Rigved1 [Hardcover] Acharya Vedant Tirth

The Rigveda (Sanskrit: gveda, from c praise and veda knowledge) is an ancient Indian collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns along with associated commentaries on liturgy, ritual and mystical exegesis. It is one of the four sacred canonical texts (ruti) of Hinduism known as the Vedas. The core text, known as the Rigveda Samhita, is a collection of 1,028 hymns (sktas) in about 10,600 verses (called c, eponymous of the name Rigveda), organized into ten books (maalas). In the eight books that were composed the earliest, the hymns are mostly praise of specific deities. The younger books (books 1 and 10) in part also deal with philosophical or speculative questions, with the virtue of dna (charity) in society and with other metaphysical issues in their hymns. The oldest layers of the Rigveda Samhita are among the oldest extant texts in any Indo-European language, perhaps of similar age as certain Hittite texts. Philological and linguistic evidence indicates that the bulk of the Rigveda Samhita was composed in the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent, most likely between c. 1500 and 1200 BC, although a wider approximation of c. 17001100 BC has also been given. The initial codification of the Rigveda took place during the early Kuru kingdom (c. 1200900 BC). Some of its verses continue to be recited during Hindu rites of passage celebrations (such as weddings) and prayers, making it probably the worlds oldest religious text in continued use. The associated material has been preserved from two shakhas or schools, known as kalya and Bkala. The school-specific commentaries are known as Brahmanas (Aitareya-brahmana and Kaushitaki-brahmana) Aranyakas (Aitareya-aranyaka and Kaushitaki-aranyaka), and Upanishads (partly excerpted from the Aranyakas: Bahvrca-brahmana-upanishad, Aitareya-upanishad, Samhita-upanishad, Kaushitaki-upanishad).