Soul and Self in Vedic India

Download or read book Soul and Self in Vedic India written by Per-Johan Norelius and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2023-06-19 with total page 647 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How did the Vedic Indians think of life, consciousness, and personhood? How did they envisage man’s fate after death? Did some part of the person survive the death of the body and depart for the beyond? Is it possible to speak of a “soul” or “souls” in the context of Vedic tradition? This book sets out to answer these questions in a systematic manner, subjecting the relevant Vedic beliefs to a detailed chronological investigation. Special attention is given to the ways in which the early Indians’ answers to the above problems changed over time, with an early pluralism of soul-like concepts later giving way to the unified “self” of the Upaniṣads.