“Veda” means knowledge, and the Vedas are the oldest and most authoritative scriptures of the Hindu traditions: four great collections called the Ṛg, Sāma, Yajur, and Atharva Vedas (the Yajurveda transmitted in two branches, called White and Black). Broadly, each corpus has layers: hymns (Saṃhitā), ritual exegesis (Brāhmaṇa), “forest books” (Āraṇyaka), and finally the Upaniṣads, the contemplative conclusion. Treat this as a map rather than a strict filing system; real Vedic texts do not always sit tidily in one drawer.
Śruti and smṛti
The tradition calls this whole corpus śruti, “that which is heard,” and distinguishes it from smṛti, “that which is remembered”: works of human authorship such as the epics. The distinction is about authority. For the Vedānta commentators, śruti is the final court of appeal; smṛti is honored and constantly quoted, but it supports rather than settles. When you see a commentator in this Atlas clinch an argument with an Upaniṣad and then add a verse from the Bhagavad Gītā, you are watching that hierarchy at work.
Old texts, or eternal ones?
The question is real, and the honest answer is that it depends on who is asking. This library keeps the two framings side by side without collapsing them.
Traditional view
The Mīmāṃsā and Vedānta traditions hold the Vedas to be apauruṣeya: authorless and eternal, not composed by any person, human or divine. On this view śruti is not old testimony; it is revelation without an author, and its authority rests on exactly that.
Historical study
Historians and philologists study the Vedas as texts composed, arranged, and transmitted over a very long period. The core of the Ṛgveda is commonly dated to roughly the late second millennium BCE, with wide uncertainty; the corpus grew in layers over many centuries.