Rigveda

Also called: Rig Veda · Topic: The Vedic Age · NCERT: Class 6, Ch 5 "India, That Is Bharat"; Class 6, Ch 6 "The Beginnings of Indian Civilisation"; Class 6, Ch 7 "India's Cultural Roots"; Class 9, Ch 5 "State and Society up to 1000 CE"; Class 12, Ch 1 "Bricks, Beads and Bones"; Class 12, Ch 3 "Kinship, Caste and Class - Early Societies"; Class 12, Ch 4 "Thinkers, Beliefs and Buildings"

Meaning

The Ṛigveda is the oldest of the four Vedas. It is a collection of 1,028 hymns (sūktas) in Vedic Sanskrit, composed by seers called rishis and rishikas. The hymns praise gods such as Agni, Indra and Soma, and were chanted at sacrifices (yajña). It matters because it is among the world's oldest surviving poetry. It is also our main source for early Vedic society, religion and ideas. It was passed down by mouth for thousands of years.

Explanation

Background: what "Veda" means and who composed it

• "Veda" comes from the Sanskrit root vid, which means "knowledge". The word vidyā (learning) comes from the same root.
• The Ṛigveda is the earliest of the four Vedas: Ṛig, Yajur, Sāma and Atharva.
• Its language is Vedic Sanskrit. This is an older form of Sanskrit than the classical Sanskrit of Panini's time.
• The composers were rishis (male seers) and rishikas (female seers). So women also composed Vedic hymns.
• UNESCO calls the Rig Veda "an anthology of sacred hymns" (a collection of holy songs). [2]

Main features: what the hymns contain

• Praise of gods. Many hymns call on deities, mainly Agni (fire), Indra (a warrior god) and Soma (a sacred plant and its drink). These hymns were chanted when offerings were poured into the sacrificial fire.
• Big questions. Other hymns ask about the universe: how the world began and how it ends, and about birth and death.
• Purusha sukta. This hymn explains the four varṇas (social categories) as coming from the body of the first being, Purusha. Later, people used it to justify the varṇa order.
• Marriage mantras. Some verses chanted at weddings show patriliny, meaning family line and property passed through the father and sons. A bride left her father's family and joined her husband's.
• The Ṛigveda as a base for other Vedas. The Sāmaveda takes its hymns mainly from the Ṛigveda and arranges them for singing. The Yajurveda explains how to perform the rituals connected to these hymns.

How it is built: the four layers

Each Veda grew over time in four layers. The Ṛigveda's hymn collection is the first layer.

Layer	What it is
Samhitā	The core collection of hymns. The 1,028 hymns form the Ṛigveda Samhitā
Brāhmaṇa	Prose manuals explaining how to perform the ritual
Āraṇyaka	From araṇya = forest. Thoughts of sages who lived in the forest
Upaniṣhad	Philosophy of the Self (ātman) and the Ultimate Universal Being (Brahman)

• The movement: ritual → explanation of ritual → forest reflection → pure philosophy.

How it survived: oral chanting and later manuscripts

• Passed on by mouth, not writing. A teacher spoke and the pupil repeated, for thousands of years.
• Pupils start as children. They learn "complex recitation techniques that are based on tonal accents, a unique manner of pronouncing each letter and specific speech combinations". [2]

• Because of this, the text did not change over time.

• Padapāṭha (the text recited word by word) was one of these checking methods. It is a memory check that protected every word.

• Śākhās (recitation branches) carried the text. Of over 1,000 branches, only 13 survive. [2]
• Written copies came much later. The oldest ones are now protected by UNESCO (see below).

Time, place and evidence

• Date: Usually placed in c. 1500–1000 BCE. Exact dates are not certain. UNESCO says the Vedic corpus developed about 3,500 years ago. [2]
• Region: The north-west of the subcontinent. According to the hymns, this was the land of many rivers that the Ṛigveda calls Sapta Sindhava ("land of seven rivers").
• Key people: The rishis and rishikas who composed the hymns. Sāyaṇa (14th century) wrote the best-known commentary, the Sāyaṇabhāṣya. Max Müller printed an edition of the Ṛigveda using a manuscript from the Pune collection. [5]
• Evidence and records:
• Tradition of Vedic chanting: proclaimed by UNESCO in 2003. It was then inscribed in 2008 on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity at the 3.COM session. [2]
• PIB records that the jury declaration was made at Paris on 7 November 2003. [3]
• Thirty Ṛigveda manuscripts at the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (BORI), Pune were put on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register in 2007. [4][5]
• BORI holds about 28,000 manuscripts in all. Of the 30 Ṛigveda manuscripts, at least 5 are complete, 16 carry the Sāyaṇabhāṣya and 5 carry the Padapāṭha. [4]
• Journey of the collection: first kept at Elphinstone College, Bombay, then moved to Deccan College, Pune in 1878, then sent to BORI on the order of Lord Willingdon, Governor of the Presidency. [5]
• Living tradition: four surviving recitation schools are in Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka and Odisha. UNESCO says they face immediate threat. [2]

Don't confuse with

• Sāmaveda — it uses hymns from the Ṛigveda but sets them to music. It is linked to the seven svaras (notes). The Ṛigveda is the original hymn collection.
• Yajurveda — this is the Veda with prose explanations of how to perform yajña. The Ṛigveda Samhitā is hymns, not a ritual manual.
• Brāhmaṇa texts vs Brahman vs Brahmin vs Brahmā — Brāhmaṇas are prose ritual texts (the second layer). Brahman is a concept in the Upaniṣhads. Brahmin is a varṇa. Brahmā is a god.
• Two UNESCO listings — the chanting is on the intangible heritage list (2008). The manuscripts are on the Memory of the World Register (2007). [2][4]

Prelims Hooks

• The Ṛigveda has 1,028 hymns (sūktas) and is the earliest of the four Vedas.
• "Veda" comes from the root vid = knowledge. The Vedic hymns were composed by rishis and rishikas (women seers too).
• Order of layers: Samhitā → Brāhmaṇa → Āraṇyaka → Upaniṣhad.
• 30 Ṛigveda manuscripts at BORI, Pune → Memory of the World Register, 2007. [4][5]
• Vedic chanting: proclaimed 2003, inscribed 2008 (3.COM). Only 13 of over 1,000 śākhās survive. [2]
• The Purusha sukta, which explains the origin of the four varṇas, is in the Ṛigveda.

Mains Points

• Oral transmission was a careful method, not a weakness.
• Tonal accents, exact pronunciation and checks like the padapāṭha kept the text stable for millennia without writing. [2][4]

• This is why historians can use the Ṛigveda as a source for early society, even though it is a religious text.

• The Ṛigveda shows both early society and the roots of later change.

• The rishikas show that some women had a role in religion and learning.
• The Purusha sukta and marriage mantras show early ideas of varṇa and patriliny. These ideas became stricter later.

• Its sacrificial hymns led to the Brāhmaṇas. Its questions about creation led towards the Upaniṣhads, and debate about ritual later helped Buddhism and Jainism grow.

• Heritage safeguarding is a current policy issue.

• The same tradition is on two UNESCO lists: one for intangible heritage (chanting) and one for documentary heritage (manuscripts). [2][4]
• With only 13 śākhās left, the main task is to keep the living chain of reciters going, not just to preserve old manuscripts. [2]

Related concepts

• Vedas
• Rig Veda family books
• Yajurveda
• Samaveda
• Atharvaveda
• Brahmana texts
• Aranyakas
• Upavedas
• Vedangas
• Kalpa sutras

Read more

• The Vedas: corpus, structure and transmission