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The Rigveda or Rig Veda (, , from , "praise"Derived from the root "to praise", cf. Dhātupātha 28.19. Monier-Williams translates Rigveda as "a Veda of Praise or Hymn-Veda". and , "knowledge") is an ancient Indian Miscellany of Vedic Sanskrit ( sūktas). It is one of the four sacred canonical Hindu texts ( śruti) known as the Vedas.Antonio de Nicholas (2003), Meditations Through the Rig Veda: Four-Dimensional Man, New York: Authors Choice Press, , p. 273 Only one Shakha of the many survive today, namely the Shakala Shakha 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. Most scholars believe that the sounds and texts of the Rigveda have been orally transmitted with precision since the 2nd millennium BCE, through methods of memorisation of exceptional complexity, rigour and fidelity,: "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. 1500–500 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" (2025). 9781402023200, Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands. ISBN 9781402023200 though the dates are not confirmed and remain contentious till concrete evidence surfaces. 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 required to earn the favour of the Deity, as well as praise them.Werner, Karel (1994). A Popular Dictionary of Hinduism. Curzon Press. . 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: , Mandala 10, Hymn 117, Ralph T. H. Griffith (Translator); questions about the origin of the universe and the nature of the divine,Examples:
Verse 1.164.34 , "What is the ultimate limit of the earth?", "What is the center of the universe?", "What is the semen of the cosmic horse?", "What is the ultimate source of human speech?"
Verse 1.164.34 , "Who gave blood, soul, spirit to the earth?", "How could the unstructured universe give origin to this structured world?"
Verse 1.164.5 , "Where does the sun hide in the night?", "Where do gods live?"
Verse 1.164.6 , "What, where is the unborn support for the born universe?";
Verse 1.164.20 ' (a hymn that is widely cited in the Upanishads as the parable of the Body and the Soul): "Two birds with fair wings, inseparable companions; Have found refuge in the same sheltering tree. One incessantly eats from the fig tree; the other, not eating, just looks on.";
Wikisource;
See translations of these verses: 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.
The hymns of the Rigveda are notably similar to the most archaic poems of the and Greek language families, the Gathas of old Avestan and Iliad of Homer. The Rigveda's preserved archaic syntax and morphology are of vital importance in the reconstruction of the common ancestor language Proto-Indo-European. Some of its verses continue to be recited during Hindu prayer and celebration of rites of passage (such as ), making it probably the world's oldest religious text in continued use.Lester Kurtz (2015), Gods in the Global Village, SAGE Publications, , p. 64, Quote: "The 1,028 hymns of the Rigveda are recited at initiations, weddings and funerals...."
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 and 1000 BCE. According to Michael Witzel, the codification of the Rigveda took place at the end of the Rigvedic period between 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.
No written records from such an early period survive, if any ever existed, but scholars are generally confident that the oral transmission of the texts is reliable: they are ceremonial literature, where the exact phonetic expression and its preservation were a part of the historic tradition.
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 Divinity Indrani, Apsara Urvashi, 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), Lopamudra (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.Michael Witzel (1996), "Little Dowry, No Sati: The Lot of Women in the Vedic Period", Journal of South Asia Women Studies, Vol 2, No 4
The Rigvedic hymns mention Asian 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.Chakrabarti, D.K., The Early Use of Iron in India (1992, Oxford University Press) argues that it may refer to any metal. If ayas refers to iron, the Rigveda must date to the late second millennium at the earliest. 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 that metalworking had progressed in the Vedic culture.
Some of the names of Rigvedic deities 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, kikatacome from 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 nirhave Dravidian roots found in the southern region of India, or are of Tibeto-Burman origins. A few non-Indo-European words in the Rigvedasuch 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."
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 s.
| NW, Punjab |
| Punjab, Sarasvatī |
| NW, Punjab |
| NW → Punjab → Yamunā |
| NW, Punjab, Sarasvati; → Gaṅgā |
| Punjab, Sarasvati; → Yamunā |
| NW, Punjab |
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 27, 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 , 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).
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 from the remaining hymns in it.
The hymns of the Rigveda are in different poetic metres in Vedic Sanskrit. The Sanskrit prosody most used in the are the gayatri (3 verses of 8 syllables), anushtubh (4×8), trishtubh (4×11) and Vedic meter (4×12). The trishtubh meter (40%) and gayatri meter (25%) dominate in the Rigveda. A history of Sanskrit Literature, Arthur MacDonell, Oxford University Press/Appleton & Co, p. 56
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 compound word into word stem 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 .The oldest manuscript in the Pune collection dates to the 15th century. The Benares Sanskrit University has a Rigveda manuscript of the 14th century. Older palm leaf manuscripts are rare. According to Witzel, the Paippalada Samhita tradition points to written manuscripts –1000 CE. The Upanishads were likely in the written form earlier, about mid-1st millennium CE (Gupta Empire period).Wilhelm Rau (1955), Zur Textkritik der Brhadaranyakopanisad, ZDMG, 105(2), p. 58 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.
The surviving padapāṭha version of the Rigveda text is ascribed to Śākalya.Maurice Winternitz ( History of Sanskrit Literature, Revised English Translation Edition, 1926, vol. 1, p. 283. The recension has 1,017 regular hymns, and an appendix of 11 hymnsMantras of "khila" hymns were called khailika and not ( Khila meant distinct "part" of Rgveda separate from regular hymns; all regular hymns make up the akhila or "the whole" recognised in a śākhā, although khila hymns have sanctified roles in rituals from ancient times). which are now customarily included in the 8th mandala (as 8.498.59), for a total of 1028 hymns.Hermann Grassmann had numbered the hymns 1 through to 1028, putting the at the end. Griffith's translation has these 11 at the end of the eighth mandala, after 8.92 in the regular series. The recension includes eight of these hymns among its regular hymns, making a total of 1025 regular hymns for this śākhā.cf. Preface to Khila section by C.G.Kāshikar in Volume-5 of Pune Edition of RV (in references). In addition, the recension has its own appendix of 98 hymns, the Khilani.These Khilani hymns have also been found in a manuscript of the recension of the Kashmir Rigveda (and are included in the Poone edition).
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,equalling 40 times 10,800, the number of bricks used for the uttaravedi: the number is motivated numerologically rather than based on an actual syllable count. 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 Sankhyayana. 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:
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.cf. Editorial notes in various volumes of Pune Edition, see references.
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. 273274Edmund Gosse, , New York: Appleton, p. 181
The Kaushitaka is, upon the whole, far more concise in its style and more systematic in its arrangement features which would lead one to infer that it is probably the more modern work of the two. It consists of 30 chapters ( adhyaya); while the Aitareya has 40, divided into eight books (or pentads, pancaka), of five chapters each. The last 10 adhyayas of the latter work are, however, clearly a later addition though they must have already formed part of it at the time of Pāṇini (c. 5th century BCE), if, as seems probable, one of his grammatical sutras, regulating the formation of the names of Brahmanas, consisting of 30 and 40 adhyayas, refers to these two works. In this last portion occurs the well-known legend (also found in the Shankhayana-sutra, but not in the Kaushitaki-brahmana) of Shunahshepa, whom his father Ajigarta sells and offers to slay, the recital of which formed part of the inauguration of kings.
While the Aitareya deals almost exclusively with the Soma sacrifice, the Kaushitaka, in its first six chapters, treats of the several kinds of haviryajna, or offerings of rice, milk, ghee, etc., whereupon follows the Soma sacrifice in this way, that chapters 710 contain the practical ceremonial and 1130 the recitations ( shastra) of the hotar. Sayana, in the introduction to his commentary on the work, ascribes the Aitareya to the sage Mahidasa Aitareya (i.e. son of Itara), also mentioned elsewhere as a philosopher; and it seems likely enough that this person arranged the Brahmana and founded the school of the Aitareyins. Regarding the authorship of the sister work we have no information, except that the opinion of the sage Kaushitaki is frequently referred to in it as authoritative, and generally in opposition to the Paingya—the Brahmana, it would seem, of a rival school, the Paingins. Probably, therefore, it is just what one of the manuscripts calls it—the Brahmana of Sankhayana (composed) in accordance with the views of Kaushitaki.
According to Nadkarni, several hymns of the Rigveda embed cherished virtues and ethical statements. For example, verses 5.82.7, 6.44.8, 9.113.4, 10.133.6 and 10.190.1 mention truthful speech, truthful action, self-discipline and righteousness. Hymn 10.117 presents the significance of charity and of generosity between human beings, how helping someone in need is ultimately in the self-interest of the helper, its importance to an individual and the society. According to Jamison and Brereton, hymns 9.112 and 9.113 poetically state, "what everyone humans really want is gain or an easy life", even a water drop has a goalnamely, "simply to seek Indra". These hymns present the imagery of being in heaven as "freedom, joy and satisfaction", a theme that appears in the Hindu Upanishads to characterize their teachings of self-realization.
A widely cited example of such speculations is hymn 1.164.46:
Max Müller notably introduced the term "henotheism" for the philosophy expressed here, avoiding the connotations of "monotheism" in Judeo-Christian tradition.Stephen Phillips (2009), Yoga, Karma, and Rebirth: A Brief History and Philosophy, Columbia University Press, , p. 401Garry Trompf (2005), In Search of Origins, 2nd Edition, Sterling, , pp. 6061
Other widely cited examples of monism tendencies include hymns 1.164, 8.36 and 10.31,Thomas Paul Urumpackal (1972), Organized Religion According to Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, Georgian University Press, , pp. 229232 with footnote 133Franklin Edgerton (1996), The Bhagavad Gita, Cambridge University Press, Reprinted by Motilal Banarsidass, , pp. 1112 Other scholars state that the Rigveda includes an emerging diversity of thought, including monotheism, polytheism, henotheism and pantheism, the choice left to the preference of the worshipper.Elizabeth Reed (2001), Hindu Literature: Or the Ancient Books of India, Simon Publishers, , pp. 1619 and the Nasadiya Sukta (10.129), one of the most widely cited Rigvedic hymns in popular western presentations.
Ruse (2015) commented on the old discussion of "monotheism" vs. "henotheism" vs. "monism" by noting an "atheism streak" in hymns such as 10.130.a "strong traditional streak that (by Western standards) would undoubtedly be thought atheistic"; hymn 10.130 can be read to be in "an atheistic spirit". Michael Ruse (2015), Atheism, Oxford University Press, , p. 185.
Examples from Mandala 1 adduced to illustrate the "metaphysical" nature of the contents of the younger hymns include:
1.164.34: "What is the ultimate limit of the earth?", "What is the center of the universe?", "What is the semen of the cosmic horse?", "What is the ultimate source of human speech?";
1.164.34: "Who gave blood, soul, spirit to the earth?", "How could the unstructured universe give origin to this structured world?";
1.164.5: "Where does the sun hide in the night?", "Where do gods live?";
1.164.6: "What, where is the unborn support for the born universe?";
.20 (a hymn that is widely cited in the Upanishads as the parable of the Body and the Soul): "Two birds with fair wings, inseparable companions; Have found refuge in the same sheltering tree. One incessantly eats from the fig tree; the other, not eating, just looks on.".
The authors of the Brahmanas literature discussed and interpreted the Vedic ritual.
According to the Puranic tradition, Ved Vyasa compiled all the four Vedas, along with the Mahabharata and the Puranas. Vyasa then taught the Rigveda samhita to Paila, who started the oral tradition. An alternate version states that Shakala compiled the Rigveda from the teachings of Vedic rishis, and one of the manuscript recensions mentions Shakala.
Madhvacharya, a Hindu philosopher of the 13th century, provided a commentary of the first 40 hymns of the Rigveda in his book Rig Bhashyam. In the 14th century, Sayana wrote an exhaustive commentary on the complete text of the Rigveda in his book Rigveda Samhita. This book was translated from Sanskrit to English by Max Müller in the year 1856. H.H. Wilson also translated this book into English as Rigveda Sanhita in the year 1856. Sayanacharya studied at the Sringeri monastery.
A number of other commentaries ( s) were written during the medieval period, including the commentaries by Skandasvamin (pre-Sayana, roughly of the Gupta period), Udgatr (pre-Sayana), Venkata-Madhava (pre-Sayana, to 12th centuries) and Mudgala Purana (after Sayana, an abbreviated version of Sayana's commentary).edited in 8 volumes by Vishva Bandhu, 19631966.
Some notable commentaries from Medieval period include:
According to Dayananda and Aurobindo the Vedic scholars had a monotheistic conception. Sri Aurobindo gave commentaries, general interpretation guidelines, and a partial translation in The secret of Veda (1946). Sri Aurobindo finds Sayana's interpretation to be ritualistic in nature, and too often having inconsistent interpretations of Vedic terms, trying to fit the meaning to a narrow mold. According to Aurobindo, if Sayana's interpretation were to be accepted, it would seem as if the Rig Veda belongs to an unquestioning tradition of faith, starting from an original error. Aurobindo attempted to interpret hymns to Agni in the Rigveda as mystical. Aurobindo states that the Vedic hymns were a quest after a higher truth, define the Rta (basis of Dharma), conceive life in terms of a struggle between the forces of light and darkness, and sought the ultimate reality. The Political Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo by V. P. Varma (1960), Motilal Banarsidass, p. 139,
According to Axel Michaels, "most Indians today pay lip service to the Veda and have no regard for the contents of the text."Axel Michaels (2004), Hinduism: Past and Present, Princeton University Press, p.18 ; see also Julius Lipner (2012), Hindus: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices, Routledge, p.77 ; and Brian K. Smith (2008), Hinduism, p.101 , in Jacob Neusner (ed.), Sacred Texts and Authority, Wipf and Stock Publishers. According to Louis Renou, the Vedic texts are a distant object, and "even in the most orthodox domains, the reverence to the Vedas has come to be a simple raising of the hat". According to Andrea Pinkney, "the social history and context of the Vedic texts are extremely distant from contemporary Hindu religious beliefs and practice", and the reverence for the Vedas in contemporary Hinduism illustrates the respect among the Hindus for their heritage.
The first published translation of any portion of the Rigveda in any European language was into Latin, by Friedrich August Rosen, working from manuscripts brought back from India by Colebrooke. In 1849, Max Müller published his six-volume translation into German, the first printed edition and most studied. H. H. Wilson was the first to make a translation of the Rig Veda into English, published from 185088.Wilson, H. H. : A Collection of Ancient Hindu Hymns. 6 vols. (London, 185088); reprint: Cosmo Publications (1977) Wilson's version was based on a commentary of the complete text by Sayana, a 14th-century Sanskrit scholar, which he also translated.
Translations have since been made in several languages, including French and Russian. Karl Friedrich Geldner completed the first scholarly translation into German in the 1920s, which was published after his death. Translations of shorter cherrypicked anthologies have also been published, such as those by Wendy Doniger in 1981 and Walter Maurer in 1986, although Jamison and Brereton say they "tend to create a distorted view" of the text. In 1994, Barend A. van Nooten and Gary B. Holland published the first attempt to restore the entirety of the Rigveda to its poetic form, systematically identifying and correcting sound changes and sandhi combinations which had distorted the original metre and meaning.B. van Nooten and G. Holland, Rig Veda. A metrically restored text. Cambridge: Harvard Oriental Series 1994Karen Thomson and Jonathan Slocum (2006). Online edition of van Nooten and Holland'
Some notable translations of the Rig Veda include:
Commentary
Philology
Historical
Dictionary
Hymns and prosody
Each mandala consists of hymns or s (, literally, "well recited, eulogy") intended for various Yajna.
The s in turn consist of individual stanzas called ("praise", pl. ), which are further analysed into units of verse called ("foot" or step).
2451 341 855 181 312 4253 1348 17 19 9 6 84 2 1 6 17 388 110 2 10402
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.
Recensions
Several (from skt. śākhā f. "branch", i. e. "recension") of the Rig Veda are known to have existed in the past. Of these, Shakala Shakha (named after the scholar Shakalya) is the only one to have survived in its entirety. Another śākhā that may have survived is the Bāṣkala, although this is uncertain.. "The RV has been transmitted in one recension (the śākhā of Śākalya) while others (such as the Bāṣkala text) have been lost or are only rumored about so far."Maurice Winternitz ( History of Sanskrit Literature, Revised English Translation Edition, 1926, vol. 1, p. 57) says that "Of the different recensions of this Saṃhitā, which once existed, only a single one has come down to us." He adds in a note (p. 57, note 1) that this refers to the "recension of the Śākalaka-School."Sures Chandra Banerji ( A Companion To Sanskrit Literature, Second Edition, 1989, Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, pp. 300301) says that "Of the 21 recensions of this Veda, that were known at one time, we have got only two, viz. Śākala and Vāṣkala."
+
!Shakha
!Samhita
!Brahmana
!Aranyaka
!Upanishad Shaakala Shaakala Samhita Aitareya Brahmana Aitareya Aranyaka Aitareya Upanishad Baashkala Kaushitaki Samhita Kaushitaki Brahmana Manuscript exists Kaushitaki Upanishad Sankhyayana Sankhayana Samhita Shankhayana Brahmana Shankhyana Aranyaka edited as a part of the Aranyaka
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, thirty 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, and Central Provinces. They were transferred to Deccan College, Pune, in the late 19th century. They are in the Sharada script and Devanagari scripts, written on birch bark and paper. The oldest of the Pune collection is dated to 1464 CE. These thirty manuscripts were added to UNESCO's Memory of the World Register in 2007.
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:
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.
Contents
Altogether the Rigveda consists of:
In western usage, "Rigveda" usually refers to the Rigveda Samhita, while the Brahmanas are referred to as the "Rigveda Brahmanas" (etc.). Technically speaking, however, "the Rigveda" refers to the entire body of texts transmitted along with the Samhita portion. Different bodies of commentary were transmitted in the different or "schools".
Only a small portion of these texts has been preserved: The texts of only two out of five shakhas mentioned by the Pratishakhyas have survived.
The late (15th or 16th century) Shri Guru Charitra even claims the existence of twelve Rigvedic shakhas.
The two surviving Rigvedic corpora are those of the Śākala and the Bāṣkala shakhas.
Hymns
The Rigvedic hymns are dedicated to various deities, chief of whom are Indra, a heroic god praised for having slain his enemy Vrtra; Agni, the sacrificial fire; and Soma, the sacred potion or the plant it is made from. Equally prominent gods are the Adityas or Asura gods MitraVaruna and Ushas (the dawn). Also invoked are Savitr, Vishnu, Rudra, Pushan, Brihaspati or Brahmanaspati, as well as deified natural phenomena such as Dyaus Pita (the shining sky, Father Heaven), Prithivi (the earth, Mother Earth), Surya (the sun god), Vayu or Vata (the wind), Apas (the waters), Parjanya (the thunder and rain), Vac (the word), many Rigvedic rivers (notably the Sapta Sindhu, and the Sarasvati River). The Adityas, Vasus, Rudras, Sadhyas, Ashvins, Maruts, Rbhus, and the Vishvadevas ("all-gods") as well as the "thirty-three gods" are the groups of deities mentioned.
Rigveda Brahmanas
Of the Brahmanas that were handed down in the schools of the (i.e. "possessed of many verses"), as the followers of the Rigveda are called, two have come down to us, namely those of the Aitareyins and the Kaushitakins. The Aitareya-brahmanaEdited, with an English translation, by M. Haug (2 vols., Bombay, 1863). An edition in Roman transliteration, with extracts from the commentary, has been published by Th. Aufrecht (Bonn, 1879). and the Kaushitaki- (or Sankhayana-) brahmana evidently have for their groundwork the same stock of traditional exegetic matter. They differ, however, considerably as regards both the arrangement of this matter and their stylistic handling of it, with the exception of the numerous legends common to both, in which the discrepancy is comparatively slight. There is also a certain amount of material peculiar to each of them.
Rigveda Aranyakas and Upanishads
Each of these two Brahmanas is supplemented by a "forest book", or Aranyaka. The Aitareyaranyaka is not a uniform production. It consists of five books ( aranyaka), three of which, the first and the last two, are of a liturgical nature, treating of the ceremony called mahavrata, or great vow. The last of these books, composed in sutra form, is, however, doubtless of later origin, and is, indeed, ascribed by Hindu authorities either to Shaunaka or to Ashvalayana. The second and third books, on the other hand, are purely speculative, and are also styled the Bahvrca-brahmana-upanishad. Again, the last four chapters of the second book are usually singled out as the Aitareya Upanishad,Paul Deussen, Sixty Upanishads of the Veda, Volume 1, Motilal Banarsidass, , pp. 714 ascribed, like its Brahmana (and the first book), to Mahidasa Aitareya; and the third book is also referred to as the Samhita-upanishad. As regards the Kaushitaki-aranyaka, this work consists of 15 adhyayas, the first two (treating of the mahavrata ceremony) and the 7th and 8th of which correspond to the first, fifth, and third books of the Aitareyaranyaka, respectively, whilst the four adhyayas usually inserted between them constitute the highly interesting Kaushitaki (Brahmana-) Upanishad,Paul Deussen, Sixty Upanishads of the Veda, Volume 1, Motilal Banarsidass, , pp. 2123 of which we possess two different recensions. The remaining portions (915) of the Aranyaka treat of the vital airs, the internal Agnihotra, etc., ending with the vamsha, or succession of teachers.
Significance
The text is a highly stylized poetical Vedic Sanskrit with praise addressed to the Vedic gods and chieftains. Most hymns, according to Witzel, were intended to be recited at the annual New Year Soma ritual.. The text also includes some nonritual poetry, fragments of mythology, archaic formulas, and a number of hymns with early philosophical speculations.. Composed by the poets of different clans, including famed Vedic rishis (sages) such as Vishvamitra and Vasishtha, these signify the power of prestige therewith to vac (speech, sound), a tradition set in place. The text introduced the prized concepts such as Rta (active realization of truth, cosmic harmony) which inspired the later Hindu concept of Dharma. The Rigvedic verses formulate this Rta as effected by Brahman, a significant and non-self-evident truth. The text also contains hymns of "highly poetical value"some in dialogue form, along with love stories that likely inspired later Epic and classical poets of Hinduism, states Witzel.
Monism debate
While the older hymns of the Rigveda reflect sacrifice ritual typical of polytheism,see e.g. Jeaneane D. Fowler (2002), Perspectives of Reality: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Hinduism, Sussex University Press, , pp. 3845
its younger parts, specifically mandalas 1 and 10, have been noted as containing monism or henotheism speculations.
Reception in Hinduism
Shruti
The Vedas as a whole are classed as "shruti" in Hindu tradition. This has been compared to the concept of divine revelation in Western religious tradition, but Staal argues that "it is nowhere stated that the Veda was revealed", and that shruti simply means "that what is heard, in the sense that it is transmitted from father to son or from teacher to pupil". The Rigveda, or other Vedas, do not anywhere assert that they are apauruṣeyā, and this reverential term appears only centuries after the end of the Vedic period in the texts of the Mimamsa school of Hindu philosophy.D Sharma (2011), Classical Indian Philosophy: A Reader, Columbia University Press, , pp. 196197Jan Westerhoff (2009), Nagarjuna's Madhyamaka: A Philosophical Introduction, Oxford University Press, , p. 290 The text of the Rigveda suggests it was "composed by poets, human individuals whose names were household words" in the Vedic age, states Staal.Frits Staal (2009), Discovering the Vedas: Origins, Mantras, Rituals, Insights, Penguin, , pp. xvxvi
Sanskrit grammarians
Yaska (4th c. BCE), a Lexicography, was an early commentator of the Rigveda by discussing the meanings of difficult words. In his book titled Nirukta Yaska asserts that the Rigveda in the ancient tradition can be interpreted in three ways – from the perspective of religious rites ( adhiyajna), from the perspective of the deities ( adhidevata), and from the perspective of the soul ( adhyatman). The fourth way to interpret the Rigveda also emerged in the ancient times, wherein the gods mentioned were viewed as symbolism for legendary individuals or narratives. It was generally accepted that creative poets often embed and express double meanings, ellipses and novel ideas to inspire the reader.
Medieval Hindu scholarship
By the period of Puranic Hinduism, in the medieval period, the language of the hymns had become "almost entirely unintelligible", and their interpretation mostly hinged on mysticism ideas and sound symbolism.Frederick M. Smith (1994), "Purāņaveda", in Laurie L. Patton (ed.), Authority, Anxiety, and Canon: Essays in Vedic Interpretation, SUNY Press p. 99.Arthur Llewellyn Basham (1989), in Kenneth G. Zysk, The Origins and Development of Classical Hinduism, Oxford University Press, p. 7Ram Gopal (1983), The History and Principles of Vedic Interpretation, Concept Publishing Company, ch.2 pp. 720
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!Notes Rig Bhashyam Madhvacharya 1285 Sanskrit Commentary on the first 40 hymns of the Rigveda. The original book has been translated into English by Prof.K.T. Pandurangi accessible here Rigveda Samhita Sāyaṇācārya 1360 Sanskrit Sāyaṇācārya, a Sanskrit scholar, wrote a treatise on the Vedas in the book Vedartha Prakasha (meaning "of Vedas made as a manifest"). The Rigveda Samhita is available here. This book was translated from Sanskrit to English by Max Müller in the year 1856. H. H. Wilson also translated this book into English as Rigveda Sanhita in the year 1856.
Arya Samaj and Aurobindo movements
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, reformers like Swami Dayananda Saraswati (founder of the Arya Samaj) and Sri Aurobindo (founder of Sri Aurobindo Ashram) discussed the philosophies of the Vedas. According to Robson, Dayananda believed "there were no errors in the Vedas (including the Rigveda), and if anyone showed him an error, he would maintain that it was a corruption added later".
Contemporary Hinduism
The Rigveda, in contemporary Hinduism, has been a reminder of the ancient cultural heritage and point of pride for Hindus, with some hymns still in use in major rites of passage ceremonies, but the literal acceptance of most of the textual essence is long gone.Andrea Pinkney (2014), Routledge Handbook of Religions in Asia (Editors: Bryan Turner and Oscar Salemink), Routledge, , pp. 3132Jeffrey Haines (2008), Routledge Handbook of Religion and Politics, Routledge, , p. 80 Musicians and dance groups celebrate the text as a mark of Hindu heritage, through incorporating Rigvedic hymns in their compositions, such as in Hamsadhvani and Subhapantuvarali of Carnatic music, and these have remained popular among the for decades.
Hindu nationalism
The Rig Veda plays a role in the modern construction of a Hindu identity, portraying Hindus as the original inhabitants of India. The Rigveda has been referred to in the "Indigenous Aryans" and Out of India theory. Dating the Rig Veda as contemporaneous with (or even preceding) the Indus Valley civilisation, an argument is made that the IVC was Aryan, and the bearer of the Rig Veda.Kazanas, N. (2002), "Indigenous Indo-Aryans and the Rigveda", Journal of Indo-European Studies, Vol. 30, pp. 275289;
Kazanas, N. (2000), "A new date for the Rgveda", in Pande, G. C. (ed.), Chronology and Indian Philosophy, special issue of the JICPR, Delhi;
Kazanas, N. D. (2001), "Indo-European Deities and the Rgveda", Journal of Indo-European Studies, Vol. 30, pp. 257264,
Kazanas, ND (2003), "Final Reply", Journal of Indo-European Studies, Vol. 31, pp. 187189Bryant, Edwin (2004), The Quest for the Origins of the Vedic Culture, Oxford University Press, Indian nationalist Bal Gangadhar Tilak, in his Orion: Or Researches Into The Antiquity Of The Vedas (1893) has concluded that the date of composition of the Rigveda dates at least as far back as 60004000 BCE based on his astronomical research into the position of the constellation Orion. These theories are controversial, and not accepted or propagated in mainstream scholarship.Agrawal, D. P. (2002), "Comments on 'Indigenous IndoAryans'", Journal of Indo-European Studies, Vol. 30, pp. 129135;
Parpola, A. (2002), "Comments on 'Indigenous Indo-Aryans'", Journal of Indo-European Studies, Vol. 30, pp. 187191Witzel, Michael, "The Pleiades and the Bears viewed from inside the Vedic texts", EVJS Vol. 5 (1999), issue 2 (December);
;
Bryant, Edwin, and Patton, Laurie L. (2005), The Indo-Aryan Controversy, Routledge/Curzon,
Translations
The Rigveda is considered particularly difficult to translate, owing to its length, poetic nature, the language itself, and the absence of any close contemporary texts for comparison. Staal describes it as the most "obscure, distant and difficult for moderns to understand". As a result, he says, it "is often misinterpreted" – with many early translations containing straightforward errors – "or worse: used as a peg on which to hang an idea or a theory."Frits Staal (2009), Discovering the Vedas: Origins, Mantras, Rituals, Insights, Penguin, , p. 107 Another issue is technical terms such as mandala, conventionally translated "book", but more literally rendered "cycle".A. A. MacDonnel (2000 print edition), India's Past: A Survey of Her Literatures, Religions, Languages and Antiquities, Asian Educational Services, , p. 15 Karen Thomson, author of a series of revisionary word studies and editor of the Metrically Restored Text Online at the University of Texas at Austin, argues, as linguists in the nineteenth century had done (Friedrich Max Müller, Rudolf von Roth, William Dwight Whitney, Theodor Benfey, John Muir, Edward Vernon Arnold), that the apparent obscurity derives from the failure to discard a mass of assumptions about ritual meaning inherited from Vedic tradition.(review of Jamison and Brereton, The Rigveda. The Earliest Religious Poetry of India. OUP 2014)
Rigvedae specimen Friedrich August Rosen 1830 Latin Partial translation with 121 hymns (London, 1830). Also known as Rigveda Sanhita, Liber Primus, Sanskrite Et Latine (). Based on manuscripts brought back from India by Henry Thomas Colebrooke. Rig-Veda, oder die heiligen Lieder der Brahmanen Max Müller 1849 German language Partial translation published by W. H. Allen and Co., London, and later F. A. Brockhaus, Leipzig. In 1873, Müller published an editio princeps titled The Hymns of the Rig-Veda in the Samhita Text. He also translated a few hymns in English ( Nasadiya Sukta). Ṛig-Veda-Sanhitā: A Collection of Ancient Hindu Hymns H. H. Wilson English Published as 6 volumes, by N. Trübner & Co., London. A. Langlois 1870 French language Partial translation. Re-printed in Paris, 194851 (). Der Rigveda Alfred Ludwig 1876 German Published by Verlag von F. Tempsky, Prague. Rig-Veda Hermann Grassmann 1876 German Published by F. A. Brockhaus, Leipzig Rigved Bhashyam Dayananda Saraswati Hindi Incomplete translation. Later translated into English by Dharma Deva Vidya Martanda (1974). Ralph T.H. Griffith English Revised as The Rig Veda in 1896. Revised by J. L. Shastri in 1973. Griffith's philology was outdated even in the 19th-century and questioned by scholars. Der Rigveda in Auswahl Karl Friedrich Geldner 1907 German Published by Kohlhammer Verlag, Stuttgart. Geldner's 1907 work was a partial translation; he completed a full translation in the 1920s, which was published after his death, in 1951. This translation was titled Der Rig-Veda: aus dem Sanskrit ins Deutsche Übersetzt. Harvard Oriental Studies, vols. 3337 (Cambridge, Massachusetts: 19517). Reprinted by Harvard University Press (2003) . Hymns from the Rigveda A. A. Macdonell 1917 English Partial translation (30 hymns). Published by Clarendon Press, Oxford. Series of articles in Journal of the University of Bombay Hari Damodar Velankar English Partial translation (Mandala 2, 5, 7 and 8). Later published as independent volumes. Rig Veda – Hymns to the Mystic Fire Sri Aurobindo 1946 English Partial translation published by N. K. Gupta, Pondicherry. Later republished several times () RigVeda Samhita Pandit H.P. Venkat Rao, LaxmanAcharya and a couple of other Pandits 1947 Kannada Sources from Saayana Bhashya, SkandaSvami Bhashya, Taittareya Samhita, Maitrayini Samhita and other Samhitas. The Kannada translation work was commissioned by Maharaja of Mysore Jayachama Rajendra Wodeyar. The translations were compiled into 11 volumes. Rig Veda Ramgovind Trivedi 1954 Hindi Études védiques et pāṇinéennes Louis Renou French language Appears in a series of publications, organized by the deities. Covers most of the Rigveda, but leaves out significant hymns, including the ones dedicated to Indra and the Asvins. ऋग्वेद संहिता Shriram Sharma 1950s Hindi Hymns from the Rig-Veda Naoshiro Tsuji 1970 Japanese Partial translation Rigveda: Izbrannye Gimny Tatyana Elizarenkova 1972 Russian language Partial translation, extended to a full translation published during 19891999. Rigveda Parichaya Nag Sharan Singh 1977 English / Hindi Extension of Wilson's translation. Republished by Nag, Delhi in 1990 (). Rig Veda M. R. Jambunathan Tamil language Two volumes, both released posthumously. Rigvéda – Teremtéshimnuszok ( Creation Hymns of the Rig-Veda) Laszlo Forizs (hu) 1995 Hungarian Partial translation published in Budapest () The Rig Veda Wendy Doniger 1981 English Partial translation (108 hymns), along with critical apparatus. Published by Penguin (). A bibliography of translations of the Rig Veda appears as an Appendix. Rigved Subodh Bhasya Pandit Shripad Damodar Satwalekar 1985 Hindi, Marathi Given meaning of each word/words, then gave the bhava-arth. Published by Swadhyay Mandal. Pinnacles of India's Past: Selections from the Rgveda Walter H. Maurer 1986 English Partial translation published by John Benjamins. The Rig Veda Bibek Debroy, Dipavali Debroy 1992 English Partial translation published by B. R. Publishing (). The work is in verse form, without reference to the original hymns or mandalas. Part of Great Epics of India: Veda series, also published as The Holy Vedas. The Holy Vedas: A Golden Treasury Pandit Satyakam Vidyalankar 1983 English H. H. Wilson, Ravi Prakash Arya and K. L. Joshi 2001 English 4-volume set published by Parimal (). Revised edition of Wilson's translation. Replaces obsolete English forms with more modern equivalents (e.g. "thou" with "you"). Includes the original Sanskrit text in Devanagari script, along with a critical apparatus. Ṛgveda for the Layman Shyam Ghosh 2002 English Partial translation (100 hymns). Munshiram Manoharlal, New Delhi. Rig-Veda Michael Witzel, Toshifumi Goto 2007 German Partial translation (Mandala 1 and 2). The authors are working on a second volume. Published by Verlag der Weltreligionen (). ऋग्वेद Govind Chandra Pande 2008 Hindi Partial translation (Mandala 3 and 5). Published by Lokbharti, Allahabad The Hymns of Rig Veda Tulsi Ram 2013 English Published by Vijaykumar Govindram Hasanand, Delhi The Rigveda Stephanie W. Jamison and Joel P. Brereton 2014 English 3-volume set published by Oxford University Press (). Funded by the United States' National Endowment for the Humanities in 2004. neh.gov , retrieved 22 March 2007. Rigveda Samhita Prasanna Chandra Gautam 2014, 2016 English, Hindi Sanskrit Text with Word To Word Meaning and English Translation and Hindi Translation (with Mahesh Chandra Gautam). Also contains Essence of a verse.
See also
Notes
Bibliography
Editions
(2025). 9780199370184, Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199370184
(2025). 9781468471359, Springer. ISBN 9781468471359
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