Rigveda - Text

Shruti Vedas Rig Veda Sama Veda Yajur Veda Atharva Veda Brahmanas Aranyakas Upanishads Smriti Itihāsas Mahābhārata Bhagavad Gītā Ramayana Puranas (List) Tantras Sutras (List) Stotras Ashtavakra Gita Git ...

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Rigveda - Text

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Rigveda - Text: Encyclopedia II - Rigveda - Text From the time of its compilation, the text has been handed down in two versions: The Samhitapatha has all Sanskrit rules of sandhi applied and is the text used for recitation. The Padapatha has each word isolated in its pausa form and is used for memorization. The Padapatha is, as it were, a commentary to the Samhitapatha, but the two seem to be about co-eval. The original text as reconstructed on metrical grounds lies somewhere between the two, but closer to the Samhitapatha ("original" in the sense that it aims to recover the hymns in the form of their composition ...

There had been many old temples and shrines devoted to Vishnu and Shiva and a few to Brahma, Ganesh, Kartikeya, Hanuman, Kubera, Nagas, Kali and Durga as well as a huge number honouring numerous local tribal deities. Only 180 years ago Raja Ram Mohan Roy coined the word 'Hindu' to describe the huge variety of faiths and sects with similar but not identical philosophies, myths and rituals.

Rigveda - Text: Scepticism in Ancient Vedic Literature

We want to believe in the existence of a higher agency but at the same time refuse to accept it.

We take pride in our scepticism. Scepticism is a philosophical conception. Consistent scepticism is close to agnosticism. As doctrine we find the resonance of scepticism even in Vedic literature. In Greece it emerged as a reaction to the preceding philosophical systems which had tried to explain the sensual world by means of contemplative arguments and in so doing had often displayed inherent contradictions.

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Rigveda - Text: Encyclopedia - Vedic Sanskrit

Vedic Sanskrit is the language of the Vedas, the earliest sacred texts of India. The earliest of the Vedas, the Rigveda, was composed in the 2nd millennium BC, and use of the Vedic dialect was continued for the composition of religious texts until roughly 500 BC, when the later Classical Sanskrit language began to emerge. The Vedic form of Sanskrit is an early descendant of Proto-Indo-Iranian (spoken around 2000 BC), and still comparatively similar (being removed by maybe 1500 years) to the Proto-Indo-European language. Vedic S ...

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Rigveda - Text: Encyclopedia - Shri Rudram Chamakam

The Shri Rudram Chamakam (TS 4.5, 4.7) is a Vedic stotra dedicated to Rudra, an earlier aspect of Shiva. Shri Rudram is also known as Sri Rudraprasna, Satarudriya, and Rudradhyaya. It consists of two texts from book four of the Taittiriya Samhita, which is a part of the Krishna Yajurveda. The first part, Shri Rudram corresponds to chapter five, and the second part, Camakam to chapter seven. As part of the Yajurveda, the second oldest Vedic text after the Rigveda, the age of the text may well be in th ...

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Shri Rudram Chamakam - Text

Shri Rudram Chamakam - Interpretation

Rigveda - Text: Encyclopedia - Soma

Soma (Sanskrit), or Haoma (Avestan) (from Proto-Indo-Iranian *Sauma) was a ritual drink of importance among the early Indo-Iranians, and the later Vedic and Iranian cultures. It is frequently mentioned in the Rigveda, which contains many hymns praising its energizing or intoxicating qualities. It is described as prepared by pressing juice from the stalks of a certain mountain plant, which has been variously hypothesized to be a psychedelic mushroom, cannabis, or ephedra. In both Indian and Iranian tradition, the drink is ...

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Rigveda - Text: Encyclopedia - Shakha

Shakha (IAST śākhā), literally "branch" or "limb", is the Sanskrit term for a recension or version of Vedic texts according to a particular school. The scholars of a given shakha are properly called a caraṇa, but the term shakha is u ...

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Rigveda - Text: Encyclopedia - Sama Veda

Shruti Vedas Rig Veda Sama Veda Yajur Veda Atharva Veda Brahmanas Aranyakas Upanishads Smriti Itihāsas Mahābhārata Bhagavad Gītā Ramayana Puranas (List) Tantras Sutras (List) Stotras Ashtavakra Gita G ...

Rigveda - Text: Encyclopedia - Apam Napat

In Hinduism, Apam Napat is the god of fresh water, such as in rivers and lakes. He is sometimes (for example in Rigveda book 2 hymn 35 verse 3) described as a fire-god who originates in water: see Agni. "Apām Napat" is Sanskrit and Avestic for "son of waters". This may have originally referred to flames from natural gas or oil seepages surfacing through water. See this link about a fire temple at Baku in Azerbaijan. There is a theory that the word naphtha came (via Greek, where it meant any sort of petroleum) from the name Apam Napat. The name Apam Napat is likely cognate with that the Celtic god ...

Rigveda - Text: Encyclopedia - Brahmana

Shruti Vedas Rig Veda Sama Veda Yajur Veda Atharva Veda Brahmanas Aranyakas Upanishads Smriti Itihāsas Mahābhārata Bhagavad Gītā Ramayana Puranas (List) Tantras Sutras (List) Stotras Ashtavakra Gita Gi ...

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Rigveda - Text: Encyclopedia - Vedic priesthood

The Vedic priesthood is the collective term for the priests of the Vedic religion. Known as purohita, the priests are divided into several types: The Hotar is the chief priest, presiding the sacrifice. He is associated with the Rigveda. The Udgatar intones the hymns for the Hotar. He is associated with the Samaveda. The Adhvaryu carries out the actual sacrifice. He is associated with the Yajurveda. In mythology, he is presented as a newcomer, probably corresponding to a histor ...

Rigveda - Text: Encyclopedia - Vedic religion

The religion of the Vedic civilization is the predecessor of classical Hinduism, usually included in the term. Its liturgy is reflected in the text of the Vedas. The religion centered on a clergy (the Brahmins) administering sacrificial rites. Texts considered to date to the Vedic period, composed in Vedic Sanskrit, are mainly the four Vedas, but the Brahmanas, and some of the older Upanishads are also considered Vedic. The Vedas record the liturgy connected with t ...

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Vedic religion - Post-Vedic religions

Rigveda - Text: Encyclopedia - Vedic civilization

The Vedic civilization is the Indo-Aryan culture associated with the Vedas, the earliest known records of Indian history. Mainstream scholarship places the Vedic civilization into the 2nd and 1st millennia BC, many Hindu scholars date its beginnings as early as the 7th millennium BC based on astronomical information in the Vedas, genetics, horse bones findings in Harappan places that suggest a Vedic way of living before 2000 BC,and the reference to a big Saraswati river in Rig Veda which proves Vedic people were there before it decrea ...

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Rigveda - Text: Encyclopedia - Vedas

Shruti Vedas Rig Veda Sama Veda Yajur Veda Atharva Veda Brahmanas Aranyakas Upanishads Smriti Itihāsas Mahābhārata Bhagavad Gītā Ramayana Puranas (List) Tantras Sutras (List) Stotras Ashtavakra Gita Gita ...

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Rigveda - Text: Encyclopedia - Madhavacharya

Madhavacharya (also transliterated as Madhava Acharya and Madhavaacharya fl. C. 1380) was an exponent of the Advaita school of philosophy in Hinduism. He was elected, in 1331 CE, the head of the Smarta order in the Math of Sringeri in Mysore territory, founded by Sankaracharya, the great Vedantist teacher of eighth century. He was a Hindu statesman and philosopher who lived at the court of Vijayanagar (the modern Hampi in the district of Bellary), the Southern Hindu kingdom that withstood Muslim influence and aggression. ...

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Rigveda - Text: Encyclopedia - Rishi

In Hinduism, a Rishi (ṛṣi) is a sage and/or seer who "heard" (cf. shruti) the hymns of the Vedas from the Supreme Being Brahman while he was in deep meditation. A rishi can be regarded as a combination of a patriarch, a priest, a preceptor, an author of Vedic hymns, a sage, a saint, an ascetic, ...

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Rigveda - Text: Encyclopedia - Atharvaveda

Shruti Vedas Rig Veda Sama Veda Yajur Veda Atharva Veda Brahmanas Aranyakas Upanishads Smriti Itihāsas Mahābhārata Bhagavad Gītā Ramayana Puranas (List) Tantras Sutras (List) Stotras Ashtavakra Gita

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Rigveda - Text: Encyclopedia - Agni

Agni is a Hindu deity. The word agni is Sanskrit for "fire" (noun), cognate with Latin ignis. In Hinduism, he is a deva, second only to Indra in the power and importance attributed to him in Vedic mythology. He is Indra's twin, and therefore a son of Dyaus Pita and Prthivi. He is a son of Kasyapa and Aditi or a Queen who kept her pregnancy secret from her husband. He has ten mothers, or ten sisters, or ten maidservants, who represent the ten fingers of the man who lights the fire. He has two parents: these ...