What are the Vedas...!

The Vedas existed in oral form and were passed down from master to student for generations until they were committed to writing between c. 1500 - c. 500 BCE (the so-called Vedic Period) in India. They were carefully preserved orally as masters would have students memorize them forwards and backwards with emphasis on exact pronunciation in order to keep what was originally heard intact.

The Upanishads are the best known and most often read of the Vedas because their discourse is presented in dialogue/narrative form and they were the first to be translated into other languages. The four Vedas, conversely, are considered the literal sounds of the Divine which, when recited or sung, recreate the primal vibrations of the universe. Accordingly, they are actually impossible to translate and what one reads in a translation should be understood as a paraphrase at best.

Orthodox Hindu denominations recognize the Vedas as a significant spiritual authority but not all Hindu sects follow suit. Reform movements throughout the modern era, beginning in the 19th century CE, place greater value on personal religious experience than scriptural authority and tradition and so some sects, or off-shoots of Hinduism (such as the Brahmos Movement) reject the Vedas entirely as superstition. Even so, the works continue to be recited, studied, and venerated in the present and remain an important part of Hindu religious observances, festivals, and ceremonies.