Introduction
The word 'Veda'
is evolved from the root 'Vid' which means 'to know'. In other
words one can say that 'knowing' is synonymous to the word 'knowledge'. The term
'Veda' means knowledge.
Vedas are also known as 'Shru' the
word 'Shruti'is
evolved from the root 'Shru'
which means 'to hear'. It is said that the
Gods dictated the Vedas and the Sages first 'heard them' and memorised them. It
was passed on verbally to successive generations for thousands of years until it
was compiled in the form of books.
There are Four Vedas - Rigveda,
Yajurveda, Samveda and Atharvaveda.
The Richas of the Rigveda are eulogies and prayers through which deities have
been invoked. The Yajurveda speaks of the different types of Yagya (religious
sacrifices). The Samveda consists of many a richas which also finds mention in
'Rigveda'. These Samvedic Richas are famous for their lyrical and musical
beauty. The Atharvaveda contains a lot of information on both the material and
spiritual worlds.
What is the Rigveda? And what are its contents?
The Richas of the Rigveda are called 'Suktis, which mean
'beautiful statements'. In other words, a
collection of beautifully composed incantations is a Sukta. The Sukta is also
synonymous with the Richas. 'Rit' means - an incantation that contains
'eulogies' and 'Veda' means knowledge. It is difficult to understand the
Rigveda without proper understanding of vedic sanskrit, the language in which 'Richas'
or 'Suktas' were composed.
The Richas of the Rigveda are in fact eulogies through which deities have been
invoked. Apart from that, it also has incantations containing
'brilliant-thoughts', which our ancient sages arrived at after their minute
observations, contemplation and analysis of the natural phenomena they came
across. Each and every phenomenon of nature was a matter of contemplation for
the sages. They marveled at the orderly way in which mother nature functions.
The Rigvedic Richas are beautiful expressions of their feelings.
Rigveda is the oldest Veda. It comprises of 10
Mandals, 102 Suktas and contains 10,552
mantras. These mantras are filled with powerful
and inspiring thoughts. These Richas are inexhaustible sources of knowledge.
They enlighten the human mind by removing the darkness of ignorance. Darkness
symbolizes 'ignorance'
or 'lack of knowledge',
which makes us no better than an animal.
The Rigveda is divided into 2 parts-
(i) Mandal, Anuvak and Sukta
(ii) Ashtak, Adhgaya and Sukta
On the basis of the first division, the Rigveda consist of
10 Mandalas. Mandalas are comprised of Suktas while Suktas are comprised of
Richas. All together, there are 1028 Suktas in all the Ten mandalas. Evidently,
there is an uneven distribution of Suktas in all the Ten Mandalas. The First and
the Tenth Mandala contain the maximum number of Suktas(191) while the Second
Mandal contains just 43 Suktas.
The following chart shows the distribution of Suktas and mantras in every
Mandala
|
Mandala
|
Sukta |
Number
of Mantras |
|
1 |
191 |
2006 |
|
2 |
43 |
429 |
|
3 |
62 |
617 |
|
4 |
58 |
589 |
|
5 |
87 |
727 |
|
6 |
75 |
765 |
|
7 |
104 |
841 |
|
8 |
103 |
1716 |
|
9 |
114 |
1108 |
|
10 |
191 |
1754 |
|
10 |
1028 |
10,552 |