Toward a Comprehensive Understanding of Rta in the Rg Veda

Abstract

<p>In this thesis, it is my contention that the attempts by modern scholars to provide a precise definition of essence for rta, through an analysis of this term's etymological roots and by the application of modern English and European terms as possible cognates for rta, have failed to account for the rich significance of this complicated term. I suggest that such a precise definition cannot, and need not, be found for rta, and that the rich significance of this term can be grasped only in terms of the interrelated network of images, associations and specific applications which encompass it in the Rg Veda. To this end, I lay the groundwork for a more comprehensive study of rta by demonstrating that this term is associated with images of wide/safe/ree space, pathways upon which entities may travel free from harm, light, and the sound which destroys evil and dispels ignorance. Furthermore, I indicate that in its specific applications--as the mode of being of the sat, as that which regulates and stabilized all phenomena in space and time, as the sacrifice and the effective force of the sacrifice, and as "truth" in speech--rta works to provide the cosmos with the benefits inherent in the images and associations which encompass it. The conclusion of the thesis is that although no single image, association or specific application can adequately define rta, these, when melted together into a unified bond, provide the rationale for viewing this complicated term as a kind of "force" or "power" which is the necessary precondition for the freedom, safety, security, stability, truth, order, law, etc. of the cosmos.</p>