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The oral tradition of the Vedas consists of several pathas, "recitations" or ways of chanting the Vedic mantras.Such traditions of Vedic chant are often considered the oldest unbroken oral tradition in existence, the fixation of the Vedic texts as preserved dating to roughly the time of Homer (early Iron Age or 800 BC).
The term Gāyatrī is also a class of mantra which follows the same Vedic meter as the Gāyatrī Mantra to Savitṛ. Though that Gāyatrī mantra is the most famous, there are also other Gāyatrī mantras associated with various Hindu gods and goddesses. [3] Some examples include: [57] Vishnu Gayatri: oṃ nārāyaṇāya vidmahe vāsudēvāya ...
The core text of the Yajurveda falls within the classical Mantra period of Vedic Sanskrit at the end of the 2nd millennium BCE – younger than the Rigveda, and roughly contemporary with the Atharvaveda, the Rigvedic Khilani, and the Sāmaveda. [159] Witzel dates the Yajurveda hymns to the early Indian Iron Age, after c. 1200 and before 800 BCE.
According to Gonda, [43] and others, [44] there is a connection and rationale between a Vedic mantra and each Vedic ritual act that accompanies it. In these cases, the function of mantras was to be an instrument of ritual efficacy for the priest, and a tool of instruction for a ritual act for others.
Gayatri was the name initially applied to a metre of the Rig Veda consisting of 24 syllables. [10] In particular, it refers to the Gayatri Mantra and the Goddess Gāyatrī as that mantra personified. The Gayatri mantra composed in this triplet form is the most famous.
Yajurveda is a compound Sanskrit word, composed of yajus (यजुस्) and Veda (वेद). Monier-Williams translates yajus as "religious reverence, veneration, worship, sacrifice, a sacrificial prayer, formula, particularly mantras uttered in a peculiar manner at a sacrifice". [13] Veda means "knowledge".
The text is the fourth Veda, and is a late addition to the Vedic scriptures of Hinduism. [4] [5] [6] The language of the Atharvaveda is different from Rigvedic Sanskrit, preserving pre-Vedic Indo-European archaisms. [7] [6] It is a collection of 730 hymns with about 6,000 mantras, divided into 20 books. [6]
It is one of the "family books" (mandalas 2-7), the oldest core of the Rigveda in Nepal, which were composed in early Vedic period (1500 - 1000 BCE). [1] Most hymns in this book are attributed to viśvāmitra gāthinaḥ. The verse 3.62.10 gained great importance in Hinduism as the Gayatri Mantra.