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 Old Is the Rigveda? Three Thousand Years of Dating Debates
Scholars have proposed dates for the Rigveda ranging from 6000 BCE to 1000 BCE. The gap between the earliest and latest serious proposals spans five millennia. This article traces every major approach, from Max Muller's backward arithmetic to ancient DNA, and is honest about what each one can and cannot prove.
Ancient DNA and the Vedic People: What Genetics Now Tells Us About the Composers of the Rig Veda
Until 2015, the question of where the Rig Vedic people came from could be addressed only by linguistics and archaeology. Ancient DNA has changed that. A summary of the Narasimhan et al. (2019) Science paper and what it tells us about the people behind the hymns.