Reply To: Ayurvedic Energetics & Constitutions
Hi Cody!
Yes, the four main Vedas are Rigveda, Yayurveda, Atharvaveda, and Samaveda, which are among the oldest bodies of recorded/written knowledge in human culture. The Vedas are the religious texts passed down orally (initially), but some were written eventually.
“The Vedas are classified into four groups, called Rik, Yajus, Saman and Atharva. The Rig-Veda is primarily concerned with panegyrics to the gods in the heavens, and is the main book of mantras. The Yajur Veda is classified into the Krishna (black) and Sukla (white) recensions. The Yajur Veda contains mainly sacrificial formulae in prose and verse to be chanted at the performance of a sacrifice. The Sama Veda consists mostly of verses from the Rig-Veda set to music for singing during the sacrifice. The Atharva Veda abounds mainly in spells and incantations in verse meant for different lower purposes than the purely spiritual.”
The Vedas are a large body of religious texts composed in Vedic Sanskrit and are widely regarded as the oldest scriptures of Hinduism. The Puranas are a vast collection of Indian literature that cover a wide range of topics, such as legends and traditional folklore.
The Puranas are Hindu religious texts, or “chronicles containing ancient history, mythology and longer or shorter discourses in religion, philosophy, yoga, mystical attainments and spiritual realization, and many other kindred subjects.” So, they are written narrations of what happened in the distant past. They contain narratives about the history of of the universe from creation to destruction, and many of them evolve around heroes, sages and deities.
Itihasas, or ‘The Epics’ comprise of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, which are mythical stories / poems that have had profound influence in India.
The Ramayana “narrates the life of Sri Ram Chandra, the legendary prince of the Kosala Kingdom, his banishment from the kingdom by his father, King Dasharatha, his travels across forests in India with his wife Sita and brother Lakshmana, the kidnapping of his wife by Ravana, the demon king of Lanka, resulting in a war with him, and Rama’s eventual return to Ayodhya to be crowned king.”
The Mahabharata is “an epic narrative of Krishna and the Kurukṣetra War and the fates of the Kaurava and the Pāṇḍava princes. It also contains philosophical and devotional material, such as a discussion of the four “goals of life.”
If you want to read more, copy this link, which talks about the Vedas, Puranas, and Epics in great depth – https://www.swami-krishnananda.org/hist/hist_3.html
Here is another link that describes the differences between the Vedas and the Puranas – https://shorturl.at/ahnrG
Warmth,
Riley