Rigveda: Difference between revisions

{{Short description|First sacred canonical text of Hinduism}}

The '''''Rigveda''''' or '''''Rig Veda''''' ({{Lang-sa|[[wikt:ऋग्वेद#Sanskrit|ऋग्वेद]]}} ''{{IAST|ṛgveda}}'', from ''{{IAST|[[wikt:ऋच्#Sanskrit|ṛc]]}}'' "praise"<ref>Derived from the root ''{{IAST|ṛc}}'' "to praise", cf. Dhātupātha 28.19. [[Monier-Williams]] translates ''Rigveda'' as "a Veda of Praise or Hymn-Veda".</ref> and ''{{IAST|[[wikt:वेद#Sanskrit|veda]]}}'' "knowledge") is an [[ancient Indian]] [[miscellany|collection]] of [[Vedic Sanskrit]] [[hymn]]s (''sūktas''). It is one of the four sacred canonical [[Hindu texts]] (''[[śruti]]'') known as the [[Vedas]].{{sfn|Witzel|1997|pp=259{{ndash}}264}}<ref>Antonio de Nicholas (2003), ''Meditations Through the Rig Veda: Four-Dimensional Man'', New York: Authors Choice Press, {{ISBN|978-0-595-26925-9}}, p. 273</ref>

The ''Rigveda'''s core is accepted to date to the late [[Bronze Age]], making it one of the few examples with an unbroken tradition. Its composition is usually dated to roughly between c. 1500 and 1000&nbsp;BCE.{{refn|group=note|name="dating"}} According to [[Michael Witzel]], the codification of the ''Rigveda'' took place at the end of the Rigvedic period between ca. 1200 and 1000&nbsp;BCE, in the early [[Kuru (India)|Kuru]] kingdom.{{sfn|Witzel|2019|p=11|ps=: "Incidentally, the Indo-Aryan loanwords in Mitanni confirm the date of the ''Rig Veda'' for ca. 1200–1000 BCE. The ''Rig Veda'' is a late Bronze age text, thus from before 1000 BCE. However, the Mitanni words have a form of Indo-Aryan that is slightly older than that ... Clearly the ''Rig Veda'' cannot be older than ca. 1400, and taking into account a period needed for linguistic change, it may not be much older than ca. 1200 BCE."}} [[Asko Parpola]] argues that the ''Rigveda'' was systematized around 1000&nbsp;BCE, at the time of the Kuru kingdom.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DagXCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT149|title=The Roots of Hinduism: The Early Aryans and the Indus Civilization|author=Asko Parpola|publisher=Oxford University Press|page=149|isbn=978-0-19-022693-0|year=2015}}</ref>

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! Book !! Clan !! Region{{sfn|Witzel|1997|p=262}}

Several [[shakha]]s (from skt. ''śākhā'' f. "branch", i. e. "recension") of the Rig Veda are known to have existed in the past. Of these, [[Shakala Shakha|Śākala Śākhā]] (named after the scholar [[Shakalya|Śākalya]]) is the only one to have survived in its entirety. Another śākhā that may have survived is the Bāṣkala, although this is uncertain.<ref>{{harvnb|Witzel|2003|p=69}}. "The RV has been transmitted in one recension (the ''śākhā'' of Śākalya) while others (such as the Bāṣkala text) have been lost or are only rumored about so far."</ref><ref>Maurice Winternitz (''History of Sanskrit Literature'', Revised English Translation Edition, 1926, vol. 1, p. 57) says that "Of the different recensions of this Saṃhitā, which once existed, only a single one has come down to us." He adds in a note (p. 57, note 1) that this refers to the "recension of the Śākalaka-School."</ref><ref>Sures Chandra Banerji (''A Companion To Sanskrit Literature'', Second Edition, 1989, Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, pp. 300{{ndash}}301) says that "Of the 21 recensions of this Veda, that were known at one time, we have got only two, viz. ''Śākala'' and ''Vāṣkala''."</ref>

===Sanskrit grammarians===

According to Dayananda and Aurobindo the Vedic scholars had a monotheistic conception.<ref name=vpvarma/> [[Sri Aurobindo]] gave commentaries, general interpretation guidelines, and a partial translation in ''The secret of Veda'' (1946).{{refn|group=note|See [https://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/The-Secret-Of-The-Veda-Aurobindo.pdf]''}} Sri Aurobindo finds Sayana's interpretation to be ritualistic in nature, and too often having inconsistent interpretations of Vedic terms, trying to fit the meaning to a narrow mold. Accorording to Aurobindo, if Sayana's interepretation were to be accepted, it would seem as if the Rig Veda belongs to an unquestioning tradition of faith, starting from an original error.{{sfn|Sri Aurobindo|1998|p=20-21}} Aurobindo attempted to interpret hymns to Agni in the ''Rigveda'' as mystical.<ref name=vpvarma/> Aurobindo states that the Vedic hymns were a quest after a higher truth, define the ''Rta'' (basis of [[Dharma]]), conceive life in terms of a struggle between the forces of light and darkness, and sought the ultimate reality.<ref name=vpvarma>''The Political Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo'' by V.&nbsp;P. Varma (1960), Motilal Banarsidass, p. 139, {{ISBN|978-81-208-0686-3}}</ref>

The ''Rigveda'' is considered particularly difficult to translate, owing to its length, poetic nature, the language itself, and the absence of any close contemporary texts for comparison.{{sfn|Stephanie W. Jamison (tr.)|Joel P. Brereton (tr.)|2014|pp=3, 76}}<ref>{{cite book|author=John J. Lowe|title=Participles in Rigvedic Sanskrit: The Syntax and Semantics of Adjectival Verb Forms|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u7u6BwAAQBAJ |year=2015|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-870136-1|page=329}}</ref><!--Second citation discusses the complexity of the language but I can't find where it specifically says translation is difficult.--> Staal describes it as the most "obscure, distant and difficult for moderns to understand". As a result, he says, it "is often misinterpreted" – with many early translations containing straightforward errors – "or worse: used as a peg on which to hang an idea or a theory."<ref>Frits Staal (2009), Discovering the Vedas: Origins, Mantras, Rituals, Insights, Penguin, {{ISBN|978-0-14-309986-4}}, p. 107</ref><ref name=fritsstaal/> Another issue is technical terms such as ''[[mandala]]'', conventionally translated "book", but more literally rendered "cycle".<ref name=fritsstaal/><ref>A.&nbsp;A. MacDonnel (2000 print edition), ''India's Past: A Survey of Her Literatures, Religions, Languages and Antiquities'', Asian Educational Services, {{ISBN|978-81-206-0570-1}}, p. 15</ref> Karen Thomson argues, as linguists in the nineteenth century had done ([[Max Müller|Friedrich Max Müller]], [[Rudolf von Roth]], [[William Dwight Whitney]], [[Theodor Benfey]], [[John Muir (indologist)|John Muir]], Edward Vernon Arnold), that the apparent obscurity derives from the failure to discard a mass of assumptions about ritual meaning inherited from Vedic tradition.<ref>{{cite journal |author = Karen Thomson |title=Speak for itself: how the long history of guesswork and commentary on a unique corpus of poetry has rendered it incomprehensible |journal=Times Literary Supplement |date=2016 |volume=Jan 8 |page=3 |url=http://www.rigveda.co.uk/speak-for-itself.pdf |access-date=29 January 2022}}(review of Jamison and Brereton, ''The Rigveda. The Earliest Religious Poetry of India''. OUP 2014)</ref><ref>{{cite journal |author = Karen Thomson |title=A still undeciphered text: how the scientific approach to the Rigveda would open up Indo-European studies | url=http://www.rigveda.co.uk/asut1.pdf |journal=Journal of Indo-European Studies |date=2009 |volume=37 |pages=1–47}}</ref>

Translations have since been made in several languages, including French and Russian.{{sfn|Stephanie W. Jamison (tr.)|Joel P. Brereton (tr.)|2014|pp=19{{ndash}}20}} [[Karl Friedrich Geldner]] completed the first scholarly translation in the 1920s, which was published after his death.{{sfn|Stephanie W. Jamison (tr.)|Joel P. Brereton (tr.)|2014|pp=19{{ndash}}20}} Translations of shorter cherrypicked anthologies have also been published, such as those by [[Wendy Doniger]] in 1981 and Walter Maurer in 1986, although Jamison and Brereton say they "tend to create a distorted view" of the text.{{sfn|Stephanie W. Jamison (tr.)|Joel P. Brereton (tr.)|2014|pp=19{{ndash}}20}} In 1994, Barend A. van Nooten and Gary B. Holland published the first attempt to restore the entirety of the ''Rigveda'' to its poetic form, systematically identifying and correcting sound changes and [[sandhi]] combinations which had distorted the original [[Metre (poetry)|metre]] and meaning.<ref>B. van Nooten and G. Holland, Rig Veda. A metrically restored text. Cambridge: Harvard Oriental Series 1994</ref><ref> Karen Thomson and Jonathan Slocum (2006). Online edition of van Nooten and Holland's metrically restored text, University of Texas. https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/lrc/rigveda/index.php </ref>

* {{annotated link|Keśin}}

* {{annotated link|Mayabheda}}

* [http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/lrc/RV/index.html Transliteration, metrically restored] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304124610/http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/lrc/RV/index.html |date=4 March 2016 }} online text, at: Linguistics Research Center, Univ. of Texas