The lexicon of the "Act of accepting (pratigraha)": an approach to the multilayered vedic culture

PONTILLO TIZIANA

;CANDOTTI MARIA PIERA

2019-01-01

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Abstract

The present joint work finds its ground (and at the same time its scope) in a variation- oriented reading of the Vedic sources here applied to those which mention the act of the so-called “ acceptance” (pratigraha) within the mechanisms targeted on attaining and distributing the “goods of life” among all the members of a community. The most ancient occurrences are read and contrasted against the subsequent socio-ritual context where the well-known homonymous privilege and peculiar means of livelihood for Brāhmaṇs is depicted. The tentative interpretation of the relevant passages and the consequent reconstruction of the several layers of the Vedic lexicon (and corresponding texts) revolving around the verbal base prati-grah- might contribute in better assessing the existence of a specific Indo-Aryan cultural matrix, that might have pre-existed (and co-existed with) the mainstream Vedic world, and in better understanding how later knowledge systems succeeded in creating a new all-encompassing Śrauta balance.