Tag Archives: atharva veda

The rise of yajña and Kauśika exceptionalism

The extant Vedic ritual is bifurcated into two domains the gṛhya (the household rites and rites of passage) and the śrauta (large-scale/grand rituals). First, in operational terms, they are distinguished by the use of a single fire (the aupāsana) in … Continue reading

Posted in Heathen thought, History | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Sneha, snowstorms, the sun and the moon in enigmatic ṛk-s

That the Indo-European homeland was a cold place with snow is evidenced by widespread survival of two hon-homologous words for snow. Recently, a discussion on one of these words, sparked by some linguist, landed on my timeline on Twitter. From … Continue reading

Posted in Heathen thought, History | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Agni as the divine commander in the Veda and the Purāṇa

With the Sākamedha-parvan with the oblations to Agni Anīkavat having just passed, we present a brief note on Agni as the general of the deva army. Agni is presented as the commander of the deva-s in the brāhmaṇa literature. For … Continue reading

Posted in Heathen thought, History | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Twin Āditya-s, twin Rudra-s

This note originated as an intended appendix to the article on Rudra and the Aśvin-s we published earlier. The first offshoot from that work, which we published separately, explored the links between Rudra, Viṣṇu and the Aśvin-s in the śrauta … Continue reading

Posted in Heathen thought | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Matters of religion: Varuṇāvasiṣṇavam, Agnāvasiṣṇavam and the vyahṛti-s

Like the clouds lifting after the monsoonal deluge to unveil the short-lived comforts of early autumn, the metaphorical pall over the nation cast by the engineer’s virus was lifting. Somakhya and Lootika were at the former’s parents’ house, relieved that … Continue reading

Posted in Heathen thought | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Making an illustrated Nakṣatra-sūkta and finding the constellation for a point in the sky

The illustrated Nakṣatra-sūkta Towards the latter phase of the Vedic age, multiple traditions independently composed sūkta-s that invoked the pantheon in association with their home nakṣatra-s as part of the śrauta Nakṣatreṣṭi or related gṛhya homa-s. Of these oldest and … Continue reading

Posted in art, Heathen thought, History, Scientific ramblings | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Some notes on the Brahmayajña brāhmaṇa and Uttama-paṭala of the Atharvaṇ tradition

PDF version  The Brahmayajña brāhmaṇa (1.1.29 of the Gopatha-brāhmaṇa) of the Atharvaveda provides a glimpse of the Vedic saṃhitā canon as known to the brāhmaṇa authors of the AV tradition. The Brahmayajña might be done as part of the basic … Continue reading

Posted in Heathen thought, History | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Yajus incantations for the worship of Rudra from the Kāṭhaka ritual manuals

This article is available as a pdf document. The notes from it are appended below. The loss of the northern and northwestern Kṛṣnayajurveda traditions due to the Mohammedan depredations of Northern India (aided an abetted by the predatory Anglospheric regimes) … Continue reading

Posted in Heathen thought, History | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

RV 10.5

The Ṛgveda is replete with obscure sūkta-s but RV 10.5 might easily take a place in the top tier of those. One might even ask why even attempt to write a commentary on this. We admit we could be plainly … Continue reading

Posted in Heathen thought | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Aśvin-s and Rudra

The twin Aśvin-s and Rudra are both Indo-Aryan reflexes of two deity-classes which can be reconstructed as likely being present in the Proto-Indo-European religion. Both are likely to have even deeper roots going back to even earlier religious traditions across … Continue reading

Posted in Heathen thought, History | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Matters of religion-3

Lootika seeing Somakhya contemplating something remarked: “That great clash of men is upon us, where, as the śruti says, our flag will be mingled with that of the enemy in close combat.” Somakhya: “It’s almost as if your mind is … Continue reading

Posted in Heathen thought, Life | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Exploring the history of Hindu festivals: the ancient strands of Holākā

This is an updated version of an article published originally at IndiaFacts In Hindu tradition there is a clear demarcation of at least three distinct classes of ritual observances: 1) The most conservative of these are the śrauta rituals that … Continue reading

Posted in Heathen thought | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Śakadhūma: Possible parallels in a meteorological tradition from India and South America

This is an updated version of our earlier study: published first at IndiaFacts Research by Orlove, Cane and Chiang on the native weather forecasters in mountains of Peru and Bolivia has brought to light an interesting tidbit of traditional knowledge … Continue reading

Posted in Heathen thought, History, Scientific ramblings | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Polycentrism, the many-one problem and the roots of yoga

An updated version of our earlier ramblings first published at: http://www.indiafacts.co.in/polycentrism-many-one-problem-roots-yoga/ One of the central problems Hindus face on the intellectual battlefield is articulating their position vis-a-vis the stances of their Abrahamistic foes. An important aspect of this problem is … Continue reading

Posted in Heathen thought | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The indrajAla-sUktaM and the atharvan military ritual

An atharvan military ritual for kShatriya-s headed to war involves deployment of AV-vulgate 8.8 or its cognate AV-P 16.29. The ritual is specified by the kaushika sUtra 16.9-20 and some details are provided by the atharvan commentators dArila and keshava. … Continue reading

Posted in Heathen thought, History | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Time, world history, or the lack thereof

Many years ago in our old home we came across a book won by the bhArgava-trasadasyau in a contest that had the biographies of many a Euro-American figure. At that point we were impressed by certain threads in the German … Continue reading

Posted in Heathen thought, History, Life | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

AtharvavedIya tArkShya yAga

We had earlier seen the mantra deployments relating to the vedokta Ashu-tArkShya vidhi. We shall now consider another tArkShya vidhi practiced by the knowers of the atharvaNa shruti. The day before the rite a pandal is put up and and … Continue reading

Posted in Heathen thought | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment