ABSTRACT
The oldest scriptures of India, and the most important, are the Vedas. The Vedas teach the knowledge of God, and lay down work as a means to that knowledge—the word work signifying both sacrificial rites and unselfish performance of secular duty. For the term Vedas, as used by the orthodox, not only names a large body of texts composed in times indefinitely remote but in another sense stands for nothing less than Divine Truth itself, the inexpressible truth of which the Vedic texts are of necessity but a pale reflection. Orthodox Hindus, who include all schools of Indian thought past and present except Buddhists and Jains, recognize in them the origin of their faith and its highest written authority. For the vast majority of modern Hindus, therefore, amongst all their sacred writings, the Vedas are supreme.
