The Religion of the Veda: The Ancient Religion of India (from Rig-Veda to Upanishads) c6.s1.14

c6.s1.14

The Veda consists, as we have seen, of considerably more than a hundred books, written in a variety of slightly differentiated dialects and styles. Some of the Vedic books are not yet published, or even unearthed. At the base of this entire canon, if we may so call it, lie four varieties of metrical composition, or in some cases, prayers in sacred, solemn prose. These are known as the Four Vedas in the narrower sense: the Rig-Veda, the Yajur-Veda, the Sāma-Veda, and the Atharva-Veda. These four names come from a somewhat later Vedic time; they do not coincide exactly with the earlier names, nor do they fully correspond to the contents of the texts themselves. The earlier names refer rather to the different styles of composition, than to canonical collections. They are *ṛcaḥ*, "stanzas of praise"; *yajūṅshi*, "liturgical stanzas and formulas"; *sāmāni*, "melodies"; and *atharvāṅgirasaḥ*, "blessings and curses." The book which goes by the name of Rig-Veda contains not only "stanzas of praise," but—in its later parts—also "blessings and curses," as well as most of the stanzas which form the text to the *sāman*-melodies of the Sāma-Veda. The Atharva-Veda contains *ṛcaḥ*, "stanzas of praise," and *yajūṅshi*, "liturgical stanzas," mostly worked over for its own purposes, as well as its very own "blessings and curses." The Yajur-Veda also contains materials of the other Vedic types in addition to its main topic, the liturgy. The Sāma-Veda is merely a collection of a certain kind of *ṛcaḥ*, or "stanzas of praise," which are derived with some variants and additions from the Rig-Veda, and are here set to music which is indicated by musical notations.