Rigveda: The Oldest Sanskrit Text and Its Hymns, c. 1500 BC

The Rigveda is a collection of 1,028 Sanskrit hymns, composed in north-western South Asia mainly between about 1500 and 1200 BC. It is the oldest of the four Vedas, the most ancient scripture of Hinduism, and the earliest substantial text in any Indo-Aryan language. Memorised and recited for more than three thousand years, it is also the main source for the history of the early Vedic period.

What the Rigveda is

The name combines ṛc, meaning “praise” or “verse”, and veda, meaning “knowledge”. The Rigveda is not a single book written by one author but an anthology of hymns, called suktas, composed by many poet-priests over several generations.

The hymns are arranged in ten books, each called a mandala (“circle”). The standard text has 1,028 hymns, including 11 supplementary hymns known as the Valakhilya, and a little over 10,500 verses. The hymns use a variety of poetic metres, of which the most common are the trishtubh and the gayatri.

Most hymns were meant to be recited during rituals. They praise gods, ask them for help and describe the sacrifices offered to them. Many are complex works of art, full of riddles, word play and allusions that were clear to their original audience but are often difficult for modern readers.

Structure and authors

Books 2 to 7 are called the “family books”, because each is attributed to a particular family of poets: Gritsamada (Book 2), Vishvamitra (Book 3), Vamadeva (Book 4), Atri (Book 5), Bharadvaja (Book 6) and Vasishtha (Book 7). These are generally considered the oldest layer.

Books 1 and 10 were added later and contain hymns by many different poets. Book 9 is entirely devoted to Soma, the sacred drink, as it is purified for the ritual. Book 10, usually regarded as the latest, includes some of the most famous philosophical hymns, such as the creation hymn known as the Nasadiya Sukta (10.129), which asks how the universe began and ends with doubt about whether even the highest being knows. It also contains the Purusha Sukta (10.90), the earliest text to name the four varnas.

A few hymns are attributed to women poets, such as Lopamudra and Ghosha. The authorship traditions were preserved by later scholars, though historians treat them with caution.

Gods and beliefs

The Rigveda’s gods are mostly connected with nature and the ritual. Indra, the warrior god who slays the serpent Vritra and releases the waters, receives about a quarter of all the hymns. Agni, the god of fire, comes next; he carries offerings to the gods, and the very first hymn of the Rigveda is addressed to him.

Soma, the deified ritual drink, is the subject of all of Book 9. Its source plant is unknown; suggestions include ephedra and certain mushrooms, but there is no agreement. Other important deities include Varuna and Mitra, guardians of the cosmic order called rita; Ushas, the dawn; Surya, the sun; Rudra, a feared storm god later linked with Shiva; and the twin Ashvins, healers and horsemen.

Several of these gods have parallels in other Indo-European traditions. The Rigvedic sky father Dyaus Pitar corresponds to the Greek Zeus and the Roman Jupiter, and Mitra corresponds to the Iranian Mithra.

What it tells historians

The Rigveda is a religious text, not a chronicle, but it reveals much about early Vedic society. Its geography centres on the Indus and the rivers of the Punjab and eastern Afghanistan, with the Sarasvati praised as a mighty river and the Ganges mentioned only rarely.

The hymns describe a society of cattle herders who also grew barley, used horses and spoked-wheel chariots, and fought frequent wars over cattle and pasture. They name tribes such as the Bharatas, Purus and Yadus, and they record conflicts like the Battle of the Ten Kings. Its language, an archaic form of Sanskrit close to the Avestan of ancient Iran, is key evidence for the Indo-Aryan migrations into South Asia.

The dating rests mainly on language and on comparisons with other evidence, such as the Mitanni treaty of about 1380 BC, which names the Vedic gods Indra, Varuna, Mitra and the Nasatyas. The Rigveda mentions copper or bronze (ayas) but not clearly iron, which appears in later Vedic texts. This is one reason it is generally placed before about 1200–1000 BC.

Oral transmission

For many centuries the Rigveda existed only in memory. Brahmin families trained boys from childhood to recite it perfectly, with exact pronunciation and pitch accents. To prevent errors, they learned the text in several forms: as continuous recitation, as separate words (the padapatha), and in complex patterns in which words are repeated in different orders, such as the jatapatha and ghanapatha.

This system was so effective that versions recited in different parts of India today agree almost perfectly. Many scholars regard it as one of the most accurate oral traditions ever recorded. The text was eventually written down, but the oldest surviving manuscripts are from the 2nd millennium AD.

In 2007 UNESCO added a collection of 30 Rigveda manuscripts held at the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute in Pune to its Memory of the World Register. Vedic chanting itself was proclaimed part of the world’s intangible heritage in 2003.

Study and translation

In India, scholars wrote commentaries on the Rigveda for centuries. The most influential, by Sayana in the 14th century AD at the Vijayanagara court, remains an important aid to interpretation.

In Europe, the German-born scholar Max Müller published the first printed edition of the Rigveda with Sayana’s commentary between 1849 and 1874. Translations followed by Hermann Grassmann, Ralph Griffith, Karl Friedrich Geldner and others. The first complete English translation by modern scholarly standards, by Stephanie Jamison and Joel Brereton, appeared in 2014.

Myths and facts

Myth: the Rigveda is tens of thousands of years old. Some popular writers give very early dates, but its language, its geography and the comparison with the Mitanni texts place it in the 2nd millennium BC. Mainstream scholarship dates most hymns to roughly 1500–1200 BC.

Myth: it was written down from the start. The Rigveda was composed and transmitted orally. Writing is not mentioned in the hymns, and there is no evidence of a written copy until many centuries later.

Myth: it describes temple worship. The Rigveda contains no clear reference to temples or to worship of images. Its religion centred on fire sacrifices performed in open ritual spaces, often at the patron’s home.

Fact: it is a living text. The Gayatri Mantra (3.62.10), addressed to the sun god Savitr, and the wedding hymn of Book 10 are still recited in Hindu ceremonies today.

Timeline

• c. 1500–1200 BC: Composition of most Rigvedic hymns, beginning with the family books.
• c. 1380 BC: The Mitanni treaty names gods also found in the Rigveda.
• c. 1200–1000 BC: Compilation of the hymns into a fixed collection, possibly in the Kuru realm.
• 14th century AD: Sayana writes his commentary on the Rigveda.
• 1849–1874: Max Müller publishes the first printed edition.
• 2003: UNESCO proclaims Vedic chanting a masterpiece of intangible heritage.
• 2007: Rigveda manuscripts in Pune join the Memory of the World Register.
• 2014: Jamison and Brereton publish a complete English translation.

Why it matters

The Rigveda is a foundation text of Hinduism and one of the oldest religious works still in active use anywhere. For historians and linguists it is a unique window into the society, beliefs and language of South Asia in the 2nd millennium BC, and into the shared heritage of the Indo-European languages from India to Europe.