In spite of efforts by the later Hindu tradition to define and emphasize a continuity between the archaic religion of the Veda and the multifarious modes of religion of the “classical” age (the Gupta-Pallava era), the changes that intervened were profound. At the same time, the sources on which to reconstruct the sequence of events and ideas are so isolated and refractory that the basic dynamics of the process remain poorly understood. In Rites of the God-King, Marko Geslani tackles such issues from an original and unexpected direction: by focusing attention on the increasing salience of rites of “appeasement” (śānti) to counteract omens and pacify divine powers, as developed particularly in the Atharvaveda, and the services of experts in astrology. The rites and mantras “of Atharvan and Aṅgiras” constituted the “other” ancient priestly tradition running parallel to the “high cult” orthodoxy of the “three Veda” (Ṛgveda, Yajurveda,...

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