The Rigveda (Sanskrit: ऋग्वेद, IAST: ṛgvedá, from ṛc, "praise" and veda, "knowledge") is an ancient Indian collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns known as sūktas. It is one of the four canonical sacred texts (śruti) of Hinduism, collectively called the Vedas, and is regarded as the oldest of them. Of the several Shakhas (recensional schools) that once transmitted the text, only the Śākalya Shakha survives in continuous use today, while the contents of the other Shakhas are largely lost or not publicly available.
The Rigveda is among the oldest extant texts in any Indo-European language. According to most scholars, its hymns have been preserved through oral transmission of remarkable rigour and fidelity, employing complex methods of memorisation. Philological and linguistic evidence suggests that the bulk of the Rigveda Samhita was composed in the north-western region of the Indian subcontinent, with commonly cited approximations placing its composition between c. 1500 and 1000 BCE, and a wider range of c. 1900–1200 BCE also proposed. The dating, however, remains a matter of scholarly discussion.
The text is layered and includes the Samhita, Brahmanas, Aranyakas and Upanishads associated with it. The Rigveda Samhita, which forms the core, is organised into ten books (maṇḍalas) containing 1,028 hymns and roughly 10,600 verses (ṛc), from which the work takes its name. Books 2 through 9 are generally considered the earliest in composition. Their hymns are largely concerned with cosmology, ritual procedures intended to earn the favour of the deities, and praise of the gods.
The more recent books, namely Books 1 and 10, in addition to ritual and devotional themes, also engage with philosophical and speculative questions. These include reflections on the origins of the universe, the nature of the divine, and metaphysical inquiries, alongside hymns that touch upon social virtues such as