The Vedas are considered the earliest literary record of Indo-Aryan civilisation. There are four Vedas: Rigveda, Samaveda, Yajurveda and the fourth one is _________.

The correct answer is Atharvaveda.

Key Points

• The Vedas are considered the earliest literary record of Indo-Aryan civilization.
• There are four Vedas: Rigveda, Samaveda, Yajurveda and the fourth one is Atharvaveda.
  • The Atharva Veda is the "knowledge storehouse of atharvāṇas, the procedures for everyday life".
  • The text is the fourth Veda but has been a late addition to the Vedic scriptures of Hinduism.
  • The language of the Atharvaveda is different from Vedic Sanskrit, preserving pre-Vedic Indo-European archaisms.
  • It is a collection of 730 hymns with about 6,000 mantras, divided into 20 books.
  • About a sixth of the Atharvaveda texts adapts verses from the Rigveda, and except for Books 15 and 16, the text is mainly in verse deploying a diversity of Vedic meters.

Additional Information

• Dhanurveda is a Sanskrit treatise on warfare and archery, traditionally regarded as a upaveda attached to Yajurveda (1100 – 800 BCE) and attributed either to Bhrigu or Vishvamitra, or Bharadwaj.
  • It is one among the four upavedas to Vedas (along with Ayurveda, Gandharvaveda, and Sthapatyaveda).
• Ayurveda is an alternative medicine system with historical roots in the Indian subcontinent.
  • The theory and practice of Ayurveda are pseudoscientific.
  • The Indian Medical Association describes Ayurvedic practitioners who claim to practice medicine as quacks.[6] Ayurveda is heavily practiced in India and Nepal, where around 80% of the population report using it.
• Shilpaveda is considered as the Upaveda instead of Arthashastra according to Charanavyuha and Katyayana.
  • The Upavedas supplement the Vedas with more specific applications of Vedic teachings into the cultural field.
  • Upavedas are considered as a part of Veda and not as a separate entity according to a few scholars, in such case there are Chaturdhasha Vidyasthanas only.