Rig veda

The ''Rigveda'' or ''Rig Veda'' ( ', from ' "praise" and ' "knowledge") is an ancient Indian collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns (''sūktas''). It is one of the four sacred canonical Hindu texts ('' śruti'') known as the Vedas. Only one Shakha of the many survive today, namely the Śakalya Shakha. Much of the contents contained in the remaining Shakhas are now lost or are not available in the public forum.

The ''Rigveda'' is the oldest known Vedic Sanskrit text. Its early layers are among the oldest extant texts in any Indo-European language. The sounds and texts of the ''Rigveda'' have been orally transmitted since the 2nd millennium BCE. Philological and linguistic evidence indicates that the bulk of the ''Rigveda'' Samhita was composed in the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent (see) Rigvedic rivers), most likely between 1500 and 1000 BCE, although a wider approximation of 19001200 BCE has also been given.

The text is layered, consisting of the ''Samhita'', ''Brahmanas'', ''Aranyakas'' and ''Upanishads''. The ''Rigveda Samhita'' is the core text and is a collection of 10 books ('s) with 1,028 hymns ('s) in about 10,600 verses (called ', eponymous of the name ''Rigveda''). In the eight booksBooks 2 through 9that were composed the earliest, the hymns predominantly discuss cosmology, rites, and rituals and praise deities. The more recent books (Books 1 and 10) in part also deal with philosophical or speculative questions, virtues such as ''dāna'' (charity) in society,C Chatterjee (1995)
Values in the Indian Ethos: An Overview
Journal of Human Values, Vol 1, No 1, pp. 312;
Original text translated in English: The Rig Veda, Mandala 10, Hymn 117, Ralph T. H. Griffith (Translator); questions about the origin of the universe and the nature of the divine, and other metaphysical issues in their hymns.Antonio de Nicholas (2003), ''Meditations Through the Rig Veda: Four-Dimensional Man'', New York: Authors Choice Press, , pp. 6469;
Jan Gonda (1975), ''A History of Indian Literature: Veda and Upanishads, Volume 1, Part 1'', Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, , pp. 134135.

Some of its verses continue to be recited during Hindu prayer and celebration of rites of passage (such as weddings), making it probably the world's oldest religious text in continued use.

Dating and historical context

Dating

According to Jamison and Brereton, in their 2014 translation of the ''Rigveda'', the dating of this text "has been and is likely to remain a matter of contention and reconsideration". The dating proposals so far are all inferred from the style and the content within the hymns themselves. Philological estimates tend to date the bulk of the text to the second half of the second millennium BCE. Being composed in an early Indo-Aryan language, the hymns must post-date the Indo-Iranian separation, dated to roughly 2000 BCE. A reasonable date close to that of the composition of the core of the ''Rigveda'' is that of the Mitanni documents of northern Syria and Iraq (c. 14501350 BCE), which also mention the Vedic gods such as Varuna, Mitra and Indra. Other evidence also points to a composition close to 1400 BCE.

The ''Rigvedas core is accepted to date to the late Bronze Age, making it one of the few examples with an unbroken tradition. Its composition is usually dated to roughly between c. 1500 and 1000 BCE. According to Michael Witzel, the codification of the ''Rigveda'' took place at the end of the Rigvedic period between ca. 1200 and 1000 BCE, in the early Kuru kingdom. Asko Parpola argues that the ''Rigveda'' was systematized around 1000 BCE, at the time of the Kuru kingdom.

Historical and societal context

The ''Rigveda'' is far more archaic than any other Indo-Aryan text. For this reason, it was in the center of attention of Western scholarship from the times of Max Müller and Rudolf Roth onwards. The ''Rigveda'' records an early stage of Vedic religion. There are strong linguistic and cultural similarities with the early Iranian Avesta, deriving from the Proto-Indo-Iranian times, often associated with the early Andronovo culture (or rather, the Sintashta culture within the early Andronovo horizon) of c. 2000 BCE.

The ''Rigveda'' offers no direct evidence of social or political systems in the Vedic era, whether ordinary or elite. Only hints such as cattle raising and horse racing are discernible, and the text offers very general ideas about the ancient Indian society. There is no evidence, state Jamison and Brereton, of any elaborate, pervasive or structured caste system. Social stratification seems embryonic, then and later a social ideal rather than a social reality. The society was semi-nomadic and pastoral with evidence of agriculture since hymns mention plow and celebrate agricultural divinities. There was division of labor and a complementary relationship between kings and poet-priests but no discussion of a relative status of social classes. Women in the ''Rigveda'' appear disproportionately as speakers in dialogue hymns, both as mythical or divine Indrani, Apsaras Urvasi, or Yami, as well as Apāla Ātreyī (RV 8.91), Godhā (RV 10.134.6), Ghoṣā Kākṣīvatī (RV 10.39.40), Romaśā (RV 1.126.7), Lopāmudrā (RV 1.179.12), Viśvavārā Ātreyī (RV 5.28), Śacī Paulomī (RV 10.159), Śaśvatī Āṅgirasī (RV 8.1.34). The women of the ''Rigveda'' are quite outspoken and appear more sexually confident than men, in the text. Elaborate and aesthetic hymns on wedding suggest rites of passage had developed during the Rigvedic period. There is little evidence of dowry and no evidence of sati in it or related Vedic texts.

The Rigvedic hymns mention rice and porridge, in hymns such as 8.83, 8.70, 8.77 and 1.61 in some versions of the text; however, there is no discussion of rice cultivation. The term ''áyas'' (metal) occurs in the ''Rigveda'', but it is unclear which metal it was. Iron is not mentioned in ''Rigveda'', something scholars have used to help date ''Rigveda'' to have been composed before 1000 BCE. Hymn 5.63 mentions "metal cloaked in gold", suggesting metal working had progressed in the Vedic culture.

Some of the names of gods and goddesses found in the ''Rigveda'' are found amongst other belief systems based on Proto-Indo-European religion, while most of the words used share common roots with words from other Indo-European languages. However, about 300 words in the ''Rigveda'' are neither Indo-Aryan nor Indo-European, states the Sanskrit and Vedic literature scholar Frits Staal. Of these 300, manysuch as ''kapardin'', ''kumara'', ''kumari'', ''kikata''come from Munda or proto-Munda languages found in the eastern and northeastern (Assamese) region of India, with roots in Austroasiatic languages. The others in the list of 300such as ''mleccha'' and ''nir''have Dravidian roots found in the southern region of India, or are of Tibeto-Burman origins. A few non-Indo-European words in the ''Rigveda''such as for camel, mustard and donkeybelong to a possibly lost Central Asian language. The linguistic sharing provides clear indications, states Michael Witzel, that the people who spoke Rigvedic Sanskrit already knew and interacted with Munda and Dravidian speakers., Quote (p. 99): "Although the Middle/Late Vedic periods are the earliest for which we can reconstruct a linguistic map, the situation even at the time of the Indua Civilisation and certainly during the time of the ''earliest texts of the Rigveda'', cannot have been very different. There are clear indications that the speakers of Rigvedic Sanskrit knew, and interacted with, Dravidian and Munda speakers."

The earliest text were composed in northwestern regions of the Indian subcontinent, and the more philosophical later texts were most likely composed in or around the region that is the modern era state of Haryana.

Text

Composition

The "family books" (27) are associated with various clans and chieftains, containing hymns by members of the same clan in each book; but other clans are also represented in the ''Rigveda''. The family books are associated with specific regions, and mention prominent Bharata and Pūru kings.

Tradition associates a rishi (the composer) with each (verse) of the ''Rigveda''. Most sūktas are attributed to single composers; for each of them the ''Rigveda'' includes a lineage-specific ' hymn (a special sūkta of rigidly formulaic structure, used for rituals). In all, 10 families of rishis account for more than 95 per cent of the

Collection and organisation

The codification of the ''Rigveda'' took place late in the Rigvedic or rather in the early post-Rigvedic period at ca. 1200 BCE, by members of the early Kuru tribe, when the center of Vedic culture moved east from the Punjab into what is now Uttar Pradesh. The ''Rigveda'' was codified by compiling the hymns, including the arrangement of the individual hymns in ten books, coeval with the composition of the younger Veda Samhitas. According to Witzel, the initial collection took place after the Bharata victory in the Battle of the Ten Kings, under king Sudās, over other Puru kings. This collection was an effort to reconcile various factions in the clans which were united in the Kuru kingdom under a Bharata king. This collection was re-arranged and expanded in the Kuru Kingdom, reflecting the establishment of a new Bharata-Puru lineage and new srauta rituals.

The fixing of the Vedic chant (by enforcing regular application of sandhi) and of the padapatha (by dissolving Sandhi out of the earlier metrical text), occurred during the later Brahmana period, in roughly the 6th century BCE.

The surviving form of the ''Rigveda'' is based on an early Iron Age collection that established the core 'family books' (mandalas 2 7, ordered by author, deity and meterH. Oldenberg, Prolegomena,1888, Engl. transl. New Delhi: Motilal 2004) and a later redaction, coeval with the redaction of the other Vedas, dating several centuries after the hymns were composed. This redaction also included some additions (contradicting the strict ordering scheme) and orthoepic changes to the Vedic Sanskrit such as the regularization of sandhi (termed ''orthoepische Diaskeuase'' by Oldenberg, 1888).

Organisation

Mandalas

The text is organized in ten "books", or '' maṇḍalas'' ("circles"), of varying age and length. The "family books", mandalas 27, are the oldest part of the ''Rigveda'' and the shortest books; they are arranged by length (decreasing length of hymns per book) and account for 38% of the text.

The hymns are arranged in collections each dealing with a particular deity: ''Agni'' comes first, ''Indra'' comes second, and so on. They are attributed and dedicated to a rishi (sage) and his family of students. Within each collection, the hymns are arranged in descending order of the number of stanzas per hymn. If two hymns in the same collection have equal numbers of stanzas then they are arranged so that the number of syllables in the metre are in descending order. The second to seventh mandalas have a uniform format.

The eighth and ninth mandalas, comprising hymns of mixed age, account for 15% and 9%, respectively. The ninth mandala is entirely dedicated to Soma and the Soma ritual.
The hymns in the ninth mandala are arranged by both their prosody structure ( chanda) and by their length.

The first and the tenth mandalas are the youngest; they are also the longest books, of 191 suktas each, accounting for 37% of the text. Nevertheless, some of the hymns in mandalas 8, 1 and 10 may still belong to an earlier period and may be as old as the material in the family books. The first mandala has a unique arrangement not found in the other nine mandalas. The first 84 hymns of the tenth mandala have a structure different than the remaining hymns in it.

Hymns and prosody

Each mandala consists of hymns or 's (', literally, "well recited, eulogy") intended for various rituals.
The s in turn consist of individual stanzas called ' ("praise", ''pl.'' '), which are further analysed into units of verse called ' (" foot" or step).

The hymns of the ''Rigveda'' are in different poetic metres in Vedic Sanskrit. The meters most used in the are the gayatri (3 verses of 8 syllables), anushtubh (4×8), trishtubh (4×11) and jagati (4×12). The trishtubh meter (40%) and gayatri meter (25%) dominate in the ''Rigveda''.

Transmission

As with the other Vedas, the redacted text has been handed down in several versions, including the ''Padapatha'', in which each word is isolated in pausa form and is used for just one way of memorization; and the '' Samhitapatha'', which combines words according to the rules of sandhi (the process being described in the ''Pratisakhya'') and is the memorized text used for recitation.

The ''Padapatha'' and the ''Pratisakhya'' anchor the text's true meaning, and the fixed text was preserved with unparalleled fidelity for more than a millennium by oral tradition alone.. "The Vedic texts were orally composed and transmitted, without the use of script, in an unbroken line of transmission from teacher to student that was formalized early on. This ensured an impeccable textual transmission superior to the classical texts of other cultures; it is, in fact, something like a tape-recording of ca. 1500500 BCE. Not just the actual words, but even the long-lost musical (tonal) accent (as in old Greek or in Japanese) has been preserved up to the present. On the other hand, the Vedas have been written down only during the early second millennium CE, while some sections such as a collection of the Upanishads were perhaps written down at the middle of the first millennium, while some early, unsuccessful attempts (indicated by certain Smriti rules forbidding to write down the Vedas) may have been made around the end of the first millennium BCE". In order to achieve this the oral tradition prescribed very structured enunciation, involving breaking down the Sanskrit compounds into stems and inflections, as well as certain permutations. This interplay with sounds gave rise to a scholarly tradition of morphology and phonetics.

It is unclear as to when the ''Rigveda'' was first written down. The oldest surviving manuscripts have been discovered in Nepal and date to c. 1040 CE. According to Witzel, the Paippalada Samhita tradition points to written manuscripts c. 800-1000 CE. The Upanishads were likely in the written form earlier, about mid-1st millennium CE (Gupta Empire period). Attempts to write the Vedas may have been made "towards the end of the 1st millennium BCE". The early attempts may have been unsuccessful given the ''Smriti'' rules that forbade the writing down the Vedas, states Witzel. The oral tradition continued as a means of transmission until modern times.

Recensions

Several shakhas (from skt. ''śākhā'' f. "branch", i. e. "recension") of the Rig Veda are known to have existed in the past. Of these, Śākala Śākhā (named after the scholar Śākalya) is the only one to have survived in its entirety. Another śākhā that may have survived is the Bāṣkala, although this is uncertain.

The surviving padapāṭha version of the ''Rigveda'' text is ascribed to Śākalya. The recension has 1,017 regular hymns, and an appendix of 11 ' hymns which are now customarily included in the 8th mandala (as 8.498.59), for a total of 1028 hymns. The recension includes eight of these hymns among its regular hymns, making a total of 1025 regular hymns for this śākhā. In addition, the recension has its own appendix of 98 hymns, the Khilani.

In the 1877 edition of Aufrecht, the 1028 hymns of the ''Rigveda'' contain a total of 10,552 s, or 39,831 padas. The Shatapatha Brahmana gives the number of syllables to be 432,000, while 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); counting the number of syllables is not straightforward because of issues with sandhi and the post-Rigvedic pronunciation of syllables like súvar as svàr.

Three other shakhas are mentioned in ''Caraṇavyuha'', a pariśiṣṭa (supplement) of Yajurveda: Māṇḍukāyana, Aśvalāyana and Śaṅkhāyana. The Atharvaveda lists two more shakhas. The differences between all these shakhas are very minor, limited to varying order of content and inclusion (or non-inclusion) of a few verses. The following information is known about the shakhas other than Śākala and Bāṣkala:

* Māṇḍukāyana: Perhaps the oldest of the Rigvedic shakhas.
* Aśvalāyana: Includes 212 verses, all of which are newer than the other Rigvedic hymns.
* Śaṅkhāyana: Very similar to Aśvalāyana
* Saisiriya: Mentioned in the ''Rigveda'' Pratisakhya. Very similar to Śākala, with a few additional verses; might have derived from or merged with it.

Manuscripts

The ''Rigveda'' hymns were composed and preserved by oral tradition. They were memorized and verbally transmitted with "unparalleled fidelity" across generations for many centuries. According to Barbara West, it was probably first written down about the 3rd-century BCE. The manuscripts were made from birch bark or palm leaves, which decompose and therefore were routinely copied over the generations to help preserve the text.

Versions

There are, for example, 30 manuscripts of ''Rigveda'' at the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, collected in the 19th century by Georg Bühler, Franz Kielhorn and others, originating from different parts of India, including Kashmir, Gujarat, the then Rajaputana, Central Provinces etc. They were transferred to Deccan College, Pune, in the late 19th century. They are in the Sharada and Devanagari scripts, written on birch bark and paper. The oldest of the Pune collection is dated to 1464. The 30 manuscripts of ''Rigveda'' preserved at the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Pune were added to UNESCO's Memory of the World Register in 2007.

Of these thirty manuscripts, nine contain the samhita text, five have the padapatha in addition. Thirteen contain Sayana's commentary. At least five manuscripts (MS. no. 1/A1879-80, 1/A1881-82, 331/1883-84 and 5/Viś I) have preserved the complete text of the ''Rigveda''. MS no. 5/1875-76, written on birch bark in bold Sharada, was only in part used by Max Müller for his edition of the ''Rigveda'' with Sayana's commentary.

Müller used 24 manuscripts then available to him in Europe, while the Pune Edition used over five dozen manuscripts, but the editors of Pune Edition could not procure many manuscripts used by Müller and by the Bombay Edition, as well as from some other sources; hence the total number of extant manuscripts known then must surpass perhaps eighty at least.

Scripts

''Rigveda'' manuscripts in paper, palm leaves and birch bark form, either in full or in portions, have been discovered in the following Indic scripts:
*Devanagari (Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Nepal)
* Grantha (Tamil Nadu)
*Malayalam (Kerala)
* Nandinagari (South India)
* Sharada (Kashmir)

Comparison

The various ''Rigveda'' manuscripts discovered so far show some differences. Broadly, the most studied Śākala recension has 1017 hymns, includes an appendix of eleven ''valakhīlya'' hymns which are often counted with the eighth mandala, for a total of 1028 metrical hymns. The Bāṣakala version of ''Rigveda'' includes eight of these ''vālakhilya'' hymns among its regular hymns, making a total of 1025 hymns in the main text for this śākhā. The Bāṣakala text also has an appendix of 98 hymns, called the ''Khilani'', bringing the total to 1,123 hymns. The manuscripts of Śākala recension of the ''Rigveda'' have about 10,600 verses, organized into ten Books (''Mandalas''). Books 2 through 7 are internally homogeneous in style, while Books 1, 8 and 10 are compilation of verses of internally different styles suggesting that these books are likely a collection of compositions by many authors.

The first mandala is the largest, with 191 hymns and 2006 verses, and it was added to the text after Books 2 through 9. The last, or the 10th Book, also has 191 hymns but 1754 verses, making it the second largest. The language analytics suggest the 10th Book, chronologically, was composed and added last. The content of the 10th Book also suggest that the authors knew and relied on the contents of the first nine books.

The ''Rigveda'' is the largest of the four Vedas, and many of its verses appear in the other Vedas. Almost all of the 1875 verses found in Samaveda are taken from different parts of the ''Rigveda'', either once or as repetition, and rewritten in a chant song form. Books 8 and 9 of the ''Rigveda'' are by far the largest source of verses for Sama Veda. Book 10 contributes the largest number of the 1350 verses of ''Rigveda'' found in Atharvaveda, or about one fifth of the 5987 verses in the Atharvaveda text.James Hastings, , Vol. 7, Harvard Divinity School, TT Clark, pp. 5156 A bulk of 1875 ritual-focussed verses of Yajurveda, in its numerous versions, also borrow and build upon the foundation of verses in ''Rigveda''.Antonio de Nicholas (2003), Meditations Through the Rig Veda: Four-Dimensional Man, New York: Authors Choice Press, , pp. 273274

Contents

Altogether the Rigveda consists of:
*the ''Samhita

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