What is it about?
Most of my previous comparative studies of Indo-European materials have concerned epic, e.g. Homer and the Mahabharata. This paper applies to early Indian ritual the 'pentadic' theory of Indo-European ideology that I developed in that previous work.
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Why is it important?
Sacrifice is THE major ritual described in early Indian (Vedic) texts. Much comparative study has been devoted by Indo-European philologists to the language of these texts, much less to the rituals they describe.
Perspectives
It helped me to become less ignorant about the Brahmanas, the second oldest category of Vedic literature. But it is part of a long-term project to explore the Indo-European cultural heritage in so far as it survives in early written sources. In pursuing this project, I have published some sixty articles -- more of them since retirement than before it. I find the subject fascinating.
Dr Nick J Allen
University of Oxford
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Vedic Sacrifice and the Pentadic Theory of Indo-European Ideology, Religions of South Asia, December 2015, Equinox Publishing,
DOI: 10.1558/rosa.v9i1.29441.
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