The Rigveda Saṁhitā is a collection of 10  maṇḍalas (books) with 1,028 hymns (sūktas) in about 10,600 verses called ṛc.

Śākhā means branch or recension: from one recension to another one, what differs is the way of chanting as well as the order of the different mantras. Though there are mainly 21 recensions of Rigveda, five are considered as major and among them only two are available now: Śākala or Aśvalāyāna Śākhā and Bāṣkala or Kausitaki Śākhā. The former is widely practiced in the places like Maharastra, Karnataka, Tamilnadu, Odissa and Uttarpradesh. The Baskala or Kausitaki Śākhā and the Aśvalāyāna Śākhā are widely practiced in Kerala.