Hindu scriptures / edited with new translations by Dominic Goodall ; based on an anthology by R. C. Zaehner.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Goodall, Dominic.

Zaehner, R. C. (Robert Charles), 1913-1974.

Gotham Book Mart Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

Language:

English

Undetermined

Subjects (All):

Hinduism--Sacred books.

Hinduism.

Genre:

Sacred works.

Penn Provenance:

Gotham Book Mart (former owner) (Gotham Book Mart Collection copy)

Physical Description:

li pages, 1 unnumbered page, 410 pages, 2 unnumbered pages ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Berkeley ; Los Angeles : University of California, [1996]

Summary:

The very earliest Indian literature to survive is that of the Vedas. This diverse body of polytheistic hymns, prose treatises on sacrifice, and speculation about the soul of the universe has long been revered by orthodox Hindus as primary scriptural revelation. The hymns, which form its most ancient stratum, were handed down orally for centuries, even long after the development of writing in India. In this new edition of Hindu Scriptures R. C. Zaehner's original selection of hymns from the Rg-Veda and Atharva-Veda has been enlarged. This is followed by Zaehner's translations of five of the earliest Upanishads, the seminal scriptures for the monist doctrine of Sankara, the belief that the world we experience is a cosmic illusion that we project upon the one, unchanging undefinable reality, brahman. From the vast corpus of other texts revered by Hindus are drawn the Bhagavad-Gita; portions of the Law Book of Yajnavalkya, a treatise that attempts to codify every aspect of the life of the orthodox Hindu; chapters from the Kirana-Tantra, translated for the first time into English, which expound the doctrines of an early tantric cult of Siva; and the chapters from the Bhagavata-Purnana, which describe the dalliance of Krsna and the cowherd women of Vraja.

Contents:

From the Ṛg-veda

From the Atharva-Vega

From the Upanishads

The Bhagavad-Gītā

From the Yājñavalkya-Smṛti

From the Kiraṇa-Tantra

From the Bhāgavata-Purāṇa.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [406]-410).

ISBN:

0520207823

0520207785

OCLC:

37281845