Black and the White Yajur Vedas; it contains the
chants that accompanied most of the important
ancient rites. The Sama Veda, the Veda of sung
chants, is largely focused on the praise of the
god Soma, the personification of a sacred drink
imbibed during most rituals that probably had
psychedelic properties. Priests of the three Vedas
needed to be present for any larger, public ritual.
The Atharva Veda became part of the greater
tradition somewhat later. It consists primarily
of spells and charms used to ward off diseases
or influence events. This text is considered the
source document for Indian medicine (AYURVEDA).
It also contains a number of cosmogonic hymns
that 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. From that
time tradition spoke of four Vedas rather than
three.
In the Vedic tradition, the Vedas are not con-
sidered to be human compositions. They were
all “received” by RISHIS or seers whose names are
frequently noted at the end of a hymn. Whatever
their origin, none of the texts was written until
the 15th century C.E. They were thus passed
down from mouth to ear for at least 3,000 years.
It is an 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
chanting itself has the power to provide material
benefit and spiritual apotheosis. Great emphasis,
therefore, was laid on correct pronunciation and
on memorization. Any priest of the tradition
was expected to have an entire Veda memorized,
including all its components, as detailed in the
following.
Each of the four Vedas is properly divided
into two parts, the MANTRA, or verse portion, and
the BRAHMANA, or explicatory portion. Both parts
are considered revelation or SHRUTI. The Brahma-
nas comment on both the mantra text and the
rituals associated with it, in very detailed, varied,
and esoteric fashion. They repeatedly equate the
rituals and those performing them with cosmic,
terrestrial, and divine realities. Early Western
scholars tended to discount these texts as priestly
mumbo-jumbo, but later scholarship has recog-
nized the central importance of the Brahmanas to
the development of Indian thought and philoso-
phy. It is not known when the various subdivi-
sions of the Vedas were identified and named.
The name Brahmana derives from a central
word in the tradition, BRAHMAN. Brahman is generi-
cally the name for “prayer,” specifically the power
or magic of the Vedic mantras. (It also was used
to designate the “one who prays,” hence the term
BRAHMIN for priest). 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. The brahman is said to be “stirred up” by
the prayer. In later philosophy, brahman was the
transcendent, all-encompassing reality.
The culmination of Brahmana philosophy is
often said to be found in the SHATAPATHA BRAH-
MANA of the White Yajur Veda, which explicates
the AGNICAYANA, the largest public ritual of the
tradition. Shatapatha Brahmana 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.
That hymn describes the ritual immolation of a
cosmic “man,” who is parceled out to encompass
all of the visible universe and everything beyond
that is not visible. That is, the cosmic “man” is
ritually sacrificed to create the universe. Through
the annual agnichayana, the universe is essentially
re-created every year. The Brahmana understands
that, at its most perfect, the Vedic ritual ground is
identical to all the universe, visible and invisible.
The Brahmanas contained two important sub-
divisions that were important in the development
of later tradition. The first is called the ARANYAKA;
this portion of the text apparently pertained to
activity in the forest (aranya).
The Aranyakas contain evidence of an eso-
teric version of Vedic yajna, or ritual practice,
that was done by adepts internally. They would
essentially perform the ritual mentally, as thoughVeda 481 J