HINDU SCRIPTURES Selected, Translated & Introduced By R.C. Zaehner.

Zaehner, Professor R.C. (editor)

ISBN 10: 0679410783 / ISBN 13: 9780679410782

Published by NY. 1992. A.A. Knopf / Everyman's Library 64, 1992

About this Item

olive green full cloth hardcover 8vo. (octavo) with black & gilt decorative spine label and olive green silk marker ribbon. 1/2 of the dustwrapper in protective plastic cover. ink marked copy in good cond. binding square & tight. covers clean. edges clean. this book has one line (!) of underlining on page 362, otherwise contents free of markings. partial dustwrapper is only the front cover and flap, has scratches , not price clipped. nice reading or study copy (if not for the one line of inking, this would be in fine cond). no library markings, store stamps, stickers, bookplates, no names, no remainder markings. decorative endpapers, 1/2 title, frontis. & title pg. xxxi+411p.+ list of publisher's other titles & colophon. bibliography. glossary of names. religion. philosophy. ancient literature. theology. psychology. poetry. ancient history. ancient india. vedas. upanishads. bhagavad gita. ~ Professor Zaehner has newly translated this important Everyman collection of representative writings from the main Hindu scriptures, and there are considerable differences between the original Everyman and the present edition. Professor Zaehner has varied the style of each translation to suit the genre translated throughout. He has also compiled this new selection with a view to easier comprehension, and giving relevance to the overall development of Hinduism from these canonical texts. It is a constantly repeated truism that all wisdom came from the East, and a great deal of it is embodied in the philosophy associated with religious belief. For a Western mind the most significant benefit emerging from a reading of these writings is that the hymns of the Rig~Veda do not read so much as 'commandments' enjoined by priests and prophets (identified in the European mind with oriental religions), but as 'a poetic testament of a people's collective reaction to the wonder and awe of existence'. The selections represent three successive stages in the history of ancient Hinduism. First are the eight translations of hymns from the Rig~Veda which in original sequence range perhaps from 1500 B.c. to 1200 B.c. They reveal a close contact with nature, and show early attempts to seek and discover the significance of the world and his life and existence within it. Professor Zaehner's selection is confined to those which are formative of later thought, and he has also added four hymns from the Atharva~Veda which bear out the same principles. The next stage, represented by the Upanishads, is the real core of all subsequent Hindu religion, for the Upanishads are the classic formulation of pantheistic mysticism which sees the cosmos as a unitary whole suffused and held together in and by One Reality which both transcends and indwells all things. Moreover some of the Upanishads have a tinge of irony, giving them an unexpectedly modern feeling. The final contribution is the Bhagavad~Gita ('The Lord's Song'), where a new religious environment is immediately sensed. Its hold on tradition is maintained through the form of the Vedic deity Vishnu, the Absolute manifesting itself in its incarnation as Krishna. For centuries the work has proved to be a 'spring of living religious emotion'. While its teaching is theistic, it is not unreservedly so~' it is a garland of many coloured beauties rather than a well~knit harmony of the truth'.

Seller Inventory # 5112401

Bibliographic Details

• Title: HINDU SCRIPTURES Selected, Translated & Introduced By R.C. Zaehner.
• Publisher: NY. 1992. A.A. Knopf / Everyman's Library 64
• Publication Date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0679410783
• ISBN 13: 9780679410782
• Binding: Hardcover
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
• Seller catalogs:
  • hinduism
  • philosophy
  • religion

About this title

Synopsis

Among the sacred books of India are the hymns of the Rig-Veda, the world’s first recorded poems; the “magical texts” of the Athara-Veda; the stirring pantheistic speculations of the Upanishads; and the Bhagavad-Gītā, a cosmic drama of divine self-revelation in human history on the field of human battle. Taken together they represent 3,500 years of a continuous religious tradition that is multifarious, inclusive, and, at the same time, wedded to a central spiritual vision.

This edition features the translations and annotations of R. C. Zaehner, a pioneering scholar whose selections in this volume, first published by Everyman’s Library in 1966, have never been bettered as an introduction for the general reader to the Vedic tradition. Zaehner has chosen the most interesting and important verses, rendered in English that is accessible and vivid, and his introduction provides an excellent guide to the historical context, the philosophical significance, and the literary power of these beautiful and ancient texts.

Introduction by R.C. Zaehner

(Book Jacket Status: Not Jacketed)

About the Author

Robert Charles Zaehner (1913-1974) taught at Oxford University after serving as an intelligence officer in Iran. He specialized in Eastern religions, and many of his books focused on Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, and comparative religion. His translations have made him one of the most important exponents of Hindu theological and philosophical doctrines.