[INDOLOGY] The Mirror in Vedic India: Its ancient use and present relevance in dating texts

[Joanna Jurewicz]

Dear Asko,

Thank you for the important paper.

regards,

Joanna

---
Prof. dr hab. Joanna Jurewicz
Katedra Azji Południowej /Chair of South Asia
Wydział Orientalistyczny / Faculty of Oriental Studies
Uniwersytet Warszawski /University of Warsaw
ul. Krakowskie Przedmieście 26/28
00-927 Warszawa
https://uw.academia.edu/JoannaJurewicz


pt., 1 mar 2019 o 11:53 Asko Parpola via INDOLOGY <
indology at list.indology.info> napisał(a):

>
> Some time ago there was a query about the date of the Upanishads.  I have
> a new answer to this question in my paper
>
> The Mirror in Vedic India: Its ancient use and its present relevance in
> dating texts
>
> published today in: Studia Orientalia Electronica vol. 7 (2019): 1-29. A
> pdf is downloadable at
>
> https://journal.fi/store/issue/view/5490
>
> Here is the abstract:
>
> The major first part of the paper collects as exhaustively as possible all
> mentions of words for ‘mirror’ occuring in Vedic literature (c.1200–300
> bce). The occurrences are presented with sufficient context in Sanskrit
> and English in order to show how and why the mirror was used in Vedic
> rituals and Vedic culture in general, and what meaning was ascribed to it.
> The second part of the paper discusses a fact of major significance that
> emerges from this documentation: in the extensive older Vedic literature
> of the Saṃhitās, Brāhmaṇas, Āraṇyakas and Śrautasūtras (excepting the late
> Kātyāyana-Śrautasūtra), there is no reference to the mirror at all. This
> suggests that the mirror was not known in Vedic India until it was
> introduced to South Asia by the Persian Empire at the end of the sixth
> century bce. The later Vedic literature, starting with the early
> Upaniṣads and comprising also the Gṛhyasūtras and Kātyāyana-Śrautasūtra,
> would therefore postdate 500 bce. In other words, the ‘mirror’ words seem
> to offer a criterion that for the first time enables a division of the
> Vedic literature into two clearly separate phases of development. Equally
> important is the firm historical basis that the mirror provides for dating
> the transition point.
>
> With best regards and wishes, Asko
>
>
> Asko Parpola, Ph.D.
> Professor emeritus of Indology
> University of Helsinki
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