Védanga

The Vedanga (वेदाङ्ग , "limb of the Veda-s"; plural form: वेदाङ्गानि ) are six auxiliary disciplines of Hinduism that developed in ancient times and have been connected with the study of the Vedas: Shiksha (Sanskrit: शिक्षा , "instruction, teaching"): phonetics, phonology, pronunciation. This auxiliary discipline has focused on the letters of the Sanskrit alphabet, accent, quantity, stress, melody and rules of euphonic combination of words during a Vedic recitation. Chandas (Sanskrit: छन्दस् , "metre"): prosody. This auxiliary discipline has focused on the poetic meters, including those based on fixed number of syllables per verse, and those based on fixed number of morae per verse. Vyakarana (Sanskrit: व्याकरण , "grammar"): grammar and linguistic analysis. This auxiliary discipline has focused on the rules of grammar and linguistic analysis to establish the exact form of words and sentences to properly express ideas. Nirukta (Sanskrit: निरुक्त , "etymology"): etymology, explanation of words, particularly those that are archaic and have ancient uses with unclear meaning. This auxiliary discipline has focused on linguistic analysis to help establish the proper meaning of the words, given the context they are used in. Kalpa (Sanskrit: कल्प , "proper. fit"): ritual instructions. This field focused on standardizing procedures for Vedic rituals, rites of passage rituals associated with major life events such as birth, wedding and death in family, as well as discussing the personal conduct and proper duties of an individual in different stages of his life. Jyotisha (Sanskrit: ज्योतिष , "astrology"): Right time for rituals with the help of position of nakshatras and asterisms and astronomy. This auxiliary Vedic discipline focused on time keeping. The character of Vedangas has roots in ancient times, and the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad mentions it as an integral part of the Brahmanas layer of the Vedic texts. These auxiliary disciplines of study arise with the codification of the Vedas in Iron Age India.