Vedas and Upanishads

The primary source of Hinduism from which it derives all its authority and inspiration is the body of literature known as the Vedas. They are four in number. The Rig Veda, Sama Veda, Yajur Veda and Atharva Veda. They were not written by any single person or team of persons. In fact they were not written at all for thousands of years. Till then, over the centuries they were transmitted orally. It is one of the amazing miracles of Indian Heritage that, the Vedas which go back to 2000 B.C have, in spite of being handed down entirely through oral transmission, come down in a single version. Throughout the length and breadth of India, where the Vedas are treasured as our most ancient heritage, not a syllable of them is different in one place from what it is anywhere else. The Upanishads are the philosophical core of Hinduism. The theme of the Upanishads is: Knowledge of the Inner Self. They are not a collection of dogmas. Rather, they are a set of recollections and records of experiences.