Success Samrat

The root word for Veda is Vid, means ‘To Know’ denotes knowledge of par excellence’. The Vedic Literature literature is believed to be divine hence it is called as Shruti. The Vedas are also called as Nitya means eternal. The Vedic literature comprises of two parts. The Samhitas and the Brahmanas. The Brahmanas are further divided into three parts i.e Brahamanas simple and pure, the Aranyakas and the Upanishads. The Samhitas is a collection of hymns and they are considered as an essential part of the Vedas. The literature is believed to be written between 1500-600 B.C. The Rig Veda the oldest literary was written between 1500-1000B.C. This period is also known as the Early Vedic Period. Whereas the remaining three Sama Veda Samhita, Yajur Veda Samhita and Atharva Veda Samhita were written between 1000-600 B.C this period is known as the Later Vedic Period.

THE FOUR VEDAS

The Vedas are followed by the Brahmanas. The Brahmanas are the notes in prose that attached to each Veda. Full of ritualist formulae and explanations of each ritual and its social meaning. Aranyakas are the concluding portions of Brahmanas. These deals with Mysticism. They are considered to be dangerous and are to be taught in forests. Two Aranyakas are attached to Rig Veda are Aitareya and Kausitaki. The Upanishads are philosophical in and are important commentaries that are attached to Aranyakas. They are collectively called as Vedantas or the end of Vedas. In Upanishad the word Upa means Near, Ni means Down and Shad means Be Seated. There are 108 Upanishads out of which 12 are the important ones. The science that helps us in decoding and understanding the Vedas is known as Vedangas also called as Smriti.They are six in number and are written in the form of Sutras. The six Vedangas are-

• SIKSHA-PHONETICS
• KALPA-RITUALS
• VYAKARNA- GRAMMAR
• NIRUKTA-ETYMOLOGY
• CHANDAS-METRICS
• JYOTISHA-ASTRONOMY

IMPORTANT BRAHMANAS AND UPANISHADS