Background information on the Vedas
The word “veda” has two basic meanings. The first, a literal translation of the Sanskrit word, is “knowledge” (Veda). The second, and most common meaning of the word, refers to the sacred ancient literature of Hinduism, the Vedas, a collection of hymns, poetry and Hindu ceremonial formulae (Veda). Believed to be one of the oldest human written records, the Vedas date back over 4000 years (Gaskell, 2000). Traditionally, they were passed down orally and adapted from generation to generation by sacred sages called rishis, before eventually emerging written in Vedic, an ancient form of Sanskrit.
The Vedas are divided into four main sections: the Rig-veda, Sama-veda, Yajur-veda and the Atharva-veda, known collectively as the Samhitas (Veda). The first three, the Rig-veda, Sama-veda, and Yajur-veda are basically ritual handbooks that were used by priests during the Vedic period (1500–500 BCE) (Veda). Vedic mathematics is apparently part of the fourth Veda, Atharva-veda, which is distinct from the others in several ways. First, unlike the religious focus of the other Vedas, the Atharva-veda contains hymns, spells and magical incantations for personal and domestic use (Veda). Also, the Atharva-veda, which was written later than the other Vedas, was not always considered authoritative, but only became so after being accepted by the Brahmans, the highest order of Hindu priests (Veda). Collectively, the Vedas include information about a huge range of subjects, spanning religion, medicine, architecture, astronomy, etc. (Gaskell, 2000).
Although there is controversy about whether the Vedas themselves actually include references to mathematics, the roots of sophisticated mathematics have actually been traced back to the Vedic era. Ancient Indian Vedic civilizations are known for being skilled in geometry, algebra and computational mathematics complex enough to incorporate things like irrational numbers (Dutta, 2002). Furthermore, all ancient Indian mathematics literature is composed completely in verse; there was a tradition of composing terse sūtras, like those of Vedic mathematics, to ensure that information would be preserved even if written records were damaged or lost (Dutta, 2002).
