Vedas Vedas The Vedas (; Sanskrit: "", "knowledge") are a large body of religious texts originating in the ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the oldest layer of Sanskrit literature and the oldest scriptures of Hinduism. Hindus consider the Vedas to be "apauruṣeya", which means "not of a man, superhuman" and "impersonal, authorless". Vedas are also called ' ("what is heard") literature, distinguishing them from other religious texts, which are called ' ("what is remembered"). The Veda, for orthodox Indian theologians, are considered revelations seen by ancient sages after intense meditation, and texts that have been more carefully
Vedas inspired later Hindu scholars such as Adi Shankara to classify each Veda into "karma-kanda" (कर्म खण्ड, action/ritual-related sections) and "jnana-kanda" (ज्ञान खण्ड, knowledge/spirituality-related sections). The texts considered "Vedic" in the sense of "corollaries of the Vedas" is less clearly defined, and may include numerous post-Vedic texts such as the later Upanishads and the Sutra literature. Texts not considered to be "shruti" are known as "smriti" (Sanskrit: ""; "the remembered"), or texts of remembered traditions. This indigenous system of categorization was adopted by Max Müller and, while it is subject to some debate, it is still widely used. As Axel Michaels