Hindu texts Vedas: the Rigveda, the Yajurveda, the Samaveda and the Atharvaveda. Each Veda has been subclassified into four major text types – the Samhitas (mantras and benedictions), the Aranyakas (text on rituals, ceremonies, sacrifices and symbolic-sacrifices), the Brahmanas (commentaries on rituals, ceremonies and sacrifices), and the Upanishads (text discussing meditation, philosophy and spiritual knowledge). The Upanishads are a collection of Hindu texts which contain some of the central philosophical concepts of Hinduism. The Upanishads are commonly referred to as "Vedānta", variously interpreted to mean either the "last chapters, parts of the Veda" or "the object, the highest purpose of the Veda".
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