Bringing the Gods to Mind - Mantra and Ritual in Early Indian Sacrifice

1. Auflage 2005
ISBN: 978-0-520-24087-2
Verlag: University of California Press

Buch, Englisch, 304 Seiten, Cloth Over Boards, Format (B × H): 164 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 564 g

This elegantly written book introduces a new perspective on Indic religious history by rethinking the role of mantra in Vedic ritual. In Bringing the Gods to Mind, Laurie Patton takes a new look at mantra as "performed poetry" and in five case studies draws a portrait of early Indian sacrifice that moves beyond the well-worn categories of "magic" and "magico-religious" thought in Vedic sacrifice. Treating Vedic mantra as a sophisticated form of artistic composition, she develops the idea of metonymy, or associational thought, as a major motivator for the use of mantra in sacrificial performance. Filling a long-standing gap in our understanding, her book provides a history of the Indian interpretive imagination and a study of the mental creativity and hermeneutic sophistication of Vedic religion.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Patton, Laurie L.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Hinduismus Hinduismus: Kult, Riten, Zeremonien

Über Autor(innen)

Laurie L. Patton is Winship Distinguished Research Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Early Indian Religion at Emory University. She is author of Myth as Argument: The Brhaddevata as Canonical Commentary (1996), editor of Jewels of Authority: Women and Text in the Hindu Tradition (2002), and author of Fire's Goal: Poems from a Hindu Year (2003), among other books.