Vedic civilization is rooted in the culture and traditions of the vedas. The vedas as we know, are the commandments of the God. Hence, Vedic civilization has survived the ravages of time, in spite of successive invasions of the alien civilizations. Limited aims of this book is to compile some of the unique perspectives of Vedic Civilization both at macro and micro levels.
Deep in lost history, did high civilizations and advanced knowledge thrive? The ancient Vedic literatures of India describe a worldwide civilization that flourished at a time when modern historians insist that humans like us existed simply as hunter-gatherers. This Vedic civilization, centered in India, employed technologies based on a scientific understanding of the physical elements and forces we know today, as well as more subtle conscious elements. Devamrita Swami, who has spent a lifetime in his own search for Vedic India, takes us on a journey of intellectual discovery through the history of the remarkable Vedic civilization and its knowledge, locked in the ancient literatures of India. His wit and wisdom combine to make our search for Vedic India not only illuminating but entertaining. He tells us not only the truths of Vedic India, but how they are again coming to be. Searching for Vedic India thus takes us not only into the past, but into the future.
This Unique Study Attempts To Build A History Of Pre-Buddhistic India On The Basis Of The Vedas And The Allied Texts. Scattered In The Vedic Texts Are Allusions To A Large Number Of Places, Personalities And Incidents. The Authors Have Given Them A Historical Shape And Significance In A Most Systematic Manner. The Outcome Is A Fascinating Account Of India S Remote Past. It Has, However, Been Made Possible As A Result Of The Valuable Insights Gained Over A Long Period Of Deep, Intensive And Profound Study Of These Most Ancient Texts. The Readers Of Indian History Will Find The Treatise Very Informative And Refreshing.
This book provides evidence that the ancient Vedic tradition that is presently centered in India was once a global culture that affected and influenced regions around the world.
"Gods, Sages and Kings presents a remarkable accumulation of evidence pointing to the existence of a common spiritual culture in the ancient world from which present civilization may be more of a decline than an advance. The book is based upon new interpretation of the ancient Vedic teachings of India, and brings out many new insights from this unique source often neglected and misinterpreted in the West. In addition, it dicussses recent archaeological discoveries in India whose implications are now only beginning to emerge."--Publisher.
Ancient History of India's Vedic Culture Vedic culture has its own history, the tradition of which takes it back to the beginning of time. This book is not a typical review of the history of India, but explains what the pre-historic traditional Vedic background is, its basis, and how it developed and expanded through time. We also look at a number of artifacts that prove the ancient existence of some of the most important aspects of the Vedic customs, and how the tradition itself describes its developments. This book also helps show that the spiritual philosophy of Vedic culture seeded many of the other civilizations in their beliefs that evolved in various regions of the world. Some of the topics we view include: * Descriptions in the Vedic texts on the way the world was created. * The prehistoric date of Vedic beginnings. * How the Vedic knowledge was given to humanity. * The way the Vedic texts came from an ancient oral tradition and then was compiled by the sage Vyasadeva, and then disseminated to society. * The antiquity of Vedic culture and the Indus Valley civilization. * The times of Lord Rama and Lord Krishna, and proof of Krishna's existence. * The real time line of Lord Buddha. * The first recorded migrations out of ancient India of tribes that formed other civilizations. * Astronomical dating of the Vedas and events recorded in the Mahabharata, and more.
This work studies how Indian scholars have rejected the idea of an external origin of the Indo-Aryans, by questioning the logic assumptions and methods upon which the theory is based.
This Is A Remarkable Book. It Untangles The Many Complexities Of The Vedas And Combines Staal S Scholarly Respect For The Texts, With Explanations That Are Lucid And Occasionally Witty. His Insights Are Thoughtful And Perceptive. Romila Thapar In This Unprecedented Guide To The Vedas, Frits Staal, The Celebrated Author Of Agni: The Vedic Ritual Of The Fire Altar And Universals: Studies In Indian Logic And Linguistics Examines Almost Every Aspect Of These Ancient Sources Of Indic Civilisation. Staal Extracts Concrete Information From The Oral Tradition And Archaeology About Vedic People And Their Language, What They Thought And Did, And Where They Went And When. He Provides Essential Information About The Vedas And Includes Selections And Translations. Staal Sheds Light On Mantras And Rituals, That Contributed To What Came To Be Known As Hinduism. Significant Is A Modern Analysis Of What We Can Learn From The Vedas Today: The Original Forms Of The Vedic Sciences, As Well As The Perceptive Wisdom Of The Composers Of The Vedas. The Author Puts Vedic Civilisation In A Global Perspective Through A Wide-Ranging Comparison With Other Indic Philosophies And Religions, Primarily Buddhism For Staal, Originally A Logician, The Voyage Of Discovering The Vedas Is Like Unpeeling An Onion But Without The Certainty Of Reaching An End. Even So, His Book Shows That The Vedas Have A Logic All Their Own. Accessible, Finely-Argued, And With A Wealth Of Information And Insight, Discovering The Vedas Is For Both The Scholar And The Interested Lay Reader.
Hinduism has two major roots. The more familiar is the religion brought to South Asia in the second millennium BCE by speakers of Aryan or Indo-Iranian languages, a branch of the Indo-European language family. Another, more enigmatic, root is the Indus civilization of the third millennium BCE, which left behind exquisitely carved seals and thousands of short inscriptions in a long-forgotten pictographic script. Discovered in the valley of the Indus River in the early 1920s, the Indus civilization had a population estimated at one million people, in more than 1000 settlements, several of which were cities of some 50,000 inhabitants. With an area of nearly a million square kilometers, the Indus civilization was more extensive than the contemporaneous urban cultures of Mesopotamia and Egypt. Yet, after almost a century of excavation and research the Indus civilization remains little understood. How might we decipher the Indus inscriptions? What language did the Indus people speak? What deities did they worship? Asko Parpola has spent fifty years researching the roots of Hinduism to answer these fundamental questions, which have been debated with increasing animosity since the rise of Hindu nationalist politics in the 1980s. In this pioneering book, he traces the archaeological route of the Indo-Iranian languages from the Aryan homeland north of the Black Sea to Central, West, and South Asia. His new ideas on the formation of the Vedic literature and rites and the great Hindu epics hinge on the profound impact that the invention of the horse-drawn chariot had on Indo-Aryan religion. Parpola's comprehensive assessment of the Indus language and religion is based on all available textual, linguistic and archaeological evidence, including West Asian sources and the Indus script. The results affirm cultural and religious continuity to the present day and, among many other things, shed new light on the prehistory of the key Hindu goddess Durga and her Tantric cult.
