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The Rigveda Samhita is one of four Veda Samhitās,
the others being Yajurveda, Sāmaveda and Atharvaveda. All
of them have been handed down to us over thousands of years by an
oral tradition without an error of even a syllable by special
methods of recitation using techniques similar to those in modern
error detecting and correcting codes in electronics and computers.
Rigveda has 1,028 hymns or 10,552 mantrās, Yajurveda
has 1,976 mantrās, Sāmaveda has 1,865 mantrās and the
Atharvaveda has 6,038 mantrās. Among these, 1,442 mantrās
are common both to Rigveda and Sāmaveda and 481 mantrās
are common to Rigveda and Yajurveda. All the mantrās, except
for some in Yajurveda, are in the form of couplets in different
metres consisting of 24 to 50 syllables. Every syllable has to be
recited in one of three forms indicated by the accent marks in the
printed texts. Yajurveda has several prose mantrās. Sāmaveda has
additional notation because its verses have to be sung musically.
"The vedic word is described in RV [10.71, 1-5] as that
which is supreme and at the topmost height of speech, the best and
the most faultless. It is something that is hidden in secrecy and
from there it emerges and is manifested. It has entered into the
truth-seers, the rişhis and it is found by following the
nuances of their speech. But all do not have access to its
esoteric meaning. Those who do not know the inner sense are as men
who seeing see not, hearing hear not, only to one here and there
the word revealing to him like a beautifully robed wife to a
husband as she lays her body open. Others unable to drink steadily
of the milk of the word, the Vedic Cow, move with it as with one
who gives no milk; to him the word is a tree without flowers or
fruits.'' (Sri Aurobindo's translation).
Every sūkta or hymn of RV is associated with the name of a
rişhi or rişhika and the name of a devā or
devi. There are about thirty women rişhis in the RV. The
rişhi or rishika received the revelation of wisdom from
the supreme plane termed as parame vyoman in RV and
transcribed it into poems with appropriate words and metres. Thus
there is no contradiction between the traditional view that the
Veda is apaurusheya, not composed by a human being and the
modern view that the rişhis are the poets of RV since the
verses came out of their mouth. This is clear from the RV itself.
The method of receipt of the wisdom varies from person to person;
some hear it, some perceive it in their consciousness, some see
it, as modern poets like Sri Aurobindo and Sri Vāsişhţa Gaņapati
Muni testify. RV (10.71.4) explicitly refers to the seeing of the
words dadarsha vācham. Obviously seeing words is not
possible without a script.
There are three types of mantrās, namely rik, a word of
illumination, yajus associated with yajňa translated
as sacrifice and Sāman, that which has to be sung. All the
mantrās of Rigveda are riks. Atharvaveda has mantrās
of all the three types and is as sacred as the other Veda
Samhitās. Mantra is not ordinary poetry. As Sri
Aurobindo states:
“Mantra is the word that carries the godhead in it or
the power of the godhead,
Can bring it into the consciousness and fix there it and its
workings,
Awaken there the thrill of the infinite, the force of something
absolute,
Perpetuate the miracle of the supreme utterance.'' RV (7.10.3), RV
(7.16.8).
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