Vedic mythology
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Vedic mythology refers to the mythological aspects of the historical Vedic religion and Vedic literature. It has directly contributed to the evolution and development of later Hinduism and Hindu mythology. The four Vedic Samhitas are part of the Hindu Śruti. Sanskrit veda means "knowledge".
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[edit] Vedic mythology
Vedic lore is the source of certain elements which are common to mythological traditions, like the mythologies of Persia, Greece, and Rome. Indra, a god of the Vedas, is simultaneously like Dyaus Pitar, the Sky Father, and like Zeus and Jupiter. The deity Yama, the god who collects the dead, is Yima of Persian mythology and Yanluo or Emma in the Buddhist traditions of China and Japan. Vedic entail descriptions and celestial hymns praising omnipresent supreme god in several other forms and lays down an elaborate groundwork of concepts for 33 major devas, that is, divinities, consisting of eight Vasus, eleven Rudras, twelve Adityas, and Prajapati Brahma. These divinities are said to belong to three dimensions of the universe, the earth, the heavens, and the intermediate, that is the space as explained in Bhagawatham. Some major deities of the Vedic tradition include Indra, Surya, Agni, Vayu, Varuna, Yama, Kubera, Soma, Mitra, Kama, Gayatri, Aditi, Ushas, Sarasvati and Rudra.
[edit] The Vedas in Puranic mythology
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The Vishnu Purana attributes the current arrangement of four Vedas to the mythical sage Vedavyasa.[1] Puranic tradition also postulates a single original Veda that, in varying accounts, was divided into three or four parts. According to the Vishnu Purana (3.2.18, 3.3.4 etc) the original Veda was divided into four parts, and further fragmented into numerous shakhas, by Vishnu in the form of Vyasa, in the Dvapara Yuga; the Vayu Purana (section 60) recounts a similar division by Vyasa, at the urging of Brahma. The Bhagavata Purana (12.6.37) traces the origin of the primeval Veda to the syllable aum, and says that it was divided into four at the start of Dvapara Yuga, because men had declined in age, virtue and understanding. In a differing account Bhagavata Purana (9.14.43) attributes the division of the primeval veda (aum) into three parts to the monarch Pururavas at the beginning of Treta Yuga.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Vishnu Purana, translation by Horace Hayman Wilson, 1840, Ch IV, http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp078.htm
- Vedic Mythology by A. A. Macdonell (ISBN 81-215-0949-1)
Hindu deities and texts | ||
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| Female deities | Image:HinduSwastika.svg | |
| Male deities | ||
| Texts | Vedas · Upanishads · Puranas · Ramayana · Mahabharata · Bhagavad Gita | |
| Hinduism · Hindu mythology · Indian epic poetry | ||
