Srautavidya - A Collection of Research Articles on Srauta

Foreword I welcome these proceedings of a seminar held in Vaidika Sarhsodhana Mandala, entitled Srautavidya, A Collection of Research Articles on Srauta (ed. Bhagavata Pataskar, Pune, 2021) which are being published now. I also congratulate the editor and authors of the papers on various aspects of Vedic Ritual. I take this opportunity while writing "foreword" to this volume, to make a restatement of some of my observations in the field of Vedic ritual of which I am an observer and student since my childhood.

The Brahmana-texts and some ritual Batas are directly interested in the description and explanation of the Vedic ritual. The other parts of Vedic literature are also directly or indirectly connected with the Vedic ritual. At the outset one is impressed by the details of the minute description of the lengthy ritual intented by the Vedic texts. It is, however, worthy to be noted that in spite of so many rules, the Vedic texts always stress on the "spirit"of the rules and not on the "letter" of the rules. Therefore there were, are (and possibly will be) a lot of compromises in the performance of Vedic ritual. Vedic ritual was never a static phenomenon, but rather always growing, changing phenomenon.

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