Vedic Voices

Intimate Narratives of a Living Andhra Tradition

Nonfiction, History, Asian, India, Religion & Spirituality, Eastern Religions, Hinduism, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Anthropology
Cover of the book Vedic Voices by David M. Knipe, Oxford University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: David M. Knipe ISBN: 9780190266738
Publisher: Oxford University Press Publication: April 1, 2015
Imprint: Oxford University Press Language: English
Author: David M. Knipe
ISBN: 9780190266738
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publication: April 1, 2015
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Language: English

For countless generations families have lived in isolated communities in the Godavari Delta of coastal Andhra Pradesh, learning and reciting their legacy of Vedas, performing daily offerings and occasional sacrifices. They are the virtually unrecognized survivors of a 3,700-year-old heritage, the last in India who perform the ancient animal and soma sacrifices according to Vedic tradition. In Vedic Voices, David M. Knipe offers for the first time, an opportunity for them to speak about their lives, ancestral lineages, personal choices as pandits, wives, children, and ways of coping with an avalanche of changes in modern India. He presents a study of four generations of ten families, from those born at the outset of the twentieth century down to their great-grandsons who are just beginning, at the age of seven, the task of memorizing their Veda, the Taittiriya Samhita, a feat that will require eight to twelve years of daily recitations. After successful examinations these young men will reside with the Veda family girls they married as children years before, take their places in the oral transmission of a three-thousand-year Vedic heritage, teach the Taittiriya collection of texts to their own sons, and undertake with their wives the major and minor sacrifices performed by their ancestors for some three millennia. Coastal Andhra, famed for bountiful rice and coconut plantations, has received scant attention from historians of religion and anthropologists despite a wealth of cultural traditions. Vedic Voices describes in captivating prose the geography, cultural history, pilgrimage traditions, and celebrated persons of the region. Here unfolds a remarkable story of Vedic pandits and their wives, one scarcely known in India and not at all to the outside world.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

For countless generations families have lived in isolated communities in the Godavari Delta of coastal Andhra Pradesh, learning and reciting their legacy of Vedas, performing daily offerings and occasional sacrifices. They are the virtually unrecognized survivors of a 3,700-year-old heritage, the last in India who perform the ancient animal and soma sacrifices according to Vedic tradition. In Vedic Voices, David M. Knipe offers for the first time, an opportunity for them to speak about their lives, ancestral lineages, personal choices as pandits, wives, children, and ways of coping with an avalanche of changes in modern India. He presents a study of four generations of ten families, from those born at the outset of the twentieth century down to their great-grandsons who are just beginning, at the age of seven, the task of memorizing their Veda, the Taittiriya Samhita, a feat that will require eight to twelve years of daily recitations. After successful examinations these young men will reside with the Veda family girls they married as children years before, take their places in the oral transmission of a three-thousand-year Vedic heritage, teach the Taittiriya collection of texts to their own sons, and undertake with their wives the major and minor sacrifices performed by their ancestors for some three millennia. Coastal Andhra, famed for bountiful rice and coconut plantations, has received scant attention from historians of religion and anthropologists despite a wealth of cultural traditions. Vedic Voices describes in captivating prose the geography, cultural history, pilgrimage traditions, and celebrated persons of the region. Here unfolds a remarkable story of Vedic pandits and their wives, one scarcely known in India and not at all to the outside world.

More books from Oxford University Press

Cover of the book The Body in Pain:The Making and Unmaking of the World by David M. Knipe
Cover of the book The Politics of Fear by David M. Knipe
Cover of the book Fly Until You Die by David M. Knipe
Cover of the book Why Should Jews Survive? by David M. Knipe
Cover of the book Fundamentalism And American Culture by David M. Knipe
Cover of the book Global Strategy by David M. Knipe
Cover of the book Prevention vs. Treatment by David M. Knipe
Cover of the book Forged in Crisis by David M. Knipe
Cover of the book Pelvic Pain Management by David M. Knipe
Cover of the book Empty Words by David M. Knipe
Cover of the book Revisiting Gendered States by David M. Knipe
Cover of the book The Oxford Handbook of Leadership and Organizations by David M. Knipe
Cover of the book The Gettysburg Address by David M. Knipe
Cover of the book International Law in the U.S. Legal System by David M. Knipe
Cover of the book Clinical Neuropsychology and Cognitive Neurology of Parkinson's Disease and Other Movement Disorders by David M. Knipe
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy