United States or Tonga ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
There at the beginning Narada says, 'I know the Rig-veda, the Yajur-veda, the Sama-veda, the Atharvana as the fourth, the Itihasa- purana as the fifth, and so on, enumerating all the various branches of knowledge, and finally summing up 'with all this I know the mantras only, I do not know the Self. Now this declaration of the knowledge of the Self not being attainable through any branch of knowledge except the knowledge of the Bhuman evidently has no other purpose but to glorify this latter knowledge, which is about to be expounded.
As the mantra 'Agnir vai hotram vetu, although given in the Sama-veda, yet has to be recited in the Yajur-veda style, with a subdued voice, because it stands in a subordinate relation to the upasad-offerings prescribed for the four-days 'sacrifice called Jamadagnya; those offerings are the principal matter to which the subordinate matter the mantra has to conform.
Some authorities declare it to belong to the Yajur-Veda, others to the Sama-Veda, while a large number put it down as a part of the Atharva-Veda. The story is first suggested in the Rig-Veda; it is told more definitely in the Yajur-Veda; and in the Katha-Upanishad it appears fully elaborated and interwoven with the loftiest Vedic teaching.
There are four Vedas, the Rig-Veda, which has the body of hymns; the Yajur-Veda, in which the prescribed formulas to be used in acts of sacrifice are collected; the Sama-Veda, containing the chants; and the Atharva-Veda, a collection of hymns, in part of a later date. Besides, each Veda contains, as a second part, one or more Brahmanas, or prose treatises on the ceremonial system.
Many works belonging to that age are lost, though a large number still exists. The most important of the Vedas are three in number. First, The "Rig- Veda," which is the great literary memorial of the settlement of the Aryans in the Punjaub, and of their religious hymns and songs. Second, The "Yajur-Veda." Third, The "Sama-Veda."
Even thus do learned Brahmans that are my devoted worshippers and that are very rare sing me in the Aranyakas. In the Adhyaryus I am sung as the Yajur-Veda of six and fifty and eight and seven and thirty branches. Learned Brahmans conversant with the Atharvans regard me as identical with the Atharvans consisting of five Kalpas and all the Krityas.
Word Of The Day