Rigveda

The Rigveda or Rig Veda (, , from ऋच्, "praise" and वेद, "knowledge") is an ancient Indian collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns (sūktas). It is one of the four sacred canonical Hindu texts (śruti) known as the Vedas. Only one Shakha of the many survive today, namely the Śakalya Shakha. Much of the contents contained in the remaining Shakhas are now lost or are not available in the public forum.

thumb|Mohini, the female form of [[Vishnu, holding the pot of amrita, which she distributes amongst all the devas, leaving the asuras without it. Darasuram, Tamil Nadu, India|alt=A stone carving of a standing woman with a pot in her left hand and lotus in right]]

Vritra (, , ) is a danava in Hinduism. He serves as the personification of drought, and is an adversary of the king of the devas, Indra. As a danava, he belongs to the race of the asuras. Vritra is also known in the Vedas as Ahi ( ). He appears as a human-like serpent blocking the course of the Rigvedic rivers, and is slain by Indra with his newly forged vajra.

thumb|Pahari painting of golden cosmic egg Hiranyagarbha by Manaku, c. 1740

Maitreyi (fl. 8th century BCE) was an Indian philosopher who lived during the later Vedic period in ancient India. She is mentioned in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad as one of two wives of the Vedic sage Yajnavalkya. In the Hindu epic Mahabharata and the Gṛhyasūtras, however, Maitreyi is described as an Advaita philosopher who never married. In ancient Sanskrit literature, she is known as a brahmavadini (an expounder of the Veda).

hymn

battle

rivers in the North of the Indian subcontinent and mentioned in the Hindu text Rig Veda

Lopamudra, also known as Kaveri, Kaushitaki and Varaprada, was a philosopher according to ancient Vedic Indian literature. She was the wife of the sage Agastya who is believed to have lived in the Rigveda period (1950 BC-1100 BC) as many hymns have been attributed as her contribution to this Veda. She was not only the consort of Agastya but a Rishiki in her own right, as she was the well known Rishiki who visualized the "Hadi Panchadasi" mantra of the Srikul Shakta tradition of Hinduism. She was one of the prominent Brahmavadinis. There are three versions of Lopamudra's legend; one is in the

Sayana (IAST: Sāyaṇa; also called Sāyaṇācārya; died 1387) was a 14th-century Sanskrit Mimamsa scholar from the Vijayanagara Empire of peninsular India, near modern day Bellary, Karnataka. An influential commentator on the Vedas, he flourished under King Bukka Raya I and his successor Harihara II. More than a hundred works are attributed to him, among which are commentaries on nearly all parts of the Vedas. He also wrote on a number of subjects like medicine, morality, music and grammar.

' or Dakshina' () is a Sanskrit word found in Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikh and Jain literature where it may mean any donation, fees or honorarium given to a cause, monastery, temple, spiritual guide or after a ritual. It may be expected, or a tradition or voluntary form of dāna. The term is found in this context in the Vedic literature.

Japanese manga series

deities mentioned in the Rigveda

Hymn from Rig Veda that talks about creation of everything.

In Ancient Hindu Text, Sarama (, ) is a female dog of the gods, or Deva-shuni (देव-शुनी, ). She first appears in one of Hinduism's earliest texts, the Rig Veda, in which she helps the king of the gods Indra to recover divine cows stolen by the Panis asuras. This legend is alluded to in many later texts, and Sarama is often associated with Indra. The epic Mahabharata, and some Puranas, also make brief reference to Sarama.

Tanmatras (Sanskrit: तन्मात्र = tanmātra) are rudimentary, undifferentiated, subtle elements from which gross elements are produced. There are five sense perceptions – hearing, touch, sight, taste and smell – and there are five tanmatras corresponding to those five sense perceptions and the five sense-organs. The tanmatras combine and re-combine in different ways to produce the gross elements – ether, air, fire, water, and earth – which make up the gross universe perceived by the senses. The senses come into contact with the objects and carry impressions of them to the manas (mind), which rece

Vedic Sanskrit term for "water"

valid knowledge which cannot be contradicted and true knowledge which is the knowledge of the self intuitively gained

Sudās Pijavana was an Indo-Aryan tribal king of the Bharatas during the main or middle Rigvedic period (c. 14th century BCE). He led his tribe to victory in the Battle of the Ten Kings near the Paruṣṇī (modern Ravi River) in Punjab, defeating an alliance of the powerful Puru tribe with other tribes, for which he was eulogized by his purohita Vashistha in a hymn of the Rigveda. His victory established the ascendency of the Bhārata clan, allowing them to move eastwards and settle in Kurukshetra, paving the way for the emergence of the Kuru "super-tribe" or tribal union, which dominated northern

sage in Hinduism

Gritsamada (, ), was a Rigvedic sage. Most of Mandala 2 of the Rigveda is attributed to him. He was the son of Śunahotra Āṅgirasa and the adopted son of Śunaka Bhārgava. According to Witzel, Somāhuti Bhārgava is a descendant of Gritsamada, because Somāhuti states that he is one among the Gritsamadas. However according to Jamison and Brereton he belongs to the Bhṛgu lineage of Gṛtsamada's adopted father Śunaka. The signature line of the Gritsamadas in the Rigveda was Gritsamada was known for connecting the deeds of Indra to the actions of the ritual.

Namuchi (Sanskrit: नमुचि, romanized: Namuchi), also written as Namuci and known as Namuki in Vedic texts, is an Asura (demon) in Hindu mythology. He was mentioned in the Rigveda and later in the Mahabharata and Puranas which offer varying accounts of his life and death. Namuchi is often associated with other powerful Asuras and is portrayed as an adversary of the gods, particularly Indra.

Vishpala (') is a woman (alternatively, a horse) mentioned in the Rigveda (RV 1.112.10, 116.15, 117.11, 118.8 and RV 10.39.8). The name is likely from ' "settlement, village" and '''' "strong", meaning something like "protecting the settlement" or "strong settlement".

tenth mandala of the Rigveda

third mandala of the Rigveda

second mandala of the Rigveda

The Anukramaṇī (, ) (also '''') are the systematic indices of Vedic hymns recording poetic meter, content, and traditions of authorship.

eighth mandala of the Rigveda

sixth book of the Rigveda

Seventh book of the Rigveda

First book of the Rigveda

fourth mandala of the Rigveda

ninth mandala of the Rigveda

hymn

fifth mandala of the Rigveda

The ''''', also called the '', is the 125th ' (hymn) occurring in the 10th mandala of the Rigveda|. It was composed by the female seer Vāc Āmbhṛṇī, daughter of the sage Ambhṛṇa. In the present day, the ' is popularly chanted during the worship of the ' (Universal Goddess in any form), in the daily rituals of temples, and also in various Vedic sacrificial ceremonies like ', etc. It is also chanted at the end of '. The hymn portrays the Feminine Divine as the supreme origin, creative energy, and ultimate deity. It conveys a profound, all-encompassing experience of the Self and highlights the anc

The Khilani (Sanskrit: खिलानि, Khilāni) are a collection of 98 "apocryphal" hymns of the Rigveda, recorded in the ', but not in the ' shakha. They are late additions to the text of the Rigveda, but still belong to the "Mantra" period of Vedic Sanskrit, contemporary with the Atharvaveda, Yajurveda, and Samaveda, estimated to fall within the range of c. 1200–1000 BCE. The Khilāni hymns include the Śrī Sūkta, as well as the Kuntāpa hymns for the Mahāvrata ceremony, the New Year's festival of the early Kuru kingdom.

The Bṛhaddevatā (), is a metrical Sanskrit work, traditionally ascribed to Shaunaka. It is an enlarged catalogue of the Rigvedic deities worshipped in the individual suktas (hymns) of the Rigveda. It also contains the myths and legends related to the composition of these suktas.

thumb|350x350px|The ten Prachetas paying homage to Shiva, from a [[Bhagavata Purana series]] Prachetas (Sanskrit: प्रचेतस्) is a term in Hindu Historical/Puranic references with a number of definitions: