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{{short description|First book of the Rigveda}}
The '''first Mandala''' ("book") of the '''[[Rigveda]]''' has 191 hymns. Together with [[Mandala 10]], it forms the latest part of the Rigveda, its composition likely dating to the [[Early Iron Age]].

==Contents==
Hymn 1.1 is addressed to [[Agni]], arranged so that the name of this god is the first word of the ''Rigveda''. The remaining hymns are mainly addressed to Agni and [[Indra]]. Hymns 1.154 to 1.156 are addressed to [[Vishnu]]. Hymn 1.164.46, part of a hymn to the [[Vishvadevas]], is often quoted as an example of emerging [[monism]] or [[monotheism]]. It forms the basis for the well-known statement "Truth is one, sages call it by various names":
:''{{IAST|índram mitráṃ váruṇam agním āhur / átho divyáḥ sá suparṇó garútmān}}''
:''{{IAST|ékaṃ sád víprā bahudhâ vadanty / agníṃ yamám mātaríśvānam āhuḥ}}''
:"They call him Indra, [[Mitra]], [[Varuna]], Agni / and he is heavenly nobly-winged [[Garutman]]."
:"To what is One, sages give many a title / they call it Agni, [[Yama]], [[Matarisvan]]." (trans. Griffith)
: – ''Rigveda 1.164.46''

==Interpretation==
[[Max Muller]] described the character of the Vedic hymns as a form of [[henotheism]], in which "numerous deities are successively praised as if they were one ultimate God."{{sfn|Taliaferro|Harrison|Goetz|2012|p=78-79}} According to Graham, in the Vedic society it was believed that humans could contact the gods through the spoken utterances of the Vedic seers, and "the One Real" (''[[ekam]] sat'') in 1.164.46 refers to [[Vāc]], both "speech" and goddess of speech,{{sfn|Graham|1993|p=70-71}} the "one ultimate, supreme God", and "one supreme Goddess." In later Vedic literature, "Speech or utterance is also identified with the supreme power or transcendent reality," and "equated with Brahman in this sense."<ref>{{cite book|author=William A. Graham |title=Beyond the Written Word: Oral Aspects of Scripture in the History of Religion |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XzYX0T-ZqTcC |year=1993|publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-44820-8 |pages=70–71 }}</ref> Frauwallner states that "many gods are traced back to the one [[Conceptions of God|God]]head. The one (''ekam'') is not meant adjectively as a quality but as a substantive, as the upholding centre of reality."{{sfn|Frauwallner|1973|p=xvii}}

The Vedic henotheism may have grown out of a growing recognition of a "unitary essence beyond all the deities,"{{sfn|Taliaferro|Harrison|Goetz|2012|p=78-79}} in which the deities were conceptualized as pluralistic manifestations of the same divine essence beyond this plurality.<ref name=alonp370>{{cite book|author1=Ilai Alon |author2= Ithamar Gruenwald|author3=Itamar Singer |title= Concepts of the Other in Near Eastern Religions |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A1-l66daLgYC|date=1994 |publisher=BRILL Academic |isbn=978-9004102200 |pages=370–371 }}</ref><ref name=fahlbusch524>{{cite book|author=Erwin Fahlbusch |title=The Encyclopedia of Christianity |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yaecVMhMWaEC |year=1999|publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans |isbn=978-90-04-11695-5 |pages=524 }}</ref> The Vedic era conceptualization of the divine or the One, states Jeaneane Fowler, is more abstract than a monotheistic God, it is the Reality behind the phenomenal universe, which it treats as "limitless, indescribable, absolute principle", thus the Vedic divine is something of a [[panentheism]].<ref name=jeaneanefowler43/> In late Vedic era, with the start of Upanishadic age (~800-600 BCE), from the henotheistic, panentheistic concepts emerge the concepts which scholars variously call [[nondualism]] or [[monism]], as well as forms of non-theism.<ref name=jeaneanefowler43>{{cite book|author=Jeaneane D. Fowler |title=Perspectives of Reality: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Hinduism |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8dRZ4E-qgz8C |year=2002|publisher=Sussex Academic Press |isbn=978-1-898723-93-6 |pages=43–44 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=James L. Ford |title=The Divine Quest, East and West: A Comparative Study of Ultimate Realities |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Tk14CwAAQBAJ |year=2016|publisher=State University of New York Press |isbn=978-1-4384-6055-0 |pages=308–309 }}</ref>

==Selected hymns==

{| class="wikitable"
|-
|'''Sukta''' || '''Name''' || '''Deity''' || '''Rishi''' || '''Metre''' || '''Incipit'''
|-
| [[wikisource:The Rig Veda/Mandala 1/Hymn 1|1.1]] || [[Agni]]-Sukta || Agni || [[Madhuchhanda|Madhushchandhas Vaishvamitra]] || [[Vedic meter|gayatri]] || ''{{IAST|agním īḷe puróhitaṃ}}''
|-
| [[wikisource:The Rig Veda/Mandala 1/Hymn 22|1.22]] || Vishnu-Sukta || Vishnu || Medhatithi [[Kanva]] || gayatri || ''{{IAST|prātaryújā ví bodhaya}}''
|-
|[[wikisource:The Rig Veda/Mandala 1/Hymn 32|1.32]] || [[Indra]]-Sukta || Indra || Hiranyastupa Angiras || trishtubh || ''{{IAST|índrasya nú vīríyāṇi prá vocaṃ }}''
|-
| [[wikisource:The Rig Veda/Mandala 1/Hymn 89|1.89]] || [[Inner peace|Shanti]]-Sukta || [[Vishvedevas]] || Gotama Rahugana || jagati (trishtubh) || ''{{IAST|â no bhadrâḥ krátavo yantu viśváto}}''
|-
| [[wikisource:The Rig Veda/Mandala 1/Hymn 90|1.90]] || [[Madhu]]-Sukta || Vishvedevas || Gotama Rahugana || gayatri (anushtubh) || ''{{IAST|ṛjunītî no váruṇo}}''
|-
|[[wikisource:The Rig Veda/Mandala 1/Hymn 99|1.99]] || Agni-[[Durga]]-Sukta || Agni || Kashyapa Marica || trishtubh || ''{{IAST|jātávedase sunavāma sómam}}''
|-
|[[wikisource:The Rig Veda/Mandala 1/Hymn 162|1.162]] || [[Ashvamedha]]-Sukta || [[Ashva|The Horse]] || [[Dirghatamas|Dīrghatamas Aucathya]] || (trishtubh) || ''{{IAST|mâ no mitró váruṇo aryamâyúr}}''
|}



==Publications==
The ''editio princeps'' of the book is due to [[Friedrich August Rosen]], published posthumously in 1838. It was the earliest edition of a Rigvedic Mandala, predating [[Max Müller]]'s edition of the entire Rigveda by more than 50 years.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
{{refbegin}}

* {{Citation | last =Frauwallner | first =Erich | year =1973 | title =History of Indian Philosophy: The philosophy of the Veda and of the epic. The Buddha and the Jina. The Sāmkhya and the classical Yoga-system | publisher =Motilall Banarsidas}}

* {{Citation | last =Graham | first =William A. | year =1993 | title =Beyond the Written Word: Oral Aspects of Scripture in the History of Religion | publisher =Cambridge University Press | isbn =978-0-521-44820-8 | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=XzYX0T-ZqTcC}}

* {{Citation | last1 =Taliaferro | first1 =Charles | last2 =Harrison | first2 =Victoria S. | last3 =Goetz | first3 =Stewart | year =2012 | title =The Routledge Companion to Theism | publisher =Routledge | isbn =978-1-136-33823-6 | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=ct7fCgAAQBAJ}}
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{wikisourcelang|sa|ऋग्वेदः मण्डल १|Original Sanskrit text in Devanagari}}
*{{wikisource-inline|The Rig Veda/Mandala 1}}

{{Rigveda}}

[[Category:Rigveda]]

Mandala 1 - Revision history

imported>Qwerfjkl at 16:17, 6 May 2021