Division of one Veda into four and development of many S’akas or branches.
Veda Vyasa collected, consolidated, and classified the Vedas into the 4 Samhitas, the Brahmanas, the Aranyakas and the Upanishads.
- Different brahmans had different functions in a yajna (yaj: means to worship, yajna is worship. I think many people inaccurately translate the word yajna as sacrifice).
Vyasa taught each of these functionaries a different set of Veda Mantrams and asked them to perform the Yajnams together. So for a complete understanding, we need to study the Vedas all together with the gestures and the actions to be performed along with the yajnam.
I also think that since other gurus such as Gauthama also taught the Vedas prior to Vyasa, their students, may have preserved a different order or classification of the Veda Mantras. We need to know where to find these versions. Different branches of these Vedas evolved over time.
As per the Vishnu Puranam, Vyasa taught :
- Rig Veda to Paila
- Yajur Veda to Vaisampayana
- Sama Veda to Jaimini
- Atharva Veda to Sumanthu
- Puranas and Itihasas to Romaharshana.
Here is the description from the Srimad Bhagavatham:
Source : 1.4.15 to 1.4.23
Vyasadeva purified himself in the Sarasvati River and sat by her banks and meditated at sun-rise. He thought about the Dharma in the different Yugas. He observed the fall in Dharma, the decreased longevities and competencies of the people. He divided the Single Veda into 4 Vedas : ṛg-yajuḥ-sāma-atharva as well as the puranas and the itihasas and taught them as follows. The Sakas are branches of the Vedas grew as each student acquired disciples and grand-disciples of his own.
- Rig Veda to Paila
- Yajur Veda to Vaisampayana
- Sama Veda to Jaimini
- Atharva Veda to Angirasa also known as Sumanthu (1.4.22)
- Puranas and Itihasas to Romaharshana, the father of Ugrasrava.
(Note : Max Mueller theorised that the Vedas were written one after the other at arbitrary and equally spaced intervals and treated the Rg Veda as the oldest. (This also explains the western obsession with the Rg Veda alone. My study, so far, shows that this theory of Max Mueller was not only wrong but also baseless, as per his own admission. There are Veda Mantrams in all the 4 Vedas that are composed at different points in time as revealed by astronomic dating and by the age and time of the rshis who composed/received them. See : Date of Veda Mantras.)
The Shakalya branch is what I found online here, so I shall go along with this, at least for now.
Authorship and Copyright Notice : All rights reserved : Satya Sarada Kandula
Namaskar,
I was hoping you might beable to tell me or maybe you have some astrological insights of the relevance/significance that Lord Narasimhadeva appearance day is on a Chaturdasi tithi?
Thanks for all the nice info on your blogs.
Im going to make a link from my website to your blogs.
Lakshmi Kary
Lakshmi Kary
April 29, 2009 at 2:14 am
Thank You Lakshmi and Namaskar.
Did you find a home for your calf?
I will see if I find any data about your question, but it may take a long time for the answer. It is a good question to think about!
Satya
satyask
April 29, 2009 at 11:28 am
Dear Sarada – Let me make some observations on your write-up. You are absolutely right in saying Max Mueller was wrong in his assumption that the Vedas have been ‘composed’ one after another.
Recently I was studying Rudra Prasna chapter of Yajurveda Taittariya Samhita. It contains both riks (Rigveda mantras) and yajus (yajurveda mantras) Vyasa collected hymns addressed to Rudra and placed at one place for further use. From Krishna onwards every body used Vyasa’s version. Each mantra in this has a separate rishi of variable times. Vyasa is thus the editor of the Kaliyuga’s classified books of Vedas. Incidentally Aswatthama is identified as the next Vyasa. This means Veda is also is periodically edited to suit the needs of a particular yuga. (It is observed that we are in the yugantha of Kali, the four lakh odd years of Purana is a different figure.
Sukla Yajurveda is secured by the sage Yajnavalkya who was a sishya of Vaisampayana. This version was obtained from the Sun god after he had to abandon the ancient Yajurveda. Yajnavalkya is the chief character of Brihadaranyaka Upanishad
V.V.S. Sarma
March 9, 2010 at 5:19 pm
In Vibhuti yoga of Bhagavadgita Krishna says ‘Among Vedas I am Sama Veda. Generally, he identified himself with the best in that category. He said he is Samkara among Rudras. Why Samaveda, and not the other two of Trayi (Rik, Yajus and Sama)?
Do you have some thoughts on this?
V.V.S. Sarma
March 9, 2010 at 6:56 pm
I think a lot about this point. The mantras are the same with a few extra in sama veda.
It is the sapta swaras which characterise the sama veda as contrasted to the trisvaras of the rk, and yajur vedas…
so perhaps the sama veda is sampoorna in that sense.. but I am speculating at this time….
satyask
March 9, 2010 at 9:38 pm
dear maam’ thank you for sending this blog as a refreshment to our day to day life. please continue to send me ur emails as its a vast subject but will be for my better knowledge..thanks
sudeshkumar salian
May 21, 2011 at 2:32 am
I would like to know the relationship between the four vedas and Mantras, Brahmanas, Aryanakas and Upanishad. Are the four divisions of each veda or the teachings of vedas can be classified in these four categories?
Chanchal Gayen
September 14, 2011 at 12:17 am