The+Vedas

These sacred Hindu scripts known only as the Vedas make up the foundation of the Hindu religion as we know it today. Even as important as they are, these texts are not used nearly as much as the great Hindu epics the Ramayana and the Mahabharata and the Hindu text, the Puranas. Unlike these other texts, most Hindu people do not know the contents or verses of the Vedas. The antecedents of modern Hindu religion are actually the Vedas (Rosen, 2011). There were originally four Veda texts and each of these had its own individual name. The names of these were: The //Rig, Sama, Yajur// and //Atharva// Vedas respectively. A brief overview of what each of the Vedas is about is below. ** The //Rig// Veda ** The Sanskrit word //Rig// literally translated means “ritual” and when this Veda is broken down, it contains 1017 sacred hymns and prayers that were specifically designed for sacred rituals. What are these sacred rituals about? They were constructed by the to appease the almighty gods of countless numbers of the Vedic Pantheon. This Veda in particular narrowed down the number of gods to 33 main gods who each represented atmospheric, terrestrial or celestial concern such as Indra, the god of weather and war, and Surya, the god of the sun just to name a couple. ** The //Sama// Veda ** The Sanskrit word //Sama// literally translated means “singing” and this particular Veda, when deconstructed, contains nearly 1600 verses and hymns. Some of these verses and prayers are also within the //Rig// Veda however these words have been transformed into melodies and songs when they are spoken from this particular Veda. ** The //Yajur// Veda ** The Yajur Veda is the Hindu Veda for rituals and it contains nearly a great amount of 2000 verses and 40 chapters. As with the //Sama// Veda, this particular Veda contains a lot of verses and chapters that were also within the //Rig// Veda, however most of these transferred verses are about sacred rituals, how to perform them and which hymns and prayers to recite. ** The //Atharva// Veda ** // Atharva // is the Sanskrit word for a particular type of priest who knew the secret Hindu lore of the ancients. In relation to this, the //Atharva// Veda contains approximately 6000 verses, incantations and invocations that are all different from the verses and contents of the other three Vedas. This particular Veda contains information about old Hindu medicinal recipes and “spells” that were created to control material nature .It also contains things about sacrifices and prayers, for things such as evil people and spirits and also healing sicknesses and diseases. It also has a variety of incantations for peoples material needs, for example: the incantation for the destruction of foes and an incantation for the fulfillment of personal desires.