it were being done in their own body and being.
This practice was not unprecedented, since the
priests of the Atharva Veda, though present at all
public rituals, perform their role mentally and do
not chant. However, the esoteric Aranyaka rituals
were performed only internally. From this we can
see the development of the notion that the adept
himself was yajna or ritual.
The UPANISHADS, a second subdivision within
Brahmanas, were the last of the Vedic subdivi-
sions, commonly found within the Aranyakas.
Many of these texts, as did the Brahmanas in
general, contained significant material reflecting
on the nature of the Vedic sacrifice. In fact, the
divisions among Brahmana proper, Aranyaka, and
Upanishad are not always clear. The most impor-
tant feature of the Upanishads was the emergence
of a clear understanding of the identity between
the individual self, or AT M A N, and the all-encom-
passing brahman, which now was understood as
the totality of universal reality, both manifest and
unmanifest.
The genesis of this Upanishadic view that the
self was in unity with cosmic reality can be clearly
traced. Firstly, Shatapatha Brahmana explained
that the most perfect ritual was to be equated to
the universe itself. More accurately it was the uni-
verse, visible and invisible. Second, the Aranyakas
began to make clear that the initiated practitioner
was to be equated to the ritual itself. So, if the
ritual equals all reality, and the individual adept
equals the ritual, one easily arrives at the idea that
the individual equals all reality. The Upanishads,
then, were the outgrowth not of philosophical
speculation, but of self-conscious ritual practice.
The later orthodox Upanishads (those physically
associated with a Vedic collection) barely mention
the rituals; they merely state the derived abstract
concepts.
Another key breakthrough in the Upanishads
was the explicit discussion of REINCARNATION
and the theory of KARMA, the notion that actions
in this birth would have consequence in a new
birth. There is evidence that karma, or ethi-
cally conditioned rebirth, had its roots in earlier
Vedic thought. But its full expression in VEDANTA
(Hindu philosophy) had to wait for the Upani-
shads. There, the earlier notion of reaching unity
with the ultimate reality was seen not merely as a
spiritual apotheosis, but also as a way out of the
trap of rebirth (and redeath).
Many texts have called themselves the “fifth
Veda” to emphasize their importance in the tradi-
tion. The ARTHASHASTRA, the NATYASHASTRA, and
the MAHABHARATA all have claimed that designa-
tion. Sometimes the TANTRA also refers to itself as
the fifth Veda.
Tamil SHAIVITES or the Tamil Vaishnavites refer
to their sacred texts, respectively, the TEVARAM
and the Nalayira Divya Prabantham, as the Tamil
Veda. Other local traditions in various languages
do likewise.
The term Veda is also sometimes used generi-
cally in other fields of knowledge. Medicine,
for example, is referred to as the “Veda of Life”
(AYURVEDA), and the study of war is the “Veda of
the Bow” (Dhanurveda).Further reading: Faddegon Barend, Studies in the
Samaveda (Amsterdam: North-Holland, 1951); S. N.
Dasgupta, History of Indian Philosophy. Vol. 1 (Delhi:
Motilal Banarsidass, 1975); Jan Gonda, Vedic Literature
(Samhitas and Brahmanas): A History of Indian Lit-
erature, Vol. 1, no. 1 (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz,
1975); Thomas Hopkins, The Hindu Religious Tradition
(Encino, Calif.: Dickenson, 1971); J. C. Heesterman,
The Broken World of Sacrifice: An Essay on Ancient Indian
Ritual (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993);
Brian K. Smith, Reflections on Resemblance, Ritual and
Religion (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989);
Frits Staal, AGNI: The Altar of Fire, 2 vols. (Berkeley,
Calif.: Asian Humanities Press, 1983).Vedangas
The Vedangas, or “branches of the VEDA,” are
six ancillary sciences of traditional Brahminical
learning: shiksha (proper pronunciation), kalpaK 482 Vedangas