Development of Hinduism

SR No.: 007303
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: M M Ninan
Publisher: M M Ninan
Total Pages: 582
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 45 MB

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2. DATES OF VEDAS
A very recent (Vol.197, No.6, June 2000) National Geographic story on the Indus Valley civilization ("Indus Civilization, Clues to an Ancient Puzzle," pp. 108-129) mentions some key information, for instance that 400 symbols have been identified in the Indus script (p.122). The longest Indus text is only 26 symbols, while "the average is just five -- not much for a decipherer to work with." Indeed. Robinson says there are 425 +/-25 attested characters (p.281), with the uncertainty due to the possiblity of ligatures (combinations) and allomorphs (alternate forms). This is too many to be either an alphabetic or even a syllabic system, but is a bit deficient to be the whole of an ideographic system -- about 1000 characters are known from the similarly fragmentary texts of the Shang Dynasty. Nevertheless, Robinson mentions that only about 500 characters are attested from Hittite hieroglyphics, 600+ from Sumerian, and about 800 (or as few as 500) in Mayan glyphs. So we seem to be a little short, but in the right order of magnitude.
Thus, after almost endless confusion, we must return to the conventional wisdom that the Romans are not Greeks and that the Indo-Aryans invaded India.
http://thenagain.info/webchron/India/RigVeda.html
"These Vedas were passed on orally for many generations. When they were written down, they were first written in Vedic, an early form of Sanskrit. Then around 300 B.C. the Vedas were written down in the form we have them
today."
We are essentially talking about Rig Veda when we try to date the earliest Vedic composition dates. Even within the Rig Veda mandala I and X are accepted as of much later period. One of the reasons for this as given by Indologists is that the river Indus predominates in these hymns unlike the others where Saraswati is the important river. At any rate Mandala X might have been written as late as 3rd CAD and was the last hymn admitted into the Canon. Rig Veda is a layered collection whose period therefore falls from 1500 BC to 300 AD.
The Rig Veda is the oldest of the Vedas. All the other Vedas are based upon it and consist to a large degree on various hymns from it. The Yajurveda is derived from yajus "sacrifice" and veda "knowledge" The Yajurveda Samhita contains the liturgy needed by the priests called adhvaryu, to perform the rituals and sacrifices of the religion of the Vedic period. The Sama-Veda or the wisdom of chants is a collection of samans or chants, derived from the eighth and ninth books of the 'original Veda', the Rig-Veda. As time went along rituals and ceremonies of worship became increasingly
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