Hindu Sacred Scripture/Text
The Vedas, which originally were preserved only in oral form but eventually were written down, are the earliest sacred books of Hinduism. The name means "knowledge" or "sacred lore," and related words in English are vision and wisdom. Though scholars date the earliest versions of the Vedas to about 1500 BCE, Hindus consider them to be far more ancient. They say that the Vedas were revealed to Rishis (Holy men of the distant past) who did not create the Vedas but heard them and Transmitted them to later generations.
Here are Four Books of the Vedas; the ancient scriptures of India are called the Vedas. they give a great deal of information about gods and worship during what is often called the Vedic period.
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Here are statues of what would be the Rishis
There are four basic sacred text collections that make up the Vedas.
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The terms Vedas sometimes indicates only these four collections. In its more common use, it also refers to some later material as well. Detailed ceremoinal rules, called Brahmanas, and Aranyakas, were added by later generation to each of the four Vedic collections.
The Brahmanas, named for the priests who would use them, give details about the proper time and place for ceremonies, the preparation of the ground, ritual objects, and purification rites.
The Aranyakas (forest books) allowed the rituals to be understood and practiced in nonliteral, symbolic ways by men who had left society and become ascetics in the forests. The four Vedas also end with even later works, called the Upanishads, which express Philosophical and religious ideas that arose in introspective and meditative traditions. |
Information derived from : text book pages 79-80 and class lecture 2/9/2015