Journeys into Vedic Thought
Long-form, researched essays on the deities, language, ritual and history of the Rig Veda. All free to read.
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A Verb With No When
The Rigveda has a finite verb form that carries no tense and no mood. Sanskrit later lost it almost completely, and the one place it survived is the word every Indian language still uses to say 'don't'.
The Sky Was Made of Stone
One Vedic word means 'stone'. Its Iranian cousin means 'sky'. Follow aśman through thirty Rigvedic verses and the weather stops being weather: thunder becomes a rock rolling overhead, lightning becomes fire struck out of flint, and rain has to be quarried.
The Two Mitras and the Two Varuṇas: The Rig Veda's Grammar of Pairs
Vedic Sanskrit has a separate grammatical form for exactly two, and the Rigveda's gods obey it. Fifty-seven hymns are addressed not to a god but to a couple, and the name of the most famous couple literally says 'the two Mitras, the two Varuṇas'.