Vedic Science International Multidisciplinary Peer-reviewed Journal 

The articles below are the official digital versions of peer-reviewed papers from the print edition of the Vedic Science Journal.

Article  Information

Journal: Vedic Science
Volume: 28 | Issue: 3 | Year: 2026
Pages: 12–23
DOI:  https://doi.org/10.66718/vsj.v28.i3.02    
Received: 10 July, 2026
Accepted:  12 August, 2026
Published: 30 Sept., 2026

Beyond Orientalism: The Threefold Hermeneutic of Vedic Deities

Dr B Rambilass (PhD. Sanskrit), Ex Head of Department – Sanskrit: University of Durban-Westville, Academic Director Hindi Shiksha Sangh (S.A.); Founder & Director: Westville Hindu School; Director – School of Vedic Studies (South Africa); President Emeritus –  Arya Samaj South Africa, 87 Harbottle Rd, Sydenham, Durban, 4091, South Africa

Abstract

This paper challenges the enduring Orientalist tendency to reduce Vedic mythology to a primitive nature-worship analogous to the dismissed paganisms of the Graeco-Roman world. It contends that such readings, tacitly conditioned by Christian theological presuppositions, systematically obscure the sophisticated philosophical architecture of the Ṛgveda. In response, the paper recovers an indigenous, multilayered exegetical tradition—codified by Yāska (c. 600 BCE) and revitalised by Swami Dayānanda Sarasvatī in the nineteenth century—which interprets every Vedic deity simultaneously across three irreducible planes: the spiritual (adhyātmika), the cosmic (adhidaivika), and the social-physical (adhibhautika).

Through detailed exposition of this tripartite hermeneutic and its affinities with Western structuralist approaches, particularly the work of Jean-Pierre Vernant, the paper demonstrates that the Vedic pantheon constitutes a systematic classificatory apparatus for ordering nature, society, and the soul. The recovery of this indigenous framework offers a post-Orientalist paradigm for Vedic exegesis that is semantically adequate, philosophically coherent, and genuinely resonant with the tradition's self-understanding.

Keywords

Vedic hermeneutics, Yāska, Dayānanda Sarasvatī, Orientalism, structuralism, tripartite interpretation, Ṛgveda, Nirukta

References

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Vernant, J.P. (1982). Myth and Society in Ancient Greece. Brighton: Harvester Press.

How to cite this article

Rambilass, B. (2026). Beyond Orientalism: The Threefold Hermeneutic of Vedic Deities. Vedic Science, 2026 (3), 12-23. ISSN: 0975-0312 (print). DOI: https://doi.org/10.66718/vsj.v28.i3.02