The Rigveda stands as a collection of archaic hymns (ṛc, or mantras) addressed to deities such as Agni, Indra, Soma, Varuṇa, and Uṣas, composed in highly poetic, metrical Vedic Sanskrit. Organized into ten maṇḍalas containing over a thousand sūktas, it is primarily concerned with praise, invocation, cosmology, and the evocation of divine presence through word and rhythm. Its hymns are recited by the hotṛ priest in sacrifice, and they give voice to an early Vedic religious vision centered on the deities and on the emerging sense of ṛta, the cosmic order. The Rigvedic corpus thus preserves a devotional and contemplative dimension, where the power of sound and imagery is itself a primary vehicle of worship.

By contrast, the Yajurveda shifts the center of gravity from poetic praise to ritual procedure. Its mantras and prose formulas are designed for the adhvaryu priest, who oversees the concrete performance of sacrifice—measuring, constructing, and offering. Much of its language is more utilitarian, mixing verse with extensive prose to provide a kind of liturgical manual: not only what to say, but when and how to act. While it draws on Rigvedic material, it embeds those mantras within detailed sacrificial frameworks, making the act of yajña itself the focal expression of sacred order.

The Sāmaveda represents yet another transformation of Rigvedic material, turning selected verses into melodic chants (sāman) for the udgātṛ priest. Its distinctiveness lies less in new doctrinal content and more in its musical and liturgical character: it is, in essence, a songbook for soma and related rituals. Verses, largely borrowed from the Rigveda, are rearranged and marked for tune and rhythm, emphasizing the sacred potency of sound in its most aesthetic and exalted form. Here, the same divine names and images are carried on a different current, where melody becomes a mode of worship.

The Atharvaveda, finally, broadens the Vedic horizon beyond the grand public sacrifices into the realm of everyday life, healing, and protection. Its hymns, spells, charms, and prayers address illness, misfortune, prosperity, royal rites, curse and counter-curse, and various domestic concerns, often in a direct and incantatory style. It includes both verse and prose, preserving archaic elements alongside more developed language, and reflects popular beliefs and magico-religious practices that stand somewhat apart from the elite śrauta sacrificial focus. Traditionally recognized later than the other three as a Veda, it complements the Rigveda’s lofty hymns by attending to the vulnerabilities and aspirations of ordinary human existence.