The Rig Veda
← all texts · Hindu · c. 1500–1200 BCE
What this is
The oldest of the four Vedas and one of the oldest religious texts in any Indo-European language — 1,028 hymns to Agni, Indra, Soma and the cosmic order. Griffith's translation is the standard public-domain English.
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Companion reading path
What to read alongside it, and why.
The Upanishads
Hindu
The philosophical end of the Vedic corpus — ritual gives way to Brahman and Atman.
The Avesta (incl. the Gathas)
Zoroastrian
The Iranian sibling tradition — shared deities and poetic form.
The Bhagavad Gita
Hindu
The later devotional synthesis the Vedic religion flowered into.