the meaning of difficult words), Jyotisha (the movements of the heavens and the right time for rites) and Kalpa (how rites are performed).

The Nārada Purāṇa gives five chapters to short teachings on them. The Agni Purāṇa counts them in the aparā vidyā, with the four Vedas, Mīmāṃsā, Nyāya, Dharmaśāstra, Purāṇa and the other vidyās, and teaches that all of these are forms of Hari; the fourteen vidyās are called on to protect a king at his abhisheka. In it Agni Deva teaches śikshā, the sounds of the Veda and how speech arises, and the science of chandas as Piṅgala told it. In the Vāmana Purāṇa, Brahmā is the master of the Vedas and Vedāṅgas, and Bhagavān Śiva praises Bhagavān Vishṇu as the four Vedas with their six aṅgas.

In the Bhāgavata Purāṇa the Vedāṅgas, with the Vedas, the Upavedas, Nyāya, the Itihāsas, the Purāṇas and the Saṃhitās, dwell in bodily form in Satyaloka, and they bowed to the foot of Bhagavān Vāmana when it reached that loka. Śākalya’s disciple Jātūkarṇya taught his śākhā of the Ṛgveda together with the Nirukta.

Vyākaraṇa

Vyākaraṇa is the study of grammar, one of the six Vedāṅgas. Its purpose is to keep the sound, form and meaning of every word exact, so that a mantra recited today is the same mantra recited thousands of years ago. When the Veda is described as a person, Vyākaraṇa is its mouth, because without it the Veda cannot be spoken correctly.

Its best-known work is the Ashṭādhyāyī of Pāṇini, nearly four thousand sūtras in eight chapters, which begins from the fourteen Māheśvara Sūtras that Pāṇini heard in the beat of the ḍamaru of Bhagavān Śiva. Kātyāyana added the Vārttikas and Patañjali the Mahābhāshya, and the three are honoured as the trimuni of grammar. Vyākaraṇa teaches sandhi, how words are built from dhātu and pratyaya, the forms of nouns and verbs, kāraka and samāsa.

In the Agni Purāṇa, Skanda, called Kumārasvāmī, teaches Kātyāyana the essence of grammar “for the knowledge of children” over eleven chapters: the Kaumāra Vyākaraṇa. The Vyākaraṇa section also holds practical guides for readers, beginning with how numbers are written and spoken in Sanskrit and in Telugu.

The Bhāgavata Purāṇa tells that from the Oṃkāra Brahmā created the collection of letters, the akshara-samāmnāya: the antaḥsthas (ya, ra, la, va), the ūshmas (śa, sha, sa, ha), the vowels, the classed consonants, the short and long sounds and the anusvāra; and on that collection he brought forth the four Vedas.

Śāstrās

A śāstra is an organised body of teaching on one subject; the word comes from the root śās, “to teach” or “to guide”. Six śāstras were studied alongside the Vedas, together called the Shaṭśāstra: Tarka (logic and debate), Vyākaraṇa (grammar), Dharma (right conduct), Mīmāṃsā (the interpretation of Vedic rites), Vaidya (medicine) and Jyotisha (astronomy and the reckoning of time).

Most śāstras begin with short sūtras, learned by heart and then explained by a teacher through a bhāshya (commentary), so that the teaching stays the same from one generation to the next. The word is also used for other fields, such as Dharmaśāstra, Arthaśāstra and Nāṭyaśāstra. The six śāstras are not the same as the six darśanas, the schools of philosophy: Nyāya, Vaiśeshika, Sāṅkhya, Yoga, Mīmāṃsā and Vedānta.

The Vedas in the Purāṇas

The Vedas in the Vāmana Purāṇa

The Vedas in the Vāmana Purāṇa gathers what Pulastya Maharshi tells Nārada Maharshi of the Vedas. In the stotra Bhagavān Śiva sang at Kurujāṅgala he praised Bhagavān Vishṇu as the four Vedas with their six aṅgas and the one who knows them; the Vishṇu Sārasvata Stotra takes refuge in the Veda-purusha from whose mouth, as Brahmā, the four Vedas came; the Sarva-pāpa-mocana stava hails him as Gadādhara, who rescued the Vedas, and as Sāmaveda-rūpa; Kaśyapa calls him Vedavedya; and Bāṇa, son of Bali, reminds Vāmana that he himself first created the Vedas. Yet Brahmā tells the devas that neither he nor the Vedas know who that Purushottama is.

It tells how Brahmā, master of the Vedas and Vedāṅgas, arose at the end of the pralaya; how his sabhā in Brahmaloka resounds with the Sāma and the Ṛgveda chanted in krama, pāda and akshara, where the four Vedas serve him in bodily form; and how he bound Kuṭilā, turned to water by his śāpa, with the four Vedas. It tells of those who studied the Vedas: Saṃvaraṇa and Kuru under Vasishṭha, Bhagavān Vāmana, who learned the Sāmaveda from Bharadvāja and mastered the śruti in one month, and the Sāmavedī Ṛtadhvaja; and how the Vedas with their svaras took refuge in Vāmana at his birth.

Last it gives the Vedas as the root of yajña and dharma: the ṛshis’ teaching to Sukeśī that the Vedas are the best of the āgamas; the ṛshis’ words to King Vena and Vāyu‘s warning that Vedanindā has no atonement; Śukrācārya‘s words at Bali’s yajña and Vāmana’s voice at the yajñaśālā; the Śatarudrīya japa on Mount Mandara in the pada-krama of the Ṛgveda; and the Venastava, which praises Bhagavān Śiva as made of the three Vedas.

The Vedas in the Agni Purāṇa

The Vedas in the Agni Purāṇa gathers what Agni Deva taught Vasishṭha Maharshi. It tells Vyāsa‘s division of the one Veda into four at the end of the Dvāpara yuga, the Veda of each ṛtvij, and the śākhās of each Veda through Paila, Vaiśampāyana, Jaimini and Sumantu, with their numbers of mantras. It teaches that the Vedas are Bhagavān Vishṇu himself, praised as Śrīdhara on entering the yāga-maṇḍapa, sung in the Vedas as Agni and Yajñeśvara, and that all sacred word arose from the Paramātmā; and it tells how, in the Matsya avatāra, Keśava slew Hayagrīva, who had stolen the Vedas, and how the Kuśāpāmārjana hails Varāha, whose body is the Vedas.

It gives the rules of Veda study: the brahmacārī’s stay with his guru, the six dharmas of the brāhmaṇa, the Veda learned from a good or a bad guru, who may be taught, the japa of the Veda and the Gāyatrī, and the Veda in a king’s conduct, with Jaigīshavya‘s teaching on karma enjoined by the three Vedas. It sets the Vedas among the vidyās: the parā and aparā vidyā, the Vedas as Apara Brahma and Śabda-brahman, the fourteen vidyās at a king’s abhisheka, the siddhānta-pañcaka, the mantrapīṭha of Bhagavān Śiva, the sources of kāvya and the Pañcākshara.

Last it gives the Vedas their places in pūjā and rites: in the catur-vyūha nyāsa, the Bhadra maṇḍala, the pūjā of the doors of the yāga-maṇḍapa, the Śālagrāma and Kubjikā pūjās, the installing of a Purāṇa book, the śānti-pāṭha of each Veda at the adhivāsana of a liṅga, and the abhisheka of a king, where the brāhmaṇas of the four Vedas bathe and bless him.

The Vedas in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa

The Bhāgavata’s teachings on the Vedas are given in full on The Vedas in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa; in short:

How the Vedas came forth and were divided. Maitreya Maharshi tells Vidura that the four Vedas came forth from Brahmā‘s four faces, with the work of the four ṛtvijas and the four upavedas, and that from all his faces together came the fifth Veda, the Itihāsas and Purāṇas. Sūta tells Śaunaka that in Brahmā’s one-pointed mind nāda arose in the space of the heart, and from it the Oṃkāra of three mātrās, the root of all mantras and of the Vedas. In this Vaivasvata manvantara Śrī Hari descended through Parāśara Maharshi in Satyavatī as Vyāsa, gathered the mantras into four saṃhitās, taught one to each of his four disciples and gave the Itihāsas and Purāṇas to Romaharshaṇa.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 12; Skandha 12, Chapters 6–7

The Vedas rescued and kept. As Matsya Śrī Hari slew the asura Hayagrīva, who had stolen the Vedas from the mouth of the sleeping Brahmā, and as Hayagrīva he slew Madhu and Kaiṭabha, who were harming the Vedas, and returned them to Brahmā. At the end of every mahāyuga time swallows the Vedas and the maharshis see them again by the power of their tapas, and it is the Vedas that uphold the sanātana dharma. Śrī Kṛshṇa tells Uddhava that the Veda vanished in the pralaya and that he taught it again to Brahmā at the beginning of creation.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 7, Chapter 9; Skandha 8, Chapters 14, 24; Skandha 11, Chapter 14

What the Veda is. The Yamadūtas say that the Veda is self-established and apaurusheya, the very form of Nārāyaṇa; Pṛthu teaches that it arose from Īśvara and is beginningless; and Śrī Kṛshṇa tells Uddhava that the Veda is Brahman in the form of sound, deep as the ocean, without end or boundary.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapter 21; Skandha 6, Chapter 1; Skandha 11, Chapter 21

The intent of the Veda. Sūta teaches that the Vedas have Vāsudeva alone as their highest purport, and Brahmā, examining the Veda three times, found that whatever gives love for Śrī Hari is the highest dharma. Śrī Kṛshṇa tells Uddhava that the karma-kāṇḍa, the devatā-kāṇḍa and the jñāna-kāṇḍa all intend the non-difference of Brahman and the ātmā, and that neither study of the Veda nor Vedic karma brings him under one’s control as satsaṅga does.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapter 2; Skandha 2, Chapter 2; Skandha 11, Chapters 12, 21

The Veda in the Kali age. The Purāṇa foretells that the followers of the pākhaṇḍa will abandon Vedic commands and revile the Vedas, the brāhmaṇas and Śrī Hari, and it warns that if the Veda is not recited constantly its mantras fall into doubt and are lost, as paths no one repairs are covered by grass.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 5, Chapter 6; Skandha 10, Chapter 20

Sources

• Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 2–3, 12, 22–23, 25, 32, 36–37, 44, 49, 59–60, 62, 64–66
• Vāmana Purāṇa, Saro Māhātmya, Chapters 3–5, 9, 26
• Nārada Purāṇa, Pūrvārdha, Chapters 53–57
• Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 1–2, 17, 21, 25, 30–31, 34, 47, 49, 63, 96, 124, 144, 150–151, 153, 155, 170–171, 174, 209, 211, 215, 218–219, 238–239, 259–263, 271, 324, 327–337, 349–359, 365, 376, 379, 382–383
• Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapters 1–4; Skandha 2, Chapters 2, 7; Skandha 3, Chapters 12–13, 29; Skandha 4, Chapters 7, 18, 21; Skandha 5, Chapters 6, 18; Skandha 6, Chapter 1; Skandha 7, Chapters 4, 9; Skandha 8, Chapters 1, 14, 16, 21, 24; Skandha 10, Chapters 20, 28, 82–86; Skandha 11, Chapters 3, 12, 14, 20–21; Skandha 12, Chapters 6–7, 11