Vedas There are four Vedas – the Rigveda , Samaveda , Yajurveda, and Atharvaveda . The oldest Veda is the Rigveda, composed about 3500 years ago. The Rigveda includes more than a thousand hymns (भजन), or “well-said”. It is in old or Vedic Sanskrit. These hymns are in praise of various gods and goddesses. Three gods are especially important: Agni, the god of fire; Indra, a warrior god; and Soma, a plant from which a special drink was prepared. These hymns were composed by sages ( ऋषि ). Priests taught students to recite and memorize each syllable, word, and sentence, bit by bit, with great care. The Rigveda was recited and heard rather than read. It was written down several centuries after it was first composed, and printed less than 200 years ago. Some of the hymns in the Rigveda are in the form of dialogues. A part of one such hymn, a dialogue between a sage named Vishvamitra , and two rivers, (Beas and Sutlej) that were worshipped as godde...