Śruti / The four Vedas / Ṛgveda · 2 of 10
2. Ṛta and the gods
Ṛgveda (ऋग्वेद)
The Ṛgveda (ऋग्वेद) is the hymn book. The tradition arranges it in ten maṇḍala (मण्डल). Maṇḍalas 2 through 7 are the family books. The traditional account gives them to Gṛtsamada, Viśvāmitra, Vāmadeva, Atri, Bharadvāja, and Vasiṣṭha. Modern scholarship usually treats maṇḍalas 1 and 10 as later additions. Maṇḍala 8 belongs largely to the Kaṇva family, and maṇḍala 9 gathers the Soma (सोम) hymns of many families. This page does not turn those attributions into a dated history, and it does not invent a count of hymns.
The word the hymns trust is ṛta (ऋत). It is the order: the way dawn actually comes, the way water actually falls, the way speech is true when it matches what is. Varuṇa (वरुण) is the guardian of that order. He sees, and the hymn speaks to him as to someone from whom a fault cannot be hidden. Later books will say dharma (धर्म). In these hymns the prior word is ṛta. The dharma-śāstras are another shelf.
Agni (अग्नि) is fire and the priest. He carries what is offered. He is the mouth of the gods in the hymn's own picture, because the offering goes into the flame. Indra (इन्द्र) is the fighter the hymns praise for striking Vṛtra (वृत्र), the serpent who held the waters, so that the rivers could move. The page names that deed. It does not teach a blow. Soma (सोम) is the pressed drink and the god of that drink, gathered in the ninth maṇḍala. Mitra (मित्र) is named beside Varuṇa, the one who keeps agreements. Uṣas (उषस्) is dawn, praised as she arrives. The Aśvins (अश्विन्) are the twin helpers who come when called. The Maruts (मरुत्) are the storm band. Viṣṇu (विष्णु) in these hymns is the wide-strider, the one whose three steps measure the world. The purāṇic fullness of the avatāras is later. Rudra (रुद्र) has fewer hymns, and they are fierce: he is asked to spare the cattle and the people. The long homage of Śrī Rudram belongs to the Yajurveda, in a later sitting. Sarasvatī (सरस्वती) is a river and she is speech. The goddess of learning, as a household knows her now, is a further life of that name.Three passages in the tenth and third maṇḍalas are the ones a reader meets first when the question is what this Veda thinks, and what a daily recitation is actually quoting. They are the next three sittings. Each one sits a single secure verse and tells the rest.
नेपालीमा
ऋग्वेद दश मण्डलमा राखिएको छ। दोस्रोदेखि सातौंसम्म कुलका पुस्तक हुन् भन्ने परम्परा हो। आधुनिक विद्वान् प्रायः पहिलो र दशौँ मण्डललाई पछि थपिएका मान्छन्। आठौँ मण्डल धेरैजसो कण्व कुलको हो। नवौंमा धेरै कुलका सोम सूक्त सङ्कलित छन्। ऋत त्यो क्रम हो, जसलाई बिहान र सत्य वचन दुवैले पालन गर्छन्। वरुण त्यसका रखवाल हुन्। पछिको धर्मशास्त्र अर्कै खण्ड हो।
अग्नि आगो र पुरोहित हुन्। इन्द्रले वृत्रलाई हानेर पानी छुटाएको भनिन्छ। सोम, मित्र, उषा, अश्विन् र मरुत् पनि छन्। विष्णु यहाँ फराकिलो कदम हिँड्ने हुन्। पुराणका अवतार पछिका हुन्। रुद्र थोरै र कठोर छन्। सरस्वती नदी र वाणी हुन्।
Where it sits
The creation hymn is the next sitting. The person and the Gāyatrī follow it. The portal's short account of this Veda is on the Śruti page.