Making the Most of This Site's
Revised site note 1/26/10: This page is left as it was originally with minor modifications to font and background color for ease of reading. Apple's Indian Language Kit has long since launched, so the links there are kind of out of date. Thanks again to Apple for letting vedavid.org be a test site. The new site launch is available here. Other links to such tools now surpassed, like PICTify and GraphicConverter may be out of date. Navigation links at the bottom follow the original old pathways through the site.
Electronic scholarship has come a long way since 1996! Here's an example of all the online electronic theses and dissertations that I predicted would happen to the skeptics who said "this web thing is a fad with no academic value". They thought I was crazy. Well, enjoy, my beloved, forgivable luddite skeptics! There are successful results from many universities making online work available, here's a resource for looking the many new electronic theses and dissertations up!
This Site & How to Use It in Your Research
News/Updates
Basic Overview
HTML & the Humanities
This site is part of Apple's seed developer list for its new system software supporting South Asian Languages--supporting Devanagari, Hindi, Pali, Gujarati and others, the Sanskrit word above is a GIF of this very easy-to-use kit, click on it), the Indian Language Kit (ILK). Watch this space for announcements and results of the first uses of ILK for the web, and for Indological e-text use, if you are interested in participating in this test, please contact Apple for appropriate arrangements.
On this page you will find instructions for navigating this resource for Vedic study, a few sentences on methodology, and site-wide links. There is also an Overview of the site as a whole. "Vedavid" comes from a Sanskrit root word (-vid ) meaning knowledge. Roughly translated, this site and its domain name mean "veda-knowing." The Vedas are the ancient texts of South Asia (India) dating at least as far back as 1700 b.c.e. They contain fascinating insights on birth, death, life, the cosmos, and the meaning of identity or individuality.
Basic Site Overview
There are two large Vedic texts here--completely readable without downloading. The Rig Veda, and the Shatapatha BraahmaNa. In addition, both texts have been cross-linked between each other based upon the Shatapatha's "commentatorial" use of Rig Veda mantras. You can search the Shatapatha based upon individual sub-passages, or via sections of the RV to which it is linked. The RV-to-ShB links are based largely upon the word search for the study of terms related to the self--the original genesis of the site. Of course, there are complete indexes for each text. More detailed content will be posted as I complete construction of the database and get the pleasure of actually using it, in the meantime, there is also a discussion of the nature of the study under way.
(NOTE: the word breaks per akSara in the Shatapatha are not present. This is for the reasons of
1). the original e-text from which this is derived
2). efforts to preserve some copyright integrity by not offering a fully processed text without due review, and
3). it emulates the usual printed editions more closely which, I contend, is the only way to use e-texts.
Until such time as technology and, more importantly, terminals, afford realistic and physiologically safe environments for extended viewing in the absence of analogue versions, e-texts should remain a supplement to the printed edition. This will ensure both the health, and the diligence of those using the resource!)
The RV comes from two sources, my own conversion of Van Nooten and Holland's Harvard Oriental Series Text, and my restoration, of W. P. Lehmann and H. S. Ananthanarayana's 1971 visionary encoding. It is from this same pair of pioneers that the ShB has become available again after some 234 hours of reconstruction.
How to Use this Resource in Your Work
It is important to understand not only how to navigate this site, but more, how to make use of what you find in your work. In the section below I will address how to navigate both the RV and the ShB which have been intricately networked and indexed (this also serves and an example of how HTML can be used in a specific study to make research traceable and easily accessible--see below), and how to import or use portions into your work.
How to Navigate
To make use of this resource easiest, it will help to bookmark each of the three indexes explained and demonstrated below. While most are accessible via links at most pages, the larger RV and ShB text files are not, and not all have links to the RV-to-ShB index. With use of Frames, this is overcome.
You may search for the Vedavid Database of passages in three ways.
First, access specific ShB passages (including those which the RV is used in some way) with the per-braahmaNa citation index.
Second, each RV hymn according to its use in the ShB.
Third, as part of my ongoing dissertation research, search according to the use of specific terms related to the self.
The images used for demonstrating and linking to the working pages below were all made with a simple, utterly free piece of Mac Shareware, called PICTify, which is a great assistant in using the resources of this site, as described below.
SHATAPATHA NAVIGATION WITH EXAMPLES
The Shatapatha presented here is unique in that it is hyper-linked to each RV passage which it quotes verbatim, or in modified form (so-noted). Please also review the intro notes regarding coding issues for e-text, and accent (with special thanks to Michael Witzel). You may find yourself browsing it if you review the study of terminology related to the self below. For your own purposes though, an exhaustive index, by braahmaNa, has been constructed, with each braahmaNa in which the RV is quoted or used marked by an asterisk (*). The index looks like this (click on it to go to the working index):
In context, the ShB passages, using ITRANS, will note the related RV passage (if any) and any mitigating considerations (e.g., quoted with some changes, per use in the Vaajaseneyaa SaMhitaa, etc.), thus the actual ShB text will look like this (click to see working passage):
You could also then click to view RV 8.45.1 to determine the context of the mantra cited in the ShB, see below or click the image above to go to the actual passage. You can also navigate all RV hymns used by the ShB, or review an example of how to use HTML to trace extended terminological, or semiotic research topics. Review the example below to see how I am using HTML for study of the early uses of the terminology related to the self, here demonstrated in the oldest portion of the RV.
SEARCH FOR RV HYMNS USED IN THE SHATAPATHA
There is a handy index of all RV hymns cited by the Shatapatha as well, these, in turn, are frequently linked to portions of the word search described just below. This is a good page to bookmark when you activate the example window by clicking on it below. Suppose you're interested in Hymns to Soma, and how/where they're used in the Shatapatha. Curiously, it so happens that RV 9 is the least cited maNDala (click on it to bookmark and see working list):
Clicking on "9.66" will take you to the--rather large--hymn, from which you can access either of the Shatapatha passages which cite it (Click on it to go to the hymn):
Finally, you can review the ShB passages themselves from the page in question (Click on it to go to the working page):
SEARCHING ACCORDING TO KEY WORDS:
USING HTML AS A RESEARCH TOOL INSTEAD OF PRESENTATION TOY
The RV is also indexed according to earliest usage of the term related to the self in the RV (by historical sequence of maNDala)--the study of which is both my dissertation, and genesis of this site--thus for brahman the index looks like this (click on it to see the whole working list):
Any RV passage containing a term under study can be accessed in accented form from the index by way of the "View" link which will take you to the page with diacritics and accent and, often, ShB links. These "View" links look like this, as in the case of 2.1.2c, the first instance of "brahman" and they take you to the accented RV version (click on it to see one in context):
"tanU" is highlighted because it is one of the key words under study, clicking on it would take you to the next RV passage in which it is found. Similarly, then, are all other of the 11 words linked, sequentially, in the RV ITRANS edition with links to accented versions of hymns in which the word is found. Frequently, as with this example of brahman, the passage may also be used in the Shatapatha. In such cases, the accented RV page looks like this (click on it to see the working page--here, however, the Shatapatha does not actually quote 2.1.2c):
How to Import and Use Portions of the Database
Mac IBM Site Links
To use these resources, putting them in your work, there are certain assumptions of the hardware you have (most of which is necessary to get here in the first place!). For IBM, Windows 95 (or similar interface enabling cutting and pasting) will be necessary, or System 7.5 (necessary for most internet access anyway) for the Mac.
EASY TIPS FOR MAC USERS
For my Mac, I use something call PICTify. It's not worth the trouble of using a whole-screen capture (such as that built into Mac OS)--by the time you take the image into something like GraphicConverter to clip it down, you could as easily type. Enter PICTify. TOTALLY free. Click here to down load it--on the page you'll arrive at, click on the PICTify (this is a DIFFERENT SITE in case the other didn't work) link. Use your finder to locate where your browser put it. Then just drag-n-drop it's icon on the folder, in the "System Folder," call "Control Panels." As you can see in the image below, you can pick which keys invoke it by opening it in Control Panels:
The next time you boot your Mac, it's there for you. Once you invoke PICTify, the cursor becomes a cross-hair ("+"), and you hold-n-drag it to just the size/portion of the page you want, and release the mouse. A camera shutter "click" sounds, and a window opens enabline you to name and place it where you wish on your harddrive. Pick the "TeachText" format for easiest adaptibility to most any program. The portion of your screen, or hymn/passage on the screen is now ready to be dropped into your notes or documents as a graphic.
FOR IBM USERS
You'll have to read the readme file with these, but the reviews of these are quite good. Snagging on-screen images--NOT THE WHOLE SCREEN!--for Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 (handy self-extracting archive), or alternative Windows 95, FREE.
There are also technical notes with additional "HOW TO" information, bio data, and a few unexpected links left over from the initial test upload.
Hypertext and the Humanities
In shortest terms, I am using HTML (hypertext mark-up language) to link all occasions of 11 key terms for the self as they occur in key (and largely unstudied in this respect) ancient Indian (South Asian) sacred texts. While many of the terms have been examined before, some even in the early texts, this has generally been done--as the methodology section will argue--with a point of inquiry pre-disposed to find justification for a later view or philosophical school. Combining semiotic theory, HTML, and principles of the earliest known commentator on these texts (dating to 800 b.c.e.), I am hoping to offer a point of comparison for these later interpretations and accretions while, at the same time, shedding light upon the principles of language theory by which the texts and these word groups for the self evolved.
As the entire approach is somewhat without prior model, use on the web of HTML both enables demonstration of the course of study, and also other scholars to track, view, and comment upon that process. It is also a manner of study which comprises an emulation of the means by which the texts were used, commented upon, and developed in the time of their prominence. Where the ancient teachers memorized and mastered several large texts to comment upon and quote from, to use in clarifying an idea, or to simply recite; the World Wide Web and HTML allows this without the many years of practice to memorize a text. There are detailed discussions for the technical method of constructing such sites, as well as theoretical overviews for the non-specialist with links for exploring other Humanities work of this kind.
I couldn't resist this being repeated from above
News & Updates: 11/12/96
Primarily, this is Vedavid 1.0 beta owing to the addition of frames. 1.0 proper will be formally announced on lists, and will have downsized text files and ftp access to e-texts.
With kind thanks to Michael Witzel, the ShB accent encoding has been clarified. Additional notes regarding the views of Cardona will be added in 1.0 proper.
A new index by RV hymn of each portion of the RV used in the ShB.
The instructions above have been up-graded and clarified with working illustrations and examples.
Devanagari on this site is now from Apple's forthcoming Indian Language Kit (ILK), in GIF form. As Noted, Vedavid is a seed developer site for Apple's ILK. The software will support Devanagari, Gurmukhi, and Gujarati. Currently it is in the pre-alpha stage. Look here soon to see where/how it works for the WWW. If you wish to participate, please contact me:atman@vedavid.org
Readability of pages for B&W and Color monitors, graphic or text, should be complete save for RV images from Van Nooten/Holland's text and accented ShB characters.
Site links-
Dissertation:
RV Verse list
RV Word Link for study of Self Terms
Shatapatha index
Shatapatha Introduction
Indological Links & Technical tools-'n-tips
A tribute to the visionary 1971 cyber-pioneers
Standard Dissertation Overview
Aufrech RV Pages
An early page--the second or third I even made, with a bit of Indological history--a slow loader, but interesting
General Introductory--some of the old fun stuff {;-)}:
Cyberneers
General Dissertation Theme Simple Talk
The old first page, just because I like it
Bio Section:
Bio Home Page
Bio Story
UI Homepage
Asian Languages & Literature
Home Navigate the Site Mail: atman@vedavid.org