The Rigveda, Sanskrit for “praise knowledge”, is a collection of sacred texts of Hinduism first written down between 1700 and 1100 BCE. The sounds and texts of Rigveda have been orally transmitted since at least circa 2000 BCE. It discusses cosmology, praises deities, and covers philosophical questions including…

• 1.164.34: “What is the ultimate limit of the earth?”, “What is the center of the universe?”, “What is the semen of the cosmic horse?”, “What is the ultimate source of human speech?”;
• 1.164.34: “Who gave blood, soul, spirit to the earth?”, “How could the unstructured universe give origin to this structured world?”;
• 1.164.5: “Where does the sun hide in the night?”, “Where do gods live?”;
• 1.164.6: “What, where is the unborn support for the born universe?”;
• 1.164.20 is a parable of the Body and the Soul.

The other three books of the Veda were written centuries later:

• Yajurveda, circa 1000 BCE
• Samaveda, circa 1000 BCE
• Atharvaveda, circa 700 BCE