Perception of the Vedas

This is the twelfth volume in the series of the Collected Works of Ananda K. Coomaraswamy in the IGNCA's publication programme.

In 1933, Coomaraswamy published A New Approach to the Vedas, and thereafter he regularly brought out longer and shorter studies of the Vedas and Upani?ads till the year 1947. These works were published in a variety of American, European and Indian journals. His essays have been arranged in this volume in relation to some aspect or the other of Vedic text as one integrated perception.

Coomaraswamy's writings are an exposition of Vedic ideas by means of a translation and commentary in which the resources of other forms of the universal tradition are taken for granted. He has used the resources of Vedic and Christian scriptures side by side. He has tried to make accurate, evocative translations of Vedic and Upanisadic texts through the use of scholastic language and archaic or composite words. He has employed the technical terms of scholastic philosophy in their proper context, for he maintained that the content of Indian religions or philosophical texts cannot be conveyed in any other way.

These translations are followed by copious notes covering related passages from other texts and translations in order to bring out a fuller meaning of the process of creation, or more exactly, the process of emanation of manifest from the unmanifest. It is hoped that this volume will open up a new vista of interpreting the Vedic lore so that we can reintegrate our own fuller being with the fuller manifestation of the cosmic order in which resides the Truth of Truths.