These books, in Vedic Samskŗt, were preserved orally for a long time before they were written down in manuscripts about two thousand years ago or earlier. The core of the collection is the set of four Mantra Samhitā books, namely Rig Veda Mantra Samhitā, Yajur Veda Mantra Samhitā, Sāma Veda Mantra Samhitā and the Atharva Veda Mantra Samhitā, each type having one or more recensions. These are all poems, some metrical, others nonmetrical made up of rhythmic phrases. These books contain mantra or māntric verses which are the inspired words (shruti) heard by sages when they were in a superconscient state as a result of their askesis (tapas). Veda is not manmade in the sense it is not born of human intellect, human imagination or speculation. The mantrās are the perceptions of deep spiritual truths and occult phenomena revealed to these seers. 

An overview of the four Vedās, their recensions, the associated books like Brāhmaņa, Upanishad etc., can be found in the chapter 1 of the book [C4].

These four Veda Samhitā books have major overlaps. The entire text of Sāma Veda Samhitā is contained in the Rig Veda Samhitā. There is an overlap of at least 25 percent between the Yajur Veda Samhitā and Rig Veda Samhitā, similarly for Atharva Veda. We give the maņdala-sūkta-mantra number of every mantra of the Rig Veda appearing here. 

Every mantra or (mantra verse) in the Veda is of one of three types, namely rik or ŗk, yajus and sāma. A ŗk mantra is metrical, i.e., it obeys one of a hundred well-defined metres. ŗk literally means a verse of illumination. A mantra which is sung in an elaborate manner according to specific rules is a sāma mantra. A yajus mantra is a rhythmic prose passage not in any fixed metre.

Rig Veda Samhitā and Atharva Veda Samhitā have only ŗk mantrās. The Sāma Veda Samhitā has only sāma mantrās; but the Yajur Veda Mantra Samhitā has both ŗk and yajur mantrās; many, but not all, of the ŗk mantrās of Yajur Veda are in Rig Veda Samhitā also.
 

In the Hindu tradition, Veda is viewed as a single collection of mantrās. However followers of each of the three Vedās claim that their Veda is superior to the other two. The commentator Sāyaņa declares that “Yajur Veda is more basic than the other two, it is like a canvas on which the Rik and Sāma are painted''. But the Taittirīya Samhitā of KYV to which he belonged does not support him; TS (6.5.10) declares, “whatever is achieved in the sacrifice by Yajus and Sāman is slack (shithilam); what is done by the Rik is firm and strong''. Similarly some hold that the same mantra appearing in two Samhitās like Rig Veda and Yajur Veda have supposedly different meanings. We do not subscribe to such sectarian views.
 

In this book we insist on the unitary nature of all the mantrās of all the four Vedās. The complimentary nature of the Rig Veda and Yajur Veda is brought out in this book. 
 

Yajur Veda Samhitā has two broad types of recensions called as Krişhņa (mixed) Yajur Veda (KYV) Samhitā and the Shukla (pure) Yajur Veda (SYV) Samhitā. We will clarify the words "mixed', and "pure' later. Taittirīya Samhitā is one of the recensions of the Krişhņa Yajur Veda Samhitā, along with Maitrāyaņī Samhitā, Kapişhţhala Samhitā and Kaţhaka Samhitā. The Shukla Yajur Veda Samhitā has two recensions namely Vājasaneyi Mādhyandina and Vājasaneyi Kāņva. There is heavy overlap between the KYV books like Taittirīya and SYV books like the Vājasaneyi.
 

A key concept in Veda is yajňa. It is the collaboration between the Cosmic powers, also called Gods, and humans. The Gods want to divinise the humans and take them to higher and higher levels of perfection provided humans aspire to be perfect; human should express his thanks to the cosmic powers and express his adoration. Basically this yajňa is a series of actions occurring in our subtle body specifying our ascent to the higher planes of consciousness and the corresponding levels of perfection. We call it inner yajňa. Yajur Veda mantrās, both ŗk and yajus, are chanted and used in carrying out this inner yajňa. There is no human priest involved. The Cosmic power who helps us in these actions is called adhvaryu, one who travels ra in the path adhva.

Outer yajňa

However, the performance of the inner yajňa was limited to a few persons such as the seers or rişhis and their disciples. All persons do not either have the interest or inner-concentration needed. Moreover, the sages realised that the Veda may fade from the minds of the people if enough persons did not take interest in the Veda. Hence the sages recognised the need to develop new methods for making the Veda accessible to all persons, men and women regardless of status. Hence the outward yajňa made up of a series of outward rites of varying complexity started. Later the word yajňa meant the outward rite only. The yajňa became a joyous community festival. All persons heard the melodious chants of the priests and witnessed the outward rites involving the offering of ghee and various articles into the fire in the sacred altar accompanied with the mantra chants. People at large felt that the participation in these yajňa conferred on them material well-being in the form of wealth, children, long-life, free of sickness.

It is a fundamental mistake to say that the Yajur Veda is a handbook of adhvaryu priest who controls the performance of the rite. The mantrās in the Yajur Veda Samhitā give only the mantrās which have to be chanted or utilised on various occasions. It does not give the details of the rite. The actual details are in the books called Brāhmaņa, the sūtra books like the apastamba. Each Veda Samhitā has one or more Brāhmaņa books associated with it. Aitareya Brāhmaņa is associated with Rig Veda, Taittirīya Brāhmaņa is associated with Krişhņa  Yajur Veda, Shatapatha Brāhmaņa with Shukla Yajur Veda, etc.

The passages from the Brāhmaņa books are called brāhmaņa passages. They are in the form of long prose sentences without punctuation. Each passage can be (i) an explanation of a particular mantra in the Mantra Samhitā book from a ritualistic point of view; or (ii) the legends about Gods and kings prevalent at that time; or (iii) the details of the rite, details of the offerings to the priests (dakşhiņa) and the offering or oblation to the Gods; or (iv) the material benefits that accrue to the yajamāna by the performance of the rite.

One of the peculiarities of the Mantra Samhitā of Krişhņa Yajur Veda such as Taittirīya Samhitā or Maitrayāņī Samhitā is that some of the anuvākās contain brāhmaņa passages of plain prose. It is one of the reasons for these Veda Samhitā for being called kŗşhņa or mixed (i.e., mixed with brāhmaņa). The Shukla Yajur Veda Samhitā does not contain any brāhmaņa passage.

Attempts were made to separate the mantra from the brāhmaņa passages with the final aim of completely separating the mantra from the brāhmaņa passages done (perhaps later) in Rig Veda, Sāma Veda and Shukla Yajur Veda. Hence all the relevant brāhmaņa passages related to the mantrās of kāņda 1 were placed in kāņda 6. Similarly all the brāhmaņa passages which explain mantrās of kāņda 4 are in kāņda 5.

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