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 Body That Became the World: Reading the Puruṣa Sūkta (RV 10.90)
A late Rigvedic hymn imagines the universe built from a dismembered giant, and in one verse derives the four social classes from his body. Here is what the text actually says, why scholars date it late, and how it preserves a creation myth older than Sanskrit.
The Falcon That Stole the Drink of the Gods: Reading the Śyena Myth of Rigveda 4.26-27
Two hymns in the fourth book of the Rigveda tell how a falcon flew to the highest heaven, snatched the gods' soma past an armed guardian, and lost a single feather to an arrow. The same story turns up in Iran, Scandinavia, and Greece.
Rise Up, Woman: Death, Yama, and the Funeral Hymns of the Rigveda
Five consecutive hymns in the Rigveda's tenth book handle a corpse: they coax the fire to cook rather than consume it, send the dead man down a path two dogs guard, and tell the widow to stand up and live. One of those verses was later rewritten to put her on the pyre.
The Twins on the Treaty Tablet: The Aśvins and the Indo-European Divine Horsemen
A clay tablet from northern Syria, written around 1350 BCE, swears an oath by gods named Mitra, Varuṇa, Indra, and the Nāsatya. The last pair are the Aśvins, the Rigveda's horse-riding twin rescuers, and they are also the best surviving witness to a myth Indo-Europeans told before any of these languages existed.
Tvaṣṭṛ and the Ṛbhus: Divine Craft and the Artisan Theology of the Rigveda
The Rigveda's artisan deities, Tvaṣṭṛ the divine fashioner and the three mortal Ṛbhus who won immortality through craft, reveal a Vedic theology where making rivals praying. Their myths encode real tensions about skill, authority, and who gets to be a god.
Ushas: Goddess of Dawn and the Most Beautiful Poetry of the Rig Veda
The dawn-hymns of the Rig Veda are widely considered the corpus's finest poetry. Ushas — Uṣas — is praised in twenty hymns of unusual lyricism. A reading of the dawn-cycle and what makes it the high-water mark of Vedic verse.