What are the Vedas?
The Vedas are the oldest sacred texts of the Hindu tradition. There are four: the Rig Veda (hymns of praise), the Yajur Veda (formulas for the rites), the Sama Veda (chants) and the Atharva Veda. Each has hymns, ritual texts and, at its end, the Upanishads, which teach about the self and Brahman. They were handed down by memory, teacher to pupil, long before they were written. Most traditions hold that the Vedas were revealed, “heard” (shruti) by the sages rather than made by them. Historians date them differently, and the schools read them differently.
Written for Pujadeep and checked against the sources listed.
What the schools say
Purva Mimamsa (Jaimini)
The Mimamsa school holds that the Veda is not the work of any person (apaurusheya). If a person had made it, it could carry that person's errors and could not bind anyone to a duty. So the Veda is eternal, and its commands are the sure source of dharma. Max Müller sets out this argument in his account of the school.
Sources for this reading
- F. Max Müller, The Six Systems of Indian Philosophy (London and New York: Longmans, Green, 1899), “Has the Veda a Superhuman Origin?”. Müller died 1900: public domain. Summarised in our words. (pp. 270–274 (p. 270 is leaf n305): the Veda cannot be 'the work of a personal or human author', or it could not establish a duty; human inspiration would not exclude error; the Veda is held to exist 'from all eternity')
Dharmashastra and the epic
The law books make the Veda the first source of dharma: Manu says that “by Sruti (revelation) is meant the Veda” and that for those who seek dharma “the supreme authority is the revelation (Sruti)” (2.10, 2.13). The Mahabharata tells that Vyasa, foremost among those who knew the Veda, divided it into four parts.
Sources for this reading
- G. Bühler (tr.), The Laws of Manu (Sacred Books of the East, vol. 25, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1886), 2.10 and 2.13. Bühler died 1898: public domain. Quoted verbatim from the OCR of the scan. (2.6, “The whole Veda is the (first) source of the sacred law” (p. 30, leaf n175); 2.10 and 2.13 (p. 31, leaf n176); checked on the page images)
- Kisari Mohan Ganguli (tr.), The Mahabharata (Calcutta, 1883–1896), Project Gutenberg transcription, vol. 1, Adi Parva, section LX. Ganguli died 1908: public domain in the US; India status not yet confirmed. Summarised, not quoted. (Adi Parva, section LX, in the Gutenberg numbering)
Vedanta
Vedanta means “the end of the Veda”: the Upanishads, which close each Veda. The Vedanta schools read the whole Veda in their light. The Chandogya Upanishad teaches “thou … art it” to Svetaketu, and the Katha Upanishad names Om as the word “which all the Vedas record”. For these schools the hymns and rites prepare the way, and the Upanishads give the knowledge that frees.
Sources for this reading
- Chandogya Upanishad 6.8.7, in F. Max Müller (tr.), The Upanishads, Part I (Sacred Books of the East, vol. 1, Oxford, 1879). Public domain. Quoted verbatim. (p. 101)
- The Upanishads, Part II, translated by F. Max Müller (The Sacred Books of the East, vol. XV; Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1884) (Katha Upanishad 1.2.15, p. 10 (leaf n67); quoted verbatim)
Historians
Historians study the Vedas as the oldest literature of India and date their layers by language, place names and later references. Griffith, introducing his translation, warned that “the opinions of scholars vary and must continue to vary with regard to the age of the Hymns of the Rigveda”. Dates proposed for the oldest hymns differ by many centuries.
Sources for this reading
- R. T. H. Griffith (tr.), The Hymns of the Rigveda, vol. 1 (Benares: E. J. Lazarus, 1889), preface. Griffith died 1906: public domain. Quoted verbatim from the OCR of the scan. (Preface, p. vi (leaf n7), checked on the page image: Colebrooke's reckoning would carry the earliest hymn back 'some thousand years' before the latest, while other scholars find no definite date)
Sources
- Chandogya Upanishad 7.1.2 (the four Vedas named in order), in Müller (tr.), Sacred Books of the East, vol. 1 (1879). Public domain. Summarised. (pp. 109–110)
- F. Max Müller, The Six Systems of Indian Philosophy (1899), on the Mimamsa debate over Vedic authorship: men named in the Veda, such as Katha, are taken as men who handed down “the oral tradition, like teachers”, and Jaimini answers that Katha “did not compose, but only handed down a certain portion of the Veda”. Müller died 1900: public domain. Cited for the oral handing down of the Veda. (pp. 272–273)
- Learn pages hindu-holy-books, gayatri-mantra-meaning and what-is-om in this library.
More questions
Source and licence
- Our explanation
- Written for this site from the sources listed here, and checked against them. Free to quote with credit.
- Checked
- Checked against the sources listed, October 16, 2026.