Jîva Gosvåmin and the Extent of the Vedic Paradigm: Journal of Vaishnava Studies

Abstract

It is popular to be Vedic today. When the present author recently did a Google-search for the word “Vedic,” it turned up no less than 4,260,000 hits, with information on “Vedic” art, astrology, astronomy, calendars, creationism, health and beauty farms, history, mathematics, medicine, meditation, metal (music!), organic agriculture, philosophy, science, shops and vibration technology on the first ten pages alone. But what is this Vedathat makes something “Vedic”?
Most students of Hinduism learn the answer very early on in their education. According to Gavin Flood (1996: 36), The term veda is used in two senses. It is a synonym for ‘revelation’ (Ωruti), which is ‘heard’ by the sages, and so can denote the whole body of revealed
texts, and is also used in a restricted sense to refer to the earliest layers of vedic literature. The Veda in the former, general sense comprises four traditions, the Âg, Yajur, Såma and Atharvå, which are divided into three or four categories of texts: the Saµhitås, Bråhma∫as, Åra∫yakas and Upanißads. [. . . ] In the latter, more restricted sense, the term veda refers to the Saµhitå portion
of the literature.