History of India Series: Episode 4 – The Vedic Age

 

The History Podcast reaches the Vedic age. Our speakers talk about its origins, its literature, its culture, and the legacy of the Vedic Age. Varna system makes an appearance as does Pythagoras Theorem. Amongother things, our speakers talk of Vedic recitation techniques and different layers of Vedic literature. Maneesh Taneja in conversation with Shrikanth Krishnamachry and Gaurav Lele. @maneesht @shrikanth_krish @gaurav_lele

You can listen on LibsynAppleSpotify, and Stitcher (and a variety of other platforms). Probably the easiest way to keep up the podcast since we don’t have a regular schedule is to subscribe to one of the links above!

Links to the previous podcasts: Episode 1Episode 2; Episode 3

Episode 4: The Vedic Age

References:

History of Ancient India – Upinder Singh

R Sharma Ancient India

Romila Thapar – Early India

Live History India – LHI Circle (Paywalled)

Frits Staal -;

1. Discovering the Vedas :
2. On the meaninglessness of ritual
Michael Witzel –

On Kuru state and Early Sanskritization 
On Vedic religion
On the localization of Vedic texts :
Manasataramgini :
Numeric analysis of certain aspects of Rig Veda
On the Vedanta – Nastika interface (relevant to the discussion we had on vegetarianism)
On guide to Vaidika svaras
On the rise of sectarianism in a Vedic context
On Mandalas of RV and authorship
On Spitzer Manuscript

Vedic Source texts: https://vedicheritage.gov.in/

On Traditional vaidIka education :
Interview with Mani Dravida Sastrigal (in Sanskrit)
Lectures in Hindi by Mani Dravida Sastrigal
Lectures in Tamil by Mani Dravida Sastrigal

List of Veda Pathashalas: https://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_veda/vedapathashala.html

GhanapAtha recitation illustration
FE Pargiter on the Puranic historical tradition

The Joy of Discovering Synchronisms-Part 1

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GauravL

Skeptic | Aspiring writer | Wildlife enthusiast

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Ritesh
Ritesh
3 years ago

pls add RC Majumdar’s book on vedic age. best book from indic civ POV

Siddharth
Siddharth
3 years ago

A podcast packed full of information, kudos to the speakers!

– how much do we know about the attire of the people in the Vedic Age? I see so many representations in pop culture of the men being well built (heh) but also bare chested with only an angavastram-type simple drape over the shoulders. See these for example, where the artist seem to show that Indian men only started wearing clothing that covers the upper body only from the Medieval period onwards…!
https://www.pixwox.com/post/6833467230456551582311/
https://www.pixwox.com/post/6864626122562514611332/

Surely anyone who’s lived in N India and has experienced its winters would know that the above is unrealistic and rubbish..

– regarding Veda Pathshalas, they are quite common in S India. There’s a relatively famous one in Hyderabad that my family patronises and a visit to it’s premises is like a trip back to antiquity. It is a residential institution for boys from a very young age to late teenage years who live by a strict daily regimen and learn chanting, logic, Sanskrit debating and how to conduct rituals and ceremonies. They also do learn modern subjects like Mathematics and Science and they do give the standardised 10th and 12th Std school tests IIRC.

VijayVan
3 years ago

A v g YouTube channel of Vedic recitations of different suktams, etc
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUG8RJl-WxjAxVMlNq-29ww

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