Welcome back, friends.

In our last session, we developed some familiarity

with the long history, internal diversity, and multiple sacred texts
in the Hindu tradition.
In the next few sessions, we will look at parts of Hindu
sacred texts composed in different historical periods.
We will try to understand how these texts have contributed
to the development of the Hindu tradition,
how they have been interpreted by Hindus and at times by non-Hindus,
and what significance they have in contemporary Hindu life.
We begin with the most ancient layer of Hindu scriptures, the Vedic literature
or literature associated with the Vedas.
This literature forms a part of the oldest religious literature
in the world.
What are the Vedas?
These are texts dated generally by scholars
between the 15th and the 10th centuries before the Common Era.
The language is Vedic Sanskrit, an ancient Indo-Aryan language
belonging to a sub-branch of the Indo-European language group.
The language bears parallels to the ancient language of the sacred texts
of the Zoroastrians called "Avestan."
The Vedas were composed by poet sages belonging
to a group of people called Aryans, who are believed
to have migrated from the northwestern part of south Asia from central Asia.
It is important to note that they were composed by numerous sages
and are not associated with a single person.
Hindus consider these texts as "apaurusheya"--
that is, not composed by humans.
According to tradition, the Vedas are divinely inspired
and were heard by the ancient sages.
Thus, they are categorized as "Shruti," "heard,"
as distinct from later sacred texts called "Smriti," or "remembered."
The belief in divine inspiration of the Vedas in some ways
parallels the belief about the Quran among Muslims.
The term "Veda" connotes "knowledge" or "wisdom."
It is related through Indo-European linguistic links
to the English word "wit."
The term is understood generally as the "highest or sacred knowledge."
But the knowledge contained in the Vedas is not exclusively spiritual.
Along with many passages of clearly religious nature,
the Vedas also contain sections that deal with social life,
prevention of diseases, and incantations for various worldly ends.
According to the view presented in the Vedas,
the world is not to be renounced but to be enjoyed healthily.
Traditionally, Hindus recognize four Vedas,
"Rig," "Sam," "Yajur," and "Atharva," which are divided into subsections.
Different sections of the Vedas contain hymns
to various divine beings, myths associated
with them, liturgical instructions, and philosophical treatises
on the nature of the self and the divine.
Of the four Vedas, the Rig Veda is the oldest
and considered the most authoritative.
It contains more than 1,000 hymns, some of which
are reflections on the nature of the creation
and some are prayers to divine beings for a good life.
The other Vedas derive heavily from the Rig Veda.
The Vedas were preserved in older traditions
through meticulous memorization and chanting for over a millennium
before they were put down in writing.
Even today, the long tradition of chanting
continues, as you will see in a video.
In your reading assignments for this session,
two readings come from the hymns in the Rig Veda and the Atharva Veda.
The first reading consists of two creation hymns
from the 10th book of the Rig Veda, reflecting on the origin of the cosmos.
There are several such hymns in the Rig Veda.
Some hymns in the earlier books refer to various Vedic gods
but these hymns from the last book reflect
a spirit of wonder about the creation.
The first hymn remains completely open-ended.
It states that even gods came afterwards so
who can proclaim that they know how the universe emerged from a state
when there was no death or immortality, no space or time?
It is a very popular creation hymn among present-day Hindus.
The second hymn does refer to a golden embryo and a divine being who
had played a key role in settling the creation and establishing its laws.
But the poet keeps wondering who that being is
with the refrain, "Who is the god whom we should worship with oblation?"
These hymns with no definitive answers make
us wonder whether the sages thought of themselves as "composing scripture."
And if they did not, how did this text come to be viewed as such?
You may find some answer in the video that follows the reading.
The sense of mystery about the universe, reverence for natural elements,
and other moral teachings from the Vedas are viewed by Hindus
as part of the foundation of their tradition.
The texts, of course, provide the basis but it
is from the dynamics of texts and engagement
of people who draw inspiration from them that scriptures emerge.
The reference to "oblation" in the second creation hymn
clearly suggests the setting of a fire sacrifice, which
was the main ritual of Vedic Aryans.
References to divine images and temples that dominate contemporary Hinduism
are not to be found in Vedic texts.
Even the deities whom the Vedic Aryans honored
were different from the popular deities of today.
This is seen in the second set of Vedic hymns.
In your readings, the first four selections
are parts of prayers to various elements of nature worshipped as divine beings.
The first prayer is for Agni, our fire god who
is considered the priest among gods.
Agni represents all divine beings at a sacrifice
and takes all the oblations offered in it to them.
The second and third selections are from hymns to Parjanya, or god of rains,
clearly for well-being in the world.
The fourth one is to the dawn, imagined as a lovely maiden.
Many Hindus see links between a few hymns of this type in the Vedas
and later traditions of worshipping the divine as feminine.
The fifth hymn, about generosity as a virtue,
brings in the moral teachings of the Vedas.
It is notable that the teaching about generosity focuses on sharing of food.
It is easy to see an agrarian social context in these hymns.
In the video that follows, we see a Hindu wedding
with Vedic elements of fire sacrifice and agrarian motifs.
While many elements of Hindu worship, including popular deities,
have changed in its long history, Hindu weddings
remain integrally linked to the Vedic world.
Even US businesses take note of it!