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Vedic Religion and Culture
Book by Bhargava, P. L.
120 pages, Hardcover
First published May 1, 1994
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June 12, 2022
A common trend these days is to rely on decoloniality arguments in order to oppose the academic condescension to hindu scriptures, rather than to do the right thing which is to study indology and show the cracks in their works. In this sense, PL Bhargava's works I think are a step in the right direction. Shrikanth Talageri as per my knowledge built his OIT thesis on top of Bhargava's works, and the inspirations are evident. The book is a collection of the author's articles; but it seems as if their ordering was rather arbitrary. The author simply says that the last four chapters were unpublished and not tied with Rigveda but he wished to add them; but they're better read (IMO) in the groups, ordered ascending by how much I enjoyed them:
Chapters 1, 9 are primarily methodological disputes concerning the indological consensus, that anukramanis and puranas are easily dismissable as fiction. It is certainly fascinating how even activities like dana (gifting) can bear so much historical value (or even politico-theoretic value as was discussed by Upinder Singh in her book, Idea of Ancient India).
Chapters 3,5,6,7 [,8,15] primarily deal with the theology of the Rigveda - the enumeration of adityas, the vishvedevas, the monotheism of nasadiya sukta, and idea of omnipresence in "thousand-eyed". Similarly in Chapters 8,15 the author examines the questions of interest to Hindus, namely their continuity from the Vedic Religion, and the status of Vedic women. While the chapters aren't as insightful as I'd like them to be, they're nevertheless reaffirming of the Hindu status quo beliefs.
Now coming to the chapters that caught my attention,
Chapters 10,11,13,14 are concerned with the continuity of Vedic religion into the Itihasa heroes - Rama and Krishna. In chapters 10 and 11, the author makes a case that Ikshvakus came from Swat valley, and eventually migrated to Ganga under Bhagiratha's leadership with his chariots - this story later mythologised. This is really intriguing because we now know that the Sintashta people actually settled in Swat valley c. 1400BCE - were the Sintasthas and Ikshvakus the same tribe? Likewise in the Chapters 13, 14 the author tackles the historicity of Gita. The author suspects that Krishna of Upanishads and Krishna of Gita are the same personality, and makes a simple case for how the devotional chapters of Gita (Ch7 thru Ch12) are were clearly interpolated.
In Chapters 2, 4 the author makes a simple but persuasive argument how Indo-Iranian religion did not transition from Varuna to Indra which is the academic consensus. In my opinion, the explanation given is more parsimonious than the AMT explanation for the origins of Mitanni empire. One can also see Talageri's thesis emerging in these chapters, to locate Aryan Homeland in Kashmir.
Lastly comes the chapter which I thoroughly enjoyed, Chapter 12 on Yaska and Panini. Indians don't often realise that early Indians were exceptional in their mastery of linguistics, and the chapter pays an excellent tribute to the two personalities. It would be nice if the book had more chapters dedicated to such personalities.
Chapters 1, 9 are primarily methodological disputes concerning the indological consensus, that anukramanis and puranas are easily dismissable as fiction. It is certainly fascinating how even activities like dana (gifting) can bear so much historical value (or even politico-theoretic value as was discussed by Upinder Singh in her book, Idea of Ancient India).
Chapters 3,5,6,7 [,8,15] primarily deal with the theology of the Rigveda - the enumeration of adityas, the vishvedevas, the monotheism of nasadiya sukta, and idea of omnipresence in "thousand-eyed". Similarly in Chapters 8,15 the author examines the questions of interest to Hindus, namely their continuity from the Vedic Religion, and the status of Vedic women. While the chapters aren't as insightful as I'd like them to be, they're nevertheless reaffirming of the Hindu status quo beliefs.
Now coming to the chapters that caught my attention,
Chapters 10,11,13,14 are concerned with the continuity of Vedic religion into the Itihasa heroes - Rama and Krishna. In chapters 10 and 11, the author makes a case that Ikshvakus came from Swat valley, and eventually migrated to Ganga under Bhagiratha's leadership with his chariots - this story later mythologised. This is really intriguing because we now know that the Sintashta people actually settled in Swat valley c. 1400BCE - were the Sintasthas and Ikshvakus the same tribe? Likewise in the Chapters 13, 14 the author tackles the historicity of Gita. The author suspects that Krishna of Upanishads and Krishna of Gita are the same personality, and makes a simple case for how the devotional chapters of Gita (Ch7 thru Ch12) are were clearly interpolated.
In Chapters 2, 4 the author makes a simple but persuasive argument how Indo-Iranian religion did not transition from Varuna to Indra which is the academic consensus. In my opinion, the explanation given is more parsimonious than the AMT explanation for the origins of Mitanni empire. One can also see Talageri's thesis emerging in these chapters, to locate Aryan Homeland in Kashmir.
Lastly comes the chapter which I thoroughly enjoyed, Chapter 12 on Yaska and Panini. Indians don't often realise that early Indians were exceptional in their mastery of linguistics, and the chapter pays an excellent tribute to the two personalities. It would be nice if the book had more chapters dedicated to such personalities.
Displaying 1 of 1 review