The Vedas

by Anonymous, T.B. Griffith (Translation)

This book is a detailed overview of The Vedas, the holy book of the Hindus. The most important Hymns are quoted in full; extracts are also included from the Brahmanas, the part of the Rig Veda that that guides the Brahmans, the highest class of priests, in Vedic ceremonies. This is one of the oldest and most important of the world's holy books. It is primarily composed of hymns, poems, incantations and rituals from ancient India. Not only is this the "bible" of the Hindu religion, it also offers a unique snapshot of normal, everyday life in India as it occurred over four thousand years ago.

Genres: Hinduism, Religion, Philosophy

168 pages, Paperback

Published January 2, 2003

About the author

Books can be attributed to "Anonymous" for several reasons:

* They are officially published under that name
* They are traditional stories not attributed to a specific author
* They are religious texts not generally attributed to a specific author

Books whose authorship is merely uncertain should be attributed to Unknown.

See also: Anonymous

Reviews

[Robert Viau · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible, terrible printing full of what can only be intentional errors, in every single hymm, put there, I believe, to help prove and prosecute their "no reproduction" threat in the opening pages.

[Andrew Joyce · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very obviously biased towards Abrahamic faiths.

[Nick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Positive:

Useful resource for an overview of the Vedas and their content and implications for the beliefs and practises of the Aryan/Vedic civilisation.

Negative:

- Very little on the Upanishads, and hence the more subtle, philosophical and metaphysical aspects of the Vedas are not represented.
- Some of the arguments are dubious. e.g, part of the argument claiming that the Vedic society engaged in human sacrifice cites the sanskrit root "labh" as to kill. "Labh" is actually in the realm of "obtaining".
- Becomes overtly Christian proselytising towards the end, and this does make me think that the author has been selective in his excerpts to support his conclusion.

Mostly an interesting read nonetheless.

[Angharad · Rating 3 out of 5]

not a very good translation of a critical text of Hinduism.