Veda, a collection of poems or hymns composed inarchaicSanskrit by Indo-European-speaking peoples who lived in northwest India during the 2nd millenniumbce. No definite date can be ascribed to thecomposition of the Vedas, but the period of about 1500–1200bce is acceptable to most scholars. The hymns formed a liturgical body that in part grew up around thesoma ritual and sacrifice and were recited or chanted during rituals. They praised a wide pantheon of gods, some of whom personified natural and cosmic phenomena, such as fire (Agni), the Sun (Surya and Savitri), dawn (Ushas, a goddess), storms (theRudras), and rain (Indra), while others represented abstract qualities such as friendship (Mitra),moral authority (Varuna), kingship (Indra), and speech (Vach, a goddess).

The foremost collection, orSamhita, of such poems, from which thehotri (“reciter”) drew the material for his recitations, is theRigveda (“Knowledge of the Verses”). Sacred formulas known asmantras were recited by theadhvaryu, the priest responsible for the sacrificial fire and for carrying out the ceremony. Thosemantras and verses were drawn into the Samhita known as theYajurveda (“Knowledge of the Sacrifice”). A third group of priests, headed by theudgatri (“chanter”), performed melodic recitations linked to verses that were drawn almost entirely from the Rigveda but were arranged as a separate Samhita, theSamaveda (“Knowledge of the Chants”). Those three Vedas—Rig, Yajur, and Sama—were known as thetrayi-vidya (“threefold knowledge”). A fourth collection of hymns, magic spells, and incantations is known as theAtharvaveda (“Knowledge of the Fire Priest”), which includes various local traditions and remains partly outside the Vedic sacrifice.

A few centuries later, perhaps about 900bce, theBrahmanas were composed as glosses on the Vedas, containing manymyths and explanations of rituals. The Brahmanas were followed by other texts,Aranyakas (“Forest Books”) andUpanishads, which took philosophical discussions in new directions,invoking a doctrine of monism and freedom (moksha, literally “release”) from the cycle of death and rebirth (samsara).

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The entire corpus of Vedic literature—the Samhitas, the Brahmanas, the Aranyakas, and the Upanishads—is consideredShruti (“What Is Heard”), the product of divine revelation. The whole of the literature seems to have been preserved orally (although there may have been early manuscripts to assist memory). To this day, several of these works, notably the three oldest Vedas, are recited with subtleties of intonation and rhythm that have been handed down orally from the early days ofVedic religion in India.