Journeys into Vedic Thought
Long-form, researched essays on the deities, language, ritual and history of the Rig Veda. All free to read.
No articles match your search. Clear →
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 Long-Haired One: Reading the Keśin Hymn (RV 10.136) and the Vedic Roots of Ecstasy
A close reading of the Rigveda's strangest seven verses, where wind-girdled ascetics fly with the gods and drink poison beside Rudra. What this hymn does and does not tell us about the origins of yoga, asceticism, and ecstatic flight in ancient India.
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.
The Goddess Who Is Her Own Hymn: Vāc and the Self-Praise of Speech in Rigveda 10.125
In one short hymn of the Rigveda, the goddess Speech praises herself in the first person, claiming to carry the gods and pervade the cosmos. A close reading of RV 10.125 and the long afterlife of deified Vāc.