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 Roaring Bull of the Sky: Parjanya, the Rig Veda's Rain God and the Indo-European Thunderer
Only three hymns of the Rig Veda are addressed to Parjanya, the roaring rain-bull who fertilizes the earth. Yet his name may preserve a thread reaching back to a Proto-Indo-European storm god, one that also surfaces in Lithuanian Perkūnas and Slavic Perun. The match is tantalizing and far from settled.
The Frogs of Vasiṣṭha: Rain-Charm, Parody, or Both in RV 7.103
One Rigvedic hymn praises frogs as if they were Brahmin priests. For a century scholars asked whether it mocks the priesthood or works as a serious rain-charm. The honest answer is that it does both, and the false choice is the real lesson.
What the Rigveda Says About Nature: Rivers, Fire, Dawn, and the Cosmic Order of Ṛta
The Rigveda is the oldest surviving record of how a literate culture saw the natural world. A close reading of its rivers, its fire-sciences, its dawn observations, and the principle of ṛta that holds them together.