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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May I Die Today If I Am a Sorcerer: The Rigveda's Witchcraft Problem
The last hymn of Book Seven is not a prayer. It is a poet swearing on his own life that he is not a witch, and cursing the neighbour who said he was. Two hymns carry almost the entire vocabulary of Vedic sorcery.
The Battle of the Ten Kings: Reading the Rigveda's Only War Report
On the banks of the Paruṣṇī, a Bharata king named Sudās broke a dam and drowned a coalition of ten tribes. The dāśarājña is the closest the Rigveda comes to history, and reading it tests the limits of what a hymn can tell us.