Man holding edition of holy books (5)
I believe the answer is:
vedic
'of holy books' is the definition.
(relating to the Veda)
'man holding edition' is the wordplay.
'man' becomes 'vic' (short for Victor).
'holding' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'edition' becomes 'ed' (abbreviation).
'vic' going around 'ed' is 'VEDIC'.
(Other definitions for vedic that I've seen before include "Sort of language" , "of ancient texts" , "religious language" .)