They had to listen, question, repeat and chant until they got it. To add to the pressure, it was of utmost religious importance that these texts be passed on absolutely unaltered from one generation to the next, not a word changed. These texts were the most sacred and ancient Hindu texts, the Vedas. Of the four Vedas, the Rigveda, Samaveda, Yajurveda and Atharvaveda, the Rigveda is by far the oldest and consists of about one thousand hymns, made up of about 10, verses.
The others are typically shorter; the Samaveda has about 1, verses, the Atharvaveda has about 6, mantras and so on. The Vedas were composed somewhere around BC, while writing in India began more than 2, years later. So how was this crazy feat of passing on this massive amount of information, without even the smallest mistake, accomplished?
Also Read How to talk to your kids about the elections and voting. It was something to marvel at! We all know that it is extremely difficult to pass on even one sentence precisely among even just five people. The fun of the game is that by the time the last person speaks the sentence out aloud, it is often hilariously different than what was intended.
To preserve the purity of the Vedas, ancient Indians came up with ingenious techniques. In addition to memorising each mantra the standard way, they would learn the same sentence in many different ways — backwards, forwards, combining two words at a time and so on.
There were ten or eleven ways to learn each single verse! Pada-patha Word recitation : Then they would recite each word of the sentence separately, without any intonation and taking apart any sandhis, as in 1. There were other even more complex recitation styles such as mala garland , shikha peak , dhvaja flag , rekha line , danda stick and ratha chariot.
However, one of the most complicated ways was the Ghana-patha. So much so, that in the south, the name Ghanapatim denoted someone who had mastered the Ghana style of reciting the Vedas, and it would take them almost 13 years of full-time study dedicated to learning to get there!
Ghana-patha Compact recitation : There is an arithmetical system of permutation and combination in the chanting, which goes like etc. As you can imagine, learning the Vedas flawlessly was considered to be a great feat. There are four Indo-Aryan Vedas: the Rig Veda contains hymns about their mythology; the Sama Veda consists mainly of hymns about religious rituals; the Yajur Veda contains instructions for religious rituals; and the Atharva Veda consists of spells against enemies, sorcerers, and diseases.
Depending on the source consulted, these are spelled, for example, either Rig Veda or Rigveda. Rigveda Manuscript. A manuscript copy of the Rigveda, the oldest and most important of the four Vedas of the Vedic religion, from the early 19th century. The Rig Veda is the largest and considered the most important of the collection, containing 1, hymns divided into 10 books called mandalas.
The verses of the Sam Veda are taken almost completely from the Rig Veda, but arranged differently so they may be chanted. The Yajur Veda is divided into the White and Black halves and contains prose commentaries on how religious and sacrifices should be performed. The Atharva Veda includes charms and magic incantations written in the style of folklore.
Each Veda was further divided in two sections: the Brahmanas, instructions for religious rituals, and the Samhitas, mantras or hymns in praise of various deities. Modern linguists consider the metrical hymns of the Rigveda Samhita, the most ancient layer of text in the Vedas, to have been composed by many authors over several centuries of oral tradition.
Although the focus of the Vedas is on the message rather than the messengers, such as Buddha or Jesus Christ in their respective religions, the Vedic religion still held gods in high regard.
The Aryan pantheon of gods is described in great detail in the Rig Veda. However, the religious practices and deities are not uniformly consistent in these sacred texts, probably because the Aryans themselves were not a homogenous group. While spreading through the Indian Subcontinent, it is probable that their initial religious beliefs and practices were shaped by the absorption of local religious traditions.
According to the hymns of the Rig Veda, the most important deities were Agni, the god of Fire, intermediary between the gods and humans; Indra, the god of Heavens and War, protector of the Aryans against their enemies; Surya, the Sun god; Vayu, the god of Wind; and Prthivi, the goddess of Earth.
Agni, God of Fire. Agni, the Indian God of Fire from the ancient Vedic religion, shown riding a ram. The Caste System, or groups based on birth or employment status, has been part of the social fabric of the Indian Subcontinent since ancient times. The castes are thought to have derived from a hymn found in the Vedas to the deity Purusha, who is believed to have been sacrificed by the other gods.
The passage describing the classes of people derived from the sacrifice of Purusha is the first indication of a caste system. Today the castes still exist in the form of varna, or class system, based on the original four castes described in the Vedas.
A fifth group known as Dalits, historically excluded from the varna system, are ostracized and called untouchables. The caste system as it exists today is thought to be a product of developments following the collapse of British colonial rule in India.
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