Read more
It is generally supposed that the Vedic tradition emerged from certain Brahmanic circles of poets, priests and theoreticians who depended economically very much on a kind of pastoral aristocracy. As against this point of view the book maintains the theory that the Vedic tradition was mainly connected with the warrior world, in particular with certain groups of seers that surrounded the warrior chiefs called "s{ris and strongly opposed the pastoral aristocracy and their priesthood. What emerges from this approach is that the Vedic tradition, in spite of its apparent unity of themes, images and even sentences, is not a tradition based on consensus or on a harmonious development of thought from one end to the other, but rather a tradition that reveals a troubled background, a background of passionate rivalries.
The book reconsiders the debate surrounding the antagonistic ideologies of pastoral and agricultural peoples and represents a new contribution to the discussion about similarities and differences between the Iranian and the Indo-Aryan cultures.
About the author
Enric Aguilar i Matas has a B.A. Honours Degree in Pâli and Indian Philosophy from Vidyodaya University of Ceylon (at present: Sri Jayawardenepure University of Sri Lanka). He also has a Llicenciatura en Filosofia i Lletres from La Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from the University of Lancaster. Publications (both in English and Catalan):
The sacrifice in the Rg Veda, Vers una sexologia de la religió, Eros i els seus rostres enigmàtics.
