Dear colleagues and friends,

I’m pleased to announce the publication of my first monograph: Gāyatrī: Mantra and Mother of the Vedas, available from the Austrian Academy of Sciences Press. The book is Open Access and can be downloaded and ordered here: https://doi.org/10.1553/978OEAW93906

“The mantra known as Gāyatrī or Sāvitrī (Ṛgveda III 62.10) is one of the most frequently recited texts of mankind. Over the course of time it has not only been personified as the mother of the Vedas – the oldest religious literature of South Asia –, but has even come to be venerated as a goddess. Today many consider it the most important, most efficacious, or holiest mantra of all. 

In Gāyatrī: Mantra and Mother of the Vedas, Dominik A. Haas reconstructs the history of the Gāyatrī-Mantra for the first time, tracing it from 1000 BCE to 1000 CE. He shows how an inconspicuous verse became an emblem of Brahminical Hinduism and presents the processes that led to its deification. To this end, he not only subjects passages from more than one hundred source texts in Vedic and Sanskrit to philological-historical analysis, but also draws upon perspectives and insights from religious studies. 

The Gāyatrī-Mantra plays an important role in contemporary Hinduism as well as in modern yoga and alternative spiritual currents around the globe. This book therefore not only contributes to South Asian studies and religious studies, but is also of interest to a wider readership.”

I hope you enjoy reading it!

Best regards,

D. Haas

(Apologies to those who have received this message more than once.)

__________________

Dr. Dominik A. Haas, BA MA
dominik@haas.asia | ORCID 0000-0002-8505-6112 | academia.edu DominikAHaas | twitter/x DominikAHaas | hcommons DominikAHaas
ÖGRW | DMG | SDN | WPU
POST-DOCTRACK Fellow, Austrian Academy of Sciences (2023–)
Lecturer, University of Vienna (2023–)
DOC Fellow, Austrian Academy of Sciences (2020–2022)

Recent publications:
– Gāyatrī: Mantra and Mother of the Vedas https://doi.org/10.1553/978OEAW93906
– Translating the Gāyatrī-Mantra https://alt.cardiffuniversitypress.org/articles/10.18573/alt.57
– Puṣpikā 6. Proceedings of the 12th International Indology Graduate Research Symposium (Vienna, 2021) https://doi.org/10.11588/hasp.1133

The Initiative for Fair Open Access Publishing in South Asian Studies
foasas.org | contact@foasas.org

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