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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Set the Troughs, Fasten the Straps: The Rigveda's Well
Three verses in the tenth book stop singing and start giving assembly instructions for a water-lifting rig: troughs, leather straps, a stone wheel, a bucket. Follow that machine outward and it turns out to be the model the poets used to explain rain.
The Knot on the Right: What the Rigveda Wore
A Rigvedic hymn identifies an entire priestly family by their hairstyle. Follow the text's clothing words and you find a wool economy, a loom with pegs driven into the ground, exactly one needle, and the metaphor that eventually gave Sanskrit the words sutra and tantra.
Dating the Rig Veda: What Linguistics, Astronomy and Archaeology Actually Tell Us
How old is the Rig Veda? Three independent lines of scientific evidence — linguistic stratigraphy, astronomical references inside the hymns, and Bronze-Age archaeology — converge on a date range that has held up for over a century. A guide to what each method can and cannot say.