Rigveda
The Rigveda’s core is accepted to date to the late Bronze Age, making it one of the few examples with an unbroken tradition. Its composition is usually dated to roughly between c. 1500–1200 BCE.[note 1] According to Michael Witzel, the codification of the Rigveda took place at the end of the Rigvedic period between ca. 1200 and 1000 BCE, in the early Kuru kingdom.[13]Asko Parpola argues that the Rigveda was systematized around 1000 BCE, at the time of the Kuru kingdom.[30]
It is unclear as to when the Rigveda was first written down. The oldest surviving manuscripts have been discovered in Nepal and date to c. 1040 CE.[3][69] According to Witzel, the Paippalada Samhita tradition points to written manuscripts c. 800-1000 CE.[70] The Upanishads were likely in the written form earlier, about mid-1st millennium CE (Gupta Empire period).[26][71] Attempts to write the Vedas may have been made “towards the end of the 1st millennium BCE”. The early attempts may have been unsuccessful given the Smriti rules that forbade the writing down the Vedas, states Witzel.[26] The oral tradition continued as a means of transmission until modern times.[72]
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