Introduction
| 1. Age Of The Rigveda |
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The Rigveda is undoubtedly the oldest literary monument of the Indo-European languages. But the exact period when the hymns were composed is a matter of conjecture.
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| 2. Origin And Growth Of The Collection |
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When the Indo-Aryans entered India, they brought with them a religion in which the gods were chiefly personified powers of Nature, a few of them, such as Dyaus, going back to the Indo-European, others, such as Mitra, Varuna, Indra, to the Indo-Iranian period.
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| 4. Arrangement Of The Rigveda |
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Six of the ten books, ii to vii, are homogeneous in character. The hymns contained in each of them were, according to native Indian tradition, composed or 'seen' by poets of the same family, which handed them down as its own collection.
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| 5. Language |
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The hymns of the RV. are composed in the earliest stage of that literary language of which the latest, or Classical Sanskrit, was stereotyped by the grammar of Panini at the end of the fourth century B.C.
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| 6. Metre |
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The hymns of the RV. are without exception metrical. They contain on the average ten stanzas, generally of four verses or lines, but also of three and sometimes five.
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| 7. Religion Of The Rigveda |
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This is concerned with the worship of gods that are largely personifications of the powers of nature. The hymns are mainly invocations of these gods, and are meant to accompany the oblation of Soma juice and the fire sacrifice of melted butter.
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| 8. Secular Matter In The Rigveda |
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Secular hymns.--Hardly a score of the hymns are secular poems. These are especially valuable as throwing direct light on the earliest thought and civilization of India.
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| 10. Interpretation |
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In dealing with the hymns of the RV. the important question arises, to what extent are we able to understand their real sense, considering that they have come down to us as an isolated relic from the remotest period of Indian literature?....
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Copyright © by Hindu Books Universe All Right Reserved. Published on: 2003-06-26 (1346 reads) [ Go Back ] |
