Author: J. Tallboys Wheeler
Publisher: Rupa
Year: 2007
Language: English
Pages: 184
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8129111217
Description
India Vedic and Post Vedic is a monumental work that examines the complete fabric of Hindu religion and culture during the Vedic and Brahmanic periods.
It takes a retrospective view of the progress of religious thought in India from the Vedic to the Brahmanic times. Made up of selections from J. Tallboys Wheeler’s seminal work The History Of India, this extraordinary book provides a magnificent explication of the symbolic meanings of Hindu deities and religious ideas, and a skilful exposition of how every legend and tradition was subsequently Brahmanised for the purpose of bringing the religious laws into conformity with Brahmanical ideas.
With its refinement of style and lucid language, this work of painstaking scholarship retells legends from Ramayana and the Mahabharata, serving both as an explication and critical commentary on the traditions of these great epics; religious and marriage rites; the various social practices of the age like sati; the new forms of social structures and class divisions that evolved with time, and so on. Equipped with illuminating and informative footnotes, this historical guide provides compelling reading and an unforgettable insight into the various legends and traditions of Hindu mythology.
Contents
Retrospect of Vedic India
The Vedic Period
Different Religious Ideas
Retrospect of Brahmanic India
Concluding Remarks
Phases of Civilisation