{"product_id":"9781429955805","title":"Ardor","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eIn a meditation on the wisdom of the Vedas, Roberto \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eCalasso brings ritual and sacrifice to bear on the modern world\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn this revelatory volume, Roberto Calasso, whom \u003ci\u003eThe Paris Review \u003c\/i\u003ehas called \"a literary institution,\" explores the ancient texts known as the Vedas. Little is known about the Vedic people, who lived more than three thousand years ago in northern India: They left behind almost no objects, images, or ruins. They created no empires. Even the \u003ci\u003esoma\u003c\/i\u003e, the likely hallucinogenic plant that appears at the center of some of their rituals, has not been identified with any certainty. Only a \"Parthenon of words\" remains: verses and formulations suggesting a daring understanding of life.\u003cbr\u003e     \"If the Vedic people had been asked why they did not build cities,\" writes Calasso, \"they could have replied: we did not seek power, but \u003ci\u003erapture\u003c\/i\u003e.\" This is the ardor of the Vedic world, a burning intensity that is always present, both in the mind and in the cosmos.\u003cbr\u003e     With his signature erudition and profound sense of the past, Calasso explores the enigmatic web of ritual and myth that defines the Vedas. Often at odds with modern thought, these texts illuminate the nature of consciousness more vividly than anything else has managed to till now. Following the \"hundred paths\" of the \u003ci\u003eSatapatha Brahma\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003en\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003ea\u003c\/i\u003e, an impressive exegesis of Vedic ritual, \u003ci\u003eArdor \u003c\/i\u003eindicates that it may be possible to reach what is closest by passing through that which is most remote, as \"the whole of Vedic India was an attempt to \u003ci\u003ethink further\u003c\/i\u003e.\"\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Farrar, Straus and Giroux","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47141855494384,"sku":"9781429955805","price":11.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781429955805_p0.jpg?v=1769902418","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781429955805","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}