Hinduism Sacred Text

Hinduism is a very complex and intricate henotheistic religion. It is mainly practiced in India and came before all the other religions in India. The most important sacred text of Hinduism is called the Vedas. It consists of four Veda texts in which the other texts of Hinduism are based around. Hindus base their lives around the four goals. Hindus divide their scripture into two categories: Shruti and Smriti. The Shruti is the primary revelation which has no human or divine author but has been passed on by Rishi's, which are ancient holy men that first heard the sound of truth (Van Voorst). They started to pass down these sounds of truths orally to the high and superior families. The Shruti consists of the Vedas which are four Veda
The Rig Veda, the Yajur Veda and the Sama Veda are used for sacrifices while the Atharva Veda is different from the first three in that it does not relate to the sacrifice. The first Veda has 1,028 hymns divided into ten books. The hymns are addressed to a single god or goddess (Van Voorst) which a priest will sing loudly during a sacrifice to attract that specific god's attention to the sacrifice. The Rig-Veda also contains the stories of creation. There are two different creation stories in this Veda. They are viewed in more of a philosophical way than mythological (Van Voorst). The first of the creation stories said that there was no existence of night and day and just water. The powers came from the other powers and gods that existed. The second creation story begins with a soul alone in the shape of a person. The soul was speaking of how lonely it felt and wanted a second person. It made his self fall into two, who became husband and wife. Then they bore children and humans were created. After that they turned into every animal and every insect and every being on earth and mated to make more of them. Everything was created by humans (Van