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 The Hindu
scriptures are massive, and were written between 1400 B.C.
and A.D. 500. The oldest of the Hindu scriptures is the
Veda, which literally means “wisdom” or
“knowledge.” The Vedas contain hymns, prayers, and ritual
texts composed from about 1400 to about 400 B.C.
The Upanishads are a
collection of writings composed between 800-600 B.C. Over
one hundred of them still exist. These writings marked a
definite change from the sacrificial humans and magic
formulas in the Vedas, to the mystical ideas about man and
the universe – specifically the Brahman, and the atman
(the self or soul). The Upanishads had a great influence
on Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism.
The
Ramayana is one of the two major epic tales of India,
the other being the Mahabharata. A sage-poet named
Valmiki wrote the Ramayana. The work consists of 24,000
couplets based upon the life of Rama, a righteous king who
was supposedly an incarnation of the God Vishnu. The
Mahabharata is the second epic. It is an the story of
the deeds of Aryan clans, and consists of some 100,000
verses and was composed over an 800-year period beginning
about 400 B.C. Contained within this work is a great
classic, the Bhagavad Gita, or the "Song of the
Blessed Lord."
The Bhagavad Gita is not only the most sacred book of the
Hindus, but it is also the best known and the most read of
all Indian works in the entire world, despite the fact it
was added late to the Mahabharata, sometime in the
first century A.D. The story revolves around man's duty,
which, if carried out, will bring nothing but sorrow. The
significance this story has on Hindu belief is its
endorsement of bhakti, or devotion to a particular god, as
a means of salvation, since Arjuna, the story's main
character, decides to put his devotion to Vishnu above his
own personal desires. The Gita ends with Arjuna devoted to
Vishnu and ready to kill his relatives in battle.
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