Bringing the Gods to Mind

by Patton, Laurie L.

• ISBN13: 9780520240872
• ISBN10: 0520240871
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-06-30
• Publisher: Univ of California Pr

Summary

This elegantly written book introduces a new perspective on Indic religious history by rethinking the role of mantra in Vedic ritual. InBringing the Gods to Mind,Laurie Patton takes a new look at mantra as "performed poetry" and in five case studies draws a portrait of early Indian sacrifice that moves beyond the well-worn categories of "magic" and "magico-religious" thought in Vedic sacrifice. Treating Vedic mantra as a sophisticated form of artistic composition, she develops the idea of metonymy, or associational thought, as a major motivator for the use of mantra in sacrificial performance. Filling a long-standing gap in our understanding, her book provides a history of the Indian interpretive imagination and a study of the mental creativity and hermeneutic sophistication of Vedic religion.

Author Biography

Laurie L. Patton is Winship Distinguished Research Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Early Indian Religion at Emory University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Abbreviations	xiii
Introduction	1	(14)
PART ONE: THE THEORIES
1. Poetry, Ritual, and Associational Thought in Early India: The Sources	15	(23)
2. Poetry, Ritual, and Associational Thought in Early India: The Theories	38	(21)
3. Viniyoga: The Recovery of a Hermeneutic Principle	59	(32)
PART TWO: THE CASE STUDIES
4. Fire, Light, and Ingesting over Time	91	(26)
5. The Vedic "Other": Spoilers of Success	117	(25)
6. A History of the Quest for Mental Power	142	(10)
7. The Poetics of Paths: Mantras of Journeys	152	(16)
8. A Short History of Heaven: From Making to Gaining the Highest Abode	168	(14)
Conclusions: Laughter and the Creeper Mantra	182	(15)
Notes	197	(40)
Glossary	237	(12)
Bibliography	249	(26)
Index Locorum	275	(6)
Index Nominum	281	(2)
General Index	283