Vedic Bibliography

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The Vedic tradition of the Samhitas enshrines the most ancient millenarian concepts, forms, doctrines and images of the living and of the divine of the Indian people in particular, and of the entire Western Indo-European thought and creativity through the common roots of linguistic expression. Vedic studies carried out by Western scholarship in the 19th century thus acquire a historic importance in our century when biospheres of our inheritance are being threatened by the technospheres of our creation.

In 1931 Prof. Louis Renou brought out his Bibliographie Vedique to furnish a more or less complete list of all publications in the domain of Vedic studies. The term Vedic comprises. Samhita, Brahmana, Upani?ad, Sutra and all the dependent texts. He tried to make it relatively complete depending on the library resources of Paris, the researches of Prof. W. Wüst of Munich, the Orientalische Bibliographie, and the catalogues of the British Museum which used to get most of the Indian publications under the Copyright law. He incorporated all the texts that discuss the facts directly relevant to the bibliography. He furnished brief indications of the contents of works. whose title was not explicit.

This reprint of the Vedic Bibliography by Prof. Louis Renou gives us access to the detailed analysis of the religion, political thought, values of ideal humanity, divinity, cosmos, flowering of the gods and of cults, mythology, ritual, and natural sciences all that was achieved through the constant creative efforts of Vedic man.

The work is divided into two parts: one on the group of texts, and the other of studies. He gives several appendices of works anterior to the memorable essay of Colebrooke "On the Vedas" (1805), which marks the introduction of these studies in Western academics. The bibliography is divided into 201 chapters. The abbreviations are mainly those of the Orientalische Bibliographie. The year of publication is indicated by the last two digits of the date, except for the years prior to 1831. To avoid confusion, the years before 1831 are transcribed whole. For periodicals and collections, the volume number is mentioned besides the year. The titles in square brackets are translated titles, whose original could not be given. This work would not have been possible without recourse to existing catalogues which have been listed in chapters 1 and 2.

The Bibliography is a rich source of information on the Samhitas of the Four Vedas, Brahmanas, Sutras, Aranyakas and Upani?ads.

The Vedic tradition of the Samhitäs enshrines the most ancient millenarian concepts, forms, doctrines and images of the living and of the divine of the Indian people in particular, and of the entire Western Indo-European thought and creativity through the common roots of linguistic expression. The supernatural of mythology and the caprices of myth can be gleaned in the shared vocabulary and its creative structures for new meanings of life. As Prometheus brought fire to earth from heaven, so Sanskrit brought Ideas: the images of gods became images of god-like men. Ideas and images have become values of social practice, the hereafter has become the determinant image of the future in fusion with eutopia (eu 'good'), and have created modernity during the Renaissance that is the reincarnation of Classical Indo-European values. The minds of the 15th century were fascinated by what survived of Classic grace and science. As antiquity penetrated thought, Christian motives yielded to pagan subjects. The discovery of Sanskrit, and specially of Vedic Sanskrit with its evident affinity of words with European languages, was another Renaissance in unaffected spontaneity, inspired by pure delight of the discovery of Western roots. It was an apocalypse of the beauty of the world of ideas, illuminated by masterpieces of verbal roots. From the drapih 'garment of the Rigveda to English drape, and as far as the words for god in the four main European linguistic streams, it was a tremendum that thrilled Europe with a new vigour, vision and living loveliness. Greek theós 'god' from thes-os was dhisnyah, 'devout, pious of the Rigveda, god from "ghu tó was from Vedic huta 'one who is invoked in homa', Latin deus 'god' from Old Latin deivos was from Sanskrit deváh, Russian bog "god' was from Rigvedic bhaga (compare bhagavan). Just as Petrarch set the right method for studying the Latin classics, he divined the importance of recovering a knowledge of Greek literature and sciences. Sanskrit and the vast and continuous Vedic heritage was likewise a stunning discovery of the perception of man born upon this earth with a right to unlock the stores of wisdom. Western scholarship of the 19th century and the first quarter of the 20th century found a resurrection of the roots of Europe in their enthusiasm for unfolding Vedic humanity after an expatriation of several millenia. Sanskrit was the food to nourish the new spirit, to emancipate the enslaved vision of human speech from the sands of theological formulas. In the Vedic hymns the Western minds heard the tide of being, the syllables of the Beginning. It was a revelation of the perpetual beginning anew. It was a walk inside Ourselves.