The Vedas emerged over many centuries, rather than at a single historical moment, with most scholars placing their composition between about 1500 and 500 BCE. Within this broad span, the earliest layer is the Ṛgveda Saṁhitā, often situated around 1500–1200 BCE as the oldest stratum of Vedic Sanskrit hymns. The other Saṁhitās—the Yajur, Sāma, and Atharva—are generally placed somewhat later, roughly 1200–600 BCE, as the ritual and liturgical tradition diversified and expanded. Prose texts such as the Brāhmaṇas, along with the early Upaniṣads, are usually dated to about 800–500 BCE, reflecting a gradual shift from a primary focus on sacrifice toward more inward philosophical reflection. By the time of the early Upaniṣads, the main body of Vedic literature was largely in place, even though its oral transmission continued to be refined and preserved with great care.

The dating of this sacred corpus rests on converging lines of inquiry rather than on explicit historical markers within the texts themselves. Linguistic and philological analysis plays a central role: scholars trace the evolution of Vedic Sanskrit—its grammar, vocabulary, and sound patterns—and compare it with later Classical Sanskrit and related Indo‑European languages, thereby establishing both relative order and approximate time depth. Comparative study with closely related traditions, especially early Iranian materials such as the Avesta, helps to situate the oldest Vedic hymns within a wider Indo‑Iranian horizon. Archaeological correlation adds another layer of evidence, as descriptions of social life, ritual practice, and material culture—such as the use of horses, chariots, metals, and specific settlement patterns—are aligned with excavated cultures in the northwestern regions of the subcontinent.

Astronomical references within some hymns and ritual texts have also been used in attempts to refine the chronology, by linking mentions of solstices, equinoxes, or constellations to the slow precession of the heavens. These efforts, however, are interpretive and often contested, so they are treated with caution in scholarly discussions. Internal textual evidence—where later texts quote, reinterpret, or presuppose earlier ones—helps to map out the stratification of the corpus from Saṁhitās to Brāhmaṇas to Upaniṣads. Through this layered approach, the Vedas appear as a living river of revelation and reflection, whose precise source cannot be pinned down to a single date, yet whose broad historical contours can be discerned through careful, disciplined study.