Download or read book Pinnacles of India's Past written by and published by John Benjamins Publishing Company. This book was released on 1986-12-31 with total page 365 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Ṛgveda is the oldest of the books that comprise the scriptures of Hinduism. While its age cannot be accurately determined, it can be said with reasonable certainty that it must have existed in its present form at least as early as 1000 BC. It consists of 1,028 hymns, arranged, according to the form in which the Ṛgveda has been transmitted, in ten divisions, called maṇḍalas. This volume consists of a selection of hymns, translated into English and annotated, as well as short introductions to the Ṛgveda as a whole and the different themes around which the selected hymns are grouped, a bibliography, and an index.