Vedas

The Vedas (Sanskrit वेदाः véda, "knowledge") are a large body of texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the oldest layer of Sanskrit literature and the oldest scriptures of Hinduism.  The Vedas are apauruṣeya ("not of human agency").  They are supposed to have been directly revealed, and thus are called śruti ("what is heard"),  distinguishing them from other religious texts, which are called smṛti ("what is remembered").

The Vedic texts or śruti are organized around four canonical collections of metrical material known as Saṃhitās, of which the first three are related to the performance of yajna (sacrifice) in historical Vedic religion:

1. The Rigveda, containing hymns to be recited by the hotṛ;
2. The Yajurveda, containing formulas to be recited by the adhvaryu or officiating priest;
3. The Samaveda, containing formulas to be sung by the udgātṛ.
4. The fourth is the Atharvaveda, a collection of spells and incantations, apotropaic charms and speculative hymns. 

The individual verses contained in these compilations are known as mantras. Some selected Vedic mantras are still recited at prayers, religious functions and other auspicious occasions in contemporary Hinduism.

The various Indian philosophies and sects have taken differing positions on the Vedas. Schools of Indian philosophy which cite the Vedas as their scriptural authority are classified as "orthodox" (āstika). Other traditions, notably Buddhism and Jainism, which did not regard the Vedas as authorities are referred to by traditional Hindu texts as "heterodox" or "non-orthodox" (nāstika) schools.  In addition to Buddhism and Jainism,Sikhism  and Brahmoism,  many non-Brahmin Hindus in South India   do not accept the authority of the Vedas. Certain South Indian Brahmin communities such as Iyengars consider the Tamil Divya Prabandham or writing of the Alvar saints as equivalent to the Vedas.
Etymology and usage

The Sanskrit word véda "knowledge, wisdom" is derived from the root vid- "to know". This is reconstructed as being derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *u̯eid-, meaning "see" or "know". 

As a noun, the word appears only in a single instance in the Rigveda, in RV 8.19.5, translated by Griffith as "ritual lore":

yáḥ samídhā yá âhutī / yó védena dadâśa márto agnáye / yó námasā svadhvaráḥ

"The mortal who hath ministered to Agni with oblation, fuel, ritual lore, and reverence, skilled in sacrifice." 

The noun is from Proto-Indo-European *u̯eidos, cognate to Greek (ϝ)εἶδος "aspect", "form" . Not to be confused is the homonymous 1st and 3rd person singular perfect tense véda, cognate to Greek (ϝ)οἶδα (w)oida "I know". Root cognates are Greek ἰδέα, English wit, etc., Latin videō "I see", etc. 

In English, the term Veda is often used loosely to refer to the Samhitas (collection of mantras, or chants) of the four canonical Vedas (Rigveda, Yajurveda, Samaveda and Atharvaveda).

The Sanskrit term veda as a common noun means "knowledge", but can also be used to refer to fields of study unrelated to liturgy or ritual, e.g. in agada-veda "medical science", sasya-veda"science of agriculture" or sarpa-veda "science of snakes" (already found in the early Upanishads); durveda means "with evil knowledge, ignorant". 

Chronology

The Vedas are among the oldest sacred texts. The Samhitas date to roughly 1500–1000 BCE, and the "circum-Vedic" texts, as well as the redaction of the Samhitas, date to c. 1000-500 BCE, resulting in a Vedic period, spanning the mid 2nd to mid 1st millennium BCE, or the Late Bronze Age and the Iron Age.  The Vedic period reaches its peak only after the composition of the mantra texts, with the establishment of the various shakhas all over Northern India which annotated the mantra samhitas with Brahmana discussions of their meaning, and reaches its end in the age of Buddha and Panini and the rise of the Mahajanapadas (archaeologically, Northern Black Polished Ware). Michael Witzel gives a time span of c. 1500 BCE to c. 500-400 BCE. Witzel makes special reference to the Near Eastern Mitanni material of the 14th c. BCE the only epigraphic record of Indo-Aryan contemporary to the Rigvedic period. He gives 150 BCE (Patañjali) as aterminus ante quem for all Vedic Sanskrit literature, and 1200 BCE (the early Iron Age) as terminus post quem for the Atharvaveda. 

 

Transmission of texts in the Vedic period was by oral tradition alone, preserved with precision with the help of elaborate mnemonic techniques. A literary tradition set in only in post-Vedic times, after the rise of Buddhism in the Maurya period, perhaps earliest in the Kanva recension of the Yajurveda about the 1st century BCE; however oral tradition predominated until c. 1000 CE. 

Due to the ephemeral nature of the manuscript material (birch bark or palm leaves), surviving manuscripts rarely surpass an age of a few hundred years. The Benares Sanskrit University has a Rigveda manuscript of the mid-14th century; however, there are a number of older Veda manuscripts in Nepal belonging to the Vajasaneyi tradition that are dated from the 11th century onwards.

Categories of Vedic texts

The term "Vedic texts" is used in two distinct meanings:

1. Texts composed in Vedic Sanskrit during the Vedic period (Iron Age India)
2. Any text considered as "connected to the Vedas" or a "corollary of the Vedas" 

Vedic Sanskrit corpus

The corpus of Vedic Sanskrit texts includes:

• The Samhita (Sanskrit saṃhitā, "collection"), are collections of metric texts ("mantras"). There are four "Vedic" Samhitas: the Rig-Veda, Sama-Veda, Yajur-Veda, and Atharva-Veda, most of which are available in several recensions (śākhā). In some contexts, the term Veda is used to refer to these Samhitas. This is the oldest layer of Vedic texts, apart from the Rigvedic hymns, which were probably essentially complete by 1200 BC, dating to ca. the 12th to 10th centuries BC. The complete corpus of Vedic mantras as collected in Bloomfield's Vedic Concordance(1907) consists of some 89,000 padas (metric feet), of which 72,000 occur in the four Samhitas.
• The Brahmanas are prose texts that discuss, in technical fashion, the solemn sacrificial rituals as well as comment on their meaning and many connected themes. Each of the Brahmanas is associated with one of the Samhitas or its recensions. The Brahmanas may either form separate texts or can be partly integrated into the text of the Samhitas. They may also include the Aranyakas and Upanishads.
• The Aranyakas, "wilderness texts" or "forest treaties", were composed by people who meditated in the woods as recluses and are the third part of the Vedas. The texts contain discussions and interpretations of dangerous rituals (to be studied outside the settlement) and various sorts of additional materials. It is frequently read in secondary literature.
• Some of the older Mukhya Upanishads (Bṛhadāraṇyaka, Chandogya, Kaṭha). 
• Certain Sūtra literature, i.e. the Shrautasutras and the Grhyasutras.

The Shrauta Sutras, regarded as belonging to the smriti, are late Vedic in language and content, thus forming part of the Vedic Sanskrit corpus.  The composition of the Shrauta and Grhya Sutras (ca. 6th century BC) marks the end of the Vedic period, and at the same time the beginning of the flourishing of the "circum-Vedic" scholarship of Vedanga, introducing the early flowering of classical Sanskrit literature in the Mauryan and Gupta periods.

While production of Brahmanas and Aranyakas ceases with the end of the Vedic period, there is a large number of Upanishads composed after the end of the Vedic period. While most of the tenMukhya Upanishads can be considered to date to the Vedic or Mahajanapada period, most of the 108 Upanishads of the full Muktika canon date to the Common Era.

The Brahmanas, Aranyakas, and Upanishads often interpret the polytheistic and ritualistic Samhitas in philosophical and metaphorical ways to explore abstract concepts such as the Absolute (Brahman), and the soul or the self (Atman), introducing Vedanta philosophy, one of the major trends of later Hinduism.

The Vedic Sanskrit corpus is the scope of A Vedic Word Concordance (Vaidika-Padānukrama-Koṣa) prepared from 1930 under Vishva Bandhu, and published in five volumes in 1935-1965. Its scope extends to about 400 texts, including the entire Vedic Sanskrit corpus besides some "sub-Vedic" texts.

Volume I: Samhitas

Volume II: Brahmanas and Aranyakas

Volume III: Upanishads

Volume IV: Vedangas

A revised edition, extending to about 1800 pages, was published in 1973-1976.

Shruti literature

 

The texts considered "Vedic" in the sense of "corollaries of the Vedas" is less clearly defined, and may include numerous post-Vedic texts such as Upanishads or Sutra literature. These texts are by many Hindu sects considered to be shruti (Sanskrit: śruti; "the heard"), divinely revealed like the Vedas themselves. Texts not considered to be shruti are known as smriti (Sanskrit: smṛti; "the remembered"), of human origin. This indigenous system of categorization was adopted by Max Müller and, while it is subject to some debate, it is still widely used. As Axel Michaels explains:

These classifications are often not tenable for linguistic and formal reasons: There is not only one collection at any one time, but rather several handed down in separate Vedic schools; Upanişads ... are sometimes not to be distinguished from Āraṇyakas...; Brāhmaṇas contain older strata of language attributed to the Saṃhitās; there are various dialects and locally prominent traditions of the Vedic schools. Nevertheless, it is advisable to stick to the division adopted by Max Müller because it follows the Indian tradition, conveys the historical sequence fairly accurately, and underlies the current editions, translations, and monographs on Vedic literature." 

The Upanishads are largely philosophical works in dialog form. They discuss questions of nature philosophy and the fate of the soul, and contain some mystic and spiritual interpretations of the Vedas. For long, they have been regarded as their putative end and essence, and are thus known as Vedānta ("the end of the Vedas"). Taken together, they are the basis of the Vedanta school.

Vedic schools or recensions

 

Study of the extensive body of Vedic texts has been organized into a number of different schools or branches (Sanskrit śākhā, literally "branch" or "limb") each of which specialized in learning certain texts.  Multiple recensions are known for each of the Vedas, and each Vedic text may have a number of schools associated with it. Elaborate methods for preserving the text were based on memorizing by heart instead of writing. Specific techniques for parsing and reciting the texts were used to assist in the memorization process. (See also: Vedic chant)

Prodigous energy was expended by ancient Indian culture in ensuring that these texts were transmitted from generation to generation with inordinate fidelity.  For example, memorization of the sacred Vedas included up to eleven forms of recitation of the same text. The texts were subsequently "proof-read" by comparing the different recited versions. Forms of recitation included thejaṭā-pāṭha (literally "mesh recitation") in which every two adjacent words in the text were first recited in their original order, then repeated in the reverse order, and finally repeated again in the original order. 

That these methods have been effective, is testified to by the preservation of the most ancient Indian religious text, the Ṛigveda, as redacted into a single text during the Brahmana period, without any variant readings

The four Vedas
 The canonical division of the Vedas is fourfold (turīya) viz., 

1. Rigveda (RV)
2. Yajurveda (YV, with the main division TS vs. VS)
3. Sama-Veda (SV)
4. Atharva-Veda (AV)

Of these, the first three were the principal original division, also called "trayī vidyā", that is, "the triple sacred science" of reciting hymns (RV), performing sacrifices (YV), and chanting (SV).  This triplicity is so introduced in the Brahmanas (ShB, ABr and others), but the Rigveda is the older work of the three from which the other two borrow, next to their own independent Yajus, sorcery and speculative mantras.

Thus, the Mantras are properly of three forms: 1. Ric, which are verses of praise in metre, and intended for loud recitation; 2. Yajus, which are in prose, and intended for recitation in lower voice at sacrifices; 3. Sāman, which are in metre, and intended for singing at the Somaceremonies.

The Yajurveda, Samaveda and Atharvaveda are independent collections of mantras and hymns intended as manuals for the Adhvaryu,Udgatr and Brahman priests respectively.

The Atharvaveda is the fourth Veda. Its status has occasionally been ambiguous, probably due to its use in sorcery and healing. However, it contains very old materials in early Vedic language. Manusmrti, which often speaks of the three Vedas, calling them trayam-brahma-sanātanam, "the triple eternal Veda". The Atharvaveda like the Rigveda, is a collection of original incantations, and other materials borrowing relatively little from the Rigveda. It has no direct relation to the solemn Śrauta sacrifices, except for the fact that the mostly silent Brahmán priest observes the procedures and uses Atharvaveda mantras to 'heal' it when mistakes have been made. Its recitation also produces long life, cures diseases, or effects the ruin of enemies.

Each of the four Vedas consists of the metrical Mantra or Samhita and the prose Brahmana part, giving discussions and directions for the detail of the ceremonies at which the Mantras were to be used and explanations of the legends connected with the Mantras and rituals. Both these portions are termed shruti (which tradition says to have been heard but not composed or written down by men). Each of the four Vedas seems to have passed to numerous Shakhas or schools, giving rise to various recensions of the text. They each have an Index or Anukramani, the principal work of this kind being the general Index or Sarvānukramaṇī.

Rigveda

 

The Rigveda Samhita is the oldest extant Indic text.  It is a collection of 1,028 Vedic Sanskrit hymns and 10,600 verses in all, organized into ten books (Sanskrit: mandalas).  The hymns are dedicated to Rigvedic deities. 

The books were composed by poets from different priestly groups over a period of several centuries, commonly dated to the period of roughly the second half of the 2nd millennium BCE (the early Vedic period) in the Punjab (Sapta Sindhu) region of the Indian subcontinent. 

There are strong linguistic and cultural similarities between the Rigveda and the early Iranian Avesta, deriving from the Proto-Indo-Iranian times, often associated with the Andronovo culture; the earliest horse-drawn chariots were found at Andronovo sites in the Sintashta-Petrovka cultural area near the Ural Mountains and date to ca. 2000 BCE. 

Rig Veda manuscripts have been selected for inscription in UNESCO's "Memory of the World" Register 2007.

Yajurveda

 

The Yajurveda Samhita consists of archaic prose mantras and also in part of verses borrowed and adapted from the Rigveda. Its purpose was practical, in that each mantra must accompany an action in sacrifice but, unlike the Samaveda, it was compiled to apply to all sacrificial rites, not merely the Somayajna. There are two major groups of recensions of this Veda, known as the "Black" (Krishna) and "White" (Shukla) Yajurveda (Krishna and Shukla Yajurveda respectively). While White Yajurveda separates the Samhita from its Brahmana (the Shatapatha Brahmana), the e Black Yajurveda intersperses the Samhita with Brahmana commentary. Of the Black Yajurveda four major recensions survive (Maitrayani, Katha, Kapisthala-Katha, Taittiriya).

Samaveda

 

The Samaveda Samhita (from sāman, the term for a melody applied to metrical hymn or song of praise ) consists of 1549 stanzas, taken almost entirely (except for 78 stanzas) from the Rigveda.  Like the Rigvedic stanzas in the Yajurveda, the Samans have been changed and adapted for use in singing. Some of the Rigvedic verses are repeated more than once. Including repetitions, there are a total of 1875 verses numbered in the Samaveda recension translated by Griffith.  Two major recensions remain today, the Kauthuma/Ranayaniya and the Jaiminiya. Its purpose was liturgical, as the repertoire of the udgātṛ or "singer" priests who took part in the sacrifice.

Atharvaveda

 

The Artharvaveda Samhita is the text 'belonging to the Atharvan and Angirasa poets. It has 760 hymns, and about 160 of the hymns are in common with the Rigveda. Most of the verses are metrical, but some sections are in prose.  It was compiled around 900 BCE, although some of its material may go back to the time of the Rigveda, and some parts of the Atharva-Veda are older than the Rig-Veda  though not in linguistic form.

The Atharvaveda is preserved in two recensions, the Paippalāda and Śaunaka.  According to Apte it had nine schools (shakhas).  The Paippalada text, which exists in a Kashmir and an Orissa version, is longer than the Saunaka one; it is only partially printed in its two versions and remains largely untranslated.

Unlike the other three Vedas, the Atharvanaveda has less connection with sacrifice.  Its first part consists chiefly of spells and incantations, concerned with protection against demons and disaster, spells for the healing of diseases, for long life and for various desires or aims in life. 

The second part of the text contains speculative and philosophical hymns. 

The Atharvaveda is a comparatively late extension of the "Three Vedas" connected to priestly sacrifice to a canon of "Four Vedas". This may be connected to an extension of the sacrificial rite from involving three types of priest to the inclusion of the Brahman overseeing the ritual. 

The Atharvaveda is concerned with the material world or world of man and in this respect differs from the other three vedas. Atharvaveda also sanctions the use of force, in particular circumstances and similarly this point is a departure from the three other vedas.

Brahmanas

 

The mystical notions surrounding the concept of the one "Veda" that would flower in Vedantic philosophy have their roots already in Brahmana literature, for example in the Shatapatha Brahmana. The Vedas are identified with Brahman, the universal principle (ŚBM 10.1.1.8, 10.2.4.6). Vāc "speech" is called the "mother of the Vedas" (ŚBM 6.5.3.4, 10.5.5.1). The knowledge of the Vedas is endless, compared to them, human knowledge is like mere handfuls of dirt (TB 3.10.11.3-5). The universe itself was originally encapsulated in the three Vedas (ŚBM 10.4.2.22 hasPrajapati reflecting that "truly, all beings are in the triple Veda").

Vedanta

 

While contemporary traditions continued to maintain Vedic ritualism (Śrauta, Mimamsa), Vedanta renounced all ritualism and radically re-interpreted the notion of "Veda" in purely philosophical terms. The association of the three Vedas with the bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ mantra is found in the Aitareya Aranyaka: "Bhūḥ is the Rigveda, bhuvaḥ is the Yajurveda, svaḥ is the Samaveda" (1.3.2). The Upanishads reduce the "essence of the Vedas" further, to the syllable Aum (ॐ). Thus, the Katha Upanishad has:

"The goal, which all Vedas declare, which all austerities aim at, and which humans desire when they live a life of continence, I will tell you briefly it is Aum" (1.2.15)

In post-Vedic literature

Vedanga

 

Six technical subjects related to the Vedas are traditionally known as vedāṅga "limbs of the Veda". V. S. Apte defines this group of works as:

"N. of a certain class of works regarded as auxiliary to the Vedas and designed to aid in the correct pronunciation and interpretation of the text and the right employment of theMantras in ceremonials." 

These subjects are treated in Sūtra literature dating from the end of the Vedic period to Mauryan times, seeing the transition from late Vedic Sanskrit to Classical Sanskrit.

The six subjects of Vedanga are:

• Phonetics (Śikṣā)
• Ritual (Kalpa)
• Grammar (Vyākaraṇa)
• Etymology (Nirukta)
• Meter (Chandas)
• Astronomy (Jyotiṣa)

Parisista

 

Pariśiṣṭa "supplement, appendix" is the term applied to various ancillary works of Vedic literature, dealing mainly with details of ritual and elaborations of the texts logically and chronologically prior to them: the Samhitas, Brahmanas, Aranyakas and Sutras. Naturally classified with the Veda to which each pertains, Parisista works exist for each of the four Vedas. However, only the literature associated with the Atharvaveda is extensive.

• The Āśvalāyana Gṛhya Pariśiṣṭa is a very late text associated with the Rigveda canon.
• The Gobhila Gṛhya Pariśiṣṭa is a short metrical text of two chapters, with 113 and 95 verses respectively.
• The Kātiya Pariśiṣṭas, ascribed to Kātyāyana, consist of 18 works enumerated self-referentially in the fifth of the series (the Caraṇavyūha)and the Kātyāyana Śrauta Sūtra Pariśiṣṭa.
• The Kṛṣṇa Yajurveda has 3 parisistas The Āpastamba Hautra Pariśiṣṭa, which is also found as the second praśna of the Satyasāḍha Śrauta Sūtra', the Vārāha Śrauta Sūtra Pariśiṣṭa
• For the Atharvaveda, there are 79 works, collected as 72 distinctly named parisistas. 

Puranas

 

A traditional view given in the Vishnu Purana (likely dating to the Gupta period ) attributes the current arrangement of four Vedas to the mythical sage Vedavyasa.  Puranic tradition also postulates a single original Veda that, in varying accounts, was divided into three or four parts. According to the Vishnu Purana (3.2.18, 3.3.4 etc.) the original Veda was divided into four parts, and further fragmented into numerous shakhas, by Lord Vishnu in the form of Vyasa, in the Dvapara Yuga; the Vayu Purana (section 60) recounts a similar division by Vyasa, at the urging ofBrahma. The Bhagavata Purana (12.6.37) traces the origin of the primeval Veda to the syllable aum, and says that it was divided into four at the start of Dvapara Yuga, because men had declined in age, virtue and understanding. In a differing account Bhagavata Purana (9.14.43) attributes the division of the primeval veda (aum) into three parts to the monarch Pururavas at the beginning ofTreta Yuga. The Mahabharata (santiparva 13,088) also mentions the division of the Veda into three in Treta Yuga. 

Upaveda

The term upaveda ("applied knowledge") is used in traditional literature to designate the subjects of certain technical works.  Lists of what subjects are included in this class differ among sources. The Charanavyuha mentions four Upavedas:

• Medicine (Āyurveda), associated with the Rigveda
• Archery (Dhanurveda), associated with the Yajurveda
• Music and sacred dance (Gāndharvaveda), associated with the Samaveda
• Military science (Shastrashastra), associated with the Atharvaveda

But Sushruta and Bhavaprakasha mention Ayurveda as an upaveda of the Atharvaveda. Sthapatyaveda (architecture), Shilpa Shastras (arts and crafts) are mentioned as fourth upaveda according to later sources.

Buddhist and Jain views

Buddhism and Jainism do not reject the Vedas, but merely their absolute authority. 

Buddhism

Buddhism does not deny that the Vedas in their true origin were sacred although have been amended repeatedly by certain Brahmins to secure their positions in society. The Buddha declared that the Veda in its true form was declared by Kashyapa to certain rishis, who by severe penances had acquired the power to see by divine eyes.  In the Buddhist Vinaya Pitaka of theMahavagga (I.245)  section the Buddha names these rishis, and declared that the original Veda the Vedic rishis "Atthako, Vâmako, Vâmadevo, Vessâmitto, Yamataggi, Angiraso, Bhâradvâjo,Vâsettho, Kassapo, and Bhagu"  but that it was altered by a few Brahmins who introduced animal sacrifices. The Vinaya Pitaka's section Anguttara Nikaya: Panchaka Nipata says that it was on this alteration of the true Veda that the Buddha refused to pay respect to the Vedas of his time. 

Also in the "Brahmana Dhammika Sutta" (II,7)  of the Suttanipata section of Vinaya Pitaka  there is a story of when the Buddha was in Jetavana village and there were a group of elderly Brahmin ascetics who sat down next to the Buddha and a conversation began.

The elderly Brahmins asked him, "Do the present Brahmans follow the same rules, practice the same rites, as those in the more ancient times?"

The Buddha replied, "No."

The elderly Brahmins asked the Buddha that if it were not inconvenient for him, that he would tell them of the Brahmana Dharma of the previous generation.

The Buddha replied: "There were formerly rishis, men who had subdued all passion by the keeping of the sila precepts and the leading of a pure life...Their riches and possessions consisted in the study of the Veda and their treasure was a life free from all evil...The Brahmans, for a time, continued to do right and received in alms rice, seats, clothes, and oil, though they did not ask for them. The animals that were given they did not kill; but they procured useful medicaments from the cows, regarding them as friends and relatives, whose products give strength, beauty and health."

So in this passage also the Buddha describes when the Brahmins were studying the Veda but the animal sacrifice customs had not yet began.

In the Mahavagga,  the Buddha declares:

The one who annihilates the sins in himself,

who is not proud, who is passionless, whose spirit is humble,

who has comprehended the Vedas and is chaste,

for whom no joy exists in the world,:

that one is lawfully called a brahman.

The Buddha was declared to have been born a Brahmin trained in the Vedas and its philosophies in a number of his previous lives according to Buddhist scriptures. Other Buddhas too were said to have been born as Brahmins that were trained in the Vedas.

The Mahasupina Jataka  and Lohakumbhi Jataka  declares that Brahmin Sariputra in a previous life was a Brahmin that prevented animal sacrifice by declaring that animal sacrifice was actually against the Vedas.

Further, the Suttanipata 1000 declares that 32 mahapurusha lakshana (auspicious symbols of the Buddha) that Buddhism uses, are declared in the Vedic mantras.

Jainism

A Jain sage intereprets the Vedic sacrifices as metaphorical:

"Body is the altar, mind is the fire blazing with the ghee of knowledge and burning the sacrificial sticks of impurities produced from the tree of karma;..." 

Further, Jain Sage Jinabhadra in his Visesavasyakabhasya cites a numeber of passages from the Vedic Upanishads. 

Jain are in conformity with the Vedas in reference to both the Vedas' and Jainism' acceptance of the 22 Tirthankaras:

Of Rishabha (1st Tirthankara Rishabha) is written:

"But Risabha went on, unperturbed by anything till he became sin-free like a conch that takes no black dot, without obstruction ... which is the epithet of the First World-teacher, may become the destroyer of enemies" (Rig Veda X.166)

Of Aristanemi (Tirthankara Neminatha) is written:

"So asmakam Aristanemi svaha Arhan vibharsi sayakani dhanvarhanistam yajatam visvarupam arhannidam dayase" (Astak 2, Varga 7, Rig Veda)

"Fifth" and other Vedas

Some post-Vedic texts, including the Mahabharata, the Natyasastra and certain Puranas, refer to themselves as the "fifth Veda". The earliest reference to such a "fifth Veda" is found in theChandogya Upanishad. "Dravida Veda" is a term for canonical Tamil Bhakti texts.

Other texts such as the Bhagavad Gita or the Vedanta Sutras are considered shruti or "Vedic" by some Hindu denominations but not universally within Hinduism. The Bhakti movement, andGaudiya Vaishnavism in particular extended the term veda to include the Sanskrit Epics and Vaishnavite devotional texts such as the Pancaratra. 

Western Indology

 

The study of Sanskrit in the West began in the 17th century. In the early 19th century, Arthur Schopenhauer drew attention to Vedic texts, specifically the Upanishads. The importance of Vedic Sanskrit for Indo-European studies was also recognized in the early 19th century. English translations of the Samhitas were published in the later 19th century, in the Sacred Books of the Eastseries edited by Müller between 1879 and 1910. Ralph T. H. Griffith also presented English translations of the four Samhitas, published 1889 to 1899.

Varna (Hinduism)

Varna is a Sanskrit term varṇa (वर्ण) is derived from the root vṛ, meaning "to cover, to envelop" (compare vṛtra). Derived meanings include "kind, sort, character, quality". Contemporary students of Hindu society understand Varna as an ancient fourfold arrangement of socioeconomic categories called the varnas, which is traced back to an oral tradition preserved in the Rigveda (dating perhaps from between 1500 and 1200 bce).  In this tradition four varnas are recognised: Brahmins (priestly or scholarly caste), Kṣatriya (martial or royal caste), Vaiśyas (merchant caste) and Sūdras (labor caste).

Varna is not to be confused with the jāti. Varna is roughly similar to western class system of middle, aristocrat, business and working classes and is an artificial/intellectual classification of society while jāti along with kula is a more natural classification and is roughly or exactly the same as clan/tribe/kinship similar to what is followed in most central Asian, middle eastern, African, south east Asian cultures and perhaps in the west as well until modern age and still in some parts.

The Portuguese term caste was adopted during the British times to represent ones social status based on their jati and varna as over the years the varna was being applied to refer to a people/jati rather than an individual due to restriction on social mobility due to various reasons including large influx of foreigners and alien conquests etc. with rare exceptions of individual or clan status changing.

Also people who could not assimilate into the mainstream society were outcast as they were not accounted in the system later known as harijans or more recently dalits. These were mostly nomads, hunter gatherer tribes, refugees, anti-social/dacoit tribes and socially and lawfully ostracised peoples during a certain age or time but eventually never were given a chance to assimilate back into the mainstream after adopting a more mainstream lifestyle perhaps due to continuous strife, conquests and uncertainty over a 1000 years, until recently during the modern age under the British and free Indian Governments, that they are being attempted to assimilate again into the mainstream.

Etymology and origins

 

All the derived meanings of the term Varna - "kind, sort, character, quality" - are already present in the Rigveda's use of the word. The earliest application to the formal division into four social classes appears in the late Rigvedic Purusha Sukta (RV 10.90.11–12), which has the Brahman, Rajanya (= Kshatriya), Vaishya and Shudra classes emerging from the mouth, arms, thighs and feet of the cosmic being, Purusha, respectively. It seems very probable that in the Chhandas period there were four distinct communities in India with different functions to serve in the body-politic, however, the innumerable sub-sects among the four castes are certainly of very late origin. Also, it can be inferred that the barrier between castes was not impassable during this period for deserving cases, as can be seen from the example of Vishvamitra  

The sage Vishvamitra was born as a Kshatriya and by deep tapas (meditation) became Brahmin rishi. This quadruple division into Varnas is not to be confused with Jāti or even the much finer division of the contemporary caste system in India. 

Adi Shankara does not admit the reality of the world and therefore the real creation of anything, including the creation of castes. He interprets the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad to only mean that the Viraj only projects the four castes and does not really create them. This implies that individuals belonging to any varna do not have any real reality, but only an empirical or behavioural reality that enables them carry out their dharmas (duties) in this world. 

The story of Satyakarma in the Chhandogya Upanishad shows that Varna does not depend on birth rather it depends on gunas. Satyakarma wanted to become a brahmacarin but from his conversation with his mother he could not trace his family roots. He went to Gautama and said he wanted to become a brahmacarin but was not sure to which family he belonged. To this Gautama replied, only a true Brahmin would not swerve from the truth and was ready to initiate Satyakarma. 

Basham suggests that the jati system in its modern form developed very late. Hsuan Tsang, the Chinese scholar, in the seventh century was not aware of the jati system. The author Subhash Kak has asserted that the emergence of the modern jati system might be credited to historical events in the Indian polity that occurred with the invasions of the Turks.  The varna system as described in the various Puranas, Manusmriti and Dharmashastra was relied upon by the British colonial administrators and scholars. The modern Hindu caste system recognizes many more social groupings not mentioned in the Hindu scriptures and only theoretically accepts the necessity of following prescribed duties. 

The Tantric movement that developed as a tradition distinct from orthodox Hinduism between the 8th and 11th centuries CE relaxed many societal strictures regarding class and community distinction but did not deny all social restrictions. N. N. Bhattacharyya notes that "Tantra according to its very nature has nothing to do with the [class] system but in the later Tantras [class] elements are pronounced" because its treatises were written by Brahmanas even though its teachers were often non-Brahamanas. 

One might argue that Hinduism is a belief system wedded to the idea that a well ordered society is composed of four castes. Against this the jāti system is a phenomenon that is not restricted to Hindu sections of Indian society. It has been argued that the approving use of the term “Brahmin” in Buddhist and Jain texts shows that even these socially critical movements were comfortable with a caste structured society as long as obligations and privileges accorded to the various castes were justly distributed (cf. Dhammapada ch. XXVI; cf. Sūtrakṛtānga I.xii.11-21). Caste is also not philosophically important to many schools that are conventionally understood under the heading of “Hindu philosophy.” Some philosophical schools, such as Yoga, seem to be implicitly critical of life in conventional society guided by the values of social and ecological domination, while other schools, such as Advaita Vedānta, are openly critical of the idea that caste morality has any relevance to a spiritually serious aspirant. 

Varna and jāti

 

The terms varna (theoretical classification based on occupation) and jāti (caste) are two distinct concepts: while varna is the idealised four-part division envisaged by the above described Twice-Borns, jāti (community) refers to the thousands of actual endogamous groups prevalent across the subcontinent. A jati may be divided into exogamous groups based on same gotras (गोत्र). The classical authors scarcely speak of anything other than the varnas; even Indologists sometimes confuse the two. 

Many scholars including Basham believe that the system of jati that we have now emerged only about a thousand years ago. Dumont postulates that the principle of purity-impurity keeps the segments separate from one another and reinforces hierarchy and is unique to the Hindus. According to him, despite the segmented system, each jati closely guards its relative level of purity from contacts which would diminish it such as intermarriage. 

Quigley notes that the notion of caste is a very complex one. In recent decades the idealist position, presented by sociologists like Louis Dumont has become the dominant one. According to Quigley:

[The] practitioners of [recent anthropology] cling on to the flotsam of a theory which their own evidence devastatingly undermines. Unable to visualize a general structure of caste which would displace Dumont's theory, they hang on to it unremittingly even though their own evidence shows again and again that this theory simply does not explain what is known about India... The entrenched idea that "Brahmans are the highest caste" has done most to hinder an alternative formulation of how caste systems work. 

Rigvedic evidence of such a quadruple division of society has been compared to similar systems, especially with a view to reconstructing hypothetical Proto-Indo-European society. Such comparison is at the basis of the trifunctional hypothesis presented by Georges Dumézil. Dumézil postulates a basic division of society into a priesthood (Brahmins), warrior class or nobility(Kshatriyas) and commoners (Vaishyas), augmented by a class of unfree serfs (Shudras), as was done in ancient Iran and Greece as well (where the fourth class is called pan-Hellenes). 

Opposition within Hinduism

Modern critics point that the effect of communities (jatis) inheriting varna was to bind certain communities to sources of influence, power and economy while locking out others and thus create more affluence for jatis in higher classes and severe poverty for jatis in lower classes and the outcaste Dalit. In the last 150 years Indian movements arose to throw off the economic and political yoke of an inherited class system that emerged over time, and replace it with what they believed to be true Varnashrama dharma as described in the Vedas.

Kshatriya

Kshatriya, meaning warrior, is one of the four varnas (social orders) in Hinduism. Traditionally Kshatriya constitute the military and ruling elite of the Vedic-Hindu social system outlined by the Ve

Etymology

Sanskrit akṣatra, ruling; one of the ruling order member of the Kṣhatriya caste  is the derivation for Old Persian xšaθra ("realm, power"), xšaθrya("royal"), and xšāyaθiya ("emperor") are related to it, as are the New Persian words šāh ("emperor") and šahr ("city", "realm").  Thai: กษัตริย์(kasat), "king" or "monarch," and similar-sounding Malay kesatria or satria, "knight" or "warrior", are also derived from it. The term may also denote aristocratic status. 

Social status
The situation has changed in modern times and Kshatriyas do not have much to gain or lose in status by their Kshatriya lineage. One area where the Kshatriya heritage has been prominent is the Indian Army.
Symbols

In rituals, the nyagrodha (Ficus Indica or India Fig or banyan tree) danda, or staff, is assigned to the Kshatriya class, and along with a mantra, intended to impart physical vitality or 'ojas'.

Kshatriya lineage

The major branches of Kshatriya varna are: Suryavanshi (solar line), claiming direct descent from Ramachandra, and descent from Surya;^[5]Chandravanshi (lunar line), claiming descent from Yadu, as Yadu was himself born in a Chandravanshi dynasty,

 and descent from Chandra;Agnivanshi, claiming descent from Agni;and Nagavanshi, claiming descent from the Nāgas.