num_pages: 204
description: Kaelber takes a subject which looks obscure at first sight digests distills and comments on a difficult body of scholarship and then writes about it in a way that is easily accessible to any beginning reader on the subject while at the same time fresh abrim with new insights and a stimulating read for the scholar. He achieves this by persistently showing how tapas in its many transformations remains at the center of the mainstream of Vedic religion from its beginnings to its Upanishadic 'end.' I see this book as something we have long needed for the teaching of Hinduism: a good book with which to introduce students to the continuities of Vedic religion. -- Alf Hiltebeitel George Washington UniversityThis is the most comprehensive study yet made of tapas and of asceticism during the Vedic period. It also explains three other essential components of Vedic thought: sacrifice homology and knowledge. These concepts along with tapas and initiation symbolism reveal the heart of Vedic religion. therefore this study presents a history of Vedic religion organized around the central building blocks of that tradition.This is an excellent study of an important topic in the history of Vedic religion. What I like best about the work is the way it reveals the variety of meanings and uses of tapas in different contexts to establish connections between natural human and cosmic realities and to maintain continuity between ritual tradition and the path of knowledge. This is a creative study that provides important new insights into the basic principles of Vedic religion. -- Thomas J. Hopkins Franklin and Marshall College
language: English
title: Tapta Mārga: Asceticism and Initiation in Vedic India
publisher: SUNY Press