AGNIHOTRA RITUALS IN NEPAL Five * groups of Brahmins reside in the Kathmandu Valley of today: 1 t... more AGNIHOTRA RITUALS IN NEPAL Five * groups of Brahmins reside in the Kathmandu Valley of today: 1 the Newari speaking Rājopādhyāya, the Nepali speaking Pūrbe, who immigrated in the last centuries before and the Gorkha conquest (1768/9 CE), the Kumaĩ, the Newari and Maithili speaking Maithila, and the Bhaṭṭas from South India, who serve at the Paśupatināth temple. Except for the Bhaṭṭas, all are followers of the White Yajurveda in its Mādhyandina recension. It could therefore be expected that all these groups, with the exception of the Bhaṭṭas, would show deviations from each other in language and certain customs brought from their respective homelands, but that they would agree in their (Vedic) ritual. However, this is far from being the case. On the contrary, the Brahmins of the Kathmandu Valley, who have immigrated over the last fifteen hundred years in several waves, 2 constitute a perfect example of individual regional developments in this border area of medieval Indian culture, as well as of the successive, if fluctuating, influence of the 'great tradition' of Northern India. Just one aspect of this far-reaching issue shall be studied here in some detail, that is, the various forms of the more important Vedic rituals carried out until today: the daily Agnihotra and the rituals connected with it, such as the fortnightly New and Full Moon sacrifice (dārśapaurṇamāsa) and some related seasonal rituals. * This paper is a translation of one published in German in 1986; some very limited updating has been carried out, indicated by <…>. For additional discussion and interpretation, see Witzel, 1992.
Vedic Śākhās: past, present, future – Proceedings of the Fifth International Vedic Workshop, Buch... more Vedic Śākhās: past, present, future – Proceedings of the Fifth International Vedic Workshop, Bucharest, 2011 Edited by Jan E.M. Houben, Julieta Rotaru, Michael Witzel
An unknown Upaniṣad of the Kṛṣṇa Yajurveda: The Kaṭha-Śikṣā-Upaniṣad. Journal of the Nepal Resear... more An unknown Upaniṣad of the Kṛṣṇa Yajurveda: The Kaṭha-Śikṣā-Upaniṣad. Journal of the Nepal Research Centre, Vol. 1, Wiesbaden-Kathmandu 1977, pp. 139-155. Discovery, ed. and transl. of an unknown Upaniṣad, largely parallel to Taitt.Up.1.
This remarkable book is the most ambitious work on mythology since that of the renowned Mircea El... more This remarkable book is the most ambitious work on mythology since that of the renowned Mircea Eliade, who all but singlehandedly invented the modern study of myth and religion.
Aryan Idols. Indo-European Mythology as Ideology and Science. By Stefan Arvidsson. Translated fro... more Aryan Idols. Indo-European Mythology as Ideology and Science. By Stefan Arvidsson. Translated from the Swedish () by Sonia Wichmann. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2006. 366 pp. $55, £35. ISBN 9780226028606. Examining two centuries of scholarship on Indo-European religion and mythology, Arvidsson explores the effects of the idea of an ancient, unified lineage.
European Journal of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery, 1995
The Mahābhārata is, by and large, the tale of a great battle between two sections of the ancient ... more The Mahābhārata is, by and large, the tale of a great battle between two sections of the ancient Kuru people of the Haryana/W. Uttar Pradesh region, as told at the snake sacrifice of the post-battle Kuru king Parīks. it. Since the Vedic texts are "tape recordings" of the Vedic period we can use them as basis for judging the less strict tradition of the Epics. To provide such a basis, the present paper is an investigation of the forces behind the formation of the Kuru realm at the end of the Rgvedic period. The emergence of the Kuru realm is of extraordinary importance as its civilization has influenced later Indian ritual, society and political formations, frequently even until today. Comments are welcome and will be published in a separate column of letters/discussion. Kuruks. etra, 1 the sacred land of Manu where even the gods perform their sacrifices, is the area between the two small rivers Sarsuti and Chautang, 2 situated about a hundred miles northwest of Delhi. It is here that the Mahābhārata battle took place. 3 Why has Kuruks. etra been regarded so highly ever since the early Vedic period? Actually, the Rgvedic archetype of the Mahābhārata, the "Ten Kings' Battle" (dāśarājña), took place further west on the Parus. n .ī (Ravī). Due to the victory of the Bharata chieftain Sudās in this battle, the Bharata tribe was able to settle in the Kuruks. etra area. 4 The evolvement of the small tribal Bharata domination into that of a much larger Kuru realm is not recorded by our texts. The Kurus suddenly appear on the scene in the post-Rgvedic texts. As so often, the Sanskrit texts record only the results of certain developments. 1 This article is a summary of my forthcoming monograph: The Realm of the Kuru. Here, I make liberal use especially of the introduction and the final chapters of the monograph and present the results rather than the line of the argument of the underlying investigations.
AGNIHOTRA RITUALS IN NEPAL Five * groups of Brahmins reside in the Kathmandu Valley of today: 1 t... more AGNIHOTRA RITUALS IN NEPAL Five * groups of Brahmins reside in the Kathmandu Valley of today: 1 the Newari speaking Rājopādhyāya, the Nepali speaking Pūrbe, who immigrated in the last centuries before and the Gorkha conquest (1768/9 CE), the Kumaĩ, the Newari and Maithili speaking Maithila, and the Bhaṭṭas from South India, who serve at the Paśupatināth temple. Except for the Bhaṭṭas, all are followers of the White Yajurveda in its Mādhyandina recension. It could therefore be expected that all these groups, with the exception of the Bhaṭṭas, would show deviations from each other in language and certain customs brought from their respective homelands, but that they would agree in their (Vedic) ritual. However, this is far from being the case. On the contrary, the Brahmins of the Kathmandu Valley, who have immigrated over the last fifteen hundred years in several waves, 2 constitute a perfect example of individual regional developments in this border area of medieval Indian culture, as well as of the successive, if fluctuating, influence of the 'great tradition' of Northern India. Just one aspect of this far-reaching issue shall be studied here in some detail, that is, the various forms of the more important Vedic rituals carried out until today: the daily Agnihotra and the rituals connected with it, such as the fortnightly New and Full Moon sacrifice (dārśapaurṇamāsa) and some related seasonal rituals. * This paper is a translation of one published in German in 1986; some very limited updating has been carried out, indicated by <…>. For additional discussion and interpretation, see Witzel, 1992.
Vedic Śākhās: past, present, future – Proceedings of the Fifth International Vedic Workshop, Buch... more Vedic Śākhās: past, present, future – Proceedings of the Fifth International Vedic Workshop, Bucharest, 2011 Edited by Jan E.M. Houben, Julieta Rotaru, Michael Witzel
An unknown Upaniṣad of the Kṛṣṇa Yajurveda: The Kaṭha-Śikṣā-Upaniṣad. Journal of the Nepal Resear... more An unknown Upaniṣad of the Kṛṣṇa Yajurveda: The Kaṭha-Śikṣā-Upaniṣad. Journal of the Nepal Research Centre, Vol. 1, Wiesbaden-Kathmandu 1977, pp. 139-155. Discovery, ed. and transl. of an unknown Upaniṣad, largely parallel to Taitt.Up.1.
This remarkable book is the most ambitious work on mythology since that of the renowned Mircea El... more This remarkable book is the most ambitious work on mythology since that of the renowned Mircea Eliade, who all but singlehandedly invented the modern study of myth and religion.
Aryan Idols. Indo-European Mythology as Ideology and Science. By Stefan Arvidsson. Translated fro... more Aryan Idols. Indo-European Mythology as Ideology and Science. By Stefan Arvidsson. Translated from the Swedish () by Sonia Wichmann. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2006. 366 pp. $55, £35. ISBN 9780226028606. Examining two centuries of scholarship on Indo-European religion and mythology, Arvidsson explores the effects of the idea of an ancient, unified lineage.
European Journal of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery, 1995
The Mahābhārata is, by and large, the tale of a great battle between two sections of the ancient ... more The Mahābhārata is, by and large, the tale of a great battle between two sections of the ancient Kuru people of the Haryana/W. Uttar Pradesh region, as told at the snake sacrifice of the post-battle Kuru king Parīks. it. Since the Vedic texts are "tape recordings" of the Vedic period we can use them as basis for judging the less strict tradition of the Epics. To provide such a basis, the present paper is an investigation of the forces behind the formation of the Kuru realm at the end of the Rgvedic period. The emergence of the Kuru realm is of extraordinary importance as its civilization has influenced later Indian ritual, society and political formations, frequently even until today. Comments are welcome and will be published in a separate column of letters/discussion. Kuruks. etra, 1 the sacred land of Manu where even the gods perform their sacrifices, is the area between the two small rivers Sarsuti and Chautang, 2 situated about a hundred miles northwest of Delhi. It is here that the Mahābhārata battle took place. 3 Why has Kuruks. etra been regarded so highly ever since the early Vedic period? Actually, the Rgvedic archetype of the Mahābhārata, the "Ten Kings' Battle" (dāśarājña), took place further west on the Parus. n .ī (Ravī). Due to the victory of the Bharata chieftain Sudās in this battle, the Bharata tribe was able to settle in the Kuruks. etra area. 4 The evolvement of the small tribal Bharata domination into that of a much larger Kuru realm is not recorded by our texts. The Kurus suddenly appear on the scene in the post-Rgvedic texts. As so often, the Sanskrit texts record only the results of certain developments. 1 This article is a summary of my forthcoming monograph: The Realm of the Kuru. Here, I make liberal use especially of the introduction and the final chapters of the monograph and present the results rather than the line of the argument of the underlying investigations.
Traces the surprisingly large number of substrate words in the Avesta and Old Persian (to be pub... more Traces the surprisingly large number of substrate words in the Avesta and Old Persian (to be published by the Austrian Academy, Vienna)
Who is the "monk" Channa?
Lecture given in Taiwan and Bangkok in 1995. Early version at Frei... more Who is the "monk" Channa?
Lecture given in Taiwan and Bangkok in 1995. Early version at Freiburg, Germany, spring semester 1972.
The topic was more recently picked up by my longterm friend O. von Hinüber
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Papers by Michael Witzel
Lecture given in Taiwan and Bangkok in 1995. Early version at Freiburg, Germany, spring semester 1972.
The topic was more recently picked up by my longterm friend O. von Hinüber