{"product_id":"9780199755707","title":"Strong Arms and Drinking Strength: Masculinity, Violence, and the Body in Ancient India","description":"\u003cp\u003eJarrod L. Whitaker examines the ritualized poetic construction of male identity in the \u003ci\u003eRgveda\u003c\/i\u003e, India's oldest Sanskrit text, arguing that an important aspect of early Vedic life was the sustained promotion and embodiment of what it means to be a true man. The \u003ci\u003eRgveda\u003c\/i\u003e contains over a thousand hymns, addressed primarily to three gods: the deified ritual Fire, Agni; the war god, Indra; and Soma, who is none other than the personification of the sacred beverage sóma. The hymns were sung in day-long fire rituals in which poet-priests prepared the sacred drink to empower Indra. The dominant image of Indra is that of a highly glamorized, violent, and powerful Aryan male; the three gods represent the ideals of manhood. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhitaker finds that the Rgvedic poet-priests employed a fascinating range of poetic and performative strategies—some explicit, others very subtle—to construct their masculine ideology, while justifying it as the most valid way for men to live. Poet-priests naturalized this ideology by encoding it within a man's sense of his body and physical self. Rgvedic ritual rhetoric and practices thus encode specific male roles, especially the role of man as warrior, while embedding these roles in a complex network of social, economic, and political relationships.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eStrong Arms and Drinking Strength\u003c\/i\u003e is the first book in English to examine the relationship between Rgvedic gods, ritual practices, and the identities and expectations placed on men in ancient India.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Oxford University Press, USA","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47016693596400,"sku":"9780199755707","price":94.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780199755707_p0.jpg?v=1763673435","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780199755707","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}