For countless generations families have lived in isolated communities in the Godavari Delta of coastal Andhra Pradesh; learning and reciting their legacy of Vedas; performing daily offerings and occasional sacrifices. They are the virtually unrecognized survivors of a 3;700-year-old heritage; the last in India who perform the ancient animal and soma sacrifices according to Vedic tradition. In Vedic Voices; David M. Knipe offers for the first time; an opportunity for them to speak about their lives; ancestral lineages; personal choices as pandits; wives; children; and ways of coping with an avalanche of changes in modern India. He presents a study of four generations of ten families; from those born at the outset of the twentieth century down to their great-grandsons who are just beginning; at the age of seven; the task of memorizing their Veda; the Taittiriya Samhita; a feat that will require eight to twelve years of daily recitations. After successful examinations these young men will reside with the Veda family girls they married as children years before; take their places in the oral transmission of a three-thousand-year Vedic heritage; teach the Taittiriya collection of texts to their own sons; and undertake with their wives the major and minor sacrifices performed by their ancestors for some three millennia.Coastal Andhra; famed for bountiful rice and coconut plantations; has received scant attention from historians of religion and anthropologists despite a wealth of cultural traditions. Vedic Voices describes in captivating prose the geography; cultural history; pilgrimage traditions; and celebrated persons of the region. Here unfolds a remarkable story of Vedic pandits and their wives; one scarcely known in India and not at all to the outside world.
#336805 in Books 2015-12-09Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 6.40 x 1.20 x 9.10l; .0 #File Name: 0199371873336 pages
Review
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful. Very Informative study about the Great Depression; and the role that The Church played.By MaureenAn exceptionally well researched study; into the role that the The Church played during the Great Depression in the US; particularly in Southern rural society. Very informative yet heart-rending accounts of people living in dire poverty. There are incidents in this book that shame humanity; and it shows how The Church failed to alleviate suffering for those most in need. Recommended for those with an interest in the Great Depression; the history of religion; and Southern history in particular. The author has done a great job in bringing all these details together to produce this hugely comprehensive study.* Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my ARC*0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. A beautifully written and well-researched book that will be the staple ...By Joseph StuartA beautifully written and well-researched book that will be the staple of history and religion graduate seminars for years to come. Elegantly written and straightforwardly argued; Greene does a magnificent job examining the ways that the federal government; churches; and race relations all came together in the horrors of the Great Depression Delta. A must-read for those interested in the New Deal; the Great Depression; religion; race; and/or the historical antecedents of the Religious Right.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. This is one of the most beautifully written and cogently argued works of American religious history ...By Heath CarterThis is one of the most beautifully written and cogently argued works of American religious history to be published in years. It deserves the widest possible readership.
