The primary scriptures of Hinduism are the Vedas. . They are beginning less, endless. They are eternal in nature. The Vedas are not composed by any man. They are ‘apaurseya’ (meaning not man made). They are called ‘Sruthi’ (meaning ‘heard’). The Vedas were revealed to the sages after the creation of the Universe for the benefit of mankind. These have been handed down from generation to generation in the teacher –disciple tradition orally because the method of chanting cannot be mastered otherwise.
The oral method of instruction has ensured that there has not been any distortion. The mantras of the Vedas are vibrations which are very potent.
The Vedas are four namely Rik Veda, Yajur Veda, Sama Veda and Atherva Veda. These Vedas consist of thousands of mantras so to say countless.
Each of the four Vedas has further been divided into various branches. The Rik Veda has 21 branches, the Yajur Veda has 101 branches, the Sama Veda has 100 branches and the Atharva Veda has 9 branches.
But at present some of the branches alone exist. Thus we have only one branch in Rik Veda. This is called pauzhiyam.
We have three branches in Yajur Veda namely Tatittriya, Kanva and Madhyandina.
We have only two branches in Sama Veda namely Chandoga and Talavakara.
We have only one branch in Atharva Veda. This is available in Northern part of India.
Krishna Dwaipayana also known as Vyasa divided Vedas into four parts. He selected four of his intelligent disciples to study the Vedas diligently. He taught Rig Veda to Paila, Yajur Veda to Vaisampayana, Sama Veda to Jaimini and Atharva Veda to Sumantu.
He also taught the 18 Puranas and Idihasa (meaning great epics) to Romoharshana.
Then again Paila has divided Rig Veda into two parts and imparted its teachings to two of his disciples – to Indrapramiti and Baspala. Baspala has divided his own branch to four parts and taught them to his pupils Bodhya, Agnimadaka, Yagnyavalkya and Parasara. Indrapramiti has taught his own branch to his son Mandukya.
We will see further in our next article regarding the Vedas and Vedangas.
S. Nagarajan is a vehicle body engineer by profession. He has written more than 1300 articles in 16 magazines and published 18 books. He is revealing Eastern Secret Wisdom through T.V. Programmes, magazine articles, seminars, courses. His e-book “Breakthrough to Success” which contains his ezine articles could be obtained from http://www.nilashop.com/. His articles on Yoga, laughter, efficacy of mantras and sound, Hypnotism, Tele Kinesis, Power of Prayer, Vastu and Feng Shui, Auto suggestion, Success Formula, Out of Body Experience etc are regularly appearing in ezinearticles.com.
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