Vedic religion,
Indian religion or Vedism
Ritual
is the laboratory where the mind is purified, settled, and prepared for higher
knowledge i.e., Para Vidya.
In this course, the participants will
learn to perform simple rituals, with the right understanding and attitude, and
integrate their value into their daily life.
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https://www.hua.edu/product/introduction-to-the-vedic-ritual/
Vedic religion,
also called Vedism, the religion of the ancient
Indo-European-speaking peoples who are presumed as Aryans who are supposed to
be entered India about
1500 BCE from the
region of present-day Iran.
It takes its name from the collections of sacred texts known as the Vedas.
Vedism is the oldest stratum of religious activity in India for which there
exist written materials. It was one of the major traditions that shaped as
pagan Hinduism
by the foreign rulers.
Knowledge of Vedic religion is derived
from surviving texts and also from certain rites that continue to be observed
within the framework of modern Hinduism. The earliest Vedic religious beliefs
included some held in common with other Indo-European-speaking peoples,
particularly with the early Iranians. Though it is impossible to say when
Vedism eventually gave way to classical Hinduism, a decrease in literary
activity among the Vedic schools from the 5th century BCE onward can be observed, and
about that time a more Hindu character began to appear.
Vedic texts
The only extant Vedic materials
are the texts known as the Vedas, which were composed and handed down orally
over a period of about 10 centuries, from about the 15th to the 5th
century BCE. The Vedic
corpus is composed in an archaic Sanskrit. The most important
texts are also the oldest ones. They are the four collections (Samhitas) that
are called the Veda,
or Vedas. The Rigveda,
or “Veda of Verses,” the earliest of those, is composed of about 1,000 hymns
addressed to various deities and mostly arranged to serve the needs of the
priestly families who were the custodians of that sacred
literature. The Yajurveda, or “Veda of
Sacrificial Formulas,” contains prose formulas applicable to various rites,
along with verses intended for a similar purpose. The Samaveda,
or “Veda of Chants,” is made up of a selection of verses—drawn almost wholly
from the Rigveda—that are provided with musical
notation and are intended as an aid to the
performance of sacred songs. Finally, the Atharvaveda is a
later compilation that
includes incantations and magic spells.
To each Veda is attached a body of
prose writings of later date called Brahmanas (c. 800–600 BCE), which explain the ceremonial
applications of the texts and the origin and importance of the sacrificial
rites for which the Vedas were composed. Further appendices, the Aranyakas (c. 600 BCE) and the Upanishads (c. 700–500 BCE), respectively expound the
symbolism of the more difficult rites and speculate on the nature of the
universe and humanity’s relation to it.
When Vedic religion gradually evolved into
Hinduism between the 6th and 2nd centuries BCE, the texts, taken collectively, became the most sacred
literature of Hinduism. They are known as Shruti (“What Is
Heard”), the divinely revealed section of Hindu literature—in contrast to the
later strata of
religious literature known as Smriti (“What Is
Remembered”), traditional texts attributed to human authors. But in modern
Hinduism the Shruti, with the exception of the Upanishads and a few hymns of
the Rigveda, is now little known, while some of the Smriti texts remain
extremely influential.
Mythology
Vedism was a polytheistic sacrificial
religion involving the worship of
numerous male divinities (and a few goddesses), most of whom were connected
with the sky and natural phenomena. The priests who officiated at that worship
were drawn from the Brahman social
class. The complex Vedic ceremonies, for which the
hymns of the Rigveda were composed, centered on the ritual sacrifice of animals and
the drinking of a sacred, mind-altering liquor pressed from a plant
called soma.
The basic Vedic rite was performed by offering those to a sacred fire, which
was itself deified as Agni and
which carried the oblations to the gods of the Vedic pantheon. Agni and Soma
were at the same time material elements of the ritual offering: Agni was the
fire of the sun, of lightning, and of burning wood; Soma was the deified aspect
of the liquid poured in the oblation. The god of highest rank, however,
was Indra,
a warlike god who conquered innumerable human and demon enemies and brought
back the sun after it had been stolen, among other feats. Another great deity
was Varuna,
who was the upholder of the cosmic and moral laws. Vedism had many other
lesser deities, among whom were gods, goddesses, demigods, and demons.
Ritual
The ancient Vedic worshippers offered
sacrifices to those gods in the hope that they in return would grant abundant
numbers of cattle, good fortune, good health, long life, and male progeny, among
other material benefits. To ensure the efficacy of their
prayers, the people came to believe that their offerings could be made more
acceptable to the gods if accompanied by songs of praise and other invocations
of the gods’ might and power. Thus originated the rites described in the Vedas.
Every sacrifice was performed on behalf of an individual, the patron or yajamana (“sacrificer”),
who bore the expenses.
The rites of Vedic sacrifice were
relatively simple in the early period, when the Rigveda was composed. They
required neither temples nor images. The ceremonies took place in an open space
that was consecrated afresh for
every important occasion. The altar (vedi) was a quadrangle marked out
by hollowing or slightly raising the ground. The agnyadheya (“installation
of the fire”) was a necessary preliminary to all the large public rituals and
was preceded by the patron’s fast.
The sacrifices themselves were of two
major types—domestic (grihya) and public (srauta, or vaitanika).
The domestic rites were observed by the householder himself or with the help of
a single priest and were performed over the domestic hearth fire. Some occurred
daily or monthly, and others accompanied a particular event, such as the samskaras,
sacraments marking each stage of an upper-caste Indian’s life, from conception to death.
The grand rites performed in public, by
contrast, lasted several days or months and could usually be undertaken only by
wealthy men or kings. They required the services of many priests and were
usually performed at three fire-altars. Most characteristic of the public
ceremonies was the soma sacrifice, which ensured the prosperity and well-being
of both human beings and gods. In that basic ritual, a lay sacrifice was first
consecrated, after which juice was pressed three times from the soma plant, part
being offered to the fire and part consumed by the priests. Each of the three
occasions was preceded and followed by recitations and chants. Edibles such as
meat, butter, milk, and barley cake could also be offered to a sacred fire.
Animal sacrifice—the killing of a ram
or goat—existed either independently or as an integral part of the
sacrifice of soma. The celebrated ashvamedha, “horse
sacrifice,” was an elaborate variant of the soma sacrifice. Human sacrifice (purushamedha)
is described and alluded to as a former
practice but probably was merely symbolic. The sacrifice of the mythical
giant Purusha, from whose
dismembered limbs sprang up the four major social classes (varnas),
probably served as a model for the conjectured human sacrifices. Other
ceremonies marked fixed dates of the lunar calendar, such as the
full or new moon or the change of seasons.
Development and decline
Over the centuries, the Vedic rites
became increasingly complex and governed by innumerable rules, which were
embodied, together with the hymns and prayer formulas used, in
the Vedas. During the late Vedic period the complexities of ritual
were emphasized to such an extent that only highly trained Brahmans could carry
them out correctly, and it was maintained that improperly or incorrectly
performed rites could, unless rectified, bring about disaster or death.
In reaction against this excessive
emphasis on ritual (as well as the growing power of the Brahmans), Vedic
thought in its late period became more speculative and philosophical in
approach. Much speculation was directed toward the search for harmony and for
correspondences between macrocosm and microcosm, with the ultimate goal being a
reduction of reality to an all-embracing unity by way of successive equations.
In the Aranyakas, Vedic ritual is interpreted in a symbolic rather than literal
manner, and the Upanishads question the very assumptions on which Vedism
rested. The crucial idea that emerged from that period of intense questioning
was that of brahman, the ultimate
reality and also a sort of guiding principle. The central theme of the
Upanishads is that the atman,
the unchanging core of a human
being, is a part of brahman. The equation
of atman with brahman became the basis of Hindu metaphysics. The spread in the
6th century BCE of the
related concepts of reincarnation,
of karma,
and of the attainment of release (moksha) from this cycle (samsara)
by meditation rather than through
sacrifice marked the end of the Vedic period.
The legacy of Vedic worship
is apparent in several aspects of modern Hinduism. The basic stratification of
Vedic society into four varnas—the Brahmans (priests), Kshatriyas (warriors
or rulers), Vaishyas (traders),
and Shudras (servants)—by
and large persisted in later Hinduism. Sacrifices performed according to Vedic
rites continue to be performed in India occasionally, and the offering of
oblations to a sacred fire (homa) is an important element of much modern
Hindu worship (see yajna). The Hindu rite of
initiation (upanayama) is another direct survival of Vedic
tradition. Vishnu and Shiva,
the major deities of classical Hinduism, are briefly mentioned in Vedic
mythology, and Indra remains the king of the gods in narratives, although he is
no longer worshipped.
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