Vedic literature presents a panorama of the life of the ancient people of India in all its facets. The sacred literature was subjected to analytical study for the first time in the recent centuries by European scholars, mainly Germans, the foremost among them being Hermann Oldernberg. His magnum opus – Die Religion des Veda – first appeared in print in 1894 and in a revised edition in 1916. He made use of linguistic methods, ethnology and folklore in his exhaustive and penetrating study of the Vedic religion. This work has had a great impact on subsequent Vedic studies and has an abiding interest to the student of the Veda, as a amply evident from the fact that even after nearly a century of its first publication it continues to attract the attention of Vedic researchers. Here is the first ever English translation of this great classic. The work consists of four chapters preceded by an introduction discussing in detail the sources, viz., the Vedas, Brahmanas and Sutras. The first chapter deals with the Vedic gods and demons in general; the second one with the individual gods such as Agni, Indra, Varuna, Mitra and others, the evil demons; the origin of the world and the divine and the moral worlds; the third treats at length the cult of sacrifice, magic, observances, festivals, prayers, priests and the like; and the fourth one of the dead, soul, heaven and hell, ghosts, funeral rites and animism.
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