Bringing the Gods to Mind: Mantra and Ritual in Early Indian Sacrifice
Laurie Patton
Abstract
This book introduces a new perspective on Indic religious history by rethinking the role of mantra in Vedic ritual. The book 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, it 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, t ... More
This book introduces a new perspective on Indic religious history by rethinking the role of mantra in Vedic ritual. The book 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, it 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, the book provides a history of the Indian interpretive imagination and a study of the mental creativity and hermeneutic sophistication of Vedic religion.
Keywords:
Indic religious history,
mantra,
Vedic ritual,
performed poetry,
magico-religious thought,
Vedic sacrifice,
metonymy
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2005 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780520240872 |
| Published to California Scholarship Online: May 2012 |
DOI:10.1525/california/9780520240872.001.0001 |
