Buchcover Embodying the Vedas | Borayin Larios | EAN 9783110517323 | ISBN 3-11-051732-9 | ISBN 978-3-11-051732-3

„Overall, this is a highly readable and informative study that should interest anthropologists, historians of
religion, Indologists, and scholars of orality, literacy, and knowledge systems in South Asia.“ Finnian M. M. Gerety in: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 2/2018, 374-376

„Embodying the Vedas is a rare book indeed, because few scholars possess the interdisciplinary skills necessary to execute such an ambitious project. Its rarity underscores its importance, however, for despite well over a century of scholarly work on the Vedic tradition, there has been precious little theorization of the very thing which has allowed the tradition to survive three millennia: its pedagogy.“ Caley Charles Smith in: Reading Religion, https://readingreligion. org/books/embodying-vedas (26.02.2021)

„Fondée sur des observations précises mais situées et interprétées dans le cadre général de l’hindouisme, rédigée avec clarté, cette enquête apporte du neuf. Il serait intéressant de la rapprocher d’autres formes de transmission de la Parole ou du Livre, en particulier dans le judaïsme et dans l’islam. Plus largement, elle offre matière à réflexion sur les relations entre parole et rite, Écriture et communauté croyante.“
J. Scheuer in: Nouvelle revue théologique 140/3 (2018), 511

„La combinazione di prospettiva etnografica e analisi testuale, che Larios è in grado di proporre grazie alla sua duplice formazione, rende il testo pregevole e in qualche modo unico, capace di rispondere a domande centrali degli studi storico-religiosi moderni: come il passato si combina con il presente e come questo rapporto si sviluppa nella quotidianità dell’induismo contemporaneo.“ Pietro Chierichetti in: Humanitas 73(2/2018), 339-341

„With detailed ethnographic work and perceptive theoretical discussions, Embodying the Vedas is essential reading for anyone interested in the Vedas, modern Vedic practice, Brahmin
identity, and Hindu religious education.“ Charles S. Preston in: International Journal of Hindu Studies 24/2020, 419–420

Embodying the Vedas

Traditional Vedic Schools of Contemporary Maharashtra

von Borayin Larios

Popularly Hinduism is believed to be the world’s oldest living religion. This claim is based on a continuous reverence to the oldest strata of religious authority within the Hindu traditions, the Vedic corpus, which began to be composed more than three thousand years ago, around 1750–1200 BCE. The Vedas have been considered by many as the philosophical cornerstone of the Brahmanical traditions (āstika); even previous to the colonial construction of the concept of “Hinduism.” However, what can be pieced together from the Vedic texts is very different from contemporary Hindu religious practices, beliefs, social norms and political realities. This book presents the results of a study of the traditional education and training of Brahmins through the traditional system of education called gurukula as observed in 25 contemporary Vedic schools across the state of Maharasthra. This system of education aims to teach Brahmin males how to properly recite, memorize and ultimately embody the Veda. This book combines insights from ethnographic and textual analysis to unravel how the recitation of the Vedic texts and the Vedic traditions, as well as the identity of the traditional Brahmin in general, are transmitted from one generation to the next in contemporary India.