The great system of sacrifices at the heart of Vedic religion depended upon invocations of deities and ritual prescriptions of the Yajur Veda, literally "knowledge of the yajus (sacrificial formulas)," and the melodies of the Samur Veda, literally "knowledge of the saman (chant)." Together with the Rig Veda, they form a "triple Veda," following a traditional predilection for triads. An "inside" perspective of Vedic heritage, including those Vedic Brahmans still tasked today with memorizing and reciting Vedas as oral traditions, understands the four Saṃhitās as unitary ("the Veda"), eternal, without human or divine origin, and therefore without literary chronology as recognized by "outside" historians and linguists. The oldest, decidedly seminal Veda, the Rig Veda-1,028 hymns composed in the final centuries before 1000 b.c.-became a source of mantras, cited with additional material in three later Vedas: Yajur, Samur, and Atharva Veda, all compiled within two or three centuries. YAJUR VEDA The Yajur Veda is one of four primary Saṃhitās (anthologies) of Vedas, India's most ancient textual authority.
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