ऋग् (ṛg)—वेद (—veda) अस् (as), m. ‘Hymn - Veda’ or ‘Veda of praise’, the Ṛg-veda, or most ancient sacred book of the Hindūs (that is, the collective body of sacred verses called Ṛcas [see below], consisting of 1017 hymns [or with the Vālakhilyas 1028] arranged in eight Aṣṭakas or in ten Maṇḍalas; Maṇḍalas 2-8 contain groups of hymns, each group ascribed to one author or to the members of one family; the ninth book contains the hymns sung at the Soma ceremonies; the first and tenth contain hymns of a different character, some comparatively modern, composed by a greater variety of individual authors; in its wider sense the term Ṛg-veda comprehends the Brāhmaṇas and the Sūtra works on the ritual connected with the hymns), Aitareya-brāhmaṇa (Title) ; Śatapatha-brāhmaṇa (Title) ; Manu-smṛti (Title) &c. [ID=38737]
— Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1899)