So in the last videos we had a quick understanding of the four Vedas, what Veda means and so on. I mentioned that each Veda can also be classified further. So in this video we will see what these classifications are. Let's start with how each Veda is classified and then understand each component of it.
as we go along. So, as you see here, each Veda can be classified into... basically, at the first level, it can be classified into two. Mantras, also called Samhita, and the Brahmana. This Brahmana and then the Brahmana itself, if you look at it very closely, you will indeed find they can be of three parts.
The Brahmana part is there, but it also has what is called Aranyaka and Upanishad. So these are the... So in some sense this is the first part which is the mantra, then you have the Brahmana, you have the Aranyaka and then you have the Upanishad. So we will see each one of them. Samhita for example, constitutes the main portion of each Veda.
And it consists of a certain number of mantras and presented in a metrical form. Then you have Brahmanas and Brahmana does not anyway relate to the modern word of a Brahmin or a Brahmana. It's not that.
This is a very technical word here. It forms a large portion of the Vedic repository. I think 60 to 70% of the Vedic repository may be actually the Brahmana portion. And of course you have the Aranyaka which takes a certain philosophical approach while discussing Yajna.
And then you have Upanishad. which is the loftiest thoughts of the Vedic seers. That's how one can understand what Upanishad is.
Now let us see the organization of the Rig Veda Samhita alone. We will see how it is organized. Rig Veda Samhita is made of mandalas.
This is how one can look at the hierarchy here. Rig Veda is made of 10 mandalas. And then you have 10 mandalas. In Rig Veda, then you have for each mandala has certain number of anuvakas.
So you end up having actually 85 anuvakas and in each anuvaka there may be some sukta. So you can think of it as like a three dimensional kind of representation, three level representation. So 10 mandalas which consists in all 85 anuvakas and in these 85 anuvakas you have 1028 sukta.
Sukta is a collection of mantras put into one section. You can think like that. This is one way. Another way to understand this is one can look at it like this. Rig Veda has 10,552 mantras at the lowest level.
That is how we can count. And there are 400 rishis who have actually sung these or did these mantras. And there are 14...
categories of devatas who are being invoked in order to these mantras are actually organized in price of these devatas. That's how we can take it. This is another way to understand Rig Veda Samhita. And each mantra in Rig Veda is called Rig.
I already told you in one of the earlier videos. And It follows a particular meter. There is a specific meter with which these mantras are being uttered. So there is a meter.
It is revealed to a certain Rishi. As I told you 400 Rishis are there. So it is revealed to a certain Rishi.
particular Rishi and note it is very important to note that there are 25 women Rishis are also there so they have also you know found these mantras and the convention in Rig Veda is each Rishi is identified by two names you will have two names which identifies a Rishi so this is about the Rishi part of it in terms of Devata there are 14 broad categories of Devatas But the most important of them are Agni, Indra is the largest number of mantras are for Indra I think. Agni, Indra, Maruth, Soma, Usha, Varuna like that. So these are the different, so this is how Rig Veda Samhita is organized. And while a mantra may be for Indra and Agni, but it may discuss in that part some ideas of nature, all that can actually happen. This is what it is.
So we saw Samhita, Rigveda Samhita we saw in terms of how they are organized and so on. Let's now talk about Brahmanas. Basically it is a collection of knowledge, mainly confined to the issue of rituals and rites which are all written in prose. As I told you, Vedic living is doing a lot of Ejna and all that. So you need detailed material, how to go about doing, right?
Whatever we do, we need an, you know... SOP, Standard Operating Procedure. So something like that. And therefore Brahmanas contain technical material pertaining to the rituals. Several portions of the Brahmanas literature may not appeal to a general reader because it is very technical.
If you buy a TV, you don't know the instruction manual of how do you plug it, how do you troubleshoot and all. Generally most of us are not interested. It's like that actually. So they describe different types of Egnas.
with all the details, ritualistic details which are required. For example, in Aitreya Brahmana, it actually describes the Soma sacrifice, the Soma Yajna, Agnihotra, all those are described. Similarly, in Kaushitiki Brahmana, it provides details on food sacrifices, full moon sacrifice, sacrifice of the seasons. So, all these details are part of Brahmanas. Also, the Brahmanas prescribe the mantras.
From the Samhita, that need to be recited for the rituals. Because when you say some action has to be done, all details have to be there. So it will also say at this point in time, you have to recite this mantra from Rig Veda, things like that.
Brahmana also provides detailed instructions for preparing the altar for the Yajna. How do you prepare that sacrificial altar? There are procedures on that also. I will give you an example.
Here is a mantra from Taithiri or a Brahmana. So, it says like this, a pit shall be dug up to the height of the Ajamana's knee. It shall be filled with water up to the height of his ankle.
After covering it with lotus flowers and leaves and lotus sticks and so on, the Agni has to be brought in for the beginning, the Ejna. So, it is just an example. What I am saying is such detailed instructions are part of Brahmanas.
Samayada has the largest collection of Brahmanas. There are eight Brahmanas in Samayada. The Tandiya Maha Brahmana, also known as the Pancha Vimsa Brahmana, contains 25 chapters. It has details on the conduct of Soma Yaga. These are all available in this Brahmana.
And another Brahmana known as Shadvim Vimsa Brahmana contains 26 chapters. Shadvimsa means 26 actually. Pancha Vimsa, which I said earlier, is 25 in Sanskrit. That's how those Brahmana names are coming.
So this Brahmana deals with several topics, including the origin of Agni. Provisions for shanties for various ills such as misfortunes like untimely death of people, diseases, bad dreams, diseases affecting elephants and other animals, splitting of earth, earthquake, fire in earth, earth expelling water and inundation of earth in running water. So there are so many things we keep facing.
So there are mantras to deal with all these are available in this particular Brahmana that you see. This is about the Brahmana. Let's move on to Aranyakas.
And if you look at the content of the Aranyaka, it will appear to be very similar to that of a Brahmana. In fact, both of them actually discuss the Yajna practices only. But there is a crucial difference.
The Brahmana approaches the Yajna from the perspective of rituals to be conducted. It's more bothered about the procedures, procedural details and so on. On the other hand, The Aranyakas take a philosophical approach. It discusses the same Yajna, but it takes a philosophical approach.
Basically, the Aranyakas' main interest is to explain the symbolism and philosophical aspects of a ritual. I mean, this is understandable. You know, when Tendulkar or Sunil Gavaskar played cricket, first few years, it's all about cricket for them.
But as they keep playing cricket, cricket becomes a philosophy for them. So, the same way in our life, we may be doing certain things in our life, but as we grow older, everything turns a little philosophical. So, Aranyaka addresses that requirement of an individual.
It takes the same activities, but gives a slightly different philosophical meaning, because that's what we are looking for at that stage of our life. So, that's what it is. So, it not only has the prescribed rituals, but also the daily chores such as breathing and eating have all been given a deep meaning. there is a stage in life we actually want to know all this so it is you usually found at the end of brahmanas and Because of the philosophical nature of its content, the Aranyakas are supposed to be learned from a Guru in a secluded place.
Actually, Aranya means forest. Aranyaka means we don't have to go to a forest. What it means is not in the hustle-buzzle of a city.
That's the meaning. And that's why it is called Aranyakas. And expectedly, I think as we grow older, our interests start a little shifting. So we want to look at the same Yajna in a philosophical sense. And that's where Aranyakas are coming.
There are six Aranyakas available now from the first three Vedas. Atharva Veda has no Aranyakas and so on. The fourth division is Upanishad.
And the word Upanishad actually has upa, ni and shad. They are the three things which are, you know, in Sanskrit you can put them in a particular way and get Upanishad. It essentially means sitting near a Guru and receiving the wisdom through a teaching learning process.
That's what Upanishad is. Upanishad is set like that actually. Philosophical treatises dealing with ultimate problems of life that every one of us confront. The common theme seems to be focused on the knowledge of Brahman or knowledge of oneself.
They call it as Atmavidya. Who am I and where from I have come? I think these issues are also important to us.
So the Rishis have also thought about these things. It is actually an in-depth study of individuals. in terms of their nature and their psychology and all that. Very interesting ideas are there in Upanishads. And originally 1180 Upanishads are supposed to be there.
Currently we are able to trace only about 200, of which 108 are known earlier, much more known. Even of those, 10 are called major Upanishads because all great Acharyas wrote commentaries for the 10 major Upanishads. So that's how it is.
But Upanishads are hugely being studied today. Thanks to great recent gurus like Swami Chinmayanandaji, I think we have been able to bring all these to our consideration today. So this is something which is those 10-12 Upanishads, some 20 Upanishads people are able to benefit greatly from. So this pictorial is... represents how the 108 Upanishads are.
The Rig Veda has 10 Upanishads out of the 108. The Yajur Veda has 51, of which 19 are in Shukla Yajur Veda and 32 are in Krishna Yajur Veda. The Samo Veda has Upanishads also there and the Atharva Veda also has about 31 Upanishads, all of them adding up to 108. So that's how these Upanishads are classified. Now what we will see is a little bit summary of all these that we have described in a tabular form. So what you see here is a table in which you have the four Vedas are on one side.
As I told you there are four Vedas and the four sub-classifications on the other side. That's what we see here. And as I told you Rig Veda has 10,552 mantras and it had 21 Shakas but only 5 are available now.
The Aranyakas attributed to Rig Veda are Aitareya Aranyaka and Sankhya Tabana Aranyaka and so on. There are Brahmanas, Aitareya and Kaushitaki Brahmanas are there. and you have also Meja Upanishad, Aitriya Upanishad and Kaushitika Upanishad.
Similarly, you have Yajurveda. Yajurveda, there are 85 Shakas in Yajurveda and only 4 are available now as you see here. Shukla Yajurveda, only 2 are available now. The Taithiriya Upanishad, Taithiriya Brahmana and Taithiriya Aranyakas, these are all very famous people, a lot of them. Shukla Yajurveda has Bhradaranyaka Upanishad which is also Katta Upanishad.
These are all very nice Upanishads. If you take Samaveda, you have, as I told you, the mantras we don't know, but some people say 1549, some say 1875 and so on. Out of 1000 shakas, only 3 are available. The Talavakara or Jaimini Aranyaka is the one associated with Samaveda. There are 9 Brahmanas, I already talked about it.
Panchavamshwata, Thandiya, Mahabrahmana, etc. The Chandogya and Kena Upanishads belong to Samaveda. And finally you have Atharva Veda, 6000 mantras, as I told you heavily borrowed from Rig Veda. 9 Shakas, only 2 are available now. There isn't any Aranyaka available today from Atharva Veda.
The Gopatha Brahmana is associated with... Atharva Veda and these three Upanishads, Prashna Upanishad, Mundaka Upanishad and Mandukya Upanishad, all these are associated with Atharva Veda. So, it is a summary.
Quickly, you know, four Vedas on one side and the four sub-classifications. In a way, it says, this is what we can lay our hands today. But even within this, although we have lost quite a bit of them, even within this, there are very interesting things, very interesting ideas. Although we may not have time to look at all of them in detail, but definitely we will look at some of them. In our next video, we will see some of the messages in the Vedas.