Hindu Media Wiki

For a moment, let's not debate on the divinity of the Vedas - especially, Rigveda. Let's look at the Rigveda objectively as a book of knowledge encoded over a long period of time by the sages of this ancient land.

Many people have done research on the texts of the Rigveda. Some have tried to analyse the clues hidden within the texts to understand the chronology of its formulation. Shrikant Talageri is one among them. His book "The Rigveda - A Historical Analysis" can be found online at http://voiceofdharma.org/books/rig/ for everyone to read.

In terms of the chronological clues, elaborated further by the research done by Nilesh Oak, gives us the following:

1. Overall, all of Rigveda that is known to us, contains texts that can be attributed to a wide time period - from beyond 22,000 BCE till 5500 BCE (appx). Mandala 1 has been continually enriched across this period.

2. Mandalas 6, 3, 7 seem to be earliest composition.

3. Mandalas 2 and 4 before 14000 BCE

4. Mandalas 5, 8, 9 seem to be before 11000 BCE

5. Mandala 10 is around 5500 BCE

One may choose to read / re-read Rigveda (https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Rig_Veda) is this sequence to get a view. Do let us know your thoughts!