The Rigveda: A Guide (Guides to Sacred Texts) - Softcover

Jamison, Stephanie; Brereton, Joel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0190633379 ISBN 13: 9780190633370

Publisher: OUP USA, 2020

Synopsis

The Rigveda is a monumental text in both world religion and world literature, yet outside a small band of specialists it is little known. Composed in the latter half of the second millennium BCE, it stands as the foundational text of what would later be called Hinduism. The text consists of over a thousand hymns dedicated to various divinities, composed in sophisticated and often enigmatic verse. This concise guide from two of the Rigveda's leading English-language scholars introduces the text and breaks down its large range of topics--from meditations on cosmic enigmas to penetrating reflections on the ability of mortals to make contact with and affect the divine and cosmic realms through sacrifice and praise--for a wider audience.

About this title

About the Author

Stephanie Jamison is Distinguished Professor of Asian Languages and Cultures and of Indo-European Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is the author of many books and articles, including The Ravenous Hyenas and the Wounded Sun: Myth and Ritual in Ancient India and her monumental 2014 translation, with Joel Brereton, of The Rigveda for Oxford University Press.

Joel Brereton is Professor of Asian Studies and Religious Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of The Rgvedic Adityas and the translator, with Stephanie Jamison, of The Rigveda for Oxford University Press.

Edition details

• Publisher: OUP USA
• Publication date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0190633379
• ISBN 13: 9780190633370
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288