Upangas.

   The Vedas are subdivided into four: the Rig, Yajur, Sama, and Artharva, consisting of hymns of praise, sacrificial texts, Soma ceremonies, and magical spells respectively.

   The Upavedas deal with the sciences of medicine, music, war, arts, and architecture.

   The Ved-Angas deal with pronunciation, prosody and verse, grammar, phraseology, religious ceremonies, and astronomy.

   The Upangas include the itihasas, puranas, yoga, mimansa, dharma-sastras, and tantras, comprising epic poems, legendary histories, logic, philosophy, jurisprudence, and ritual.

   From the point of view of study of the myth, the most important sections are the itihasas, which include the Ramayana and the Mahabharata; the puranas, in which most of the stories of the gods are to be found; the dharmasastras, or code of Manu, containing accounts of the Creation and of the background of Brahmanical tradition.

   The tantras, which represent an attempt to bring Brahmanism down to a level which would endear it to the aboriginal races, are largely pornographic and are of little value.

   Each subdivision of the Vedas is, in turn, divided into the following parts: Sanhita, comprising the Mantras and Ganas, or hymns and prayers; Brahmanas, describing the details of Vedic ceremonies; Jnana, or Upanishads, or philosophical part; and Aranyakas, ‘belonging to the forest’, intended for Brahmans in retreat. Closely connected with the Vedas are the Sutras and Parisishtas, abbreviated summaries for the use of students.

   This vast mass of religious writings dates back to before the Hindus arrived in India, and probably to a period when they were living in a relatively cold climate. The Vedic hymns were probably put into their present form before 1000 BC but have naturally suffered certain modifications.

   Other details are in Hindu Creation Legends.