Hindu Vedas, Vedangas -Part I

The primary scriptures of Hinduism are the Vedas.

They are beginning less, endless. They are eternal in nature.

The Vedas are not composed by any man. They are 'apaurseya' (meaning not man made).

They are called 'Sruthi' (meaning 'heard').

The Vedas were revealed to the sages after the creation of the Universe for the benefit of mankind. These have been handed down from generation to generation in the teacher -disciple tradition orally because the method of chanting cannot be mastered otherwise.

The oral method of instruction has ensured that there has not been any distortion.

The Vedas are four namely Rik , Yajur , Sama  and Atherva Veda.

These Vedas consist of thousands of mantras so to say countless. The mantras  are vibrations which are very potent.

Each of the four Vedas has further been divided into various branches. The Rik has 21 branches, the Yajur has 101 branches, the Sama has 100 branches and the Atharva Veda has 9 branches.

But at present some of the branches alone exist. Thus we have only one branch in Rik Veda. This is called pauzhiyam.

We have three branches in Yajur Veda namely Tatittriya, Kanva and Madhyandina,  only two branches in Sama  namely Chandoga and Talavakara and only one branch in Atharva Veda. This is available in Northern part of India.

Krishna Dwaipayana also known as Vyasa divided Vedas into four parts. He selected four of his intelligent disciples to study these diligently.

He taught Rig  to Paila, Yajur  to Vaisampayana, Sama  to Jaimini and Atharva Veda to Sumantu.

He also taught the 18 Puranas and Idihasa (meaning great epics) to Romoharshana.

Then again Paila has divided Rig Veda into two parts and imparted its teachings to two of his disciples - to Indrapramiti and Baspala. Baspala has divided his own branch to four parts and taught them to his pupils Bodhya, Agnimadaka, Yagnyavalkya and Parasara. Indrapramiti has taught his own branch to his son Mandukya.

One should not take the outward meaning of the mantras. Each and every word has ten meanings. Not by scholarly reading buy by intuition only one could understand these.

From time immemorial till modern days many have revealed the fantastic sciences that are potent in these which include vedic mathematics, the science of building planes, the ways to enhance one’s life span etc.

Swami Vivekananda, Maharishi Dayanada Saraswathi, Aurobindo, Swami Bharathi Krishna Tirtha are some of the great men who revealed the greatness of Vedas.

We will see further in our next article regarding the Vedas and Vedangas.