Vedic Gods. As Figures of Biology

Dr. V. G. Rele’s book on “The Vedic Gods” is a culmination of his conviction that the Hindu scriptural texts are books of a biological nature and his research tries to interpret the Vedic gods from a biological point of view particularly in relation to the central nervous system.

He is led to believe that the Vedas are books on the physiology of the nervous system written by the ancient Vedic seers in symbolical language and that the Vedic Rishis were well acquainted with the normal working of the nervous system. He points out that the different theories which have been put forward from time to time by Vedic scholars both Indian and Foreign are hopelessly inadequate to explain satisfactorily the description of the Vedic Gods given in the Vedic texts and observes that a biological interpretation alone gives the key to their proper understanding.

He has given abundant evidence of scholarship, scientific attitude and remarkable powers of observation in presenting his thesis and his arguments carry conviction to the reader. The anatomical and embryological facts stated in the book are accurate and one feels as one follows his account of the Vedic Gods, how very modern the knowledge of the nervous system as shown by the vedic seers is.

There is no doubt that it will take the learned world by surprise in as much as it is a genuine attempt to bring before the vedic scholars a new angle of vision which greatly helps to elucidate the most obscure and unintelligible passages about the shape of the Vedic World and its Gods and as it throws a new light on their interpretation.