The Asvins in Myths and Rituals (An Old and Rare Book)

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The study of culture and civilisation of remote antiquities is both challenging and rewarding. With the passage of time. The world order keeps on changing at a regular interval. Therefore, the scholars of modern generation face an uphill task to sift the extraneous elements from the implicit ones. The academic pursuit with regards to Vedic studies have their own problems. More particularly an in-depth study of the Vedic pantheon is impregnated with cultural heteroglossia. Hence, it is not only desirable but also imperative that a young scholar would take into account the multidimensional features of the object of study and try to co-relate the findings of contemporary schools of thought as far as practicable.

Dr. Snigdha Das Roy is a well-equipped scholar in the arena of Vedic studies. She has been schooled by one of the most prominent scholar of the present day India, Prof. Dr. Sukumari Bhattacharji, and tried to expand her vistas of knowledge to a commendable extent. Her manuscript was very much educative for me and I am thoroughly impressed by her systematic delineation of the study materials.

In the present day polyphonic world, all frontiers of thought are being rapidly obliterated. Therefore a Vedic scholar cannot shine in isolation in the contemporary scenario. What I would like to record here is the syneratic attitude of the author to the process of interpretation.

As a student of the Vedic literature I found that the teaching of the Vedas is imparted through two dimensions-one in the mythological or historical aspects while the other is in its ritualistic perspectives. Prof. Sukumari Bhattacharji, my teacher, first introduced the historical aspects of the Vedas, while I was a student of M. A. in Jadavpur University, which sowed in me the aspiration to work in this field. And the ritualistic perspective of the Vedas is also indispensable to get into the inner arteries of the Vedic literature. I felt that a synthesis of the two is necessary. And so, I undertook this work in these two perspectives.

The Asvins in Myths and Rituals the book is actually the thoroughly revised addition of my Ph. D. thesis. The degree was awarded by the Jadavpur University in year 1988.

Despite the myths contained in the Vedic literature the study has also peeped into the myths of other countries of the world regarding the twin Gods.

The plurality of the functions and the diversity of aspects of the Vedic twins, the Aśvins, in both the fields i.e., in myths and rituals has been studied in this work from socio-religious viewpoints.

I express my deep sense of honour and gratitude to the scholars whose monumental works in this field have been consulted thoroughly and have used their findings either in quotations or in straight lines where their findings went at par.

I offer my sincere most obeisance to Prof. Sukumari Bhattacharjı under whose guidance I prepared the Ph. D. dissertation. Prof. Bhattacharji allowed me to use her rich collection, which is not easily available elsewhere.