Amit's Blog

An Inquiry into the Rigveda's Questions, the Upanishads' Answers, and the Sociology of Epistemic Patience The journey from the Rigveda's cosmological hymns to the Upanishads' philosophical breakthroughs spans roughly half a millennium, yet this gap represents less a gradual intellectual evolution than a sociological lag. The Rigveda poses profound, open-ended questions about existence, creation, and the nature of reality, often concluding in genuine uncertainty—a refreshing honesty from a civilization that could have simply made something up. The Upanishads deliver decisive answers, most notably the identity of Atman and Brahman, the famous "That Thou Art" which has launched a thousand meditation retreats and counting. However, scholarship increasingly suggests these answers existed in parallel, esoteric traditions long before their canonization. The gap reflects not the time required to discover truth, but the time required for culture, power, and ins...

Zoroastrianism and Hinduism – From Proto-Indo-Iranian Unity to the Gāthās-Rigveda Schism   A single Bronze-Age people once kindled one fire, pressed one sacred plant, and sang to one sky. Around 2000 BCE, the Indo-Iranians split—some toward the Indus, others toward the Iranian Plateau. Their gods—Mitra, Varuna, Vāyu, Agni/Atar—travelled with them, as did the cosmic law Ṛta/Asha and the intoxicating Soma/Haoma. Then came Zarathushtra (c. 1200–1000 BCE), a lone voice in the wilderness. In 17 Gāthās (238 stanzas), he flipped the pantheon: Devas became Daevas, Ahura Mazda reigned alone, and ritual was moralised into Good Thoughts-Words-Deeds. Across the mountains, ṛṣis poured 1,028 Rigvedic hymns (10,600 stanzas) to a thousand gods. Linguistically twinned (ahmi = asmi), metrically parallel, thematically braided—fire, waters, truth—they diverged into ethical monotheism versus mythic pluralism. Zoroastrianism crowned Sasanian Persia (10–20 million, 4th–6th c. CE), crumbled after 65...