Foundations of Indian Psychology, Volume 1

3

Psychological Ideas in the Vedas and Their Relevance to Contemporary Psychology

R. L. Kashyap

This chapter presents some of the key ideas and ideals contained in the four Veda mantra collections (saṃhitā), which are known as Ṛg Veda, Yajur Veda, Sāma Veda and Atharva Veda. The Yajur Veda contains verses with metrical structures as well as short rhythmic prose passages called Yajur mantras. The remaining three have only verses (or mantras) with metrical structures. The metres in these verses have names such as gāyatrī and anuṣṭup, characterized by the number of syllables. The four books have substantial overlaps and together they comprise about 26,000 mantras, including repetitions. In the early days, all these mantras comprised a single collection ...