were a regular feature of the larger public rites of
the Vedic tradition.
Two other Vedas, the Yajur and Sama Vedas,
were based on the Rig Veda. That is, most of their
text is from the Rig Veda, but the words of the
prior text are reorganized for the purposes of the
rituals. Yajur Veda, the Veda of sacrificial formu-
las, which has two branches called the Black and
the White Yajur Vedas, contains the chants that
accompany most of the important ancient rites.
The Sama Veda, the Veda of sung chants, is very
much focused on the praise of the god Soma, the
personification of a drink taken at most rituals
that probably had psychedelic properties. Priests
of the three Vedas needed to be present for any
larger, public ritual. Later a fourth Veda, the
Atharva Veda, became part of the tradition. This
text consists primarily of spells and charms used
to ward off diseases or to influence events. This
text is considered the origin of Indian medicine,
the system of Ayurveda. There are also a number
of cosmogonic hymns in the Atharva Veda, which
show the development of the notion of divine
unity in the tradition. A priest of the Atharva
Veda was later included in all public rituals and
the tradition evolved to include four Vedas rather
than three.
Two important points must be understood
about the Vedic tradition. First, none of the Vedas
is considered composed by humans. All are con-
sidered to be “received” or “heard” by the rishis,
divinely inspired sages, whose names are noted at
the end of each hymn. Second, none of the text of
the Vedas was written down until the 15th century
C.E. The Vedic tradition was passed down from
mouth to ear for millennia and is, thus, the oral
tradition par excellence. The power of the word in
the Vedic tradition is considered an oral and aural
power, not a written one. The chant is seen as a
power to provide material benefit and spiritual
apotheosis. The great emphasis, therefore, was on
correct pronunciation and on memorization. Any
priest of the tradition was expected to have an
entire Veda memorized, including its nonmantric
portions (explained later).Any of the four Vedas is properly divided into
two parts, the mantra, or verse portion, and the
Brahmana, or explicatory portion. Both of these
parts of the text are considered revelation, or shruti.
The Brahmanas reflect on both the mantra text and
the ritual associated with it, giving very detailed,
varied, and arcane explication of them. The Brahma-
nas abound in equations between ritual aspects, the
ritual performers, and cosmic, terrestrial, and divine
realities. Early Western scholars tended to discount
these texts, as being nothing but priestly mumbo-
jumbo. But most recent work recognizes the central
importance of the Brahmanas to the development of
Indian thought and philosophy.
The name Brahmana derives from a central
word in the tradition, brahman. Brahman is generi-
cally the term for “prayer” but technically refers to
the power or magic of the Vedic mantras. (It also
was used to designate the one who prays, hence
the term Brahmin.) Brahman is from the root brih,
“to expand or grow,” and refers to the expansion
of the power of the prayer itself as the ritual pro-
ceeds; this power is understood as something to
be “stirred up” by the prayer. In later philosophy,
the term brahman refers to the transcendent, all-
encompassing reality.
The culmination of Brahmana thought is often
considered to be the Shatapatha Brahmana of the
White Yajur Veda. It makes explicit the religious
nature of the agnichayana fire ceremony, the larg-
est public ritual of the tradition. Shatapatha Brah-
mana makes clear that this public ritual is, in fact,
a reenactment of the primordial ritual described
in Rig Veda X. 90, the most important cosmogonic
hymn of the Vedas. This myth describes the ritual
immolation of a cosmic “Man,” whose parts are
apportioned to encompass all of the visible uni-
verse and everything beyond it that is not visible.
That is, the cosmic “Man” is ritually sacrificed to
create the universe. Shatapatha Brahmana delin-
eates how, at the largest public ritual in the tradi-
tion, the universe is essentially re-created yearly.
The Brahmana understands that, at its most per-
fect, the Vedic ritual ground is identical to all of
the universe, visible and invisible.Introduction xix Ji-xL-hindu-fm.indd xix 12/14/06 1:02:36 AM