Ten books, or maṇḍalas, form the backbone of the Rigveda, each a carefully assembled anthology of hymns (sūktas) praising various deities. Think of maṇḍalas as playlists on a modern streaming service—each one curated around particular families of poets, themes or rituals.

Mandalas 2 through 7 are the “family books,” each attributed to a single rishi clan. Their internal consistency feels like a hand-woven tapestry: hymns to Agni in one corner, to Indra in another, all arranged by meter and deity. These sections are neatly carved into anuvākas—sub-chapters grouping related hymns much like podcast episodes under a season. For instance, the second maṇḍala’s 43 hymns are folded into about half a dozen anuvākas, each one gathering invocations to Indra or Agni, organized by nuance of ritual.

Mandalas 1 and 10 serve as miscellaneous anthologies. The first gathers 191 hymns from scattered schools, divided into 19 anuvākas. The tenth, the latest layer added around 1200 BCE, spans 191 hymns too, but stretches across 35 anuvākas—touching on philosophical musings, creation myths and even early references to new ritual patterns. It mirrors today’s news apps that blend hard facts, opinion pieces and lifestyle features all in one place.

Mandala 9 stands apart: its 114 hymns to the Soma ritual flow unbroken, without anuvāka divisions. It’s like a live concert recording—no breaks, just the continuous surge of verses celebrating the sacred drink.

Within each anuvāka, individual hymns break down into ṛcas, or verses, the atomic units of Vedic poetry. Across the ten maṇḍalas there are roughly a hundred anuvākas, though counts vary by edition. This layered structure—maṇḍala, anuvāka, sūkta, ṛca—ensures that priests could memorize and recite precise clusters of verses, a tradition kept alive in digital humanities projects today, like the Global Rigveda Initiative launched in 2023. By mirroring ancient oral patterns, these initiatives make it easy to navigate hymns just as scholars once did under starlit skies, passing down this fire-lit heritage from one generation to the next.