MARC Record from marc_columbia

LEADER: 05017pam a2200445 i 4500
001 11543492
005 20150920222044.0
008 150706s2015 nyuab b 001 0 eng
010 $a 2014047335
020 $a9780190226923$qpaperback$qalkaline paper
020 $a0190226927$qpaperback$qalkaline paper
020 $a9780190226909$qhardcover$qalkaline paper
020 $a0190226900$qhardcover$qalkaline paper
024 $a40025120457
035 $a(OCoLC)ocn907126673
035 $a(OCoLC)907126673
035 $a(NNC)11543492
040 $aDLC$beng$erda$cDLC$dBTCTA$dBDX$dOCLCO$dYDXCP$dCDX$dNhCcYBP
042 $apcc
050 00 $aDS425$b.P33 2015
082 00 $a934/.02$223
084 $aREL032010$aREL072000$aHIS017000$2bisacsh
100 1 $aParpola, Asko,$eauthor.
245 14 $aThe roots of Hinduism :$bthe early Aryans and the Indus civilization /$cAsko Parpola.
264 1 $aNew York, NY :$bOxford University Press,$c[2015]
300 $axvi, 363 pages ;$c26 cm.
336 $atext$btxt$2rdacontent
337 $aunmediated$bn$2rdamedia
338 $avolume$bnc$2rdacarrier
504 $aIncludes bibliographical references and index.
520 $a"Hinduism has two major roots. The more familiar is the religion brought to South Asia in the second millennium BCE by speakers of Aryan or Indo-Iranian languages, a branch of the Indo-European language family. Another, more enigmatic, root is the Indus civilization of the third millennium BCE, which left behind exquisitely carved seals and thousands of short inscriptions in a long-forgotten pictographic script. Discovered in the valley of the Indus River in the early 1920s, the Indus civilization had a population estimated at one million people, in more than 1000 settlements, several of which were cities of some 50,000 inhabitants. With an area of nearly a million square kilometers, the Indus civilization was more extensive than the contemporaneous urban cultures of Mesopotamia and Egypt. Yet, after almost a century of excavation and research the Indus civilization remains little understood. How might we decipher the Indus inscriptions? What language did the Indus people speak? What deities did they worship? Asko Parpola has spent fifty years researching the roots of Hinduism to answer these fundamental questions, which have been debated with increasing animosity since the rise of Hindu nationalist politics in the 1980s. In this pioneering book, he traces the archaeological route of the Indo-Iranian languages from the Aryan homeland north of the Black Sea to Central, West, and South Asia. His new ideas on the formation of the Vedic literature and rites and the great Hindu epics hinge on the profound impact that the invention of the horse-drawn chariot had on Indo-Aryan religion. Parpola's comprehensive assessment of the Indus language and religion is based on all available textual, linguistic and archaeological evidence, including West Asian sources and the Indus script. The results affirm cultural and religious continuity to the present day and, among many other things, shed new light on the prehistory of the key Hindu goddess Durga and her Tantric cult"--$cProvided by publisher.
520 $a"This pioneering study derives Hinduism from the traditions brought to South Asia by Aryan-speaking pastoralists from the Eurasian steppes and those of the Indus Civilization, reconstructed from its visual and inscriptional remains and from West Asian and classical/modern South Asian sources"--$cProvided by publisher.
505 8 $aMachine generated contents note: -- Preface -- Introduction -- 1. Defining 'Hindu' and 'Hinduism' -- 2. The early Aryans -- 3. Indo-European linguistics -- 4. The Indus civilization -- 5. The Indus religion and the Indus script -- Part I: The Early Aryans -- 6. Proto-Indo-European homelands -- 7. Early Indo-Iranians on the Eurasian steppes -- 8. The BMAC of Central Asia and the Mitanni of Syria -- 9. The Rigvedic Indo-Aryans and the Dasas -- 10. The Asvins and Mitra-Varuna -- 11. The Asvins as funerary gods -- 12. The Atharvaveda and the Vratyas -- 13. The Megalithic Culture and the Great Epics -- Part II: The Indus Civilization -- 14. The language of the Indus civilization -- 15. Fertility cults in folk religion -- 16. Astronomy, time-reckoning and cosmology -- 17. Dilmun, Magan and Meluhha -- 18. Royal symbols from West Asia -- 19. The Goddess and the buffalo -- 20. Early Iranians and 'left-hand' Tantrism -- 21. Religion in the Indus script -- Conclusion -- 22. Prehistory of Indo-Aryan Language and Religion -- 23. Harappan Religion in Relation to West and South Asia -- 24. Retrospect and prospect -- Bibliographical notes -- References -- Index.
650 0 $aIndus civilization.
650 0 $aIndo-Aryans.
650 0 $aHinduism$xHistory.
650 7 $aRELIGION / Hinduism / History.$2bisacsh
650 7 $aRELIGION / Antiquities & Archaeology.$2bisacsh
650 7 $aHISTORY / Asia / India & South Asia.$2bisacsh
852 00 $bglx$hDS425$i.P33 2015