And the most important of these texts are the Vedas. Now the word Veda literally means knowledge in Sanskrit, and they were written during the Vedic period. It was called the Vedic period because this was the time that we believe the Vedas were written, and we have a whole video on the actual Vedic period. Now there are four Vedas, Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Sama Veda, and Atharva Veda. The first of these is the Rig Veda. When I say first, it's because it's believed that it was written before the other Vedas, as early as 3,500 years ago. The other three are also pretty old, probably older than 3,000 years old.