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RigVeda
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{{Hindu scriptures}}
The '''''Rigveda ''''' (
Sanskrit: {{Unicode.html">tatpurusha compound of ''{{IAST
ṛc}}''_"praise, verse" and ''{{IAST|veda}}'' "knowledge") is a collection of hymns (''sūkta'', the individual verses are called ''{{IAST|ṛc}}'', plural ''{{IAST|ṛcas}}'') counted among the four
Hinduism Hindu religious texts known as the
Vedas {{IAST|Veda}}s, and contains the oldest texts preserved in any
Indo-Iranian language. Its core is accepted to date to the late
Bronze Age, making it the only example of
Early literature Bronze Age literature with an unbroken tradition: All other texts of similar or greater age, such as the
Ancient Egypt Egyptian "
Book of the Dead" are known from archaeological excavations and linguistic reconstructions only.
It consists of 1,017 hymns or 1,028 (including the
apocryphal ''{{IAST.html">Vedic Sanskrit, many of which are intended for various
sacrifical.html" title="Meaning of Vedic Sanskrit.html" title="Meaning of sacrifice sacrifical">sacrifice|sacrifical rituals. These are contained in 10 books, known as
Mandalas. This long collection of short hymns is mostly devoted to the praise of the gods. However, it also contains fragmentary references to historical events, notably the struggle between the early Vedic people (known as
Vedic Aryans, a subgroup of the
Indo-Aryans) and their enemies, the
Dasa.
The chief gods of the ''Rigveda'' are
Agni, the sacrificial fire,
Indra, a heroic god that is praised for having slain his enemy
Vrtra, and
Soma, the sacred potion, or the plant it is made from. Other prominent gods are
Mitra,
Varuna and
Ushas (the dawn) and the
Ashvins. Also invoked are
Savitar,
Vishnu,
Rudra,
Pushan,
Brihaspati,
Brahmanaspati,
Dyaus Pita (the sky),
Prithivi (the earth),
Surya (the sun),
Vayu (the wind),
Parjanya (the rain),
Vac (the word), the
Maruts, the
Adityas, the
Rbhus, the
Vishvadevas (the all-gods) as well as various further minor gods, persons, concepts, phenomena and items.
Some of the names of gods and goddesses found in the ''Rigveda'' are found amongst other
Indo-European people as well: Dyaus-Pita is cognate with
Greek language Greek Zeus,
Latin Jupiter (god) Jupiter (from deus-pater), and
Germanic languages Germanic Tyr; while Mitra is cognate with
Persian language Persian ''Mithra''; also, Ushas with Greek
Eos and Latin
Aurora; and, less certainly, Varuna with Greek
Uranos. Finally, Agni is cognate with Latin ''ignis'' and Russian ''ogon'', both meaning "fire".
Text
From the time of its compilation (redaction), the text has been handed down in two versions: The ''Samhitapatha'' has all Sanskrit rules of
sandhi applied and is the text used for recitation. The
Padapatha has each word isolated in its pausa form and is used for memorization. The Padapatha is, as it were, a commentary to the ''Samhitapatha'', but the two seem to be about co-eval. The original text as reconstructed on metrical grounds lies somewhere between the two, but closer to the Samhitapatha ("original" in the sense that it aims to recover the hymns in the form of their composition by the poets, known as
Rishis).
Hermann Grassmann has numbered the hymns 1 through to 1028, putting the ''valakhilya'' at the end. The more common numbering scheme is by book, hymn and verse (and ''
pada'' (
Foot (poetry) foot) ''a'', ''b'', ''c'' ..., if required). E. g. the first ''pada'' is
*1.1.1a ''{{IAST|agnÃm īḷe puróhitaṃ}}'' "Agni I laud, the high priest"
and the final ''pada'' is
*10.191.4d ''{{IAST|yáthāḥ vaḥ súsahā́sati}}'' "for your being in good company"
The entire 1028 hymns of the ''Rigveda'', in the 1877 edition of Aufrecht, contain a total 39,831 padas. Counting the number of syllables is less straightforward because of issues of sandhi, but the metrical text of van Nooten and Holland (1994) has a total of 395,563 syllables (or an average of 9.93 syllables per pada). Most verses are
jagati (padas of 12 syllables),
trishtubh (padas of 11 syllables),
viraj (padas of 10 syllables) or
gayatri or
anushtubh (padas of 8 syllables). The
Shatapatha Brahmana gives a higher number of syllables, 432,000.
The ''Rigveda'' is preserved by two major
shakhas ("branches", i. e. schools or recensions), ''{{IAST.html">Aitareya-Brahmana. The ''{{IAST
BÄ?á¹£kala}}''_includes the Khilani and has the
Kausitaki-Brahmana associated to it.
Books
Linguistic (as well as content-related) evidence suggests that books 2-7 are older than the remaining books. Books 1 and 10 are considered the most recent.
Image:Rigveda MS2097.jpg Devanagari.html" title="Meaning of thumb thumb|300px|''Rigveda'' manuscript in [[Devanagari, early 19th century.html" title="Meaning of 300px|''Rigveda'' manuscript in [[Devanagari">thumb|300px|''Rigveda'' manuscript in [[Devanagari, early 19th century">300px|''Rigveda'' manuscript in [[Devanagari">thumb|300px|''Rigveda'' manuscript in [[Devanagari, early 19th century
*Book 1
:191 hymns. Hymn 1.1 is addressed to
Agni, arranged so that the name of this god is the first word of the ''Rigveda''. The remaining hymns are mainly addressed to
Agni and
Indra. Hymns 1.154 to 1.156 are addressed to (the later
Hindu god)
Vishnu. Verse 1.164.46
:''To what is One, sages give many a title / they call it Agni, Yama, Matarisvan.'' (Griffith)
:is often quoted as an example of emerging
monotheism, compare the discussion of 10.129 below.
*Book 2
:43 hymns, mainly to
Agni and
Indra chiefly attributed to the Rishi ''{{IAST|gṛtsamda Å›aunohotra}}''.
*Book 3
:62 hymns, mainly to
Agni and
Indra. The verse 3.62.10 gained great importance in
Hinduism as the
Gayatri Mantra. Most hymns in this book are attributed to ''{{IAST|viÅ›vāmitra gāthinaḥ}}''
*Book 4
:58 hymns, mainly to
Agni and
Indra. Most hymns in this book are attributed to ''{{IAST|vāmadeva gautama}}''
*Book 5
:87 hymns, mainly to
Agni and
Indra, the
Visvadevas, the
Maruts, the twin-deity
Mitra-Varuna and the
Asvins. Two hymns each are dedicated to
Ushas (the dawn) and to
Savitar. Most hymns in this book are attributed to the ''{{IAST|atri}}'' family
*Book 6
:75 hymns, mainly to
Agni and
Indra. Most hymns in this book are attributed to the ''{{IAST|bārhaspatya}}'' family of
Angirasas.
*Book 7
:104 hymns, to
Agni,
Indra, the
Visvadevas, the
Maruts,
Mitra-Varuna, the
Asvins,
Ushas,
Indra-Varuna,
Varuna,
Vayu (the wind), two each to
Sarasvati and
Vishnu, and to others. Most hymns in this book are attributed to ''{{IAST|vasiṣṭha maitravaurṇi}}''
*Book 8
:103 hymns, mixed gods. Hymns 8.49 to 8.59 are the apocryphal ''{{IAST|valakhīlya}}'', the majority of them are devoted to
Indra. Most hymns in this book are attributed to the ''{{IAST|kāṇva}}'' family
*Book 9
:114 hymns, entirely devoted to ''
Soma Pavamana'', the plant of the sacred potion of the Vedic religion.
*Book 10
:191 hymns, to
Agni and other gods. In the west, probably the most celebrated hymns are 10.129 and 10.130 dealing with creation, especially 10.129.7:
::''He, the first origin of this creation, whether he formed it all or did not form it, / Whose eye controls this world in highest heaven, he verily knows it, or perhaps he knows not.'' (
Ralph T.H. Griffith Griffith)
:These hymns exhibit a level of philosophical speculation very atypical of the Rig-Veda, which for the most part is occupied with ritualistic invocation. Book 10 also contains the
Nadistuti sukta, the
Purusha sukta and other mythological material.
Translations
The ''Rigveda'' was translated into English by
Ralph T.H. Griffith in
1896. Partial English translations by
Maurice Bloomfield and
William Dwight Whitney exist. Griffith's translation is good, considering its age, but it is no replacement for Geldner's 1951 translation, the only independent scholarly translation so far. The later translations by Elizarenkova depends heavily on Geldner, but Elizarenkova's translation is valuable in taking into account scholarly literature up to 1990.
Internal evidence
The ''Rigveda'' is far more archaic than any other Indo-Aryan text preserved. For this reason, it has been in the center of attention of western scholarship from the times of
Friedrich Max Muller Max Müller. The ''Rigveda'' records an early stage of
Vedic religion, still closely tied to the pre-
Zoroastrian Persians Persian religion. It is thought that Zoroastrianism and Vedic Hinduism evolved from an earlier common religious
Indo-Iranians Indo-Iranian culture.
Scholars usually date the ''Rigveda'' to the
2nd millennium BC both linguistically and on grounds of its references to late
bronze age culture. The ''Rigveda'' describes a mobile,
nomadic culture, with horse-drawn
chariots and metal (bronze) weapons. According to some scholars the geography described is consistent with that of the
Punjab region Punjab (
Gandhara): Rivers flow north to south, the mountains are relatively remote but still reachable (
Soma is a plant found in the mountains, and it has to be purchased, imported by merchants). D.B. Kasar identifies the Sahyadri mountains in Maharashtra with rivers Vedganga, Pravara, Vashisthi, Neera, Sindphana as a possible location, though this claim is not widely accepted.
The text is commonly held to have been completed between
1500 BC and
1200 BC, or the early period of the ''
Gandhara Grave culture''. After their composition, the texts were preserved and codified by a vast body of
Vedic priesthood as the central philosophy of the Iron Age
Vedic civilization.
Nevertheless, the hymns were certainly composed over a long period, with the oldest elements possibly reaching back into
Indo-Iranian times, or the early 2nd millennium BC. Thus there is 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 hark back to clashes between the early
Indo-Aryans with the
BMAC (Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex) culture centuries earlier, in what is now northern
Afghanistan and southern
Turkmenistan (separated from the upper
Indus by the
Hindu Kush mountain range, and some 400 km distant). In any case, while it is highly likely that the bulk of the ''Rigveda'' was composed in the Punjab, even if based on earlier poetic traditions, there is no mention of either
tigers or
rice 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. The Iron Age in northern India begins in the
12th century BC with the ''
Black and Red Ware'' (BRW) culture. This is a widely accepted timeframe for the beginning codification of the ''Rigveda'' (i.e. the arrangement of the individual hymns in books, and the fixing of the samhitapatha (by applying
Sandhi) and the padapatha (by dissolving Sandhi) out of the earlier metrical text), and the composition of the younger Vedas. This time probably coincides with the early
Kuru (India) Kuru kingdom, shifting the center of Vedic culture east from the Punjab into what is now
Uttar Pradesh.
Some, mostly Indian, writers have used alleged
astronomy astronomical references in the ''Rigveda'' to date it to as early as the
4th millennium BC. Mainstream scholarship widely rejects these interpretations as
pseudoscientific (e.g. Witzel, 1999).
Hindu tradition
According to Indian tradition, the Rigvedic hymns were collected by
Paila under the guidance of
Vyasa {{IAST|VyÄ?sa}}, who formed the Rigveda Samhita as we know it. According to the
Shatapatha Brahmana {{IAST|Åšatapatha BrÄ?hmana}}, the number of syllables in the ''Rigveda'' is 432,000, equalling the number of muhurtas (1 day = 30 muhurtas) in forty years. This statement stresses the underlying philosophy of the Vedic books that there is a connection (bandhu) between the astronomical, the
physiology physiological, and the spiritual.
The authors of the
Brahmanas {{IAST|BrÄ?hmana}} literature described and interpreted the Rigvedic ritual.
Yaska was an early commentator of the ''Rigveda''. In the
14th century,
Sayana {{IAST|SÄ?yana}} wrote an exhaustive commentary on it. Other ''{{IAST|BhÄ?á¹£ya}}s'' (commentaries) that have been preserved up to present times are those by
Madhava {{IAST|MÄ?dhava}},
Skandasvamin {{IAST|SkaṃdasvÄ?min}} and
Venkatamadhava {{IAST|VeṃkatamÄ?dhava}}.
More recent Indian views
Generally speaking, the Indian perception of the ''Rigveda'' has moved away from the original ritualistic content to a more symbolic or mystical interpretation. For example, instances of
animal sacrifice are not seen as literal slaughtering but as
transcendental processes. The Rigvedic view is seen to consider the universe to be infinite in size, dividing knowledge into two categories: ''lower'' (related to objects, beset with paradoxes) and ''higher'' (related to the perceiving subject, free of paradoxes).
Swami Dayananda, who started the
Arya Samaj and Sri
Aurobindo have emphasized a spiritual (adhyatimic) interpretation of the book.
The
Vedic Sarasvati River Sarasvati river, lauded in RV 7.95 as the greatest river flowing from the mountain to the sea is sometimes equated with the
Hakra Ghaggar-Hakra river, which went dry perhaps before
2600 BC or certainly before
1900 BC. Others argue that the Sarasvati was originally the
Helmand River Helmand in
Afghanistan. These questions are tied to the debate about the
Indo-Aryan migration (termed "
Aryan Invasion Theory") vs. the claim that Vedic culture together with Vedic Sanskrit originated in the
Indus Valley Civilisation, a topic of great significance in
Hindutva Hindu nationalism, addressed for example by
Amal Kiran and
Shrikant G. Talageri.
Subhash Kak has claimed that there is an astronomical code in the organization of the hymns.
Bal Gangadhar Tilak, based on astronomical alignments in the Rig-Veda, provided an interesting analysis of the early Vedic society in his "The Orion"
1893).
References
* Michael Witzel, ''The Pleiades and the Bears viewed from inside the Vedic texts'', EVJS Vol. 5 (1999), issue 2 (December) [http://users.primushost.com/~india/ejvs/ejvs0502/ejvs0502.txt].
Editions
*
Friedrich Max Müller, ''The Hymns of the Rigveda, with
Sayana's commentary'', London, 1849-75, 6 vols., 2nd ed. 4 vols., Oxford, 1890-92.
*
Theodor Aufrecht, 2nd ed., Bonn, 1877.
*B. van Nooten und G. Holland, ''Rig Veda, a metrically restored text'', Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies, Harvard University, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England, 1994.
Translations
*Latin
**F. Rosen, ''Rigvedae specimen'', London, 1830
*French
**A. Langlois, Paris 1948-51 ISBN 2720010294
*English
**
Ralph T.H. Griffith, ''Hymns of the Rig Veda'' (1896)
*German
**Karl Friedrich Geldner, ''Der Rig-Veda: Aus dem Sanskrit ins Deutsche übersetzt'' Harvard Oriental Studies, vols. 33, 34, 35 (1951), reprint Harvard University Press (2003) ISBN 0674012267
*Russian
**Tatyana Ya. Elizarenkova, Nauka, Moscow 1989-1999.
Bibliography
Commentary
*
Sayana (14th century), ed. Müller 1849-75
*
Sri Aurobindo: Hymns of the Mystic Fire (Commentary on the Rig Veda), Lotus Press, Twin Lakes, Wisconsin ISBN 0-914955-22-5 [http://www.mountainman.com.au/rghmf_00.html]
Western philology
*
Hermann Oldenberg Oldenberg, Hermann: ''Hymnen des Rigveda. 1. Teil: Metrische und textgeschichtliche Prolegomena.'' Berlin 1888; Wiesbaden 1982.
* — ''Die Religion des Veda''. Berlin 1894; Stuttgart 1917; Stuttgart 1927; Darmstadt 1977
* — ''Vedic Hymns'', The sacred books of the East vo,l. 46 ed.
Friedrich Max Müller, Oxford 1897
Hindu Historical, Archaeoastronomy etc.
*
David Frawley Frawley David: The Rig Veda and the History of India, 2001.(Aditya Prakashan), ISBN 81-7742-039-9
*
Shrikant G. Talageri Talageri, Shrikant:
The Rigveda: A Historical Analysis, ISBN 81-7742-010-0
*
Subhash Kak Kak, Subhash: The Astronomical Code of the Rigveda, Delhi, Munshiram Manoharlal, 2000, ISBN 81-215-0986-6.
*
Bal Gangadhar Tilak Tilak, Bal Gangadhar: The Orion, 1893.
External links
{{Wikisourcepar|The Rig Veda}}
'''Text'''
*
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