/lit/ - Literature

>>15912658
There are four traditional divisions of the Vedas
1. Sanhitas: mostly hymns and spells. These are still universally used in Hindu rituals
2. Brahmanas: describe and explain the ancient fire rituals, they are basically irrelevant today outside of historical background
3. Aranyakas: a midpoint between Brahmanas and Upanishads
4. Upanishads: mystical texts that first introduced reincarnation

Almost nobody will read "the Vedas" because even the core texts are a vast corpus of literature with lots of repetition and redundancy. Nevermind the supplementary texts like Shrauta Sutras (instructions for public rituals) Grihya Sutras (instructions for private rituals) and many, many others specific to certain Vedic schools.

>Wanted to learn about Buddhism
>Decided to do a quick primer on Hinduism first to get some background
>Still on a deep-dive into ancient Vedic religion and society
God damn why is everything so interesting. I haven't even reached the Upanishads yet.