(Sanskrit: “Learning by Hearing”), that class of Hindu sacred literature based on revelation, the most revered body of sacred literature in Hinduism. Śruti works are considered divine revelation, heard and transmitted by earthly sages, as contrasted to Smṛti, or that which is remembered. Though Śruti is considered to be the more authoritative, in practice the Smṛti texts are more influential in modern Hinduism. The revealed texts encompass the four Vedas (Veda)—Ṛg, Yajur, Sāma, and Atharvaveda (the earliest Hindu sacred literature)—and the Brāhmaṇas (ritual treatises), the Āraṇyaka (Āraṇyakas)s (“Books of the Forest”), and the Upaniṣad (Upanishad)s (philosophic elaborations on the Vedas that form the basis of much of later Indian philosophy).