Which of the following is correct regarding Vedic literature:
1. Samhitas contain the rituals of forest hermits and ascetics for salvation.
2. Brahmanas explain the significance of sacrificial rites and ceremonies.
3. Aranyakas are the secret doctrines attached to Brahmanas.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) 1 and 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3
Explanation Statement 1 is not correct: The Rigveda covers a long period and has been composed following a strict metrical pattern and convention.The collection is divided into ten circles (mandalas) or books. The hymns contain many repetitions. Vedic literature consists of three different classes of literary works; and to each of these three classes belong a greater or a smaller number of separate works some of which have been preserved, but also many have been lost.
Statement 2 is correct: Brahmanas – voluminous prose texts, which contain theological matter, especially observations on sacrifice and the practical or mystical significance of the separate sacrificial rites and ceremonies.
Statement 3 is not correct: Aranyakas (“forest texts”) and Upanishads (“secret doctrines”) – which are partly included in the Brahmanas themselves, or attached to them, but partly are also counted as an independent work. They contain the meditations of forest hermits and ascetics on God, the world, and mankind, and there is contained in them a good deal of the oldest Indian philosophy.
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