VEDĀṄGAS. Vedāṅgas (Sanskrit, "limbs of the Veda") are subjects supplementary and subsidiary to the Vedas, the sacred texts of the pre-Hindu religion of ancient India. While the earliest sections of the Vedas date back to at least 1000 BCE, and probably earlier, the first works classified as Vedāṅga were composed not before the sixth or seventh centuries BCE, and the initial appearance of much of the classic literature of this genre is usually dated to no earlier than the fifth and fourth centuries BCE.

The Vedāṅgas are those subjects that were to be studied in order to correctly understand the Vedas and perform the rituals those texts enjoin. The texts categorized as Vedāṅgas are in the form of technical treatises written in the extremely condensed, aphoristic, and mnemonic style known as sūtra (literally "thread," referring...