Preface viii
Transliteration of Sanskrit xxxvi
PART I : ORIGINS AND BACKGROUNDS
One or Many? 1
1. Geography of the Vedas and their Language 3
The Rigveda and the Indus Civilization 7 - Mitanni Vedic and Indic Genetics 11 - Geograpy and Indo-European 19 - The Iranian Wedge and the BMAC 22 - The Tarim Mummies 25
2. Archeology and the Oral Tradition 30
Diversities of Reliability 30 - Carts, Chariots and the Mind 32 - Indic Representations of Spoke-Wheeled Chariots 36 - Sintashta 38 - Attested Locations on the Way to India 40 - Note on “Aryan” and Race 48
PART II : THE VEDAS
Constructing an Edifice 49
3. Civilization and Society 51
Absence of Caste in the Vedas 51 - Vedic Evidence and Scholarly Discussions 53 - Varying Terminologies and the first “Vedic Villages” 58 - RathakËra and a Note on Women 60
4. The Four Vedas 67
Early Vedic 68 - Middle Vedic 69 - Late Vedic 74 - The Apotheosis of Schools 76
5. Rigveda 85
Gods, Composers and Metres 86- Agni 90 - Indra 92- Soma 94 - A Speculative Poem 99 - The Scientific Study of the Veda 102
6. SËmaveda 105
Singing in Villages and Forests 114
7. Yajurveda 116
The Role of the Yajurveda 116 - The Ritual Arena 119 - Yajurveda Mantras and BrËhmaÙas 122
8. Atharvaveda 134 The Thesis of Kautsa 139
9. BrËhmaÙas and ¼raÙyakas 145
Villages, Forests and the Ecology 145 - BrËhmaÙas and ¼raÙyakas 147 – Locating Obscurities, Esotericisms and Irrationalities 151
10. UpaniÛads 157
Karma, Rebirth and Life after Death 165 - Karma, JÕËna and Bhakti 171 - “In That Way You Are” 176 - DhyËna, Meditation and the End of the Vedas 180 - The Two Main Contributions of the UpaniÛads 183
PART III : ANALYZING THE VEDAS
How to Discover 187
11. Mantras 189
The Meaninglessness of Mantras 189 - Language, Syntax and Recursiveness 193 - Steps Beyond Kautsa 201 - Pragmatics, Speech Acts and Bird Song 204 - The GËyatrÌ Mantra 212
12. Ritual 221
Mantra and Kalpa 221 - The Exclusion of Érauta from Anthropology in English 223 - Self-Embedding and Other Animals 227 - How the Priests Work Together 232 - Human Sacrifice 236
13. Secrets of the Sadas 241
Soma Sequences 241 - Moving South and East 244 - Never Seeing Eye to Eye 247 - Facing All Directions 248 – Epilogue 251
PART IV : WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM THE VEDAS ?
Analysis and Discovery 253
14. SÍtra: Vedic Sciences 255
The Concept of Science and its Ancient History 255 - The Traditional List and the Concept of SÍtra 258 - The Science of Ritual 261 - Geometry 263 - Numbers and Infinity 271 - “Vedic Mathematics” 273 - The PrËtiÚËkhyas and the PadapËÖha 274 - The Sound Pattern of Language 277 - Notations and Artificial Languages 280 - Astronomy and Astrology 282
15. Vedic Insights 286
Toward Universality 286 - The Powers of Language 288 - The Limitations of Language 293 – Conclusions 298
PART V : BUDDHISM AND THE VEDAS
After the Vedas 301
16. Buddhism 303
Why Buddhism? 303 - History, Geography and an Inkling of NirvËÙa 307 - About the Vedas and Buddhism 315 - Entering the Order, Women and Sexualities 319 - AhiÑsË and the Public Domain 322 - Eschatology and Karmic Arithmetic 324 - Conceptual Problems 328 - Dharma and Cakra 331 - The First University and Buddhist Logic 335 - Final Conclusions 343
APPENDIX I. Liu Hui’s Proof of Baudhâyana’s Theorem 346
APPENDIX II. Euclid’s Proof of Baudhâyana’s Theorem 347
Source Notes 350
Readings / Bibliography
Index of Names / Index of Subjects