The Vedas are the oldest books of the religious literature. We get full knowledge about Aryan civilization and culture from the Vedas. The Vedas plentiful storehouse of wisdom. The Vedas are four in number – the Rigveda, the Samveda, the Yajurveda and the Atharvaveda.

The Rigveda is the oledest of the four Vedas: The Rigveda has 10 mandals and 1028 suktas. Every Veda has been divided into four parts – Samhita, Brahmin, Aranyaka, and Upanishad. The Rigveda is written in verses. The Rigveda is a collection of prayers. The Samveda provides information about the hymns, prayer and other religious songs sung by the Aryans.

The Atharvaveda is written by Atharva rishi. It contains miscellaneous subjects. It includes knowledge of Brahma, religion, social prestige, use of medicine, suppression of the enemy, remedy of disease and enchantment etc. After this, the literature based on Yajna and rituals came to be known as Brahmin literature.

The books written by the rishis came to known as Aryanakas books deal with the subject of philosophy, while the upnishads tell us about deeper subjects and the moral values of life. Vedanga literature came into existence to understand the Vedic literature. The Vedanga literature has six parts – shiksha, kalpa, yakarana, nirukta, chhanda, jyotisha.

Ayurveda, Dhanurveda, Gandharva veda and Shilp veda are the four upvedas (subvedas) which provide knowledge about medicine, music, military science architecture, etc. Thus it is clear that the Vedas are the very rich storehouse of knowledge and they provide us the complete picture of ancient India.