rig veda mainly contains various hymns for praying to vedic gods such as agni (fire god), indra (the lord of heavens), mitra, varuna (water god), surya (sun god) etc. these hymns are called riks. hence the veda is called rik-veda or rigveda. this writing consists of 10 writings. the rigveda has 1,028 hymns and 10,600 verses.