The Rig Veda is the foremost of all Sruti literature. It consists of 1,028 hymns with a total of 10,562 lines, which are described, in 10 books. A hymn has three basic parts. The first part is an exhortation, the second part is the praise of the deity in the form of a prayer, and the third part is a special request. The religion explained in can be called Brahmanism or Vedism.

In the Rig Veda we see the Aryans just settling down in the valleys of the Indus River and worshipping all the powers of the nature such as air (vayu), water (varuna), sun (surya), moon (soma) and fire (agni). The Rig Veda does not seem to be a scripture composed during a particular period of time but a scripture composed in stages over several centuries. One of the most important ideas that came out of the Rig Veda is the cosmic order named Rta. Rta means “cosmic and sacred order,” an ultimate and harmonic structure of reality. Later this cosmic order rta came to be known as dharma or “righteousness forever.” Dharma became not only the universal law but also the moral law of Hinduism. Even though in the Rig Veda we see an evolving society praying to all aspects of nature, we also see the birth of very advanced thinking within the society.

Read the Creation Hymn: After all who knows and who can say/ From where it came and how creation takes place?/ The Gods (powers of nature) themselves came after the creation/ So who knows truly what it happened? — Am I a Hindu?