Important Vedic Literature

Brahmana

The Brahmana are books that describe the meanings of Vedic mantras and their use.

 

Aranyakas

The Aranyaka texts contain quotations extracted from the Brahmana.

 

Sutra

These are texts that go into depth of some of the topics dealt with in the Vedas. At the present nine are well known.

1. Grihya Sutra
2. Dharma Sutra
3. Srota Sutra
4. Asvalayana Sutra
5. Gobhila Sutra
6. Paraskara Sutra
7. Koshitaki Sutra
8. Katyayana Sutra
9. Bodhayana Sutra

 

Smriti

The word smriti is interpreted in various ways. Literally it means “what is remembered by the tradition”. We know important Smritis like Manu Smriti and Yajnavalkya Smriti. However, Smriti are all those writings that have the Vedas (Sruti) as the cultural basis. Compiling a list of all Smriti would be a titanic enterprise.

 

Darsana Sastra

There are six Darsana Sastra, also called Upanga or Sat-darsana

1. Karma Mimamsa of Jaimini (also known as Purva Mimamsa),
2. Vaisesika of Kanada,
3. Nyaya of Gautama,
4. Yoga of Patanjali,
5. Sankhya of Kapila, and
6. Vedanta, by Vyasadeva (also known as Uttara Mimamsa).

 

Upanishads

The Upanishads deal with detailed explanations of the spiritual energy, including the Supreme entity (Paramatma) and the non-supreme entities, that is, individual souls (atma). Sometimes Upanisad, or at least some of them, are considered Sruti because they are sections of the original Vedas.

Determining how many of the thousands of Upanisad known are authentic is difficult. Here we will mention eleven sections of those Veda and specify to which Veda they belong.

 

1. Isa, found in the Yajur Veda
2. Kena, in the Sama Veda
3. Katha, in the Atharva Veda
4. Prashna, in the Atharva Veda
5. Mundaka, in the Atharva Veda
6. Mandukya, in the Atharva Veda
7. Aitareya, in the Rig Veda
8. Taittareya, in the Yajur Veda
9. Chhandogya, in the Sama Veda
10. Brihadaranyaka, in Yajur Veda
11. Svetasvatara, in the Atharva Veda

 

In some other publications we’ll give a larger list of Upanisads.

 

Purana

The Puranas are books of ancient history, where there is also an infinity of information about culture and civilization. They are generally divided into three types:

 

Sattvika Puranas (dealing with Visnu)

Rajasika Purana (dealing with Brahma) 

Tamasika Purana (dealing with Siva)

 

The main Purana are 18:

1) Brahma Purana, made up of 13,000 verses

2) Padma Purana, made up of 55,000 verses

3) Vishnu Purana, made up of 23,000 verses

4) Vayu Purana, composed of 24,000 verses

5) Bhagavata Purana, made up of 18,000 verses

6) Naradiya Purana, made up of 25,000 verses

7) Markandeya Purana, made up of 9,000 verses

8) Agni Purana, made up of 16,000 verses

9) Bhavishya Purana, made up of 14,500 verses

10) Brahmavaivarta Purana, made up of 18,000 verses

11) Linga Purana, made up of 11,000 verses

12) Varaha Purana, made up of 24,000 verses

13) Skanda Purana, made up of 81,100 verses

14) Vamana Purana, made up of 10,000 verses

15) Kurma Purana, made up of 18,000 verses

16) Matsya Purana, made up of 14,000 verses

17) Garuda Purana, made up of 18,000 verses

18) Brahmanda Purana, made up of 12,200 verses

A total of 403,800 verses.

Then there are others called Upa Purana that we will mention in the future.

It must be said that different sages give different classifications of the Puranas.

Matsya Purana states that the total number of verses in the Vedas and in the Itihasas is 525,000.

 

Itihasa

Among the various historical books written in Sanskrit, there are two particularly important:

The Ramayana, which is the story of Sri Ramacandra, written by Valmiki Muni, and

The Maha-bharata written by Sri Vyasadeva.

 

Niti

The books called Niti deal with principles of social ethics. The most famous are:

the Canakya Niti,

the Bhartrihari Niti,

the Sikra Niti e

the Vidura Niti.

This is a section of the book “Brilliant As the Sun”(English).

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