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| According to Hindu tradition, Bhagwan Ved Vyas first classified the Vedas some 5,000 years ago. |
The oldest, foundational texts of Hinduism are known as the Vedas (वेदाः). Considered by Hindus to be shruti (श्रुति),or knowledge that was "heard" or revealed directly by G-d to the Rishis - great sages who shared this knowledge with humanity.
The word Vedas literally means "knowledge" and comes from the Sanskrit (and Proto-Indo-European) root word Vid- meaning "to know" or "to see." Often the term Veda is used in the sense of a "field," "area of study," or "science," such as in the case of the word Ayurveda, which can be translated as the "science of life." In English, the word "wit" comes from the same Proto-Indo-European root as does the Latin word "video" (I see). (See the wiki)
In Hebrew, the word for "knowledge" is Yeda (ידע). I would like to suggest that it is no accident that this word sounds a great deal like the Sanskrit Veda. This is because the root of the Hebrew root is almost identical to the Sanskrit. Those who are familiar with the Hebrew language know that Hebrew words are typically constructed from three-letter roots. In this case, the Hebrew root for Yeda (ידע) is Vada (ודע).
While it might seem obvious to the casual observer that the above Sanskrit and Hebrew words are clearly cognates, mainstream linguistics has long rejected any attempt to find a connection between the respective language families (i.e. Indo-European and Afro-Asiatic) because they insist on dating the Vedas to roughly 1500-1000 BCE. Based on this recent chronology, they argue that there is no way that the two languages could have been in mutual contact let alone shared a common origin (see the debate on Nostratic).
And yet, there is no mistaking that these two words have the same meaning and sound a lot alike.
In Hebrew, the word for "knowledge" is Yeda (ידע). I would like to suggest that it is no accident that this word sounds a great deal like the Sanskrit Veda. This is because the root of the Hebrew root is almost identical to the Sanskrit. Those who are familiar with the Hebrew language know that Hebrew words are typically constructed from three-letter roots. In this case, the Hebrew root for Yeda (ידע) is Vada (ודע).
While it might seem obvious to the casual observer that the above Sanskrit and Hebrew words are clearly cognates, mainstream linguistics has long rejected any attempt to find a connection between the respective language families (i.e. Indo-European and Afro-Asiatic) because they insist on dating the Vedas to roughly 1500-1000 BCE. Based on this recent chronology, they argue that there is no way that the two languages could have been in mutual contact let alone shared a common origin (see the debate on Nostratic).
And yet, there is no mistaking that these two words have the same meaning and sound a lot alike.
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