THE VEDAS

 The masters of the civilizations were none else then the Aryans who migrated to India from Central Asia. The word Arya literally means independent -minded or one with noble character. The word Vedic Aryans have come from Vedas which where complied by the Aryans. Now let us see what is veda.

VEDA

Veda has been derived from the original Sanskrit word vid meaning knowledge or to-know. In other words vedas lead to expansion of knowledge. Everything can be known from Vedas .weather is the repository of knowledge and wisdom .the vedic expressions are called Mantras. The other name of veda is Smruti because it is remembered through listening. By listening to the mantras from the teacher and Pupil used to acquire Vedic knowledge. To make this tradition a universal one vedas have been divided into four parts. Again each of the four Vedas constitutes 4 sub parts known as a Mandala, adhyaya, sukti and mantra.

 Let us now make a detailed discussion of the four Vedas:

 Rig Veda: it consists of 10 Mandals, 64 adhyayas, 1028 suktis and 10552 mantras.

 Yajur Veda: it is bifurcated into black (Krushna) yajur veda and white (Sukla) yajur veda with 40 adhyayas , 303 anubak and 1975 Mantras.

 Sam veda:  through it it includes 1875 Mantras all are repetitions except 75 Mantras. Most of the hymns (stotras) of Rig veda are rhymd into musical from in Sam veda.

 Atharva veda: this veda is otherwise known as a brahma veda having 20 kandas 731 suktis with 5977 Mantras.

 The vedas are sub-divided into four parts on the basis of Janna, Karma ,upasana and Vijana.

 They are followinglyi called:

 Rig Veda  -     jana kanda

Yajur veda   -     karma kanda

Sam veda    -    Upasana Kanda

Atharva veda     -    vijana kanda

Each Veda consists of four sub-divisions:

Samhita (mantras and prayers written in poetic style)

Brahmana (prosaic presentation of the mode of worship)

 aranyaka (philosophical Genesis of Vedas)

 Upanishad (concluding portions deal with issues of higher spiritual philosophy and Brahamatattva)

 Besides the four Vedas Vedic literature includes four upavedas-

 Ayur veda, dhanu veda, Gandharva Veda and Silpa Veda .

all the vedic descriptions are again classified into 6 parts each known as Vedanga( parts of Veda) such as:  Siksha( phonetic), Kalpa (rituals), vyakarana( grammar), nirukta (etymology), Chhanda (metrics) and jyothisha (astrology).

 The fundamental source of information regarding the establishment of Aryan settlement in India and Vedic culture are Vedas and Vedic literature. They furnish us with sufficient facts related to social, political, economic, and religious life of the Aryans. These voluminous Vedic literature give us adequate reference about the culture of the period.

 The vedic age covers a period from 1800 B.C to 600 B.C being divided into two phases:

1) Early vedic age or Rig vedic age
 2)Later vedic age.

The starting point of our study of vedic age beings with Rig Veda for which the early period is called Rig vedic age. The later vedic age has been reflected in the composition of other 3 Vedas.