The Artful Universe: An Introduction to the Vedic Religious Imagination » (1st Edition)

The Artful Universe introduces the Vedic religion, a rich and densely textured tradition that has influenced the religious sensibilities of India for 3500 years or more. Engagingly written and based on traditional as well as modern Vedic scholarship, the book introduces Vedic ideas regarding the nature of divinity, the structure of the sacred universe, the process of revelation, the function of ritual as hallowed activity, and the realizations lying behind the practice of meditation. As a way to link these diverse aspects of Vedic religion, Mahony identifies and highlights the important role of the divine and human imagination in the formation, revelation, and reformation of a meaningful world.

Publishers Weekly

Mahony, a professor of religion at Davidson College in North Carolina, offers a lively introduction to the 3500-year-old Vedic tradition, which has played a formative role in Indian civilization in general and Hinduism in particular. Central to the Vedic religion, Mahony contends, are the ideas of "transcendent universal order and harmony" expressed through ritual performances and mythic narratives. Using selections from the Vedic writings, especially the Rig Veda and the Upanishads, Mahony demonstrates how the Vedic imagination represents the principle of harmony in the construction of a meaningful world. In three particularly enlightening chapters, Mahony focuses on the poet as the "visionary artist of the verbal imagination," the priest as the "artist of universal drama and the liturgical imagination" and the "inward seer as enacting the liberating power of the contemplative imagination." Although Mahony uses sometimes complex literary and philological approaches to the Vedic texts, his thoughtful prose is engaging and draws readers into the practices and history of an ancient religion. (Feb.)