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 Sky That Does Not Fall: Astronomy and Cosmology in the Rigveda
Three thousand years before Newton, a Rigvedic poet looked up and asked why the sun, unbound and unsupported, does not fall out of the sky. This is what the oldest layer of Indian thought actually knew about measuring time, mapping the heavens, and where it all came from.
Counting the Stars: Nakshatra Astronomy in the Rigveda and What It Tells Us About Dating
The Rigveda contains astronomical references that scholars have tried to use as a clock. From Jacobi and Tilak in the 1890s to modern archaeoastronomy, the debate over whether star positions can date the Vedic hymns remains one of Indology's most contested questions. The precession math is real; the interpretive problems are harder.
Vedic Astronomy and the Year: Nakshatras, Months, and the Ritual Calendar
The Rig Veda is built around a calendar of 12 lunar months, 6 seasons (ṛtus) and 27 lunar mansions (nakshatras). The Vedāṅga Jyotiṣa — the first formal Indian astronomy text — documents the system that ritualists used to time the sacrifices.