Writing on ancient literatures and world mythology. Future articles will be on Rig Veda, Sanskrit, Old English, Indo-European literature, Egypt, China etc.
The chariot race was one of the most important competitive sports in Greece, Rome and many other ancient cultures. In the Iliad, we read a description of a chariot race held as part of the funeral games. The energy and competitive spirit of the racers is vividly described as follows
Read More Indra driving the chariotOn the occasion of Guru Pūrṇimā, our thoughts may turn to the venerable lineages of successive teachers and students in India. As we will see, the need to record and preserve genealogical details of family and pedagogical lineages was already recognized in India in the earliest times. Indeed, this is very likely a continuation of the concerns of proto-Indo-European people. For many ancient peoples, family would perhaps be the main source of personal identity, and the basis of all religious life.
Read More Family and society in the Vedic periodagain from the tenth book. Though a different verse, the immensity of the boulder does give an impression of something elementary, mysterious and primordial that perhaps matches the idea of creation that starts with ‘night’ and basic elements such as ‘water’.
Read More Creation in the Rig Veda (again)age has been connected with religious and ethical traditions in diverse regions of the world and throughout history, from the Biblical idea that the Word is God to the Confucian idea of the rectification of names. In the Indian tradition, too, language has been of central importance, and this has motivated a tradition of linguistic analysis and linguistic precision in the Sanskrit language. Indeed, for some Indian thinkers, sound itself, in the form of human speech, is the metaphysical basis for our entire reality.
Read More Speech in the Rig VedaRivers have been revered since time immemorial in cultures across the world. For ancient peoples, the pure waters provided by rivers to drink and to water crops must have seemed to be a blessing from nature or from the gods. In the Rig Veda, the sapta-sindhu or seven rivers stand pre-eminent. Two among these, the Vipāśā (Beas) and Śutudrī (Satluj) rivers are the interlocutors of the sage Viśvamitra in a fascinating and unique conversation translated here.
Read More Talking with the riversṚg Veda Book 10 Verse 85 is commonly known as Sūryā’s Bridal Hymn or the Wedding Hymn. In some Hindu families, this is one of the Vedic verses recited as part of the liturgy at Hindu marriage ceremonies. It tells a metaphorical story of the wedding of Sūryā, seemingly the daughter of the sun-god, as bride, to soma, seemingly the moon, as bridegroom. Some of the features of the wedding described continue to be features of Hindu weddings today
Read More Marriage in the Rig VedaThe sun has been worshipped as a deity in many of the major religious traditions in history, dating at least from the ancient Egyptian religion which worshipped the sun god 𒊑𒀀 (a.k.a. Re or Ra).
Read More On worshipping the sun as godA translation and analysis of the Nāsadīya Sūkta
Read More Theology and Indian PhilosophyReflecting on the place of Indra in the Veda and in the Indo-European tradition
Read More Indra as Vedic heroReflecting on the sacred fig tree as a metaphor for the cosmos
Read More The Cosmos in Indian Philosophy
Desire To Think 