The Rig Veda: The Book of Mantra

Vedic Compositions

• Vedic hymns have incantations for various objectives, including success in love and realization of otherworldly goals.

Authors of Vedas

• There is a strong belief that the Vedas were passed down through generations by word of mouth.
• The Vedas were either taught by God to the sages or revealed to "mantradrasta" (seers).
• Vyasa Krishna Dwaipayana compiled the Vedas around the time of Lord Krishna (c. 1500 BC).

Different Divisions of Vedas

• Each Veda consists of four parts: Samhitas (hymns), Brahmanas (rituals), Aranyakas (theologies), and Upanishads (philosophies).

The Four Vedas

The Rig Veda

• The Rig Veda is a collection of brilliant songs or hymns and is a main source of information on the social, religious, political, and economic background of the Rig-Vedic civilization.
• It is the oldest book in any Indo-European language and contains the earliest form of all Sanskrit mantras.
• The Rig Veda has 1,017 suktas (hymns) divided into eight ashtakas (songs) each having eight adhyayas (sections), with a total of about 10,600 stanzas.
• The hymns are devoted to thirty-three different gods, most of them nature gods like Indra (rain god), Agni (fire god), and Rudra (storm god).

The Sama Veda

• The Sama Veda is a collection of samans (chants) derived from the eighth and ninth books of the Rig-Veda.
• The Sama Veda has several meters, but only 50 meters are found in the Sanskrit literature.
• The development of musical science owes a great deal to Chhanda Sastra.
• The Sama Veda is meant to be sung, with seven tunes used in the same way as in classical music.
• There are five types of musical renderings of the Sama: Himkaara, Prastaava, Udgitha, Pratihaar, and Nidhaan.