• img-book

    Ecological Readings ...

Sale!

Ecological Readings in the Veda

by: Marta Vannucci

Dr. Vannucci, exploring the ecological validity of the Vedas, interprets the Vedic verses to decipher the ancient ‘code’ with a bio-ecological key. She makes a comparative study of Vedic ecology and its contemporary world-view.

540.00

Quantity:
Details

ISBN: 9788124600092
Year Of Publication: 1994
Edition: 1st
Pages : 216
Bibliographic Details : Glossary; Bibliography; Index
Language : English
Binding : Hardcover
Publisher: D.K. Printworld Pvt. Ltd.
Size: 23 cm.
Weight: 400

Overview

The Vedas are indisputably among the oldest of mankind’s documents. Which Dr. Marta Vannucci rummages through to address a highly enigmatic question: How man evolved as Man: thinking, discriminating, thought-communicating? Or, yet more specifically, how did he come to identify cause-effect relationships of living-beings: both among themselves and with their environment? In looking for answers, she discovers profound biological, physiological, and ecological insights in Vedic writings — which she projects here, with coherent analyses and prolific textual references. Dr Vannucci, who has studied Indian sacred texts for about twenty years, is perhaps the first ever biologist to explore the ecological validity of Vedas. With her critical Florentine mind and five-decade-long involvement in scientific methodologies, she interprets the complex Vedic verses in her thematic effort to decipher the ancient “code” with a “bio-ecological key” -spelling out, contextually, the Matter-Energy principles (embodied in Lord Agni) and Life-Hope principles (personified by Lord Savitr). Also setting out a comparative perspective on Vedic expressions of ecology and its contemporary worldview, the author suggests that the essential difference between the two stems not from the perception of reality, but from the manner of their theorizing. It is a painstakingly documented work, with a large-scale glossary of Sanskrit/ technical words and extensive bibliographic references. And also a foreword by a cultural scholar of Dr Kapila Vatsyayan’s eminence.

Contents

Foreword
Preface
Abbreviations
Introduction
1. The Problem and the Hypotheses
2. The Quest for Sources
3. The Concept of God
4. Ecological Aspects
Traditional Way of Life
Communication of Knowledge
Material Culture
Non Material Culture
Participation of Man in Nature
Fire and Heat
Food and Medicines
Fuel
Rivers
Forest
Climate
Time Measurement
Ecology and Biological Cycles
Plants
Water, Fire and Life
Air and Akasha
Practicalities
5. Lord Agni and fire
Common Fire
Lord Agni-God
6. Load Savitri, Life and Hope
7. Conclusion Contemporary and Vedic Expression of Ecology
Glossary
Bibliography and References
Index

Meet the Author
avatar-author
1921
Dr Marta Vannucci is a globally distinguished biological oceanographer who has been UNESCO’s Senior Expert (Marine Sciences) and was a member of oceanographic research cruises in the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans. She has been engrossed in studies in the libraries, archives, museums and universities of Florence, Italy and India aided by a grasp over almost all Latin and Greek derived languages, English and German. She has been honoured with the prestigious Grand Cross of the “Order of Merit in Science” of Brazil. She is Italian born and has been resident in India since 1970.