The Vedic religion, in the form of various branches of Hinduism and Zoroastrianism, folk faiths, is now professed by a quarter of humanity. This is not just about India. In Europe and North America, various Eastern religious societies based on the Vedic worldview already cover up to a tenth of all believers. Zoroastrians (Gebras and Parsis) are represented in the parliament of the Islamic Republic of Iran and in the parliament of India.
The developed types of Vedic religion have a spiritual basis in Indian Vedic and Iranian Zoroastrian (Avestan) literature, which includes thousands of volumes of ancient works and their modern interpretations. The most famous books of the Vedic religion of India are the Vedas. There are four of them. “Rigveda” - “Veda of Hymns”, the oldest, most authoritative book, which includes 10 books and, accordingly, 1017 verses. Samaveda, "Veda of Chant", including 1549 verses. As well as two additional Vedas created for the needs of priests and healers - Yajurveda, “Veda of sacrificial formulas” (there is white and black) and Atharvaveda (“Veda of spells”). Later, commentaries on the Vedas were compiled - hundreds of philosophical treatises: the Brahmanas and then 108 Upanishads. Additional Vedic literature of India is the Mahabharata, Ramayana and Puranas. The heroic poem Mahabharata is revered by Indians as the fifth Veda; it is the largest poem in the world, including one hundred thousand quatrains. In essence, the Mahabharata is a separate literature (the famous Bhagavad Gita is part of the Mahabharata). Ramayana is a poem about the ancient hero and king of India Rama, the incarnation of the Almighty. The Puranas are a collection of stories about the incarnations of the Almighty, about the life of the demigods.
Zoroastrian literature of Ancient Iran is represented primarily by the Avesta. The Avesta has four parts - Yasna, Visperd, Videvdat and Yashty. Yasna (“worship”) is the most revered part of the Avesta; it includes Gathas (“songs”) with a total of 17 (900 lines), representing the Zoro-Astrian liturgy. In addition to the Gathas, the rest of the Yasna, numbering 72 sections, consists of various prayers said during religious activities. Vispered (“all main chapters”) are additions to Yasna - 24 sections. Videvdat (“law against dawav-demons”) is a priestly code that interprets the rules of ritual purification and myths about the Creation of the World and the creation of Iran. Yashty contains hymns to deities revered by the ancient Iranians.
Only the holy books of currently active confessions were mentioned here; no less extensive literature is provided by archaeological and ethnographic research in different countries of the East. Also later works based on priestly books that have not reached us (for example, “Shah-name” by the poet Ferdowsi).
Knowledge of the Vedic tradition in the form of Hinduism and Zoroastrianism is necessary for any cultured person. At the very least, you need to know the main plots of the myths of Ancient India and Iran in retellings, and become familiar with the masterpieces of religious art - temples, images of gods and heroes. I am convinced that this branch of knowledge should not be less represented in modern education than the ancient paganism of Europe, if only for the reason that the ancient Russian pagan and Vedic faith is much closer to Hinduism and Zoroastrianism than to the religion of the ancient Greeks and Romans.
Particular attention should be paid to those places in the sacred books of Hinduism and Zoroastrianism that tell about the lands lying to the North of India and Iran. These are the most important and very ancient descriptions of the lands of Rus', which was and is revered by both Hindus and Zoroastrians as the ancestral home of the Aryans and the source of the Vedic faith.
Attention should be paid to the commonality of many texts, mythological stories of Russian and other Vedic traditions. Place next to each other the texts of Russian folk songs, spiritual poems and the texts of Indian and Iranian Vedic literature repeating them. A comparison will certainly lead to the conclusion that songs preserved in Rus' are no less, and often even more archaic, than in India and Iran. This is justified by the fact that Rus' is the source of the Vedic faith.
The most ancient songs and epics in the Russian oral tradition have been preserved better than anywhere else. They are more poetic and accessible. Where, for example, the Puranas of India give a brief retelling of the plot of an ancient myth, the Russian tradition gives the ancient song itself, very beloved by the people and almost not distorted by time.
Many ancient Vedic hymns, sacred songs and partly myths have been preserved by the oral and written tradition of Russian Orthodox mystical sects. One can name the “Pigeon Book”, “Animal Book”, “Secret Book”, “Golden Book” and many other folk books revered by the Old Believers, Doukhobors, “God’s people” (Khlysty, Skoptsy), Bogumils and others.
The complete collection of Slavic folk songs, epics, fairy tales and tales, spiritual poems consists of thousands of volumes. And they contain those very Primordial Troubles, lost by the Aryans who came from the North to India and Iran. Other collections of Russian folk songs and epics contain tales that are more ancient and better preserved than the tales of the Puranas.
Now I have published a complete set of the Primordial Vedas, called by the ancient name of this collection of myths and legends of the Slavs: “The Starry Book of Kolyada.” Each text of this book has a prototype in oral tradition and in the folk books of the Slavs (also in close traditions). I have done the work of collecting texts, translating into modern Russian, organizing, comparing, highlighting the ancient basis. “The Book of Kolyada” should be considered a source according to the ancient faith Slavs, for every text, figurative expression, thought of this book can be authenticated by a folk song, epic, tale.
One of the most important sources on Slavic mythology and the ancient Vedic faith of the Slavs should also be considered the book “Veda of the Slavs,” a collection of songs of the South Slavic people of the Bulgarians—Pomakav. This book (in two volumes) was published at the end of the last century in Belgrade and St. Petersburg by Stefan Ilyich Verkovich. “Vela of the Slavs” contains ritual songs and prayers to the Slavic gods; it is no less significant for the Slavs than “Rigveda” for the Hindus. It has not yet been translated into Russian, but many ancient Slavic myths from this book were included in the “Book of Kolyada”.
In addition to thousands of volumes of Slavic folklore, Russian Vedic literature is also represented by monuments of ancient writing. First of all, this is the “Book of Veles”, then “Boyanov’s Hymn” and “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”. Already these monuments are enough to talk about the great Russian Vedic literature and written culture.
The “Tale of Igor’s Campaign” is now best known, created, as shown by Academician B.A. Rybakov, boyar Peter Borislavich in the 12th century. His nephew Bishop Theodore advocated the unity of Russian Vedic and Christian traditions, for which he was executed, and the books he wrote were burned. This family kept the Russian Orthodox-Vedic (righteous) faith, they were continuers of the tradition dating back to Boyan and Zlatogor, the singers of Ancient Rus'.
“Boyanov Hymn” is the oldest monument of Slavic writing, created in the 4th century. It has come down to us, like “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign,” in a copy of the early 19th century, but the original may still exist. Tells about the victory of the Slavs in the war of the Goths of Hermanarech. Contains news about princes Busya and Sloven, singers Boyana and Zlatogor.
Slavic myths also contain a Slavic translation (10th century) of the “Chronicles of John Malala” (6th century), which compares Greek and Slavic paganism. Also, information about the ancient gods of the Slavs is contained in chronicles, teachings of paganism, alphabet books, paleas, etc.
“The Book of Veles” is the sacred scripture of the Slavs. It was written on wooden tablets (43 boards) in the 5th-9th centuries by the priests of Ruskolani and Ancient Novgorod. Contains the mythology of the Slavs, prayer texts, legends and stories about ancient Slavic history from the 20th millennium BC to the 9th century AD. “The Book of Veles” has been known since the beginning of the 19th century, but has come down to us in a copy from the beginning of the 20th century.
Until recently, other sacred texts of the ancient Slavs were known, about two dozen sources. The most extensive and significant of them are as follows: “Perunitsa” (Perun and Veles broadcasting in the Kyiv temples to the priests Moveslav, Drevoslav and others), judging by the description, consisted of 12 books. Further: “About Kitovras. Fables and Blasphemies" (the name is conditional, this is Slavic Vedic mythology), 143 boards of the 5th century. “White Book”, which includes tales of Kolyada Venedsky, funeral feasts of Zlatogor, Bus Beloyar, Novgorod legends from the times of Burivoy and Vladimir the Ancient. There were also geographical works, fortune-telling books, and so on and so forth.
The memory of many books was also preserved by the Pomak Bulgarian communities (“Golden Book”, “Bird Book”, “Book of Wanderings” and so on). These books were also destroyed not so long ago.
Nowadays these books are not available to us. Some of them are apparently in closed state storage facilities in Russia. Some of them were exported through Masonic channels outside the Russian Empire at the beginning of the 19th century, mainly to Austria. Nowadays these manuscripts are scattered throughout the libraries of Europe and America and are revered as secret writing. Much of the above can still be saved; some of the possible repositories of these manuscripts are known to us. But in domestic science there is no interest in this topic, which means there is no government support for research. A change in attitude towards Russian Vedic culture is needed among those who make decisions in our state, that is, in political and financial power, because significant funds are needed to find, publish and study these books.
The importance of the Russian Vedic tradition, Russian Vedic literature, is great not only for Russia, but also for the entire world community, for Russian Vedism is close to the source of the Vedic faith and Vedic culture, and it largely determines the life of modern civilization.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru