The Artful Universe: An Introduction to the Vedic Religious Imagination / Edition 1

by William K. Mahony

Overview

The Artful Universe introduces the Vedic religion, a rich and densely textured tradition that has influenced the religious sensibilities of India for 3500 years or more. Engagingly written and based on traditional as well as modern Vedic scholarship, the book introduces Vedic ideas regarding the nature of divinity, the structure of the sacred universe, the process of revelation, the function of ritual as hallowed activity, and the realizations lying behind the practice of meditation. As a way to link these diverse aspects of Vedic religion, Mahony identifies and highlights the important role of the divine and human imagination in the formation, revelation, and reformation of a meaningful world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780791435809
Publisher:	State University of New York Press
Publication date:	11/20/1997
Series:	SUNY series in Hindu Studies
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	338
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

William K. Mahony is Professor of Religion at Davidson College. He is an editor and contributor to the sixteen-volume The Encyclopedia of Religion.

Table of Contents

Preface

Pronunciation of Sanskrit Words

Introduction

1. The Gods as Artists: The Formative Power of the Divine Imagination

2. Reality Veiled and Revealed: On the Artistic Order of the Universe

3. The Poet as Visionary: The Artistry of the Verbal Imagination

4. The Priest as Artist: Universal Drama and the Liturgical Imagination

5. The Inward Seer: The Liberating Power of the Contemplative Imagination

6. Religious Functions of the Imagination

Notes

Bibliography

Index and Glossary

Editorial Reviews

"The Artful Universe provides a gentle tour through formative passages from the Rgveda and Upanisads that explicate the creative ritual/philosophical process. I particularly enjoyed the passages selected by the author, and his competent translation of them. He has captured and summarized the philosophical intent of the Vedic hymns, and thematized key concepts." — Christopher Key Chapple, Loyola Marymount University

"This is a very important contribution to our understanding of early Indian religious imagination and to the field of religious studies broadly construed. Basically, the book develops an angle of interpretation that tracks on what the Vedic poets were constructing in the way of a universe in which imagination, language, and nature intersected one another. Using philological and literary-critical approaches to Vedic texts, Mahony sorts through a great many of the one thousand and eight hymns of the R}gveda in an effort to reconstruct and present the unfolding of a world view which sees the cosmos as an elaborate, interconnected, and paradoxical artistic reality." — Paul B. Courtright, Emory University

"I found Mahony's translations of the Vedas to be stunning. He has treated the text carefully, even reverentially. After reading these texts anew, some of which I had read many times before in mechanical translations, I was able to viscerally understand how and why the Vedas are revelatory, shining, holy." — Joanne Punzo Waghorne, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

From the Publisher

Mahony, a professor of religion at Davidson College in North Carolina, offers a lively introduction to the 3500-year-old Vedic tradition, which has played a formative role in Indian civilization in general and Hinduism in particular. Central to the Vedic religion, Mahony contends, are the ideas of "transcendent universal order and harmony" expressed through ritual performances and mythic narratives. Using selections from the Vedic writings, especially the Rig Veda and the Upanishads, Mahony demonstrates how the Vedic imagination represents the principle of harmony in the construction of a meaningful world. In three particularly enlightening chapters, Mahony focuses on the poet as the "visionary artist of the verbal imagination," the priest as the "artist of universal drama and the liturgical imagination" and the "inward seer as enacting the liberating power of the contemplative imagination." Although Mahony uses sometimes complex literary and philological approaches to the Vedic texts, his thoughtful prose is engaging and draws readers into the practices and history of an ancient religion. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Mahony (religion, Davidson College) provides an introduction to the Vedic religious tradition of ancient and classical India emphasizing the nature of divinity and its relationship to the natural and human worlds; Vedic cosmology and metaphysics; the nature and process of revelation and its relationship to poetry and other forms of expression; the structure and purpose of ritual performance and other forms of hallowed activity; and the function and practice of meditation. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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