The Rig Veda Blog
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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How Far Is a Yojana? The Rig Veda Measures the World in Yokings and Cattle
The Rig Veda has no inch, no cubit, no ruler. Its two words for distance mean 'a harnessing' and 'the ground a cow walks', and in the whole collection exactly one verse attaches a number to either of them. What a civilisation chooses not to measure turns out to be as revealing as what it does.
The God You Pray Away: Rudra, the Archer Who Heals, and the Long Prehistory of Śiva
Rudra gets only three hymns in the Rigveda, yet he is the most carefully handled god in the collection. The poets praise his arrows so he will aim them elsewhere, and call him kind so he will become so. This is how a feared archer turned into Śiva.