Vedas and Upanishads
Vedas are considered to be the most ancient written texts on the earth. Upanishad is a part of Veda. They are primary texts in Hinduism and have a large impact on Sikhism, Buddhism and Jainism. Let me take you on a brushing-up journey to the ancient texts:)
🌷 The word ‘Veda’ is derived from ‘Vid’ means to know. Hence, ‘Veda’ is knowledge. Each Veda explains the knowledge/secret of life’s various aspects.
🌷 Vedas have been orally transmitted through generations. We would never know the original authors of the scriptures because the first copy was never written down. The storehouse of knowledge was passed from one generation to the other vocally. It was only after a few thousand years that somebody thought of writing down the sacred texts though the many first copies of Vedas didn’t survive. The first known written copies of Vedas are copies of the Rig Veda and Atharva Veda that are held in the Bhandarkar Oriental Institute in Pune, Maharashtra, India.
🌷There are four Vedas- Rigveda, Yajurveda, Samaveda and Atharvaveda. Each Veda is again divided into four parts- Samhita, Brahmana, Aranyaka and Upanishad. It means Upanishad is the last part of a given Veda, hence also called Vedanta.
🌷 The first three parts of Vedas Samhita, Brahmana and the Aranyaka are together known as Karma Kanda. It is clear that these three deal with the ritualistic part of life. The last part, Upanishad speaks about Atman and other philosophical aspects of life.
Thus Vedas teach us both physical and spiritual aspects of life.
🌷Vedas were written thousands of years ago. These texts not only included metaphysics of the truths of existence but also the cosmological events describing time- its beginning and beyond.
🌷 Rigveda is the collection of ancient Vedic hymns and commentaries on rituals and mystical ideologies.
🌷 Yajurveda is the compilation of ritual offering formulas when an individual performs rituals before ‘Yajna’ fire.
🌷 Samaveda is the Veda of melodies and chants that are found in scriptures of Hinduism.
🌷 Atharvaveda contains the procedures of everyday life. It is different from the other three Vedas as it has spells for healing various illnesses, removal of demons or love spells.
This post is a part of Blogchatter A2Z and Global AtoZ blogging challenge. I’m writing 26 posts in the month of April on the theme Glimpse of India. Follow my work on social media platforms with hashtags #AditiWrites, #CelebrateIndiaWithAditi
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