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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A Bull, a Log, and the Woman Holding the Reins
One hymn in the Rigveda's tenth book reports a race. The team is a bull and a block of wood, the driver is a woman named Mudgalānī, and the bull urinates halfway down the track. Three thousand years of commentators have argued about what on earth is going on.
The Prop Under the Sky: What Dharma Meant Before It Meant Duty
In the Rigveda, dharma is not a moral code. It is a load-bearing noun, the physical thing that keeps heaven and earth from collapsing into each other. It appears sixty-three times, mostly in the youngest hymns, and one translator rendered it seven different ways in a single book.