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The Rig Veda is a Hindu religious text. This modern translation brings the ancient Sanskrit text into readable English. Summary of the Book Eons ago, in what is known as the Iron Age, the great Rishis began to set down the Holy Scriptures they learnt from their teachers in a standard form. These scriptures were haphazardly collected, mixed and unorganized. They contained messages of Hindu Vedanta, the concepts of Advaita and the unique Hindu philosophy we know today. However, in that form, they were largely inaccessible by the common man, left to the Rishis and only the upper echelons of the Brahmin caste. One Rishi, a man by the name of Krishna Dwaipayana, sought to classify these scriptures. He began collecting them, organizing them into four groups. He divided them into the Rig Veda, the Yajur Veda, the Sama Veda and the Atharva Veda. In doing so, he sealed his fate, earning the name Veda Vyasa. In this collection, Wendy Doniger brings together the verses associated with the Rig Veda, explaining the foundation of Hindu Mythology and Advaita Dharma. About Wendy Doniger Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty is an American Indologist and writer. Some of her major works are: On Hinduism, The Origins of Evil in Hindu Mythology, The Rig Veda: An Anthology and 108 Hymns Translated from the Sanskrit. A graduate of Oxford University, where she obtained her doctoral degree, she currently holds the Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor Chair in History of Religions at the University of Chicago. About Veda Vyasa Krishna Dwaipayana Vyasa, better known as Veda Vyasa, was an Indian sage, purported to have been a central figure in Hindu mythology. He is credited with the authorship of the Mahabharata and the classification of the Vedas into four categories. Although his historical existence is under debate, Vyasa is supposed to have existed around the 3rd millennium BCE.