The Vedas Flashcards
What are the names of the 4 Vedas
1) Rig Veda
2) Sama Veda
3) Yajur Veda
4) Atava
What are the 4 layers in the Vedas called
1) Samhita
2) Brahmanas
3) Aranyakas
4) Upanishads
What was in the Samhita layer?
Collection of hymns
What was in the Brahmanas layer?
How to properly perform the ritual
What was in the Aranyaka layer?
Path of wisdom
What was in the Upanishads layer?
Key concept of Hinduism is revealed
Priest associated with Rig Veda
Hotr
Priest associated with Sama Veda
Udgatr
Priest associated with Yajur Veda
Adhvaryu
Priest associated with Atava
Brahmins
How is the Yajur Veda divided?
Divided into black - krsna
and white - sukla
What is black krsna in yajur veda
3 books of yajus and prose, to do with elaborate rituals of sacrifice
What is white sukla in yajur veda
oen book of verses and mantras
Who composed the aranyakas
Forest dwellers
What does Upanishads mean
sitting down near to
When were the Vedas printed as a book
19th century by Max Muller
What does Veda mean
Knowledge
What does Sruti mean
That which is heard
What does Sabda mean
that which is heard, it is the word of God
What is the historical origin of the vedas
Composed by men and handed down generations orally
What is the religious origin of the vedas
heard by Rishis, revealed from the divine, passed down orally
When was the vedas put into writing
Not until a thousand years after its origin
What is the oldes Vedas text
The rig veda
What is Sanskrit
sacred language of the Gods
purusha sukta quote about him being outside of earth
‘three fourths are the immortal in heaven.’
Holm and Bowker: when were the first layers of the Vedas?
- earliest layers of the most authoritative of this literature stretch back over three thousand years.
Holm and Bowker: when was the Vedas wirtten?
- as long as a thousand years after their origin.
- rig veda only printed as a book in the 19th century by Max Muller.
what did Staal say about Aryans writing the vedas
what did Rogriguez say
- for some Brahmins writing was a ritually polluting activity.
- committing it to writing is regarded as diminishing its sacredness.
Bharati quote about Vedas
‘less than five percent of all Hindus ever knew these texts even by name, and much less than one percent knew even parts of their content,;
Where did Vedas come from?
- H&B –> heard by the ancient rishis from the divine and passed down orally through generations.
- Rodriguez –> contents of vedas were divinely perceived, revealed to the rishis. Authorship is some great unseen power channeled through the semi divine perceivers.
What is the sama veda
- H&B –> book of songs and chants based on the rig veda with instructions on their recitation.
What is the yajur veda
- H&B –> furhter collection of hymn and short porse formulae for use in rutal. Two recensions, black and white. Black composed of formulae and prose and white composed of mantras and verses.
What is the Artha Veda (atharva)
- H&B –> collection of hymns and magical formulae. Not as authoritative as other Vedas because not concerned with rituals, instead with magical healing.
what are the brahmanas
- H&B –> manuals for the brahmins, contain rules and elaborate symbolic explanations of vedic ritual.
- postulates magical links between cosmos and sacrifice.
what are the aranyakas
- H&B –> developments of the Brahmanas, speculate upon symbolism of the sacrifice.
what are the upanishads
- H&B –> focus on the inner mystical experience. Means sitting near, like disciple sitting near master.
Staal argument about mantras (3)
- in ritual the meaning of the words is not important, its often impossible to establish.
- function of the mantras is not their meaning but their use.
- what they mean is second to their place in the ritual sequence and correct recitation.
what is the rig veda
- H&B –>collection of 1,028 hymns to various deities. Cosmos divided into three lokas, each realm inhabited by a deva.
Jameson view on vedas
- benchmark for authenticity, if you accept Vedas as most important religious text then you are a hindu
- those who do not are not truly hindu
Dayananda Sarasvati view on Veda
- first to emphasise acceptance of Vedas a touchstone of being Hindu.
What is a feature of sacredness
Whether or not text is transmitted orally orin writing.
H& B view on the vedas
- most Hindus do not know Hinduism through the Vedas.
- know Hinduism through ritual traditions and mythologies in smriti literature.
What is henotheism
- several gods at higher level, more important
- Max Muller, used term interchangeably with katheotheirsm, different supreme Gods at different times. To worship one god at a time.
When was Rig Veda composed according to Max Muller
1700–1100 B.C.E.
Monotheism (3)
- ‘O Arjuna, even those devotees who worship other lesser deities with faith, they also worship Me’ - Krishna
- Agni –> ‘as he the sole god is preeminent in greatness among all these other gods.’
- Vishnu –> devas are always looking in the supreme bode of Vishnu.’
Definitions of Brahman in the Upanishads (3)
- ‘the hidden self in everyone.’
- ‘the ruler of time, past and future,’
- ‘thumb sized being enshrined in the heart.’
