The Four Vedas - Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati

"Ananthavai Vedhaah" – Endless are the Vedas", but the Rishis have been able to capture for us only some mantras out of the vast limitless Vedas. These are sufficient for our happiness here and salvation hereinafter as well as for universal welfare. Although we refer to the Vedas as four in number; there are different versions and differing methods of recitation of these four. These are called paataantharam or way of recitation.

Each school of recitation or recension is called a "saakha", meaning branch. Each of these is a branch of the Vedic tree. The Veda stands in majesty like a banyan tree with innumerable main and subsidiary branches. Even though it has innumerable branches, they have been classified and grouped as belonging to the main branches viz., the Rig, Yajus, Saama and Atharva which are called Rig Veda, yajur Veda, etc., because of their importance as a group.

Although modern research assigns to Rig Veda a date earlier than Yajur Veda, according to our Saastras, and our beliefs, they are all without beginning in time. No credence can be placed on the findings of researchers that this (Veda) came first or that came later when we find that, at the beginning of creation, all the four Vedas were available in the universe.

Similarly "researchers" err in deciding the sequence in which the portions of Vedas such as Samhita, Braahmana, and Aaranyaka are to be placed. Calculations on the time factor in regard to the origin or sequence of the Vedas would become inappropriate, if it is seen that the Vedas were discovered and presented to us by the Rishis when they reached a stage which transcended time and from which they could see the past, present and future. The extent of the discovery of the Veda mantras may have varied depending upon the period of transcendental state.

Rig Veda itself contains references to Yajus and Saama Veda in many places. Purusha Sookta, which appears in the tenth mandala, ninetieth hymn of Rig Veda, refers to the other Vedas as well. Does this not show that there can be no question of some Vedas being "earlier or later"?

In each Saakha, there are three portions called Samhita, Braahmana and Aaranyaka. This again is a classification. Generally when we speak of Veda adhyayana, we mean the recitation of the Samhita portion. This is because of the Samhitas are the foundation or life breath, as it were, of a Saakha.

Samhita means that which has been collected and arranged. It brings out the purport of a Veda in the shape of mantras, systematically arranged.

Source: “The Vedas” by Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati, published by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan and Sudkshina Trust, Mumbai 400 007.

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