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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The Boundless Mother: Aditi and the Adityas
Aditi is named for what she is not: a-diti, 'un-bound,' the limitless. A sourced reading of the Vedic mother-goddess whose very name is a negation, and her sovereign sons.
Patron of Lost Things: Pushan, the Vedic God of Roads
Pushan finds what is lost, guards travellers, knows every path, and eats only gruel because he has no teeth. A sourced look at the Rig Veda's gentlest and oddest god.
The Archer Who Heals: Rudra in the Rig Veda
Rudra shoots disease from a distance and, in the same breath, is begged for the medicines that cure it. A sourced reading of the Rig Veda's most dangerous and most ambivalent god.
The Dog Who Talked Back: Sarama and the Panis (RV 10.108)
Before any human messenger, the Rig Veda sends a dog. In RV 10.108 Sarama crosses a river for Indra and argues with the cattle-thieving Panis. A sourced reading of an overlooked myth.
The First to Die: Yama and the Vedic Afterlife (RV 10.14)
Yama was the first human to die, and so became king of the dead. A sourced reading of the Rig Veda's funeral hymn, the two four-eyed dogs, and the bright world of the fathers.
Varuna and the Order of Things: Sin and Rita in the Rig Veda
Varuna watches through unseen spies, binds the guilty with his noose, and guards rita, the order of the cosmos. A sourced reading of the Rig Veda's most moral god.
The Maruts: A Storm Set to Verse
The Maruts are the Rig Veda's storm-troop, a band of young gods who shake the mountains and bring the rain. A sourced reading of their hymns and their poetics of weather.
The Ashvins: Divine Twins and the Vedic Idea of Rescue
The Ashvins ride a chariot ahead of dawn, mend an amputee's leg with iron, and pull a man from a drowning sea. A sourced look at the Rig Veda's twin physicians.
Soma: The Pressed God of Mandala 9
A whole book of the Rig Veda is about a drink. Soma as plant, ritual and deity, and the long argument over what the plant actually was.
Agni: The Fire at the Start of the Rig Veda
The Rig Veda's very first word is agni. A sourced look at the fire-god's roles, epithets, and why he stands second only to Indra.
The Rig Veda by the Numbers: Statistics, Patterns, and What They Reveal
1,028 hymns. 10,552 verses. 432,000 syllables. 33 principal deities. Reading the Rig Veda as a dataset turns up patterns you would never see one hymn at a time. A statistical tour.