In a meditation on the wisdom of the Vedas, Roberto Calasso's Ardor brings ritual and sacrifice to bear on the modern worldIn this revelatory volume, Roberto Calasso, whom The Paris Review has called "a literary institution," explores the ancient texts known as the Vedas. Little is known about the Vedic people, who lived more than three thousand years ago in northern India: They left behind almost no objects, images, or ruins. They created no empires. Even the soma, the likely hallucinogenic plant that appears at the center of some of their rituals, has not been identified with any certainty. Only a "Parthenon of words" remains: verses and formulations suggesting a daring understanding of life."If the Vedic people had been asked why they did not build cities," writes Calasso, "they could have replied: we did not seek power, but rapture." This is the ardor of the Vedic world, a burning intensity that is always present, both in the mind and in the cosmos. With his signature erudition and profound sense of the past, Calasso explores the enigmatic web of ritual and myth that defines the Vedas. Often at odds with modern thought, these texts illuminate the nature of consciousness more vividly than anything else has managed to till now. Following the "hundred paths" of the Satapatha Brahmana, an impressive exegesis of Vedic ritual, Ardor indicates that it may be possible to reach what is closest by passing through that which is most remote, as "the whole of Vedic India was an attempt to think further."

I. Remote Beings II. Yajñavalkya III. Animals IV. The Progenitor V. They Who Saw the Hymns VI. The Adventures of Mind and Speech VII. Atman VIII. Perfect Wakefulness IX. The Brahma?as X. The Line of the Fires XI. Vedic Erotica XII. Gods Who Offer LibationsXIII. Residue and Surplus XIV. Hermits in the Forest XV. Ritology XVI. The Sacrifi cial Vision XVII. After the Flood XVIII. Tiki XIX. The Act of Killing XX. The Flight of the Black Antelope XXI. King Soma Antecedents and Consequents Notes Note on Sanskrit Pronunciation Acknowledgments List of Illustrations